The guard approached and sniffed.
“Go on with your work,” he said at last.
Harding made no reply, but picked up his pick and fell to work again.
A close observer might have seen him turn slightly to the man on his right, who chanced to be the Frenchman Mercer; a close observer might have seen Harding’s lips move slightly, and a keener ear than that of the nearest German guard might have caught these words:
“It’s time, Mercer. Pass the word. Be ready in five minutes.”
Mercer indicated that he understood and passed the word quietly. To Harding’s left, Hal also passed the word to the nearest man: “Be ready in five minutes.”
Harding had explained the day before that every prisoner in the shaft had been taken into his confidence—that he, having conceived the scheme, was entitled to be the man who had the first right to escape. This, Hal and Chester had learned, was the unwritten law among prisoners in Germany. Others who were in the plot would escape if it were possible, but they must shield the man who conceived the idea.
In less than the time allowed by Harding, every prisoner knew that the big Englishman had decided to “go.”
There was no indication in the face of any man that he knew something was about to happen and so the suspicion of the guards was not aroused.
Stealthily, Harding drew something from his pocket. It was a match which he had secreted in the lining. He drew even closer to the wall of earth before him.