[CHAPTER XXII]
A SLIGHT MISTAKE
From the edge of the town to the steel works the road led through a common, overgrown with brush and weeds. There was no moon and although the distance was not great it was a lonely, dark and "creepy" place. As soon as the girl saw Kauffman take the road to the works she decided to get there before he could do so. Knowing well she could not be seen, she branched off through the brush, and finding her way by instinct rather than sight, ran swiftly in a half circle over the fields and struck the road again considerably in advance of the more deliberate Kauffman.
She now set off at her swiftest run and on reaching the manager's office, in the front of the main building, perceived that it was lighted.
Josie rapped upon the door and it was opened by one-armed Joe Langley, the night watchman.
"Quick!" she said, "let me in and hide me somewhere, where I can't be seen."
Joe pulled her in, closed the outer door and locked it, and then faced her.
"What's up?" he demanded.
"There's a man coming here with a bomb in a black satchel," she panted. "He intends to blow up this building, in which all the shells axe stored. I want to catch him in the act, Joe, and you must hide me somewhere."
Joe glanced around with a puzzled look.
"Where?" he asked helplessly.