“Gaston can arrange that,” the Chief declared. “You know he has a farm a short distance outside, Spandau. There is a big barn there with no sides, and your machine can be easily dragged into it and concealed during the day. You know Gaston is passing as a German farmer. He has acted for years for us in this way and has never even been suspected. But you could not stay long.”

“Very good,” said Dick. “I think the best plan will be for Jules to go by motor and for Mademoiselle to go separately by train. They must find out somehow exactly where the German plane is lodged and, if possible, where the plans are likely to be kept, and I must act accordingly. In any case, there will be no difficulty in smashing up the machine, but unless we destroy the plans as well they will be building another too soon to suit us. I will go to Verdun and wait there with the Mohawk until the time comes for me to fly over.”

Jules and Yvette left the next day. Jules’ car was quite an ordinary one, but it had one important detail added. In the hollow flooring was cunningly concealed a small but powerful wireless telegraph set, the power for which was supplied by the engine. It was highly efficient, but had one serious drawback; it could only be used while the car was at rest owing to the necessity for running an aerial wire up some tall structure, such as a building or a tree. This, in a country where every one was specially suspicious of spies, was a serious peril.

Three days later seven mysterious dots began to excite the ungovernable curiosity of the wireless world!

Jules and Yvette, on arrival in Berlin, had taken rooms adjoining one another at the “Adlon,” the big cosmopolitan hotel which is always crowded with visitors from every country under the sun. Yvette posed as a school teacher on an educational tour, but her position was one of great danger. It was impossible to disguise her face, and although she had done what she could to destroy her French individuality by wearing peculiarly hideous German clothes, there was the ever-present danger that she would be seen and recognised by some of the many German agents who during the war had learnt to know her features, and who had good reason to remember her daring exploits in Alsace.

At the same time, in order to have a possible retreat in a humbler neighbourhood, Yvette had hired a room in one of the mean quarters of the town, putting in a few miserable sticks of furniture and giving out that she was a sempstress employed at one of the big shops.

 Prev. P 33/117 next