"It doesn't seem possible!" murmured Ned.
"I know it. But there are the facts," said Tom, and his chum could but agree with him.
For two days Tom and Ned were kept close prisoners in the old stone room. During this time they discussed many plans and plots for escaping. None seemed to fit in, however, or else the time was not yet ripe, so they remained in captivity.
Meanwhile, the activity on the part of men bringing in cases of goods and carrying them along the corridor and past the room where Tom and Ned were locked kept up night and day. Except for small quantities of what seemed to be bolts of silk, all the things were optical goods or machines used by scientists—stuff worth a great deal of money. There was a hum and buzz of work all through the old castle, but except for men who came to bring them food, Tom and Ned had no contact with any of their captors.
Then, one night, the same guard who had shown perturbation when Tom first mentioned Cunningham, again brought in the tray of food. It needed but a glance to show that he had been drinking, and Tom, with a whisper to Ned, decided the man's befuddled state would afford them a good opportunity to do some more bluffing.
So, having inspected the tray, as if to look and see that it contained all he wanted, Tom stepped toward the man and in stern tones exclaimed:
"Did you give my message to Basil Cunningham?"
Instead of being alarmed as he had been before, the man leered in his drunken manner and thickly said:
"Sure I did!"
"Oh, did you?" Tom was rather taken aback by this reply.