Undoubtedly they meant that the spy should hide there, for some reason or other. The old woman had a bundle in her hand that might contain food, Amos concluded, and this she turned over to the stranger. Whoever the party was he did not seem at all averse to vanishing in those black depths; in fact, Amos considered that he acted as though only too willing.
There must have been some sort of ladder leading downward, for they could see him descending. Then the woman ran over and, snatching up the candle from the shelf, held it as though more or less solicitous that the other might not slip and lose his footing on the rounds of the ladder.
The boys saw the unknown flip his hand upwards just before he was utterly lost to sight in the gloom that lay heavy down under the trap. Then the old man lifted the section of flooring and allowed it to fall back into place again, though careful that it made no perceptible sound while so doing.
After that the strip of rag carpet was carefully replaced, and on top of that he lifted the table. All was as innocent looking as before, and no one not in the secret would ever suspect that down underneath the cottage floor lay a strange secret and which had all the earmarks of treachery to the cause of the Allies.
The old man and his wife now moved to the other end of the room. They were talking it all over in soft tones, and Amos could see that apparently the man tried to encourage his better half, for he seemed to be assuring her that what they were doing was for the best.
Amos, lying there a prey to varied thoughts, was sorry for them. He actually believed that the temptation must have been too much for their standard of loyalty to their sorely stricken country. With the gold they would receive for this work perhaps they meant to go to America, there to build a new home amidst strangers, and forget if they could the land they had betrayed.
“Oh! it’s too cruel, and I can hardly believe any one would be so mean as to do such a thing,” Amos was saying to himself, as though trying his best to find a gleam of comfort.
Jack, pulling at his arm, aroused him.
“Let’s get back to the mattress, and talk it over,” the Western boy said in his ear, and at that they both began to move softly along, Jack apparently having a thorough knowledge of the attic, as though he had made a mental map of his surroundings at the time the candle still burned.
Once again they stretched themselves out there. If a board creaked under their weight, as they moved so cautiously, it could easily have been mistaken for a gust of wind outside whining around the corners of the cottage.