"Perhaps you're right," declared the inventor. "Now I come to think of it there is a possibility that the rascals will attempt to culminate their efforts. We'll all sleep on board, and take turns at keeping watch. I haven't bothered to fix up that high tension wire again. 'Fraid they know too much. We'll arm ourselves and be ready to give them a warm reception."
"By the by," remarked Dick, "whilst we were repairing the side-car wheel I noticed a 'buzzer' in the workshop."
"Yes," replied Blake. "I bought it to practise Morse signalling. Found myself awfully testy, by the by. But why do you ask?"
"We could fix it up on board, muffle the sound and connect the battery with a push on the door of the shed," said Dick. "We could arrange it that as soon as the door opens wide enough to admit a man a circuit would be complete."
"Might try it," admitted Blake. "But you must remember these fellows are prepared for all sorts of dodges. Well, we'll adjourn at five minutes' intervals. The great thing is to get on board without being seen, for ten to one if these rascals intend paying us another visit they will be keeping a sharp look-out on the house."
With a loaded revolver reposing in the side pocket of his coat, Athol was the first to make for the shed where the battleplane was housed. Slipping quietly through an open window in the rear of the house he crept stealthily through the snow, keeping well under the cover of the pinetrees. As an additional precaution he walked backwards, so that should the spies subsequently examine the ground they would find that the footprints led away from the shed.
It seemed a long five minutes waiting for Dick to rejoin him. The eerie shape of the battleplane, looming faintly through the darkness, and the possibility that even now some miscreant might be hidden in the hangar, gave the lad an unpleasant sensation that he had not experienced since his first night on sentry in the first-line trenches of Flanders.
At length Dick arrived. Not a word was spoken. They stood motionless until Blake joined them. Still in silence they ascended the aluminium ladder and gained the interior of the fuselage. Already it had been arranged that Athol was to have the first watch—from nine to midnight. Blake had insisted upon keeping the next three hours. He knew what the mental strain of that watch meant, when a man's diurnal vitality is supposed to reach its lowest ebb. Out of consideration for his young and efficient helpers he knew that by taking the middle watch each lad would have six hours' continuous rest, unless something unforeseen occurred.
Lying at full length upon the floor of the fuselage Athol could command a considerable extent of the shed, for the aperture by which the crew had gained the interior of the battleplane had purposely been left wide open. The double doors of the building had been locked and the key removed, while Dick's contrivance had been fixed up, the "buzzer" lying within a foot of the watcher's ear.
The lad had no idea of the time. Already it seemed as though he had been for hours at his post. The silence, broken only by the moan of the wind in the pines, and the occasional thud of a heap of accumulated snow from the roof of the hangar, was oppressive.