out, master! He's got signs up warning off trespassers, and traps
and spring guns all over the place. Wants to be very private, and
that, he does."

"Thanks," said Harry. "Perhaps we'd better not pay him a visit,
after all."

The village was a sleepy little place, one of the few spots Harry
had seen to which the war fever had not penetrated. It was not on
the line of the railway, and there was not even a telegraph
station. By showing Colonel Throckmorton's letter, Harry and Dick
could have obtained the right to search the property that they
suspected. But that did not seem wise.

"I don't think the village constables here could help us much,
Dick," said Harry. "They'd give everything away, and we probably
wouldn't accomplish anything except to put them on their guard. I
vote we wait until dark and try to find out what we can by
ourselves. It's risky but even if they catch us, I don't think we
need to be afraid of their doing anything."

"I'm with you," said Dick. "We'll do whatever you say."

They spent the rest of the afternoon scouting around the
neighboring country on their motorcycles, studying the estate from
the roads that surrounded it. Bray Park, it was called, and it
had for centuries belonged to an old family, which, however, had
been glad of the high rent it had been able to extract from the
rich American who had taken the place.