“Well, if you come on Thursday I’ll have the despatch ready.”
Suddenly the observer, who spoke in German, said:
“I have some letters here from the Wilhelmstrasse. Will you post them for me?”
“Certainly.”
“They are all ready. They are written upon English paper, and English penny stamps are upon them. Therefore, they can be put into any post-box, and will not arouse suspicion. They mostly contain instructions to our good friends who are scattered over Great Britain.”
Aylesworth took from the man’s hand a packet of letters tied with string—secret despatches from the German General Staff to the Kaiser’s spies in Great Britain—and thrust them into the big pocket of his overcoat.
The two Huns and the traitor stood there together in cheery conversation. Much that they said Ronald and Beryl could not overhear. Sometimes there was low whispering, sometimes a burst of hilarious laughter. But it was evident that all three were in perfect accord, and that the aviator and his observer were well-known to Mr. Aylesworth of Leeds.
Far away—many miles off—there showed a faint tremor in the sky, the flash of a distant anti-aircraft searchlight. Now and then it trembled, then all became dark again. The pair of enemies, who that night had landed upon British soil, at last decided that it was high time for them to hie back over the North Sea, therefore they climbed again into their machine—one of the fastest and newest of the Fokker type—and for a few minutes busied themselves in testing their instruments and engine.
The pilot descended again to have a final look round, after which he once more climbed up to his seat, while Aylesworth, acting as mechanic—for, if the truth be told, he had been an aviator’s mechanic at Hendon for three years before the outbreak of war—gave the propeller a swing over.
There was a loud roar, the machine leapt forward over the withered heather, bumping along the uneven surface, until, gaining speed, the tail slowly lifted, and after a run of a couple of hundred yards, the Fokker skimmed easily away off the ground.