Pierre, "but how to get her out ofthe yard I don't know. I can get a false key to her during the day, butif I were found in that quarter of the prison at night it would meaninstant dismissal. On that point the rules are inflexible and we cannotrisk it."
"No," said Gaston, "it is absolutely essential that you shall remain inthe prison. But I think I can see a way."
He crossed the room to an old-fashioned bureau and produced from adrawer what looked like a heavy short-barrelled pistol.
"Gas!" he said laconically, "fire that at a man's face within five yardsand he will drop like a log. It holds four shots and makes no noise.If Mademoiselle can get this she can knock out the two men at the lodgeand easily slip out. You can bring her straight here, and we can hideher until she can get away."
"She cannot hide that in her cell," said Pierre, "but I can hide it inthe courtyard. Write her a letter telling her exactly what to do andwhere the pistol will be. I can slip into her cell a skeleton key whichwill open the door and also the door at the bottom of the steps. Butyou must manage the rest; I cannot do any more. She must get outimmediately after the last visit of the warders at nine o'clock."
"Thanks very much, Pierre," said Jules. "I can see no other way, and atall costs we must try to get her out. Neither my sister nor myself willever forget."
Speedily a letter was written which gave Yvette full details of what wasproposed, and Pierre was about to leave when Jules asked him if he hadheard anything of the secret aeroplane.
Pierre shook his head.
"There are a lot of privately owned aeroplanes about here," he said,"but I don't know anything more than that. I have seen the one yourefer to going up at night--the house is in plain view from my room onthe first floor of the prison--but I never heard there was any secretabout it, and there are so many aeroplanes about that no one takes anynotice of them."
Jules told him all they had found out, and of their suspicions, andfound Pierre was able to give them valuable information.
The aeroplane shed, he told them, was just where Yvette had located it.Above it--and this was important--were some rooms which were used,apparently, as offices.
"I have often," said Pierre, "seen a man come from the offices with whatlooked like plans, make examination and measurements of the machine, andthen go back. But I never took much notice; I had no reason to."
Pierre left, taking with him the letter to Yvette. For an hour Julesand Gaston discussed the situation.
"We must get her out to-morrow," declared Gaston, "or else they may takeher away and we shall not be able to find out where she is. Mantonought to fly over to-morrow night. If we can get Mademoiselle Pasquetout she can hide here quite safely for a few hours, but there will be avery close search when her escape is discovered."
"I'll get the message to Manton at once," said Jules.
And so it happened that Dick and Le Couteur, who had been waiting forhours in a state of tense anxiety, received a few minutes later thecall.
"M M M begins To-morrow night stop Come early as possible stop Three lights in triangle safe stop Four keep off M M M ends."
"At last," said Dick grimly, with a look on his face that boded ill forsome one. He looked drawn and haggard, and even Le Couteur could hardlyrepress a shudder at the savage determination that blazed in his eyes.
For Yvette the next day was one of misery. Time after time she wasdragged from her cell and taken before the Governor of the prison, andKranzler, to be pitilessly cross-questioned and even threatened withviolence. But even though she knew well that the two brutes were quitecapable of carrying out their threats nothing could break the spirit ofthe French girl. To all their questions and menaces she turned a deafear and nothing they could say would induce her to affirm or denyanything. Utterly worn out she was at length roughly bundled back intoher cell, where she dropped exhausted on the miserable apology for abed. At least she was alone.
It was about five o'clock and she had fallen into an uneasy doze, whenshe was awakened by a slight noise at the door. She saw the observationgrille slide back and, pushed through the grating, a tiny parcel fellwith a subdued clink on the floor. Then the grating was closed.
Hastily she sprang to her feet and seized the parcel, a new hope surgingin her breast. It could only mean help!
Inside the parcel was a letter, unsigned of course, but in Jules'handwriting, and a small key.
Nine o'clock came, and with all the wearisome ceremony dear to theGerman heart, the guard, accompanied by a wardress, made its finalinspection for the night. A few minutes after the big prison was assilent as the grave.
Half an hour later Yvette cautiously fitted the key into the lock. Ithad been well oiled, and the door swung open without a sound. Creepingdown the flight of steps Yvette found that the key also opened the doorat the bottom, and in a moment she was in the yard.
Rain was falling heavily. There was not a ray of light in the yardexcepting a faint gleam which showed the position of the warders'lodges.
Before leaving her cell Yvette had pulled her stockings over her boots,and moving without a sound she groped her way along the wall. A fewfeet from the door she found the big stackpipe which brought the rainwater from the roof. Stooping she lifted the iron grid of the drain andthrust in her hand. Her fingers closed on the butt end of the gaspistol.
Silently, following along the wall in preference to crossing thecourtyard, she stole towards the lodge. Complete surprise wasessential.
With the pistol ready in her hand, she softly opened the door of thelodge on the right of the gateway. Luck was with her again. The twomen, in defiance of rules, were in the same lodge talking quietly.
The noise of the door opening brought them to their feet with a jump.But they were too late. Only ten feet away from them Yvette pulled thetrigger twice in rapid succession. There was no more noise than aslight hiss as the gas escaped and the two men dropped insensible.Snatching up a bunch of keys from the table, Yvette herselfhalf-stifled, quickly got outside and closed the door. A moment latershe had opened the wicket-gate and slipped through. She almost fellinto the arms of Jules and Gaston, and at top speed the three racedthrough the rain for Gaston's farm.
Luckily, the pouring rain swiftly obliterated their footprints, but theyhad hardly got into hiding, wet through but triumphant, when pandemoniumbroke out in the prison, and the frantic ringing of the big bellannounced the escape of a prisoner. The two warders, of course, hadspeedily recovered, and hastened to tell their story, and a quick searchhad revealed that Yvette's cell was empty. A few minutes later searchparties were hurrying in every direction in pursuit of the fugitive.
Gaston's farm, lying close to the prison, was naturally one of the firstplaces to be visited. Gaston, smoking peacefully by the fireside, soonheard, as he expected, the savage clamour of dogs in the farmyardmingled with agonised cries for help.
He hurried out. Two warders, one of them badly bitten, were backedagainst the fence, hardly keeping at bay with their sticks a couple ofpowerful dogs.
Gaston called off the dogs and, full of apparent solicitude, expressedhis regret. He listened to the guards' explanation.
"She cannot have been here," he declared, "the dogs would have bittenher to pieces. But, of course, we will look round if you like."
The guards, however, were more than satisfied. Gaston's argument wasbacked by their own experience, and they were quite ready to beconvinced if they could only get away from the ferocious dogs whocontinually prowled about snarling as though even the presence of theirmaster was hardly sufficient to protect his visitors. They littledreamed that the savage brutes would indeed have torn Yvette to pieceshad not Gaston thoughtfully taken the precaution to lock them up beforehe and Jules started to rescue her!
Away at Verdun Dick stood beside the Mohawk waiting impatiently in thedark. Time and again he had tested every nut and screw in the machine;time and again he had run the powerful engine to make sure that it wasin working order.
A
t last the longed for moment for action came. Anything was better thanlong drawn-out suspense.
He wrung Le Couteur's hand as he stepped into the machine.
"I'll be back with her by dawn," he said, "or else--" there was no needto finish the sentence.
He had not gone five minutes before Le Couteur received a message fromJules announcing that Yvette had escaped. If only Dick had known!
It was raining hard when the Mohawk rose into the air, but Dick wasbeyond caring for the weather, and anxious only for Yvette, he sent thehelicopter tearing through the darkness eastward to Berlin. He drovealmost automatically, his thoughts intent on the girl ahead of him.
As he approached Berlin, the weather cleared and the rain stopped. Allaround him were the navigation lights of the German mail and passengerplanes, hurrying to every quarter of the Empire,