“Amos!” That was Jack whispering softly in his ear, and the one addressed squeezed his chum’s arm to let him understand that he heard.
“Do you see him up there?”
“Sure.”
“We want to creep up as close as we can.”
“Then what?”
“When you hear me begin to yell join in, and both rush toward him. Get that, do you, Amos?”
“Yes, but he’s sure to break the cord, and let the kite go.”
“All right. That answers our purpose,” Jack told him, which certainly was a fact the other had not considered—they were not trying to capture the kite that carried the twin red lights; it would be sufficient if they could induce the unknown[93] spy to break the straining cord, and let the airy fabric bearing the signal lanterns float into space beyond, to eventually seek the ground.
Once more the boys moved forward.
The base of the low elevation lay before them, and Jack was now down on his hands and knees starting to make the ascent. It was beginning to get real exciting, and Amos felt his heart thumping heavily against his ribs as he contemplated the surprise and alarm of the spy when they started to giving tongue.
As they drew closer they could make out what he was doing much better than before. He had something in his hands, which Amos at once decided must be the stick about which the stout cord had been wound. That the kite was of fair size and pulled at times rather strenuously he judged from the way the unknown used his arms.
Jack seemed to be decidedly clever about this creeping business. Amos was afraid he could hardly be put in the same class as his cousin. He even feared that on several occasions he must[94] have inadvertently snapped some small twig that his knees pressed heavily upon.
The sounds seemed almost like thunder notes to Amos, so keyed up were the boy’s nerves, but that must have been mostly imagination, for the man did not appear to have become alarmed by the sound.
There was no longer the slightest doubt concerning his occupation, for by now Amos could see that he certainly clutched some object that required considerable effort to hold. The kite probably was very large, Amos decided.
Perhaps the man had already quite enough of his task, for they could plainly hear him grumbling to himself, and Amos was sure he caught low spoken words in unmistakable German.
As seen outlined against the gray sky beyond, the man appeared to be turned half way around. Instead of looking toward the quarter where the kite flew, his attention seemed to be wholly taken up in the opposite direction.
Amos was puzzled to account for this at first, but he quickly grasped the meaning. Of course,[95] the spy was looking for some sign that would tell him his message had been seen and understood by those for whom it was intended.
Jack’s hand fell on the arm of his chum. Although no arrangement had been made between them, Amos guessed that the time was at hand for the coup his companion had arranged.
Then Jack gave tongue, and his experience on the cattle ranch in company with a lively set of cow-punchers had made him a first-class hand at letting out a fierce whoop.
Amos joined in with what vim he could muster, so that, taken in all, they managed to create a pretty respectable disturbance around that region.
It turned out just as Jack had surmised would be the case. The man who was signalling over the British lines to his German confederates immediately dropped the end of the cord connected with the kite that bore the twin red lights.
Amos, still shouting at the top of his voice, saw him duck down as though meaning to dodge any bullets that might be sent in his direction.[96] After that, the figure of the spy was seen no more between them and the gray heavens. Judging from the medley of sounds that came from the other side of the mound it might be guessed that the man, either intentionally or through sheer accident, was rolling headlong down the slope.
Jack stopped yelling, and broke out into a laugh, in which his cousin naturally joined.
“Look at the kite falling!” the Western boy called out, and Amos turned just in time to see the twin red lights before they vanished behind some trees or other obstruction to his view, dropping lower all the time.
“We’ve done what we aimed to accomplish, Jack,” he went on to say, when he could catch his voice. “After all, it was as easy as falling off a log.”
“But I’m afraid he had his message up in the sky, whatever it stood for, long enough to do its work.”
As Jack said this he clutched hold of the other and whirled him around again so that his face was toward the northwest.
[97]
“That looks like a bursting rocket, as sure as you live!” exclaimed Amos, as he discovered a shower of colored stars far away, that seemed to be floating in space.
“It is just that,” admitted his chum.
“If I was over home I’d guess the Glorious Fourth had come around, Jack, though it’s generally considerably hotter than we’ve got it here. Do you think that rocket’s got anything to do with this red-fire kite business?”
“A whole lot, I should say, Amos.”
“You mean it was sent up in answer to his signal?”
“To tell him they saw and understood,” replied Jack.
“Then our work was for nothing,” grumbled Amos.
“Oh, I expected that we’d be too late to prevent the mischief,” the ranch boy admitted. “All the same, we had the fun of giving the spy a scare. I reckon he thought a whole regiment of the hated British was on top of him, by the way he scooted out of here.”
[98]
“Could you blame him?” demanded Amos. “Why, if it had been me I think that cowboy whoop of yours would have given me a cold chill. I’m pretty sure no German ever heard the equal of it.”
“Thanks. I take that as a compliment,” returned the other laughingly. &l............