“The old bell tower on the villa!” the old man declared, serious again.
“But that’s been in ruins for years!” Tony objected.
“Exactly!” the old man agreed. “That’s why it’s so safe.”
Dick was not sure he understood the old man.
“You mean that tall tower rising over the center of the villa?” he asked. “Is that the bell tower? I can just make it out.”
“Yes, that’s it!” Tomaso replied. “As Tony says, it has been in ruins for years—but it’s still standing! That’s the point—it is still standing there. Part of the stone top has crumbled away, where the bells used to be hundreds of years ago. That happened in another war long, long ago. The bells were taken from the tower and melted down. Later lightning struck the tower and knocked part of the top away. Finally, the stone stairway inside crumbled and fell. That was two hundred years ago, I’m told, and the caretaker of the villa in those days was killed by the falling stones inside the house.”
“But the Nazis have taken over the villa!” Tony objected. “We can’t put our radio up in the very headquarters of the Germans!”
“Why not?” Dick asked. He began to see why the old man laughed when he had this idea. “That’s just about the last place they’d look—in their own headquarters.”
“But the radio locating devices will place it there!” Tony pointed out.
“Of course,” Dick agreed. “But if the Germans can’t find the radio—then they’ll know something’s wrong. They’ll search in all the buildings and houses near by and will find nothing. If the stone stairs into the tower have long been down, how can they get up there to look?”