“Hold your horses,” the scout master told him. “We ought to wait until Donald has had a fair chance to explain. Then the soldiers can learn about our being down here and will not fire on us if we commence to climb the bank. Only for that, they might let loose; and it’s a mighty poor time to apologize to a fellow after he’s dead. Tubby?”
“Yes, Rob, what is it?” came softly from near by.
“What are you doing?”
“Why, don’t you know, Rob, I’ve just been holding my finger on the pulse of those men who have made such a bad mess of their brilliant plan; and, honest to goodness, Rob, I believe they know by this time that they’ve been hoodwinked, kerflummixed, and also knocked silly.”
“But how do you know all that, Tubby?” gasped the astonished Andy.
“Oh, I’ve been feeling the wire, you see. It gave several of the most vicious pulls ever, just like the chap at the battery end couldn’t understand why no explosion came along when he pressed the button and turned on the juice, so to speak. It is to laugh, fellows. This looks like a second Waterloo, only it’s the German neutrality-breakers who are up against it this time, instead of the heroic French.”
Now, both of the others considered that this was quite a clever piece of strategy, and particularly for a boy like Tubby, whose wits would so often go wool-gathering, instead of netting prompt returns. Indeed, Andy felt chagrined to think that it had never once occurred to him to try this scheme. Tubby had scored heavily, for once. He was evidently quite proud of his success, too, for they could hear an occasional queer chuckle emanating from the place where he had squatted down like an enormous toad, ready to stay or go, as Rob decided.
The running guards were drawing near the stalled engine which continued to pant and throb as locomotives do when under a full head of steam and standing still on the rails. The soldiers would be quickly put in possession of the main facts by Donald, who would be vouched for by his father.
Rob turned and looked in the direction where, as he fully believed, the unknown invaders from the other side of the boundary line had been recently secreted. He wondered what they were doing, now that they realized how their game was up, and that unless they succeeded in taking themselves off in a hurry they might yet be made victims of the rifles of the Canadian bridge guards.
By this time Donald must have told the astounded guards enough of the story to cause them to refrain from using their ready guns when dark figures were seen coming up the bank. Yes, there was Donald calling out to them, saying the coast was clear and that it was all right for his four friends to come up so as to corroborate his amazing story.