Ted Marsh on an Important Mission

by Elmer Sherwood

  CHAPTER VII

  THE DICTAPHONE AT WORK

  "I understand," said Captain Knabe, "that some of the Irish gentlemenpresent do not understand German, and so, while I can do so muchbetter in my native tongue, I shall talk in English."

  "How lucky," thought Ted.

  "Well, gentlemen, I have good news for you--war is to be declared theday after tomorrow."

  There was the sound of moving, falling chairs, of men getting to theirfeet. Then a whispered toast--a whisper that was almost loud becauseof the number of voices--"Der Tag."

  "You, in America, who have never given up your allegiance to thesupreme nation, nor to the emperor, must do your share. Although waris to be declared the day after tomorrow, it will be a matter of afew more days before we are at war with England; possibly it will bemore than a week. I understand you are ready."

  Another voice spoke. "We are prepared. We will announce picnics atcertain places; it is for you to tell us the locations."

  "I am ready to tell you that now," replied the captain. "Concentrateon your picnic grounds near Detroit for the taking of Windsor. HerrWinckel has the plans. I have given him three sets--Windsor, Toronto,Winnipeg. He also has the charts which show how to move and whatrailroads to occupy. Our friends in Canada are to see that there areavailable cars, engines and even motors. Of course, all of you willknow just what picnic grounds are to be selected, so we need waste notime on that."

  "How many men have you, Herr Winckel?" Captain Knabe wanted to know.

  "Will you tell us, Schoen?" Herr Winckel asked.

  "Approximately, armed and ready for the call, one hundred andtwenty-five thousand men. There are also forty thousand Irishmen.O'Reilly has them equally prepared and ready. Pfeffer reports thirtythousand men in Canada, eager for the call. They are so stationed thatwe can throw one hundred and fifty thousand men on Windsor and Torontoor such other points as are within one half day's ordinary travel. ForMontreal we would need eighteen hours' additional notice. For Quebecwe would need thirty. We figure that thirty thousand men will beenough for Winnipeg, although we shall have more."

  "The fool Englishmen," sneered a voice.

  "Not such fools, Schmidt. Do not underestimate them." The voice wasWinckel's.

  "Everything looks so easy," said another voice.

  "Aye," said Captain Knabe, "we cannot help but win. But the Englishmanfights best with his back to the wall."

  "You have your commands assigned, have you not?" the captaininquired.

  "We have," replied Schoen.

  "Now, gentlemen, here is the thing of the utmost importance," HerrWinckel spoke warningly. "The facts must not leak; they must not getto the United States officials. That is so important that the wholeplan will have to be dropped if there is any suspicion as to a leak."

  "I think a number of us will bear out what Winckel says," O'Reillyspoke up. "For myself, and I think I speak for the other Irishmen herepresent and also for the forty thousand against England, but againstthe United States--never. Not one Irishman can be counted on if itcomes to a showdown against the U. S. A."

  "Nor very many Germans," added Winckel.

  "So be it," said Captain Knabe. "Shall we go over the ammunitionstorehouses, those that are in Canada and those that are in thiscountry?"

  Many of the places Ted could not make out, others he did. He realizedthat this was valuable information. Names though they were, they wereclues and so might be important.

  Much more was said by the many men and Ted stored up in his mind suchinformation as he thought would be useful. At half past ten all themen had left and from what Ted heard he understood that Knabe,Winckel, O'Reilly and Schoen were adjourning to some other place toperfect plans.

  Ted cautiously stretched himself. He was wary and still watchful.Although his muscles were stiff and his bones ached, he had not daredto move. When he was fairly certain that he could move, he indulged inthat luxury for at least five minutes. He had no trouble in leavingthe building. Once outside, he hastened to a telephone booth. He hadno intention of telephoning, but he did want to find out the addressof Winckel. A plan was in his mind.

  He found two Winckels in the telephone. He decided that in alllikelihood it was the one on Michigan avenue, the other was somewhereon the North Side.

  When he came to the first cross street he saw a passing taxi andhailed it. The driver had some suspicion as to the ability of hiscustomer to pay, for Ted was still in his newsboy's clothes. However,Ted proved he had the necessary funds and satisfied the chauffeur.

  Ted left the taxi two blocks before he reached the Winckel residence.The inside of the house was almost, not quite dark. Stealthily theboy investigated. He decided that any entrance would have to be madefrom the rear or the side of the building. The rear windows to thebasement and the door he found were locked.

  The boy studied the situation. He saw where he could enter through oneplace, but it would mean that he would have to remove a window glass.He decided against that. There was danger of being heard.

  Though Ted was seeking an entrance he had not as yet made up his mindto try to go to the rescue of his friends. To go into the building andtake chances? But then, after all, his information could be of use toStrong only, for he held the many threads.

  It would be folly to call the police, Strong would not care to havethe publicity, and then, too, the two men might not be there afterall.

  He decided, come what may, he would go in. He felt fairly certain thatWinckel would not be in the house nor would he return for an hour ormore. Before making any further attempt to get inside, Ted went to anearby drug store. He obtained paper and stamped envelope and wrotethe following message to Strong's office, addressing it to Strong'ssecretary, Miss Ford.

  "Unless you hear from us in the early morning, you will find usimprisoned in the cellar of Mr. Winckel's house. I am now trying toget Mr. Strong and Mr. Walker out, but may not succeed.

  "11:15 p.m. Ted."

  Having mailed the letter he hurried back to the house. Cautiously heprowled about, trying to find a way into the basement. There was noway.

  At any ordinary time Ted would have said it was impossible to get upon that ledge, but he managed it now. The house entrance was through awide door, but one had to go down three steps and it made the floor anEnglish basement. The floor above that was much higher than mostground floors and yet lower than most second floors. Ted crept alongthe narrow ledge holding on to such supports as were there. He reacheda big window and by careful manipulation and urging the boy managed toforce it open.

  He crawled in. Spot's suit was very useful now, for it held matches.Ted did not intend to use any unless he had to, but the building wasstrange to him and the occasion for the use of them might arise. Heknew that he would have two floors to travel, the one to the basementand the one to the cellar. He got down the one floor without mishap.He was about to begin the exploration of that floor for the entranceto the cellar, when he heard the key being inserted into the streetdoor.

  His heart leaped within him. Two people entered, a man and woman. Theyswitched on a light. If these people had come thirty seconds earlierhe would have been caught coming down the stairs, Ted thought, as hecrouched behind the turn of the staircase.

  "It was nice of you to see me home, Mr. Erkin," said the young lady."Will you be good enough to let the light burn, as some of the folksare not in yet? Come and see me some time."

  "Good-night, thank you, I will," the man answered and left.

  The boy thought, "Well, I certainly should be called Lucky. Here Iwonder how to find an entrance to the cellar and they are kind enoughto turn on a light for me."

  It was fairly easy for Ted to find his way now, but because of thelight he had to use even greater care.

  The cellar seemed deserted, when he got there. It was pitch dark andit took several minutes for him to grow accustomed to the extremedarkness. Then he heard the faint murmur of voices.

  Strong and Walk
er had slept fitfully and had been wide awake atvarious times. Strong had again been awakened and was insisting thatWalker listen to him.

  As Ted drew nearer, he heard Strong say, "I don't think, the way Ifeel, I shall ever be able to move again. But if I knew that Ted wasjust the least bit successful I could be forever content."

  "The poor child--if he did anything at all," Walker answered, "itwould be wonderful. It's a man's job, what, then, could a boy do?"

  As if in answer to the question, they heard a low voice call, "Mr.Strong, Mr. Strong!"

  "Who is that?" the startled voice of Strong demanded.

  "It's me, Ted!" said that ungrammatical young man, a bit excitedly.

  TED FREES THE PRISONERS]

  "God bless you, boy. Is it really you? Have you a match?"

  Ted struck one. Hurriedly he untied the two men, who were alreadyquestioning him excitedly and to whom he whispered assurances.

  As they turned the corner (having left the building without trouble)Strong looked back. An auto passed north on Michigan avenue.

  "That's Winckel's car," he said. "We weren't any too soon."

  Ted told the two men of the night's adventures and they both listenedeagerly. Strong was laboring under great excitement as the boy went onwith his story. When Ted was through he placed his hand on Ted'sshoulder and said, quietly and very impressively, to him:

  "I simply can't tell you the things I long to say. You're going to bea man, my boy! This is a day's work of which you will always beproud.

  "Knowing what we know, we can go to sleep tonight, awake in themorning with a plan as to just what we will do. I could almost crywith contentment. This news you bring is what we have long striven tolearn, and along comes Ted Marsh--Lucky, the Boy Scout--and makesCanada and England his very grateful and humble servants.

  "There are several things we know we can do now," he added. "We hadbest take a night to sleep it over."

  "You are a wonder, Ted, my friend," added Walker.

  "Come, let us go," said Strong.

  "We are all weary. I hate to leave you. I'd like to celebrate, but Iguess we had better postpone it until tomorrow. See you at eight."

  CHAPTER VIII

  WINCKEL CALLS A HALT

  There were glaring headlines in the newspapers the next morning. Warwas on. People who had doubted all along, who could not believe itpossible, now had to believe. And, although England was as yet notinvolved, no one was optimistic enough to imagine that she would stayout of it.

  Around newspaper offices, everywhere, excited, eager groups discussedit all. Many a man heard the thrilling call of his native land andmany listened and made plans to return to either Germany, Russia,England or France.

  Yet neither in headlines nor in the ordinary run of news, was theremention made of the events of our story. Silent, powerful forces wereat work to keep it quiet.

  The automobile of Herr Winckel stopped before his house and from itSchmidt, O'Reilly and the owner alighted. They made their way to thecellar, a precaution as to the safekeeping of the prisoners. O'Reillyand Schmidt were to be guests of Winckel for the night. Much work hadbeen planned for the morning.

  "Quiet, aren't they?" said Schmidt, as Winckel started to turn on thelight.

  "I guess they are asleep," remarked O'Reilly. The light glared. Amoment's hush. There were astonished and wondering exclamations. Theropes which had held the prisoners tied, were strewn about, but theprisoners were nowhere.

  "What can it mean?" exclaimed Winckel, searching vainly for anexplanation.

  Wild guesses were made by the three as to how the escape was made.

  "Well," said Winckel after awhile, "never mind how they escaped, theimportant thing is--how much have they found out of our plans." Heshowed plainly how disturbed he was.

  "How can they have found out about our plans? Pretty far fetched toimagine that they could have obtained any information--the chancesare that they did not escape until late this evening."

  O'Reilly interrupted Schmidt. "Is there any way in which we can findout the last time someone in the house saw the prisoners?"

  "Good idea," said Winckel. "We shall soon find out."

  The household was awakened. Inquiries and investigation showed thatLauer, a trusted employee of Winckel, had taken a last look at theprisoners at about ten o'clock. He was certain of that; he had heardtheir voices, although he could not make out what they spoke about.

  There were sighs of relief from Schmidt and O'Reilly, who felt thatthe situation was covered, but Winckel was more skeptical and lesscanny.

  "I will admit that they were here until ten o'clock and later. I willeven admit that they were not listening at the conference. But how wastheir escape managed and why after ten? Did they have outside help andhow did the outside help know of their imprisonment here?

  "Both of you gentlemen may be tired and may wish to retire. Please doso, if you want to. I am going down to our meeting place to see what Ican see. A little late, I will admit, and it may not do us much good,but there is always a chance. It is important for us to find out if wehave blundered, if our plans have been disclosed."

  Both Schmidt and O'Reilly insisted on accompanying Winckel and thethree left the house in the next five minutes.

  They reached the building in about twenty minutes. No policeman wasabout to see them violate the speed laws on the way. An immediate andcareful search of the room was made, to see if anyone had been theresince they left and also for any clue as to the probable leak.

  "Nothing seems wrong as far as I can see," O'Reilly started to say."Hello, what is this?" He had discovered the cleverly concealed wiresof the dictaphone. Winckel and Schmidt joined him on the instant. Theytraced the wires and soon found out the whole layout.

  "Mischief is certainly afoot," exclaimed Schmidt. The other men saidnothing, but studied the proposition.

  "There still is a chance," said O'Reilly In an unconvincing manner--asif he wanted to believe something his better sense did not permit himto do, "that this outfit was not used since Strong and the other manhad been kept from it."

  A sickening thought at the same instant came to Schmidt. "O'Reilly, wetalked about the prisoners, how we had trapped them, where theywere--and all the time someone was listening. That someone heard allwe had to say and then, after we were all through, he went up toWinckel's house and rescued them."

  Winckel said nothing for many minutes; he seemed lost in thought. Theother men waited for him to speak. Finally he did.

  "We are a lot of dunces. We were so sure of ourselves, we felt we wereso wise. Pride goeth before a fall and we fell. We must give up ourplans. It is up to both of you to get busy, we still have time to keepout of trouble. There is a ray of comfort in that, at least."

  "I hate to think what Knabe and the others at the embassy will think,"was the rueful comment of Schmidt.

  "Don't let that bother you. This plan has failed, we must planagain--when again we match wits, let us hope we shall be more carefuland consequently more successful. Come, enough of post mortems, let'sget busy."

  It was a busy night for all of them. There were many men who had to beseen and who in turn had to see others. It was, so they explained tothe others, a matter of life and death that all preparations cease atonce, as there would be close and careful watch kept. There was muchtelephoning and telegraphing to the friends who were in other cities.

  There can be nothing but thorough admiration for the effective,capable way these men went about calling a halt to all activities.Like a perfect, well oiled machine which slows down and then ceasesits movements, until there is something tremendously impressive in itsinaction and silence; like a well-drilled army which retreatsmagnificently and in its very retreat almost gains a victory, so muchlike all this, was the action and the work of these men at this time.They were obeyed as only the Germans know how to obey. By morning,there was no sign, no clue to their plans and activities. One thingonly remained to prove the danger to Canada that had been. Arsenalsand warehouses h
olding weapons and vehicles of war were found at theplaces shown on the list that Ted had copied.

  At Ottawa and a little later in London and in Washington, thepowers--the men at the helm--found out that what would in allprobability have been a successful invasion of Canada had beenchecked. And they found out, too, just how and in what way it had beendone.

  CHAPTER IX

  AT OTTAWA

  "Come in, both of you," Strong called from the inside office. Ted hadshown up at Strong's office early the next day. He found Strong at hisdesk and he found afterwards that he had been there for more than twohours. His secretary told Ted that he was telephoning long distanceand that Ted should wait. When the operative was through talking, hecame out and saw Ted.

  "Sit down a few minutes, Ted, I shall be busy," he had said. He hadreturned to his office and proceeded to do some further telephoning.Walker had come in a little later and the two were busy going over theevening's events when Strong called out as above.

  "Well, Ted, I guess we are going to have war. At least we won thefirst victory, or rather you did."

  Ted fidgeted at the praise and grinned sheepishly.

  "I wonder," said Walker, "if they have, found the dictaphone as yet."

  "You can safely figure on the fact that they did. They started alittle investigation when they found that the birds had flown. But itdoes not matter how much they know we know, now. It's a fight in theopen from now on. I'm thankful for that.

  "I have already notified Ottawa, New York, and the different capitalsof the provinces. Washington also knows, our embassy has alreadynotified them as to the location of the arsenals. They are going toissue orders from Ottawa to confiscate those in our own country atonce.