He chuckled evilly and went down, locking the door.
Dee did not eat his supper. He sat by the window and puzzled out plan after plan. How could he get the message to the boys? How could he effect an escape? It grew dark and below he heard the children playing, and saw a gleam of white as the girls walked two and two back and forth on the block.
Presently he heard a whistle. Then another, in a different key. Bill and Eddie were below. Dee pushed against the screen, but it did not give. He knew it would mean death if he whistled. Then inspiration came.
Taking his flash from his pocket, he sent a message into the night. It was a frightful risk. If Mr. De Lorme and Zip happened to be taking their evening walk, they would see it, but Dee knew that he must take a chance. The thirteenth was drawing near. Perhaps hundreds of innocent men and women would die on that day if he was not freed.
“S.O.S.! S.O.S.!” over and over he flashed, wondering if the boys would understand that secrecy was vital.
The whistling stopped suddenly, and Dee ventured another message. Then he stopped, straining his eyes into the deepening darkness. In what seemed about an hour, but what must have been ten minutes Dee’s heart leaped. Out over in the ornamental bushes that filled the lower end of Triangle Park came a tiny flash of light, then another. A moment more, and Dee caught the Wireless Club signal. He flashed an answer. Then as briefly as possible he declared his dangerous position. “Go away! Danger! Tell Ernest and Frank. Help at once!”
There was no answering flash to this, and Dee wondered if the scheme had been discovered. He did not dare leave the window, although he was listening with all his might for sounds at the stairway for he knew that if the flashes had been seen his life would pay the forfeit.
All at once the light glimmered again, this time from the fence surrounding the Reform School across Third Street.
“All set! Two o’clock! Be ready!” they flashed.
Sleep banished, hope springing in his breast, Dee awaited the appointed hour.