Alan said: “I don’t see how we can decide upon any very definite plan until after we get there and find out the lie of the land. For all that we know, the prison where they have Bob locked up may be right in the center of the town with a couple thousand watchful soldiers around it. I don’t believe that we’ll ever be able to get near enough to the prison to get Bob out without some leg-work.”
“I’ve been thinking of that too,” said Ned, “and feel pretty sure that some one of us will have to go into town disguised to get exact information, while the other two of us remain to guard the Flyer and be ready to lend assistance whenever we are called upon. The difficulty is to say which one of us ought to undertake the perilous mission of spy. You know if the Germans ever caught him he would be in an even worse fix than poor old Bob.”
“Let me go, Ned,” pleaded Alan, his face aglow with enthusiasm. “I’m perfectly willing to take the risk.”
“No, let me go,” said Buck. “Both of you boys are absolutely needed to manage the airship, and in a pinch can get along well enough without me. Besides that, I can speak German well enough to pass in the dark, and my newspaper work has given me more practical experience in the sleuthing line than either of you two have had.
“Personally I don’t think the chances are that I would run much danger of detection there in disguise after midnight, but, even if they do get suspicious, I could show them the war-correspondent’s credentials given you by the Herald. I don’t believe that even grouchy old General Haberkampf is crazy enough to risk getting the American press down on him by mistreatment of me should I have to shove those papers under his nose.”
“I think that you exaggerate the importance of the New York Herald over here in the war zone,” said Alan with a smile. “Remember that the Herald card didn’t prevent the Germans from throwing Bob into their beastly prison.”
“But that was quite a different case,” explained Buck. “Bob Russell was caught with certain papers on his person which are said to have branded him as a hostile spy.”
“However—” began Alan again.
Ned interrupted him.
“Buck is right, Alan,” said he. “I don’t like to think of his risking his life in this way, but he is clearly better fitted for the job than either you or I. I understand how disappointed you are in not getting the chance to risk it for good old Bob’s sake, and I’m just as sorry that I can’t do it. But Buck’s knowledge of the German language, his experience in this sort of thing, and the fact that he can the better bluff about being a regular newspaper correspondent, all make him the logical man for it. You and I will have to give in.”