“Oh! did he go so far as to describe the aviator, Colonel?” he asked. “See, here is a picture of my brother taken some years ago; perhaps he might be able to tell me from that, if we’re on the right track at last.”
“I’ll put you in touch with the man as soon as we are done with breakfast,” advised the obliging officer. “The chances are you will learn the facts, one way or another.”
“And if he seems inclined to say it is the same person, how can we manage to get up to the other camp, Colonel?” asked Amos.
“Well, it would be utterly out of the question to think of trying such a game in broad daylight,” he was told. “We have no boats, you understand, and when this private was sent off on a mission to our fellows in the upper camp he was guided by a Greek named Arturus, who knows every foot of the way. He is still with us, and might be influenced to undertake to lead you there.”
“Oh! I’m not afraid in the least that he will refuse, after my cousin has had a chance to talk with him,” said Amos, at which the officer laughed.
“I believe your faith is not misplaced, for Jack certainly has a winning way about him,” he assured Amos. “Even if my mind had not already been made up to help you in every way possible, I think I would have fallen a victim to his arguments. I have a boy at home who is as much like Jack here as two peas in a pod—not in looks alone but manners as well.”
That partly explained why the doughty Colonel of the Territorials had looked so earnestly and often at Jack Maxfield. The sight of the resolute face of the American boy had put him in mind of his own son far away across the seas.
“When can we expect to take this venture, then, sir?” asked Jack, partly to hide his confusion, for compliments of any kind always made him turn red in the face, and feel uneasy.
“If tonight offers a fair chance you shall make the attempt,” he was told. “In the meantime you can meet the soldier who saw this aviator in the camp above, and also arrange with Arturus. I shall let the Greek know that I am giving my full permission to the enterprise, and you can make your own terms with him.”
“He is to be depended on, sir?” asked Jack, whose recent experience with Greek treachery somehow did not make him feel kindly disposed toward the inhabitants of the Hellenic islands.