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Danny the Detective - Vera Charlesworth Barclay · The Return of Sherlock Holmes

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of Danny the Detective. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
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  Speaker 1: by Michel Zito. Danny the Detective by VERA Charlesworth Barclay,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one In the straw Loft, Danny Moore was feeling
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  Speaker 1: very happy as he sat on the garden gate, swinging
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  Speaker 1: his legs. He had lived all his life in a
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  Speaker 1: very dull and smoky part of London. Now at last
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  Speaker 1: his mother had come to live in the country in
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  Speaker 1: a village called Dutton, as lodge keeper to Sir Edward Finch,
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  Speaker 1: and Danny found himself in a dear little house at
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  Speaker 1: the bottom of a long drive. It was an old
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  Speaker 1: fashioned cottage with a thatched roof, old black beams, and
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  Speaker 1: red tiled floors. Honeysuckle grew in wild profusion over the
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  Speaker 1: rustic porch and around the latticed windows. Beyond, and its
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  Speaker 1: little garden stretched the great park belonging to the hall,
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  Speaker 1: where spotted deer roamed free, and squirrels darted like red
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  Speaker 1: flashes through the trees. The rarest wild birds knew that
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  Speaker 1: here they were safe to build their nests unmolested. But
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  Speaker 1: that which delighted Danny most was the great gray ruin
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  Speaker 1: of an ancient abbey. It stood in the park, within
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  Speaker 1: a stone's throw of his mother's cottage. As he lay
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  Speaker 1: in bed at night, he could see the tall gray
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  Speaker 1: tower looming up against the purple sky, and the outline
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  Speaker 1: of the crumbling walls and traceried windows clear against the stars.
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  Speaker 1: He used to lie in bed and wonder and make
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  Speaker 1: up stories about the mysterious ruin. Danny was not quite
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  Speaker 1: an ordinary boy. His schoolfellows used to laugh at him.
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  Speaker 1: The big boys sometimes jeered at him, while his own
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  Speaker 1: pals admired him and thought him very clever, And everyone
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  Speaker 1: called him Danny the Detective. This is why he came
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  Speaker 1: to be known by that name. Ever since he was
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  Speaker 1: quite a little chap Danny had loved anything mysterious. Detective
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  Speaker 1: stories were his delight. He would creep about in the
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  Speaker 1: dark old house in London playing it being a policeman
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  Speaker 1: tracking down a burglar. When he grew a little older,
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  Speaker 1: he would play at private detective, scanning the faces of
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  Speaker 1: the people in the streets as he went to school,
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  Speaker 1: noticing their footprints and anything strange about their appearance or behavior.
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  Speaker 1: He loved to sit by the fire on winter evenings,
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  Speaker 1: reading of Sherlock Holmes and dreaming that he was one
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  Speaker 1: of the people taking part in those fascinating adventures, and
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  Speaker 1: his mind was always full of splendid ideas for disguises
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  Speaker 1: and secret messages. He taught himself the Morse Code because
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  Speaker 1: he thought someday it might be useful to know it.
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  Speaker 1: He might find himself in a dungeon who could tell
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  Speaker 1: and want to communicate with someone on the other side
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  Speaker 1: of the wall, And then he would tap out the
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  Speaker 1: message with a knife. As he ran to school in
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  Speaker 1: the morning, he would repeat the iddy Umpty alphabet to
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  Speaker 1: himself and spell out the names of the shop in
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  Speaker 1: dots and dashes, so as to get in good practice.
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  Speaker 1: But in the country everything was so different. He did
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  Speaker 1: not know how you set about being a detective in
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  Speaker 1: lanes and woods and fields. It was patrol leader Dick
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  Speaker 1: Church who solved the problem and also gave him the
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  Speaker 1: most ripping idea he had ever had in his life.
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  Speaker 1: Dick was the stable boy up at the hall. He
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  Speaker 1: was also senior patrol leader of the first Dutton troop
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  Speaker 1: of boy scouts. He had soon made friends with the
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  Speaker 1: lonely little boy from London, and Danny was now as
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  Speaker 1: keen and admirer of Dick Church as every other small
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  Speaker 1: boy in the village. It was on the day that
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  Speaker 1: they sat in the straw loft up at the hall
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  Speaker 1: eating gooseberries that Danny learnt about wolf cubs. He had
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  Speaker 1: often longed to be a scout. It seemed the next
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  Speaker 1: best thing to being a real detective, but he was
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  Speaker 1: only ten, so there was no hope.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: As they sat together in the dusty, golden straw, among
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  Speaker 1: the cobwebs and the old black beams, Danny learnt that
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  Speaker 1: it was possible to be a junior scout or wolf cub,
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  Speaker 1: even though you were only a kid. His heart beat fast.
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  Speaker 1: Do they learn tracking, he said, Rather, said Dick, And signaling,
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  Speaker 1: and swimming and first aid and all sorts of things
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  Speaker 1: just like us. I'll join 'em, said Danny, wriggling about
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  Speaker 1: in the straw in his excitement. Dick laughed and aimed
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  Speaker 1: at gooseberry at a big rat who happened to be passing.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, youngster, he said, don't you get the idea
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  Speaker 1: that scouting is all play, all ragging about and dressing
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  Speaker 1: up and paper chasing. Cause it's not. It isn't, said Danny. No,
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  Speaker 1: answered the patrol leader, lying back till his head was
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  Speaker 1: half smothered in his stalky pillow. It means doing good
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  Speaker 1: turns to other people every chance you get, and it
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  Speaker 1: puts the lid on telling lies or sneaking or pinching
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  Speaker 1: things or swearing. It means making a solemn promise and
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  Speaker 1: doing anything rather than break it. It means jolly well
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  Speaker 1: bucking up all around. And it means sticking to it. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: said Danny, and he pondered in silence for quite a
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  Speaker 1: long time. Dick looked at his small friend. Cheer up, kid.
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  Speaker 1: He said, you'll make a tophole cub if you try.
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  Speaker 1: The cub motto is do your best. Do you think
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  Speaker 1: you can live up to that?
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  Speaker 3: Not?
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  Speaker 1: Half, said Danny, And from that time he decided to
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  Speaker 1: be a cub, a real cub inside as well as out.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter one, Chapter two of Danny the Detective.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Michel Zito. Danny the
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  Speaker 1: Detective by Vera Charlesworth Barclay, Chapter two, The Mysterious Stranger.
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  Speaker 1: The cub's bare knees were splashed with mud as they
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  Speaker 1: pounded a lot the lane, looking out keenly for the
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  Speaker 1: little scraps of white paper that formed the scent of
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  Speaker 1: the hares. Whew, panted one of the hounds. I'm hot,
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  Speaker 1: stick to it, panted back his pal. Are we downhearted?
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  Speaker 1: Called Jim Tait the Sixer, as he had heard Tommy's
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  Speaker 1: call out at the end of a long route march
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  Speaker 1: no came the answer right down the road, for some
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  Speaker 1: cubs were getting left behind. But Danny, having lived all
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  Speaker 1: his life in London, had not done much in the
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  Speaker 1: way of long runs. He had got a bad stitch
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  Speaker 1: in his side almost at once, but remembering the second
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  Speaker 1: Cub law, a cub does not give in to himself,
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  Speaker 1: he had set his teeth and determined to bear the
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  Speaker 1: pain and not to give in. Then his legs began
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  Speaker 1: to ache as if they were ready to break, but
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  Speaker 1: he stuck out manfully. Finally his wind gave out. I'm done,
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  Speaker 1: he gasped, No, you aren't, called his sixer. Here hang on,
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  Speaker 1: and he held out a hand to his recruit. We
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  Speaker 1: shall get them. I bet we've kept it up hot
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  Speaker 1: so far. Just then the white paper showed up a
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  Speaker 1: bank and over the fence into a field. With a howl.
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  Speaker 1: The cubs scrambled up the grassy bank, clinging to weeds
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  Speaker 1: and sticks and stones, and were soon in full cry
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  Speaker 1: across the grass. On they went and threw a hedge
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  Speaker 1: on to the road beyond. But there was no scent
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  Speaker 1: on the road, no paper showed on the brown mud
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  Speaker 1: false trail. Groaned the hounds. Bad luck called Jim the sixer.
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  Speaker 1: We must go back. We may get them yet, and
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  Speaker 1: the hounds dashed off again across the field to get
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  Speaker 1: back to the old scent. But it was too much
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  Speaker 1: for Danny. He sank down, tired out. They can run,
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  Speaker 1: he said, and he thought a little sadly that they
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  Speaker 1: would think him a rodder to have fallen out. I
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  Speaker 1: stuck it as long as I could, he said. I
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  Speaker 1: did my best. I couldn't do more. He was just
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  Speaker 1: going to start back to headquarters when something happened, which
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  Speaker 1: was the first step in the curious adventures that befell
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  Speaker 1: him from that day onwards. Swish sh sounded the tires
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  Speaker 1: of a bicycle on the muddy road as it flew
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  Speaker 1: past him like a streak. The rider was bareheaded and
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  Speaker 1: seemed in an awful hurry. Then something happened that made
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  Speaker 1: Danny jump up and start running down the road for
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  Speaker 1: all he was worth, quite forgetful of his weary legs.
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  Speaker 1: A dog had jumped out from the hedge, and in
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  Speaker 1: trying to avoid running over it, the cyclist had skidded
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  Speaker 1: badly and now lay quite still on the road. Danny
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  Speaker 1: panted down the muddy lane, hoping the man was not dead.
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  Speaker 1: But before he reached the place where the accident had happened,
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  Speaker 1: the stranger had got up and was sitting on the bank,
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  Speaker 1: his head in his hands. Can I help you, sir,
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  Speaker 1: said Danny, eager to do a good turn. The young
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  Speaker 1: man started and looked up at the boy with wild eyes,
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  Speaker 1: then peered about him and looked up and down the
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  Speaker 1: road as if he were afraid of being followed. Blood
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  Speaker 1: was streaming down his face from a nasty gash in
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  Speaker 1: his forehead. Can I help you, sir, repeated Danny. Let
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  Speaker 1: me tie up your head. It's bleeding badly. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: said the young man in a shaky voice. Danny was
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  Speaker 1: glad to find he had put a large, clean handkerchief
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  Speaker 1: in his pocket before starting. He knew enough about first
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  Speaker 1: aid to realize the danger of putting on an open
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  Speaker 1: wound anything that is at all dirty, So he opened
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  Speaker 1: out the handkerchief and laid the part that had been
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  Speaker 1: folded up inside on the wound. What could he use
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  Speaker 1: as a bandage? There was nothing handy, so with a
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  Speaker 1: sigh of regret, he realized he must sacrifice his beautiful
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  Speaker 1: new brown neckerchief. He took it off and folded it
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  Speaker 1: neatly into a narrow bandage. This he tied firmly around
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  Speaker 1: the young man's head, securing it with a reef knot.
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  Speaker 1: You're a bit shaky, sir, aren't you, he said. My
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  Speaker 1: home is in the next village. Won't you come back
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  Speaker 1: and rest. Mother will give you some tea and I'll
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  Speaker 1: run for a doctor. I think your head will want stitching. No,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, said the young man, quickly, looking down the
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  Speaker 1: road again. I assure you I am quite all right now.
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  Speaker 1: I was just a little stunned. I thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your assistance, my little friend. There was something curious about
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  Speaker 1: the way the man spoke. Danny wondered what it was. Foreigner,
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  Speaker 1: he said to himself, as he picked up the bicycle
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  Speaker 1: and held it for the stranger. Can you tell me
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  Speaker 1: the way to Thornhurst, asked the man. Danny thought a
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  Speaker 1: moment and told him as well as he could. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: said the stranger. He was about to mount his bicycle
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  Speaker 1: when a thought seemed to strike him. Turning to the
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  Speaker 1: cub little boy, he said, should any person ask you
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  Speaker 1: if you have seen me on this road, tell them
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  Speaker 1: you have seen no one, no one at all. Danny grinned. Sorry, sir,
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  Speaker 1: he said, can't tell a lie. The man swore under
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  Speaker 1: his breath. Little fool, he muttered. Then he held out
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  Speaker 1: a bright half crown. That will keep you quiet, he said.
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  Speaker 1: Danny flushed and then laughed scornfully. Not much, it won't,
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  Speaker 1: he cried, Well, said the man angrily. Tell them I've
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  Speaker 1: gone to Thornhurst and am making a train to London.
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  Speaker 1: I shall be in Dover tomorrow. You won't forget London
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  Speaker 1: and Dover. Danny nodded, and the man jumped on his
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  Speaker 1: bicycle and rode away. He's a queer chap, said Danny,
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  Speaker 1: And I bet there's something on somewhere. Wish I knew
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  Speaker 1: what it was. The detective's spirit was roused in him.
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  Speaker 1: Suddenly he forgot all about cubs and paper chases. He
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  Speaker 1: was a private detective again, as in the old London days.
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  Speaker 1: Kneeling on the ground, he examined the man's footprints in
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  Speaker 1: the mud and made a sketch of them and of
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  Speaker 1: the bicycle tracks in his note book. Then, feeling very important,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote a short report of the adventure in his
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  Speaker 1: pocket book, added the date July one, nineteen fourteen, and
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  Speaker 1: started off across the fields to get back to the
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  Speaker 1: pack headquarters. About half a mile on his path lay
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  Speaker 1: across the yard of an old, deserted mill. As he
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  Speaker 1: clambered over the wall, something made him glance at the
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  Speaker 1: mill pool one hundred yards away. By it. In the
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  Speaker 1: shadow of the mill stood the mysterious stranger who had
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  Speaker 1: bicycled away half an hour ago towards Thornhurst. His head
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  Speaker 1: was still bound up with Danny's scarf. Remembering the law
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  Speaker 1: of the jungle, Danny froze, Squatting perfectly still on the
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  Speaker 1: top of the wall. He watched breathlessly. What could the
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  Speaker 1: stranger be doing there? Thornhurst was in the opposite direction
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  Speaker 1: he had said he was going there and on to London.
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  Speaker 1: Looking about him warily, the stranger picked up his bicycle
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  Speaker 1: and flung it into the dark waters of the pool.
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  Speaker 1: Danny heard the splash and all was still. Then the
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  Speaker 1: man looked about him again, turning his head from side
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  Speaker 1: to side, as if to make sure he was not perceived.
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  Speaker 1: What was he going to do? Then? Alas he saw Danny.
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  Speaker 1: For one moment he stood quite still, gazing up at
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  Speaker 1: him as if in dismay. Then like a shadow, he
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  Speaker 1: vanished behind the crumbling walls of the deserted mill. For
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  Speaker 1: a moment, Danny stood quite still, his eyes and mouth
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  Speaker 1: wide open with utter surprise. Then the detective instinct in
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  Speaker 1: him realized that there must be something very fishy about
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  Speaker 1: a person who threw a good bike into a pond.
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  Speaker 1: He also realized that if he was to find out
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  Speaker 1: anything about this fishy person, there was not a moment
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  Speaker 1: to be lost. So he scrambled down off the rickety
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  Speaker 1: old wall that he had been scaling when he got
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  Speaker 1: his glimpse of the man, and set off across the yard.
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  Speaker 1: The man had caught sight of Danny, he felt sure,
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  Speaker 1: just after flinging the bicycle into the pond. This was
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  Speaker 1: why he had vanished so quickly. The pond was hidden
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  Speaker 1: from Danny's view when he got down from the wall.
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  Speaker 1: Would this give the sh stranger a chance to escape?
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  Speaker 1: A moment later, Danny was hurrying down the steep bank
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  Speaker 1: towards the marshy ground where the pond lay. When he
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  Speaker 1: reached the pool, there was no sign of the man.
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  Speaker 1: He peered about in the old barns, the rickety sheds,
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  Speaker 1: and the broken pig stye. The man was nowhere. He
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  Speaker 1: went up into the mill. He climbed up ladders to
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  Speaker 1: the topmost floor. He peered between the great millstones. He
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  Speaker 1: leant far out of the windows and looked up and
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  Speaker 1: down the road and across the fields. There was no
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  Speaker 1: sign of the stranger. He must be a jolly good
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  Speaker 1: scout to have hidden so quickly, said Danny to himself.
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  Speaker 1: I wasn't more than two minutes getting to the pond,
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  Speaker 1: but he managed to bunk. The only thing to do
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  Speaker 1: was to track the man down. Yes, there were the
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  Speaker 1: footmarks and a bicycle track in the soft mud of
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  Speaker 1: the little path that led down from the road to
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  Speaker 1: the marshy ground by the pond. Danny examined them carefully.
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  Speaker 1: They were quite fresh. He compared them with the drawing
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  Speaker 1: he had made in his pocket book half an hour before,
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  Speaker 1: when they tallied exactly. So this was the same man.
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  Speaker 1: There could be no mistake. With his heart thumping hard,
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  Speaker 1: Danny followed up the tracks. They led to the pond
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  Speaker 1: in a roundabout way, showing that the man had taken
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  Speaker 1: cover behind a hedge, the old barn and a broken
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  Speaker 1: wall by the side of the pond. The wheel track stopped,
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  Speaker 1: Danny could see the firm, deep marks where the man
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  Speaker 1: had stood while picking up the machine and throwing it
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  Speaker 1: into the water. Then the footmarks went off at right
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  Speaker 1: angles four long strides, and they stopped behind the broken
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  Speaker 1: wall where the man seemed to have stood still. Danny
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  Speaker 1: searched all around, but the footmarks did not go any further,
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  Speaker 1: and yet there was no cover here. He walked in
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  Speaker 1: a circle around the spot at about five yards distance,
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  Speaker 1: but no tracks were to be seen. Danny the detective
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: was sorely puzzled, but returning to the place by the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: wall where the man had stood, he suddenly saw what
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  Speaker 1: he had missed before. The footprints did leave the spot,
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  Speaker 1: but they went straight to the pond side, treading almost
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  Speaker 1: where the first footprints showed. He followed them up, but
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  Speaker 1: at the water's edge he was as puzzled as he
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  Speaker 1: had been at the wall. The footprints did not lead away.
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  Speaker 1: Danny was stumped. There was nothing more to be done.
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  Speaker 1: It seemed a mystery with no solution, a riddle with
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: no answer. He determined to put the matter into the
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  Speaker 1: hands of wiser people than he. Squatting on the old wall,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote in his notebook an account of what had passed.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Then he set off homewards. At the pack headquarters, he
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: found Fred cotting his sixer ramping on the step. You
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  Speaker 1: little rodder, he cried as soon as he saw Danny.
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  Speaker 1: What did you want to fall out for and then
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  Speaker 1: play about and not come back. All the other chaps
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  Speaker 1: have gone back to tea. But when we found that
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  Speaker 1: you were not at your house, I was told to
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  Speaker 1: wait here and report to mister Fox if you were
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  Speaker 1: not back by six thirty. Awfully sorry, Fred, said Danny.
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  Speaker 1: But I wasn't playing about. I was having a one
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  Speaker 1: wonderful adventure. I Oh, shut up, said Fred impatiently. We
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  Speaker 1: know all about your adventures. But this is truth, said
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  Speaker 1: Danny in despair. A most extraordinary thing happened. Dry up,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: said Fred, But Danny was determined to make him listen.
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  Speaker 1: Look here, he said. It's all very well for you
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  Speaker 1: to say dry up, But what would you say if
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  Speaker 1: you saw a chap chuck a good bike into a
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  Speaker 1: pond and then make off. I'd say the chap who
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  Speaker 1: told me such a yarn was a liar, said Fred.
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  Speaker 1: I must go and report that you've got back. He added,
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  Speaker 1: you cut along home and stop telling everyone detective stories.
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  Speaker 1: Remember you're a wolf cub and not a kid anymore.
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  Speaker 1: A cub is truthful. Danny flushed to the roots of
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  Speaker 1: his hair, but he had the sense to not answer back,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: for he knew that if he did, he would not
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  Speaker 1: be able to resist punching his sixer's head, and that
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  Speaker 1: would not be loyalty. So he turned and went sadly home.
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  Speaker 1: But the strange thing he had seen was not to
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  Speaker 1: be put out of his mind, so easily something must
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  Speaker 1: be done. He decided to go to the Scouts about it.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: That night, after tea, he set out for the Scout's headquarters.
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  Speaker 1: There was a meeting on He banged at the door.
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  Speaker 1: What do you want, said the second who opened it.
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  Speaker 1: I want to speak to Patrol Leader Church, said Danny.
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  Speaker 1: He felt sure his friend would give him a fair hearing.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: He's away, said the scout, gone to see his uncle
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: at Thornhurst. I've got something very important to report, said Danny. Sorry,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: said the scout kindly. There's a court of honor sitting
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: just now. Come another time. But here, the chairman's voice
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: broke in. Bring the kid in, he called, let's hear
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: the important matter. Danny entered the brightly lighted room shyly.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: The eight leaders and seconds stared at him. Then one
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: of them, Fred Cotting's big brother, burst into a shout
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: of laughter. Hello, he cried, it's Danny, the detective. I
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: hear from my young brother that he's got a wonderful
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: yarn about a mysterious stranger and a bike and a pond.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Danny flushed. Then he looked straight at Patrol Leader Cotting.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Your brother wouldn't believe me, he said, But I'm a
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: wolf cub and I wouldn't tell a lie for anything.
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: It's the truth, and that's what I've come about. The
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: patrol leader smiled. All right, youngster, said the Chairman, sit down,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and when we've done the job, we're on now you
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: can make your report. Danny sat down, wishing himself a
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: hundred miles away. Presently the Chairman called him up. Please
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: give the court your report about this stranger, he said solemnly.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Danny forgot his shyness. It seemed to him that he
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was a chief witness giving evidence at a court of law.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Very clearly he told his story. The court deliberated for
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: a few minutes. It's a good yarn anyway, said the Chairman,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: though I can't see the Chap's idea in throwing his
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: bike in the pond. Look here, youngster, we'll take the
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: matter in hand. Kangaroo Patrol shall go with you tomorrow
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and drag the pond. If they find the bike, we
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: will take further steps. This was duly recorded in the
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: minutes by the Secretary. Danny was delighted. Thank you very much, indeed,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: he said, and saluting Withdrew. Smart little chap, said the
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: leaders as they turned once more to the business on hand.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: End of chapter two, Chapter three of Danny the Detective.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: the public domain for more information or to volunteer, please
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Michel Zito. Danny the
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Detective by Vera Charlesworth Barclay, Chapter three, The Mill Pond.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: It was Saturday. At two thirty. The kangaroos were coming
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: to drag the pond. Danny had got up at six
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: point thirty and was at the scene of yesterday's adventures.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: By seven point thirty. The tracks were still clear, but
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: there were no new ones. All the morning he was
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: on guard, now watching from his place of ambush behind
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the old wall, now exploring the mill for any possible clues.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: The sky was black with threatening clouds. At twelve the
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: storm broke, the rain came down in torrents. Danny took
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: shelter in the mill, keeping watch on the pond from
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: the window. It was nearly two before the downpour ceased.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Then a pale sunbeam broke out, and Danny ventured forth
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: into the dripping world. Little streamlets gurgled down the paths.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Cataracts gushed from pipes and gutters about the mill. Small
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: ponds lay in hollow places and alas The tracks of
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: the stranger's steps were hidden by an ocean of muddy water.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Danny's heart sank. He had counted so on showing the
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: kangaroos this incontestable evidence. Any scout would have read the
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: true story of yesterday's advent in those marks, And now
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: they were gone. At two thirty the kangaroos arrived, very
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: keen on the job. They dragged the pond from end
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to end. They raked its bottom with a hay rake.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: They probed it with a pitchfork. Then they laughed scornfully
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: nothing doing, said the patrol leader. Fraid you must have
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: been dreaming yesterday, young wolf cub. Danny was astounded. He
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: had seen the bicycle thrown in, and now he had
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: seen the pond dragged with great thoroughness, and no bicycle
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: revealed the youngest kangaroo had a bright idea. I expect
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the chap came early this morning and dragged the pond
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: himself and got up the bike, he said. Danny shook
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: his head. I was here before it began to rain,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: he said, and there were no fresh tracks. The kangaroos
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: went away, very bored and very muddy. It was not
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: long before the story had spread through the whole troop
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: and the whole pack everyone was inclined to agree with
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Fred Cotting the Sixer that Danny the Detective was a
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: little liar. But Danny, though hopelessly bewildered, knew that what
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: he had seen the day before had not been a dream.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: The next few days were very unhappy. Danny was in
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: hopeless disgrace. The scouts laughed, the cubs were angry because
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: he had brought disgrace on the pack. The scout master
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: chaffed mister Fox, the cubmaster, and said he had heard
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: there was a budding novelist in the pack. The only
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: comforting thing that happened was that in a local paper
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: there appeared a short account of a gentleman's bicycle having
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: mysteriously disappeared from outside a shop where he had left it.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: But instead of this convincing everyone that Danny's story was true,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: he was only chaffed about the little paragraph. All this
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: made him quite determined to clear his honor and the
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: honor of the pack. He made up his mind never
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: to rest until he had solved the mystery. From then
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: onward he looked at every one with the eye of
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: a detective. Not one stranger escaped his notice, or one
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: unusual track upon the road. He was untiringly on the alert. Meanwhile,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the weather had cleared up. The hot July sun had
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: dried the mud completely. The roads became so hard that
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: there was no chance of tracking. Danny was sorry for this,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: for he was ever on the lookout for the footmarks
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: of which he had a sketch in his book. Now
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: there seemed no chance by this means of obtaining a clue.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: But before a month had gone by, he had met
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: with another stranger who seemed to form another link in
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: the mysterious chain. To their pride and joy, the first
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: Dutton wolf cubs had been invited by the Scouts to
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: take part in a great field day. Danny had been
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: given a quarter of a mile of road to patrol.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: It happened to be the lonely lane that led past
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: the deserted mill. He had just concealed himself in the
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: hedge when a market cart rumpled by a little ahead
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: of him. It stopped. The carter looked keenly up and
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: down the road and all about him. Then, as if
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: sure he was not perceived, he pushed aside his vegetable baskets,
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: lifted up a piece of sacking, and helped a man
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: to emerge from the bottom of the cart without a
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: single word. The man jumped down onto the road, and
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: the cart lumbered on. The stranger stood for a moment,
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: looking about him suspiciously. He was a very ragged and
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: dirty tramp with a straggling red beard and a great
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: bulgy sack on his shoulders. Presently, as if to make
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: sure of his whereabouts, he began to plod along the road.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Danny was after him like a flash, his rubber shoes
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: making no noise on the road. It was real stalking,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: this time, scanning every detail of the man's appearance. Danny
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: could find nothing to show that he was not a
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: genuine tramp. But that which caught his eye was the sack.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: It was bulgy and ragged. Out of a hole hung
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: a rabbit skin. But there was evidently something large and
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: square in the sack. Well. It looked as if it
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: might be a box, and from inside this seemed to
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: come a scraping, scuffling noise, as if it contained something alive.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: At this moment, the tramp turned suddenly around and saw him.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Danny was a boy who always had all his wits
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: about him. He was a London boy. Remember, he realized
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: at once that he must put the man off his
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: guard and not let him think that he had followed
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: him out of suspicion. Please, mister, he said, could you
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: tell me the time? The man was staring angrily at
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: him out of a pair of little, pale blue eyes.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: He had evidently been startled at finding a wolf cub
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: at his heels when he had thought himself quite alone.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: The innocent question must have reassured him, for he looked
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: very much relieved. It's three o'clock, he said gruffly. Danny
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: was looking him over eagerly. What could he say next?
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: So as not to have to go away? Surely this
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: strange man who crept out from among baskets in a cart,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: carried something alive in a bag full of rabbit skins,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and knew the exact time without a watch must be
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: a suspicious character, I say, mister. He continued skipping along
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: innocently by the man. Are you collecting rabbit skins and bottles? Yes?
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Are you going to Dutton? Yes? Well you know the
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: pub called the Green Man? Yes? I know it well,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: ah thought Danny, I've caught you old Sport. There's not
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: a pub called the green man at Dutton. Well, he
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: went on aloud. Just a bit further on, past the pub.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: There's a little thatched house that's where my mother lives.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: She'll give you some skins because we had rabbit pie
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: last night for dinner. You will go to her, won't you. Yes,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: I'll go there, right enough, said the man. We'll see,
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: thought Danny. But the man was walking fast. He had
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: very nearly reached the part of the road where Danny's
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: patrol ended. To the cub that the most important thing
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: in all the world just now was to follow up
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: this man. But he knew that he must not fail
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: in his duty. Senior patrol leader Church had posted him
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: on that road and said, don't leave your post without orders,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: so he must stick to it. Well, goodbye, mister, he said,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I've got to stay here because I'm a sentry. Don't
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: forget to call for my mother's rabbit skins. All right,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: growled the man, and trudged on while Danny squatted down
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: on the bank and watched him. I bet he's not
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: going to the village, he said to himself. He's a
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: stranger here, but he wants to make out he's not.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: And I'm pretty sure he's not a real tramp, because
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: he has hands like a gentleman. Oh I do wish
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: I could follow him. I wish it was a muddy
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: day instead of this rotten dry weather. Then I'd soon
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: pick up his trail when this game's over. I wonder
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: if there's not some way I could track him. Wish
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I had a little bag full of flour, thought Danny.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: But a wolf cub is never at a loss how
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: to do things once he has got hold of the idea.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: In a minute, he had drawn his notebook out of
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: his pocket and torn a number of pages out with
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: quick fingers. He tore these up into wee scraps and
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: put them into his cap. The man was already out
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: of sight round the corner, scrambling up the bank, and
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: threw the hedge into a field. Danny sprinted along for
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: all he was worth. Before long he was up with
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: the man, who still plodded along head bent his sack
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: on his back, creeping like a little green snake through
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the hedge. Danny stole softly up behind him. He felt
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: just as cubs do in the sheer con dance, only
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: this time it was real, not pretend. Holding his breath
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: and treading as softly as a cat. He crept so
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: close that he could have touched the tramp. Still, the
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: man trudged on. Danny's heart was in his mouth. Softly,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: he straightened himself. Then he took a handful of the
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: paper scraps from his cap and slipped them into the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: torn pocket of the man's ragged coat. Then he stood
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: quite still and gradually crept sideways until he was under
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: cover in the ditch. His heart was beating fast as
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: he watched the retreating figure of the man. He saw
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: a little scrap of paper fly out here and there.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: I've got you, said Danny, hugging himself. It was all
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: he could do not to give vent to a howl
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: of joy that would have roused the very jungle. It
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: was at this moment that an enemy scout trod on
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: a dry stick the other side of the hedge and
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: set Danny on his guard. Lying flat on his tummy
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: in the ditch and peeping through a patch of nettles,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: he caught sight of a flutter of red and gray
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: that was unmistakably a kangaroo's shoulder knot creeping along the ditch.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: Regardless of the hundred nettle stings that raised great white
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: lumps on his knees. Danny indulged in a little strategy.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Taking off his cap, he arranged it on a stump
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: so that it just showed above a mass of green
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: and would be well in view from a gap in
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the hedge. Then he doubled along the ditch to where
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: a hidden gap gave a beautiful chance for the enemy
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: crossed the road and getting over a stile into the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: wood opposite, to get in touch with their own party.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: By this tempting gap, Danny took cover. I hope he
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: sees my cap, he said to himself. Then he'll think
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: I'm there, and we'll bring his party up to this fence.
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: Suddenly a bright idea struck him. I'll make him have
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to look at it, he said. Standing cautiously up in
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: the ditch, he picked up a stone and took careful aim.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Plump it fell among the nettles just by the cap.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: That'll make him think there's a chap there, said the
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: detective to himself with satisfaction, And sure enough, before long
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the kangaroo's thinking the sentry was safely ensconced in the ditch.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: Further up were making their way with an unguarded amount
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: of crackling towards the gap. Two minutes later, Danny had
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: taken three important prisoners and sent them to the base
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: out of action. Jolly's smart piece of work, said patrol
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: leader Church, when the field was called in at five o'clock.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I knew I had put a good man on to
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: patrol that road, but I never thought he'd succeed in
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: taking prisoners. Danny's heart glowed at the praise, but his
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: mind was more intent upon the piece of real scouting
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: he had on hand than on the game. When the
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: other boys trooped home to tea, happy and hungry, Danny
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: turned his eager steps in the direction of the lonely
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: piece of road he had been patrolling. He forgot how
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: hungry he was, and how nice the cup of tea
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: and the plum cake at home would be. There was
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: work to be done. In about half an hour, Danny
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: was back at the place where he had last seen
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: the tramp. It was a still summer evening, not a
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: breath of wind stirred. Danny was glad, for it meant
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: that the scent, in the form of the scraps of
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: paper would not have blown away. Yes, there was a
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: little piece on the road. Here was another on the bank,
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: another another, another, Now there was none for quite a
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: long way. Then a whole patch on the dusty road.
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: Just here. The tramp had been walking at the side
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: of the road, where the dust was soft and white
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: and thick. Joy of joys, his footmarks were distinctly visible.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Out came Danny's precious notebook, and in a moment he
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: had drawn a quick sketch of the footprints and added
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: its size and inches. Then he went on carefully. Every
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: here and there a little piece of white paper showed
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: distinctly he had reached the old mill, and sure enough
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the trail turned down the very path where he had
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: followed the bicycle tracks six weeks ago, in the same way.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: It seemed to indicate that the man had taken cover
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: behind walls and hedges so as not to be seen
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: from the road or from the mill. Little did he
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: know that he left a tell tale track of white
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: paper behind him. And as Danny reached the pond, he
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: had to put his hands over his mouth to suppress
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: a laugh of delight. There on the surface of the
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: still black water showed a quantity of little scraps of
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: white paper. Danny walked round the bank, thinking hard, what
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: on earth could the man have got into the pond,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: for there were no wet marks on the dust where
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: he got out. It was the most mysterious thing he
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: had ever come across. Here was a pond in which
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: a man in a bicycle had disappeared, and also a
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: tramp with something alive in a sack. Had they drowned themselves? No,
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: for the kangaroos had dragged the pond and nothing had
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: been fished up. Suddenly Danny had an idea. There must
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: be a kind of cave or cellar they get into
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: from under the water, he said. I expect they are
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: burglars or smugglers or forgers or something, and that's where
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: they hide their treasure. Then after dark they come up.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: He decided to have another try to make the scouts
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: take him seriously, but he was still sore at the
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: memory of all the ridicule that had been heaped upon
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: him before. I'll log it down, he said, taking out
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: his note book, And after dark I'll come back and
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: lie and wait for him as he comes up. Then
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: tomorrow i'll make my report. He squatted down behind the
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: ruined wall and began to write. July twenty sixth, nineteen fourteen,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: saw a tramp get out of a cart where he
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: was hiding. Followed him. He had something alive in a sack,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: but he pretended they were rabbit skins and bottles. Said
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: he knew a pub called green Man in Dutton, which
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: there isn't. Tracked him down by scraps of paper. He
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: must have got into mill pond, but he has not
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: got out yet six point thirty, signed d More. Then
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: he went home to supper. End of chapter three, Chapter
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: four of Danny the Detective. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit zitlibrivox dot org. Read
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: by Michele's Zito Danny the Detective by VERA Charlesworth Barclay,
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: Chapter four one. A m night had fallen, soft and
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: dark and still. When Danny climbed out of his little
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: latticed window onto the roof of the porch. He could
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: smell the honeysuckle, though he could not see it, and
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: somewhere a nightingale was singing. He had gone to bed
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: at nine o'clock. His mother had come in and tucked
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: him up and shutting the door had gone downstairs. Now
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Danny scrambled down the trellis work of the porch and
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: was soon trotting softly along the road. As he got
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: beyond the village, his courage began to fail just a
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: wee bit. The road was very dark and lonely. Great
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: black fir trees stretched out weird arms towards him. An
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: owl who a rabbit, scampered across his path with a
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: whisk of white tail. Once he jumped as a cow
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: poked her head through a gap at him, and heaved
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: a great sigh. Between the weird black branches of the pines,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: he could see the little white, sparkling stars winking at him.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: They reminded him of God, and that after all he
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: was not quite alone. God must be pleased with him,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: because he was doing his best. The lonely darkness ceased
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: to be full of horror. He went on with a
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: brave heart. At last he reached the pond, all was
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: quite still. After listening intently for a few minutes, he
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: flashed his electric torch on the water. The scraps of
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: paper were still floating about. He walked around the bank,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: casting a ring of golden light on to the dusty ground,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: But there were no wet footmarks to show that someone
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: had come up out of the water. I'll keep watch,
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: said Danny, and he curled up in the shadow of
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the wall. It was a warm July night, but Danny's
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: teeth were chattering as he squatted alone beneath the ruined wall.
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: He gazed fascinated at the black waters of the pond.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Any moment a face with a red, straggly beard might
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: come up, all wet and dripping and look at him.
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: He half wished he had not come, but he had
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: vowed to do all he could to solve the problem,
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: and surely he was on the scent at last. The
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: moments crept by, and nothing happened. Everything was very still,
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: save for the occasional hoot of an owl. The world
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: seemed fast asleep. Presently Danny began to nod. It must
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: have been three hours later when he awoke, stiff and uncomfortable.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Where was he?
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: Yes, he jumped up, quickly, rubbing his eyes. He had
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: slept on guard, he blushed in the darkness. Just think
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: if he had been a soldier and his officer had
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: come round the shame of it, and suddenly he found
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: he was simply longing for home and mother and bed.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: My duty, he said, between his chattering teeth. Switching on
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: his electric torch, he went softly round the pond. But
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: there were no wet marks on the parched, dusty bank.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: No one had come up out of the water. From
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: away across the valley stole the faint sound of a
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: church clock. The four quarters rang out. Danny listened for
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: the hour. One chimed like a sad voice across the
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: dim countryside. One o'clock whispered Danny. He could not resist
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the longing for home, and softly he made his way
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: back on to the road.
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: Rum.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: A great gray car swung around the corner and hummed
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: past Danny. Ar sixteen ninety two, he said to himself,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: as he watched the red tail light grow smaller and
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: smaller in the distance. Almost from force of habit, he
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: fixed the number in his mind. Danny's feet seemed to
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: have acquired a nasty habit of tumbling over each other.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: He wondered why, and then he gave a big yawn.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: How lovely it would be to be in bed, all
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: warm and safe, and cozy, and best of all, to
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: hear mother snoring in the next room. It was so
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: lonely out here. He trudged sleepily on and round the
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: corner towards Dutton. He was walking on the grass at
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: the side of the road. A ditch ran along the hedge. Suddenly,
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: almost at his feet, he heard a long, muffled whistle.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: He started violently, and then, remembering the law of the wild,
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: he froze. The next moment, three whistle notes sounded, not
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: quite so muffled, and coming certainly from the ditch. Then
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: a strange guttural voice, speaking in low tones. It was
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: there at his feet in the ditch. What could it mean?
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: Danny the sleepy little boy was trembling with fear. But
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: Danny the Detective was on the scent again. Creeping softly
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: across the grass to the edge of the ditch. He
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: dropped on one knee and peered down. It was far
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: too dark to see anything, so he strained his ears
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: to try and catch this mysterious conversation. He soon found
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: that though he could hear every word distinctly, he could
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: not understand it. It was in a foreign language. There
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: seemed a lot of ah and gurr in it. Very
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: ugly it sounded, and the words so seemed to come
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: in it rather often nine was mentioned still more often.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Danny listened intently for any words he could recognize. Presently
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: he heard Sir Edward Gray quite distinctly. It did not
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: convey much to him, but at least the words were English,
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: and he stored them up Downing Street, he caught and
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: later on asquith it was a funny conversation. It kept
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: breaking off suddenly, and there would be a long silence.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Then it would go on for a few words and stop,
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: and somehow the whole thing reminded him of how it
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: sounded when the postmaster telephoned from the village post office.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Suddenly there was a movement in the ditch. They're coming out,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: thought Danny. Like a rabbit. He scuttled out of sight
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: into a place where the bank in front of the
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: ditch formed a kind of little earthy grotto, half overgrown
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: with bushes. He was hidden in the darkness, but he
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: could see well himself. As he peered out, straining his
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: eyes in the gloom, he saw a black figure rear
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: itself out of the ditch and stand up against the
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: gray star spangled sky. He could see its outline quite clearly.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: It was that of a slight, smallish man. In his
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: hand he held something that looked like about three year
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: yards of rather thick rope. For a moment, he stood still,
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: brushing the mud from his suit. It was at this moment,
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: when silence was so essential, that Danny felt a violent
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: tickle in his nose. He was going to sneeze ah
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: high a high a sew. He tried to muffle it
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: in his cap, but it was no use. The man
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: started violently, then looked about him Quickly. One step brought
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: him close to Danny's grotto. He had dropped his rope
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: end and against the gray sky, Danny could see the
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: outline of a revolver in his right hand. Slowly, the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: man bent towards him, peering through the darkness. Seeing nothing,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: he stretched out his hand to feel cold sweat broke
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: out all over Danny. In a second, the man would
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: have touched him. To keep still meant being caught for certain.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: To dash out and run would probably mean bullet in
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: his legs. The groping hand was very near his face. Suddenly,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: an idea seized Danny. The man would not risk the
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: danger of breaking the night stillness with a shot if
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: he thought that the sound he had heard had merely
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: been made by a fox, Nor would he bother to
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: follow it up, or be in any way disturbed or
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: set on his guard by its presence. With a sudden movement,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: he fastened his sharp little teeth in the hand. The
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: man gave a muffled cry of pain, started back, and Danny,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: with the bark of a young fox, dashed out past
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: his legs in a doubled up position, and was soon
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: running down the road under cover of the darkness. Leaping
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: across the ditch and through a well known gap, he
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: threw himself down on the grass, panting. There was no
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: sound of following footsteps. His ruse had succeeded. Cautiously, Danny
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: rose to his feet and began walking down the side
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: of the hedge on the field side he was making
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: for home. Strangers with revolvers were not to be followed
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: in the dark, even by detectives when the latter were unarmed.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: But before long he had stopped short and was peering
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: through the hedge. A little red light had caught his eye. Yes,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: it was the tail light of a motor a R
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: sixteen ninety two. It was the same car that had
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: passed him. He remembered the number. The headlights had been
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: turned off. The great body of the car loomed like
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: some huge monster. In the darkness. Danny could just make
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: out the form of a man sitting quite still in
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: the driver's seat. He seemed to be waiting for something.
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: Perhaps the man who had been talking in the ditch
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: was going to rejoin him. Danny, managing to overcome his
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: fear of the revolver, decided to wait and watch. Before long,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: there was a slight sound, and the man he had
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: seen before stepped onto the road from the grassy border
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: that had muffled his approaching steps. The men exchanged a
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: few words in the same guttural language Danny had heard
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: coming from the ditch. Then the driver got down from
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: the car and lit up the headlights. A bright shaft
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: shot along the road, bending down. The man allowed his
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: face to be caught in it for a moment, and
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Danny looked with all his eyes so that he might
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: remember every feature. He was, a thick set man with
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: a square black beard and thick lensed round glasses. An
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: exclamation of annoyance from him brought his friend round to
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: help adjust one of the lamps, and Danny had a
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: glimpse of the second man's face. He knew him in
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: a moment.
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: It was the.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Mysterious stranger of the bicycle incident, on whose track he
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: had been for so long. The headlights being successfully fixed up,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: the driver of the car went round to the back,
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: and Danny watched fascinated while he removed the number board
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: and substituted it for one, showing L three two three.
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: Then together the men raised the hood of the car,
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: though it was a cloudless night. After moving about some time,
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: they both got into the car, but the automatic starter
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: would not work, and the driver, grumbling to himself, climbed
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: out again and went round to turn the handle. This
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: brought his face once more within the light of the
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: great lamps. Danny's eyes opened wide at what he saw.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: The motorist was no longer a black bearded, spectacled man.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: He had now a bristling red mustache, and his bright,
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: little blue eyes showed out from beneath the rather bushy eyebrows.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: A moment later, the car had hummed off down the road.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: End of chapter four, Chapter five of Danny the Detective.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Michel Zito. Danny the
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Detective by Vera Charlesworth Barclay, Chapter five, The Dark Passage.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: It was nine o'clock when Danny woke up the next day,
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: a golden Sunday morning. At first he thought his night
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: adventures had been a dream, and then he realized that
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: it was all true and jumped out of bed. He
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: longed to tell someone about them, but remembering the snubs
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: he had received before and that he had been accused
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: of having lied, he determined to keep his wonderful discoveries
• 48:43
  Speaker 1: to himself. This adventure should be all his own. Danny
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: the Detective would have a big triumph when the whole
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: mysterious case was brought to light and the wily strangers
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: stood in the dock. His first impulse was to make
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: straight for the scene of laflast night's adventure. Then, remembering
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: that private detectives as well as other people, must fulfill
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: their duty to God, he set off for church. And
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: after all he had much to thank God for. Last
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: night he had a very narrow escape, and also he
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: had got the desire of his heart a new and
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: important clue. Church over, he dashed off to examine the ditch. Yes,
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: there was his grotto. He could see it from afar.
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: On reaching the place, the first thing that caught his
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: eye was a long snake like something lying half hidden
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: in the rank grass. He picked it up. It was
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: a piece of rubber tubing about three yards long. That
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: must be what the man dropped when I sneezed, said Danny.
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: I expect he was so worried with my biting his
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: hand that he forgot to pick it up. The detective
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: next turned his attention to the ditch. Yes, there were
• 49:56
  Speaker 1: footmarks in the soft mud, and they were the very
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: same that he had drawn a sketch of in his book.
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: That day he saw the stranger with the bicycle. There
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: was a kind of dented, flattened place, as if someone
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: had been lying in the ditch. Sticking out of the bank,
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: half hidden by the rank grass, was an old, moss
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: grown drain pipe. Putting his lips to it, Danny spoke
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: a few words. His voice sounded hollow. He slipped the
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: tubing down into it, and put the end to his ear.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Some telephone, he said, and fairly wriggled with delight. So
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: that's what the chap was doing last night. The question
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: is who was he talking to? And what kind of
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: a place does this pipe lead to? Such as he might,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: he could find no sign of a cave or any
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: hiding place in the bank. It must be fairly deep,
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: he said, or they wouldn't want three yards of tubing.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: He poked a stone through the pipe and heard it
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: rattle down on to what sounded like a stone floor
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: some way below. Then he sat up and considered. They
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: weren't just common tramps or poachers, these people he was after,
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: for they owned a car. They were evidently afraid the
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: police were on the lookout for them, or they would
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: not have changed the number board and worn false beards.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: There is some connection between this drain pipe telephone affair
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: and the mill pond, and I mean to discover what
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: it is, said Danny the detective. After making his puzzling
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: discovery of the drain pipe telephone, as he called it,
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: Danny ran off to make his inspection of the mysterious pond.
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: Running his eyes quickly over the bank, he soon saw
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: a clue that to the ordinary person would have meant nothing,
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: but which revealed something very important to the detective. On
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: the dusty bank of the pond, there was a wet patch,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: as if something or someone had come up out of
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: the water and stood and dripped for a moment. The
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: morning shadows had not yet moved away from the spot
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: and allowed the hot July sun to dry the ground.
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Examining the wet patch more closely, Danny saw that there
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: was duckweed on it, the same stuff that dotted the
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: surface of the pond. There was also some black mud,
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: just the kind of slime one would expect to coat
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the pool, so said Danny. The chap
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: who went down into the pond with his sack did
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: come up the way he went down. He went down
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: on Saturday afternoon, and he came up in the night.
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: What's more, he came up after I had left the
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: place at one a m. I can't help thinking he
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: had something to do with the two chaps in the car.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: The detective scratched his head. It was so jolly puzzling. Anyway,
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: I missed him, and he's not here now, so there's
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: no good in my staying here, he said. An empty
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: feeling under his sunday waistcoat told him that it must
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: be getting near one o'clock at dinner. But his thoughts
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: were far away, and his mother wondered why he was
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: so silent. He determined to spend the afternoon having a
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: long think. He would read up all his notes and
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: try to put the various clues together and solve the mystery.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: He had a particular secret place of his own where
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: he always hid when he wanted to be quiet. It
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: was in the ruins of an old abbey that stood
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: on the grounds of Sir Edward Finch's estate. The old, gray,
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: half crumbling building stood quite close to the little lodge
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: where he lived. No one was allowed to go into
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: this ruin. One reason was that Sir Edward was a
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: funny old crank and hated strangers poking about on his property.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Another was that the beautiful old tower of the church
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: was supposed to be tottering and about to fall. In fact,
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: two years ago a man had been killed by a
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: part of the church falling on him. So a high
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: barbed wire fence surrounded the ruin. The great iron gates
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: were always kept locked, and no one ever went in.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: But one day Danny had discovered that there was a
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: little wee path that led from his mother's cabbage patch
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: to the hedge that divided the garden from the ruin.
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: The patch was only about ten inches wide. It must
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: have been made by rabbits, and if rabbits could get
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: through the hedge and the barbed wire into the mysterious
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: old abbey, a boy could get in too. So Danny
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: had followed the path and had soon scrambled through the
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: thick hedge. To his delight, he had found himself in
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: a fascinating place. The turf was soft and mossy and
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: full of harebells, and there was the old gray ruin
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: to explore. Danny crept about in the traceried cloisters, where
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: he loved to imagine the holy monks walking six hundred
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: years ago with their sandaled feet. There was the room
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: where he decided they must have had their meals. But
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: most of all he loved the ruined church. Somehow it
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: seemed very holy. He always used to take his cap
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: off when he went in, though it was open to
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: the blue sky and carpeted with wild flowers. One day
• 54:59
  Speaker 1: he had found a tom tit's nest built between the
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: mossy stones where the altar had been. Now, on this hot,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: sleepy Sunday afternoon, he crept out into the back garden
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: and filled his cap with gooseberries. Then he wriggled through
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: the hedge and had soon curled up in a warm
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: corner of the cloisters, with no one to see him
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: but the rabbits. Danny had not had a very RESTful night,
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: having been on guard by the pond, and now the
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: warm sun and his good dinner and the drowsy hum
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: of the bees in the wild time made him very sleepy,
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: and he began to nod. Before long he was fast
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: asleep and having a very strange dream. He thought he
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: was back in the old days, and that he was
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: a knight in shining armor who had come to the
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: abbey to pray before going to the crusades. In his dream,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: he saw the monks moving about in their white habits,
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: and then he suddenly saw a horrid looking fellow creeping
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: about in the shadows, all dressed in black and hiding
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: a dagger beneath his wide sleeves. Trader, said Danny in
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: his dream, And then he suddenly saw it was the
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: man he had seen with the bicycle and again in
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: the motor. Drawing his long sword, he stepped forward and
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: but at this exciting moment he woke up with a start. Danny, Danny.
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: Someone was shouting, where are you you, young rodder Danny,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: Come on, we're going bathing. He started to his feet
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: and rubbed his eyes. Here I am, he called, emerging
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: from the gooseberry bushes as if he had been there
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: all the time. His sixer and two cubs were waiting
• 56:36
  Speaker 1: for him. Very soon the four boys were running gaily
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: off across the marsh with towels around their necks. It
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: was only about ten minutes run down to the seashore.
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: Before long the cubs were splashing about in the cool
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: green water. It was ripping in the old London days.
• 56:53
  Speaker 1: Danny had bathed all year round in the baths, but
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: it was not half as jolly as this. All the same,
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: his swimming bath experience had been useful, for he had
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: learnt to swim well and to dive. I can swim
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: and float, said sixer Fred Cotting, But I can't dive.
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: Show us how you'd do it, Daniel. Danny ducked down
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: his head chucked up his heels and vanished. The cool
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: green water closed over his head. Everything looked so funny
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: down there, all a lovely pale green color, full of
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: myriads of bubbles, red and brown seaweed waved lazily on
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: the pebbly bottom. Danny swam gently forward, looking for a
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: stone to bring up to show the other chaps he
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: had really been to the bottom of the deep pool. Suddenly,
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: down there in the dim, bubbly water, among the shells
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: and shrimps and seaweed, a great idea came to him.
• 57:47
  Speaker 1: He would dive down into the mill pond himself and
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: see what there was at the bottom, and why those
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: strangers were so fond of going down there. He swam
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: quickly to the surface, his heart high with resolve. It
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: would take some pluck to do it, But a chap's
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: not worth calling a cub if he can't do a
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: thing like that, he said to himself, as he dried
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: vigorously and got into his clothes again. Tea was ready
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: when Danny got in. He was as hungry as a wolf,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: or rather a wolf cub. But if he was to
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: go down that day, he must go before the sun set.
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: It was past six already, so he contented himself with
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: a cup of tea and a small piece of bread
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: and butter. I won't give in to myself, he said,
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: thrusting his hands deep into his pockets as his mother
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: offered him a big slice of the most lovely plum cake.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: Running up to his room, he changed into a pair
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: of old shorts, a cotton shirt, and some old gym shoes.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: Then he set out along the well known road that
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: had proved to be so full of mysterious adventures. There
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: was no sign of anyone having been to the pond
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: since the morning, Still he could not be sure. He
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: felt a strange feeling inside him as he stood all
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: alone on the bank and looked down into the water.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: The evening sun was shining full on it. He was
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: glad it would be easier to see when he was
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: under What would there be down there? He clenched his
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: fists and said the cub promise between his teeth to
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: buck him up. Then he suddenly remembered his dream and
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: how brave he had felt when he was a crusader
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: knight about to challenge the lurking trader in the abbey.
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: Before his courage had time to fail. He dived straight
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: as an arrow into the pond. It was very different
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: down there from what it was in the sea. All
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: was a murky brownish color. Black, slimy weeds waved about
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: like wicked, little clinging hands. He swam about gently but
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: could see nothing unusual. Soon he had to come up
• 59:47
  Speaker 1: for more air. Taking a very big breath, he dived again.
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: This time he happened to be very near the side
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: in order to keep down and look well about him.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: He caught hold of a big bunch of weed growing
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: on the wall of the pond. Suddenly, just before him
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: he saw a black, cavernous hole in the bank. It
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: was about three feet across and seemed like the entrance
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: to a passage leading away from the bottom of the pool.
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: But it was full of water. Of course. Danny rose
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: to the surface for breath, and ideas crowded into his mind.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: A passage leading away from the bottom of the pond.
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: Then that was where the men went, and where the
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: bicycle had disappeared to for which they had dragged the
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: pond so carefully. But why did not all the water
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: run away? Then he remembered that water never rises above
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: its own level. On that side of the pond. The
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: bank rose steeply towards the high ground where the ruined
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: mill stood. If the passage led up in a steep
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 1: incline or in steps, it would very soon be on
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: a level with the surface of the pond. The water
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: flowing into the passage would rise as high as this
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: and no higher the level of the mill, and the
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: road was high enough for the passage to rise beyond
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: the water altogether and still be underground. Did it do this?
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: The only way to find out was to dive again,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: swim into the passage and see. He would have to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: take a very big breath to bring him up where
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: the passage came up, and to let him get back
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: if it did not seem to be rising. It was
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: something of a risk, but Danny had nerved himself to anything.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: If I do find a passage, it will be jolly dark,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: he said, And then he remembered that he had brought
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: his pocket electric light and had hidden it with his handkerchief,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: knife and two pennies on the bank before diving. He
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: would take his light down. Perhaps the water would not
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: hurt the battery. Scrambling out on to the edge, he
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: soon found his torch and stowed it away in the
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: pocket of his shorts. Then, taking a mighty breath, he
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: dived again and swam straight into the dark passage. Almost
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: at once, his outstretched hands came in contact with something
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: hard and slippery. It was the bottom step of a
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: flight of stone stairs. A moment later Danny was half swimming,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: half scrambling up them. His store of air was very
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 1: nearly exhausted, when, to his intense relief, his head suddenly
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: came up above the water and he breathed again. It
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: was pitch dark, and he was standing in water up
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: to his neck. He was safe from drowning, however, that
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: was one thing to be thankful for. He had reached
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: the top step of the flight and was walking on
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: a slippery surface that seemed to be inclined uphill. As
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: he found that before long his shoulders were out of
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: the water, and then he was only waist deep. He
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: took out his electric torch and pressed the button. To
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: his joy, he found the battery was working, and a
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: ray of golden light shot through the darkness, Turning the
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: light from side to side. He saw that he was
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: in a low vaulted passage, walled and roofed with stone.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: There was nothing else to see. The passage seemed to
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: go straight ahead. There was nothing for it but to
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: go on and hope there was no one else down there.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: Danny had not walked many yards before his light glinted
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: on something. Peering closer, he saw that it was a bicycle,
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: leaning up against the wall. So that's where the bike went,
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 1: said Danny triumphantly, wishing the kangaroos could see it, as
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: he remembered their cutting remarks the day they dragged the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: pond in vain. The bicycle was rusty and useless. The
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: bareheaded stranger who had been in such a hurry that
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: day on the road and had said he was going
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: one way when he was really going another must simply
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: have been flying from his pursuers and have thrown his
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: stolen bicycle into the pond so as not to leave
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: a clue when he dived down into his wonderful hiding place.
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: So the mystery of the bicycle was solved at last.
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: Danny had been determined to solve it, but in working
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: at it he had come on still more mysterious things.
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 1: It was a big affair this, and now he felt
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: himself well on the way to clearing it up, had
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: he not got into the most secret hiding place of
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: the gang. With his heart beating fast with excitement, he
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: pressed on along the passage. He had reached dry ground
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: at last. The air was musty and suffocating. Danny the
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: Detective thought that this adventure would solve the whole problem.
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: He little knew all that was to befall him and
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: his country before the mystery would be finally brought to light.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: His heart beating fast with excitement, Danny pressed forward through
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: the damp darkness. There was a silent horror about this place.
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Mildew stood on the walls. Black creatures scurried away beneath
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: his feet, afraid of the light. How often Danny had
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: longed to find a secret passage, But now that he
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: had really found one, he shrank from going into the
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: unknown darkness. If only there were another chap to talk to,
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: to feel near his His teeth chattered with the cold,
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: for he was soaking wet. But once more he remembered
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: the cub law and did not give in. My light
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: won't last long if I keep it on, he said,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: flashing it round to see his way. He noticed a
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: small lantern hanging on the wall with a box of
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: matches in a little niche. With a sigh of relief,
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: he took it down and lighted it. The candlelight cast weird,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: flickering shadows on the wall as Danny hurried on. Every
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: now and then he lifted the lantern high, looking about him.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: He must have gone nearly a quarter of a mile
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: when some five feet above his head a faint streak
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: of pale light shone through a small round hole in
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: the wall. Daylight, whispered Danny. I wonder where that hole
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: goes too. Then he suddenly remembered his adventure of one
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: a m on Sunday morning. Why that must be the
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: dream pipe telephone, he said. This is where the man
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: was who listened at the other end of the pipe
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: while the one in the ditch talked in a funny language.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: Danny must have walked about half a mile when he
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: was brought up short by a flight of stone steps.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: Mounting these, he found himself face to face with a
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: low door made of some hard black wood, studded thickly
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: with iron nails and bands red with rust. There was
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: a massive lock and two heavy bolts. The bolts were
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: not across the door, and Danny stepped forward, eagerly hoping
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: that he would be able to open it. But try
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: as he would, the door baffled all his efforts. Cold
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: and weary and disappointed, he had at last to give
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: up the task. There was nothing for it but to
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: go back. After a long dark walk, he reached the
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: end of the passage once more and hung the lantern
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: up on its hook. Then, bracing himself for the effort,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: he plunged again into the black water. The sun had
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 1: just set in a glory of red and gold when
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: Danny rose from the mill. The air of the summer
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: evening was warm after the icy, tomblike atmosphere of the passage.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: It was an infinite relief to see daylight again, and
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: a comfort to hear the birds singing their good night songs,
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: and to feel there were live things about. Wringing the
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: water from his clothes, he set out for home at
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: a brisk trot. Hello, Danny said his sixer. The next morning,
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: as the boys hurried to school, Where on earth were
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: you last night? You didn't half miss something. All us
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: chaps were paddling down on the beach in front of
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: the blue boar when an artist. Chap came up and
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: started painting an artist, said Danny, all interest at once,
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: for after being a detective, the next thing Danny wanted
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: most in the world was to be an artist, yes,
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: said Cotting, And he wasn't half a decent chap either.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: He let us come as close as we liked and
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: watch him, and he gave us old ends of pencils
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: and crayons and bits of paper. He's staying at the
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: Blue Boar because he wants to draw heaps of pictures
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: round here, and he said we might come and see
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: him again this evening. So after tea, quite a little
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: crowd of cubs collected around the artist, who was as
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: friendly as ever. After a time, most of them drifted off,
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: and Danny was left alone. The stranger, seeing his interest,
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: gave him a nice clean piece of paper and some
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: old paints and let him have a try. A week passed,
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: and every evening he would run down and squat on
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: the ground by the artist, drawing, and while they drew,
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: the artist asked him lots of questions about Dutton and
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: the people and the country round. Danny, being a wolf cub,
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 1: was delighted to answer them all. Promptly and politely, and
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: if he did not know the necessary information, did his
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: best to find it out for his new friend. When
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: he was tired of drawing, he would look at the
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: sketch books the artist kept in his satine. The pictures
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: were mostly of harbors and hills and fields. One day
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: he came on one that puzzled him. What a funny
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: one this is, he said, Ah, said the artist. I'll
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: tell you why that one looks funny. It is because
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: I was sitting right up on the top of a
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: very high church tower when I drew that, and looking
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 1: down all the country was spread round me like a map,
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: and I looked down on the roofs of the houses
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: and the tops of the trees. Oh, said Danny, I see.
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: He was just looking at a funny little sketch he
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 1: had found in an inner pocket of the satchel. It
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: was of Dutton and showed the harbor and the church
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: and the village and the roads all round, and it
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: was very much like the one done from the church tower.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: It puzzled him because Dutton Church had a spire and
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: no one could sit up on that and paint. It's
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: very funny, said Danny. Thoughtfully. What's funny, asked the artist
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: this sketch. You must have been up somewhere high when
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: you drew it, but we have no church tower here.
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: The artist dropped his pencil and turned round quickly on Danny.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, he said, sharply, what sketch? Give
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: it to me, and he snatched it out of the
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: boy's hand, and, folding it, put it in his breast pocket.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Danny looked keenly at the man. Why was he so
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: flurried and excited? His detective instinct smelt a rat at once.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: Where did you sit, sir, when you did that sketch?
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: He asked, with innocent eyes resting on the artist's face.
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: I uh, I don't remember, said the man, But you
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: must have been up high somewhere. No, I wasn't, said
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: the artist shortly, and changed the subject. But Danny was
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: not to be put off so easily. He meant to
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: find out why his friend had suddenly turned snuffy and
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: why he had told a lie, for anyone could see
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: the sketch had been drawn from above. Sitting silently on
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: the ground, Danny thought deeply, Could it have been drawn
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: from the roof of the hall? No, for the hall
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: and its lake and gardens came into the picture. There
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: was only one other high building in Dutton, the ruined
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: tower of the abbey. The man must have done his
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 1: sketch from there. But how had he got up and
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 1: why was he so mysterious about it? Sir, said Danny,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: how did you manage to get up the tower to
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 1: do that sketch? The door is always locked, and the
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: tower is dangerous. The man started at the question and
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: looked closely at Danny, a frown on his face. I
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: don't know what you mean, he said. Run along now,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: and don't go on bothering me. I'm busy. Of course,
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: Danny examined the door of the tower, but as usual,
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: it was locked, and there were no signs that anyone
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: had broken into the abbey ruins. But before long he
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 1: had made a curious discovery about his artist friend. Another
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: friend of Danny's, a fisherman, had promus to take him
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: out on a fishing expedition if he could manage to
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: wake up and get to his cottage by five a m.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: It was terribly early to have to get up, but
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 1: with the help of an alarm clock, Danny managed to
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: wake the whole village seemed fast asleep. As he crept
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: out into the chill, dewy morning, not a soul was about.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: He was trotting along the road at scout's pace, whistling, when,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: to his surprise he suddenly saw the artist walking quickly
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: towards him. Hello, sir, he cried with friendly pleasure, But
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: the artist had started on seeing the cub and was
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 1: not looking over pleased at this early morning encounter. Scanning
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: the man with curious eyes, Danny noticed that his rough
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: tweed suit looked wet. To make sure, he took hold
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: of the artist's arm, as if by friendly impulse. Sure enough,
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: his coat was ringing wet. And peering more closely, Danny
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: saw little scraps of duck weed sticking to it. His
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: thoughts flew at well to the mill pond. But before
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: Danny had time to think much of this discovery, his
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: quick eyes had noted something else. Look sir, he said,
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: you've torn a big piece out of your coat, and
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: one of the buttons too. The artist glanced down, So
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: I have, he said a little uneasily. Then he hurried
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: on and Danny was left standing in the road. He
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: gave up his idea of going fishing, and decided to
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: go on the trail again. Here was a new important clue.
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: The friendly artist, so full of questions and kindness, was
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: one of the stealthy gang. He determined to go to
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: the pool and find out where and how the man
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: had torn such a great piece out of his coat.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: As he passed the drain pipe in the ditch, he
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: paused and looked at it. He was standing on the bank,
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: his hand resting on a telegraph pole, when something made
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: him glance up. Just above his head. A torn scrap
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: of cloth with a button sewn to it was hanging
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: on a bent nail in the post. Reaching up, Danny
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: unhooked it. Yes, it was the artist's button, so he
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: had been climbing a telegraph pole. What on earth? For
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: Danny was more puzzled than ever, But it was certainly
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: a clue, and he logged it in his note book
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: with the other particulars concerning the artist. The pool revealed
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: no more secrets, except that someone had certainly climbed out
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: of it lately and left wet marks on the bank.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: My word, but I won't half keep a sharp lookout
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: on that chap, said Danny to himself, as he walked home,
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: but he had two pieces of news to learn when
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: he reached Dutton. One was that the artist and his
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: portmanteau had departed in a cart for the station, and
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: the other that the newspapers had very serious news in them.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: The quarrel between Germany and the Balkan states that had
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: been attracting attention was spreading to something wider. It will
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: end in a great war, people said. In a few
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 1: days came the news that Germany had broken all treaties
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: and was trampling on little Belgium. England, standing for fair
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: play must come in. On August fourth, England had declared
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: war on Germany. If only we could do something, everybody felt.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: The Dutton Scouts and wolf Cubs fairly ramped with impatience
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: to be called out on war service. Their chance came
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: sooner than they expected, and sooner than he expected came
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: the solution to the great mystery that had puzzled Danny
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: the Detective for so long. End of chapter five.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 4: Chapter six of Danny the Detective. This is a librivax recording.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 4: A librivax recordings or in the public domain. For more
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 4: information or to volunteer, please visit abervox dot Org read
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 4: by Staceum. Danny the Detective by Vera Charlesworth, Barkley Spies.
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 4: Four days after war was declared on August eighth, a
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 4: motorbike dashed into the village and from it jumped the
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 4: district commissioner. Before long, he, the scoutmaster, and three of
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 4: the patrol leaders were shut into the scout headquarters. The
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 4: cubs hung about outside, longing to know what was on
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 4: the Commissioner's news was that the War Office urgently called
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 4: on scouts to guard the trunk cable line from being
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 4: tapped or cut in a certain area, day and night
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: at once until further orders. German spies were suspected of
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 4: tampering with most important telegraph wires. Government secrets were getting
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 4: out wrong messages were coming through. Also, messages were somehow
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 4: getting through to Germany. The Dutton Scouts were to patrol
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 4: six miles of the road. The three patrol leaders dashed
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 4: off on their bikes. In an hour, the troop and
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 4: full kit was patrolling the road and ready to challenge
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 4: any doubtful person spies. The very word thrilled Danny, and
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 4: suddenly his heart stood still and then went on at
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 4: a great rate spies. That was it. His mysterious strangers
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 4: were German spies, and they had some secret way of
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 4: communicating with Germany. The hot afternoon sun beat down on
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 4: the dusty road that wound like a long white ribbon
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 4: between the fields and woods two and two. The scouts
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 4: marched up and down each couple along their allotted distance.
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 4: With keen eyes, they scanned the face of every passer.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 4: By now and then they challenged a person of doubtful appearance. Once.
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 4: The excitement was great when a disreputable looking man utterly
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 4: refused to answer and tried to pass on as if
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 4: he had not heard, the two ravens took him in
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 4: charge and marched him off to the police station. But
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 4: after all he turned out to be a deaf and tramp,
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 4: well known in the neighboring workhouse. You were quite right
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 4: to take him up, said the commissioner when he heard
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 4: of this. At such times we must take no risks.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 4: It was hot work patrolling the roads. The ravens and
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 4: lions took on the day duty, and the otters and
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 4: kangaroos in charge of senior patrol leader Church were told
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 4: off for the still more important night work. The cubs
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 4: looked on with longing eyes. Could they do nothing? Before
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 4: long their turn came. They were entrusted with the distributing
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 4: of rations to the scouts on duty. Two sixes undertook
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 4: the food, and the two others the drink and the
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 4: thirsty scouts were indeed glad of it. But the cub's
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 4: proudest moment came when the order was issued that the scouts,
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 4: one patrol at a time, should knock off duty for
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 4: half an hour for tea, and that cubs should take
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 4: their place and patrol the road and company with the
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 4: scout left on duty one out of each couple. It
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 4: was service for the King. They were guarding England from
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 4: the Germans and helping to keep her secrets from the enemy.
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 4: Each cub's heart swelled with pride. As he marched by
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 4: the side of his scout, he could almost imagine that
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 4: a rifle with a fixed bayonet rested on his shoulder.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 4: Behind every tree he almost saw a German. He simply
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 4: itched to say, halt, who goes there? End of chapter six.
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 3: Chapter seven of Danny the Detective. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 3: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 3: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: by Melissa Griffin. Danny the Detective by Vera Charlesworth Berkley,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 3: Section seven. A white face in the moonlight. And meanwhile,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 3: what of Danny was he sharing in the pride and
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 3: the joy of the pack and its important work. No,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 3: Danny was not feeling very cheerful, for he he was
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 3: conscious that, for the first time since he had been
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 3: a cub, he was failing to do his duty. Why
• 1:20:06
  Speaker 3: because he was giving in to himself, to his own
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 3: pride and ambition, and thinking of his own glory before
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 3: the safety of his country. Here he was knowing a
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 3: large number of important particulars about a dangerous gang of spies.
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 3: He knew their hiding places, their footprints, the faces and
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 3: appearance of several of them. He knew mysterious things about
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 3: them that he did not understand. His country was in
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 3: great peril. The scouts were called out to try and
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 3: catch these very Germans. While he kept his secret to himself.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 3: A voice inside him said, Danny, it's your duty to
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 3: go and report all you know to the police at once.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 3: But Danny frowned and answered, I won't if I do
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 3: that the police and the soldiers and the scouts will
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 3: take all my clues that I have spent months in finding,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 3: and they will catch the spies and have all the
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 3: fun and get all the honor and glory. They are
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 3: my spies. I will catch them myself. And all the
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 3: beastly people who laughed at me and said I was
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 3: telling lies, we'll see I really am a detective, and
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 3: perhaps the King will hear about me. But still, the
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: voice inside him said, a cup does not give in
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 3: to himself. England is in danger. What does it matter
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 3: if you get the glory or not, as long as
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 3: her enemies are caught. But Danny would not listen. He
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 3: felt sure his great chance had come to night. He
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 3: would solve the mystery and catch the spies red handed.
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 3: Once he had found them at it, then he would
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 3: not mind calling the scouts or police to his help.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 3: But he felt very unhappy inside, as people always do
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 3: when they do wrong. With their eyes open and on purpose,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 3: Danny had meant to stay out all night looking for
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 3: the spies, but as luck would have it, his mother
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 3: caught him as he was creeping out at nine o'clock
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: and packed him off to bed. Locking his bedroom door.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 3: He decided at once to get out of the window.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 3: But oh, brother, there was his mother talking over the
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 3: garden gate to missus Jones from next door. He waited
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 3: and waited, but they would.
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 2: Not go away.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 3: Tired out, he decided to lie down on his bed
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 3: for a little while and get out as soon as
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 3: he heard the voices stop, and knew the coast was clear.
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 3: But when you are very sleepy and lie down on
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 3: your bed, but chances are you fall fast asleep. And
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 3: this is exactly what Danny did. The church clock was
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 3: striking twelve when he awoke with a start and sat up.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 3: Why was he lying on his bed in uniform? Then
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 3: he remembered, slack, little beast, he called himself. He had
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 3: slept instead of going out spy hunting. He jumped off
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 3: his bed, feeling about for his cap hark.
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 2: What was that?
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 3: A deep, distant humming? Was it a motor car on
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: the road, No, it seemed to come from above. It
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 3: must be an airplane. Softly, Danny crept to the window. Yes,
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 3: the wearying humming sound certainly came down faintly from high
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 3: high up in the starry purple sky. Perhaps it was
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 3: a German airplane. Danny's eyes were fixed on the part
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 3: of the sky whence the sound seemed to come. Happened
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 3: to be exactly over the tower of the ruined abbey,
• 1:23:02
  Speaker 3: whose black outline stood out distinctly against the stars. Suddenly,
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 3: like a faint flicker of summer lightning, a white glow
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 3: appeared for a moment over the tower, as if a
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 3: bright light had been flashed further down inside, only visible
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 3: from above and between the cracks of the half ruined walls,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 3: Danny saw a gleam shine for a moment and then
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 3: go out. The detective had his suspicions about the tower
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 3: ever since the day he had decided that the art
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 3: spy must have been up there, and yet he had
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 3: not been able to discover anything about it. Now he
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 3: was certain something was wrong. The German spies were there
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 3: up in the tower. They had flashed a light and
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 3: signaled to the airplane. Even as he listened breathless, the
• 1:23:46
  Speaker 3: aeroplane buzzed as if putting on a higher speed, and
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 3: then sped off in a southerly direction. I've got you,
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: hissed Danny between his clinched teeth as he climbed out
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 3: of the window and down the rose covered porch. He
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 3: meant to try and find out something more from their
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 3: ruined abbey, and then make his report to the Scouts
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 3: on the night patrol. He the detective, would lead them
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: to the tower where his prisoners would be caught like
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 3: rats in a trap. He would show them the secret
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 3: passage in the pond. He would explain the drainpipe telephone.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 3: He would identify the prisoners. Then there would be the
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 3: bicycle man, and the other in the motor car, and
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 3: the tramp and the artist. He Danny would be the
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 3: hero of this adventure. With beating heart, he crept down
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 3: the kitchen garden between the gooseberry bushes. Through the head
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 3: she crawled and out to the mossy turf. It was
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 3: soaking wet with dew. The pale moonlight shone down on
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 3: the abbey, giving it a mysterious air and casting very
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 3: black shadows. Suddenly Danny remembered his dream. So it was
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 3: coming true. There was a trader in the abbey ruin,
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 3: and he must prove himself to be the gallant crusader
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 3: of his dream. He gripped the stick he was holding,
• 1:24:54
  Speaker 3: and it seemed to him to be a long, bright sword.
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 3: He glanced down at himself, half expecting to s see
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 3: the red cross of Saint George on his breast, the
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 3: shining armor, But there was only a green jersey and
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 3: a bare brown knees. Yes, I am knight of Saint George.
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 3: All scouts and wolf cubs are, he told himself. Oh
• 1:25:13
  Speaker 3: help me to be brave, he whispered as he stole
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 3: forward into the shadows. And truly he had need of help,
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 3: more need than he knew. Stepping softly into the dark clothstairs,
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 3: Danny held his breath and listened. Then there was no sound.
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 3: Slowly he advanced the door of the tower. Here he
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 3: flashed on his electric light. The door was fast shut.
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 3: Then on the stone floor of the clothstair, something caught
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 3: his eye. Wet footprints, as if someone had walked from
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 3: the dewy grass on to the smooth gray flags. Kneeling
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: on the ground, Danny examined them. They led to the door.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 3: Where did they leave from? Here was a chance of
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 3: discovering how the spies had entered the ruin. Looking about
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 3: him wearily, Danny crept forward into the darkness, flashing on
• 1:25:57
  Speaker 3: his light for a moment now and then to see
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 3: that he was still on the track about twelve yards
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 3: on the footprints suddenly ceased. Glancing around to discover the
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 3: cause of this, Danny saw that there was a large,
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 3: jagged hole in the wall at about the height of
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 3: his shoulder. The man must have dropped through this into
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 3: the closed air in a moment. He had clambered through
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 3: and found himself standing in the moonlight in the part
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 3: of the ruin known as the abbot's garden. Beneath his
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: feet was long, dewy, soaked grass. How could he discover
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 3: from what direction the spy had come? Tracking was impossible.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 3: He was stumped. After all, delay might be causing serious danger.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 3: Had better retrace his steps quickly, get out of the
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 3: abbey and go to make his report that the spies
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 3: were in the tower. Turning around to climb back through
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 3: the hole in the wall, Danny came face to face
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 3: with something that nearly made his hair stand on end.
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 3: Exactly behind him, peering through the hole in the wall
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 3: was an evil face, the two small pale eyes gleaming
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 3: the moonlight, the barrel of a revolver like a round,
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 3: black hollow eye fixed on him, and a deathlike stafe
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 3: hands up, pissed the man. Standing quite still, Danny met
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 3: the small blue eyes so intent upon him, and slowly
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 3: his hands went up. It all felt like a dream.
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 3: It was again the face of the trader, the face
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 3: of the stranger with the bicycle. It seemed hours before
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 3: the man spoke again, and all the time the black,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 3: vacant eye of the revolver seemed to be staring at
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 3: a spot in the middle of Danny's forehead. Stand still
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 3: and speak not one word, whispered the man, and began
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 3: to climb through the hole, keeping the revolver pointed at
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 3: Danny the while. Then, without a word, he took him
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 3: firmly by the collar, tapping the back of his head
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 3: with a pistol. It's loaded, he whispered. If you call
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 3: out or try and run away, I shoot. Now walk
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 3: with me quietly, with the cold barrel against the back
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 3: of his neck. There was nothing for it but to obey.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 3: Cold sweat broke out on Danny's forehead as together the
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 3: strange pair walked silently over the grass in the shadow
• 1:27:52
  Speaker 3: of the ruined walls. Their feet made no sound on
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 3: the long, wet grass as they walked across the Abbot's garden.
• 1:27:58
  Speaker 3: Keeping in the black shadow cast by the half ruined
• 1:28:01
  Speaker 3: walls of the church, Danny seemed almost stunned. He could
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 3: not fully realize the horror of his position. He found
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 3: himself vaguely admiring the delicate shadows cast in the grass
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: as the moonlight poured down through the gothic traceries of
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 3: the windows. In his ear, he heard the quick breathing
• 1:28:17
  Speaker 3: of the spy. The cold barrel the revolver touched his neck.
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 3: The man's fingers gripped the collar of his jersey and
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 3: forced him to walk on. Was it a horrible dream?
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 3: Or was he really alone, defenseless in the power of
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 3: a dangerous enemy. They had stepped quickly across the brilliant
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 3: moonlight space, and stood now in the shadow of the
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 3: Abbot's House, a low square building standing away from the
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 3: rest of the ruin. The arch over the doorway had
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 3: fallen in, blocking it up completely. Ivy grew thick on
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 3: the walls. On a level of Danny's head was the
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 3: seal of a gothic window. Slipping the revolver into his
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 3: coat pocket, the German lifted Danny by the back of
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 3: his belt and swinging him up dropped him through the
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 3: dark aperture of the window. He fell on his hands
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 3: and knees on the stone floor, rough with pieces of
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 3: broken stone. Though bruised and cut, he jumped up quickly.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 3: Was there a chance of escape before that cruel hand
• 1:29:08
  Speaker 3: was on his shoulder again, the revolver threatening a certain death.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 3: He glanced up at the window, but even at the moment,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 3: the gray patch of sky was blocked out by the
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 3: form of a man climbing through. A moment later, the
• 1:29:20
  Speaker 3: spy dropped onto the ground and his groping hands touched
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 3: Danny's face as he crouched trembling in a corner. Grasping
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 3: his wrist in a grip like steel, the spy dragged
• 1:29:29
  Speaker 3: him across the dark room, muttering an oath and German
• 1:29:32
  Speaker 3: as he tripped on a large stone, stopping suddenly he
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 3: seemed to be filling his way. Then down he found
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 3: himself being led down some steps and through a doorway.
• 1:29:41
  Speaker 3: His eyes ached with trying to pierce the darkness. He
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 3: longed to see where he was, but it startled him
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 3: considerably when a bright rail of light shot through the gloom.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 3: The spy had turned on a brilliant electric torch. By
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 3: its light, Danny saw that they were in a small
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 3: vaulted cellar, damp earth beneath their feet. There seemed no
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 3: way out of this narrow place, except up the stairs
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 3: they had just descended. But even as Danny noted this,
• 1:30:05
  Speaker 3: the man turned his light onto the stone wall and
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 3: revealed to view a low, rusty door. Taking a large
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 3: key from his pocket, he inserted this in the lock
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 3: and turned it. With a grating sound. Slowly, the heavy
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 3: door swung inwards, its hinges giving forth and a weird
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 3: groan that brought to Danny's mind all the horrors he
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 3: had ever read of or imagined concerning dungeons and subterranean prisons.
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 3: Gripping his arm, the spy dragged him through the low archway,
• 1:30:31
  Speaker 3: and turning shut the door and locked it. Glancing quickly
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 3: about him, Danny recognized the place at once. It was
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 3: the passage he had discovered leading from the mill pool.
• 1:30:40
  Speaker 3: This iron stead of door was the one that had
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 3: baffled all his efforts when he had tried to open
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 3: it from the inside. Once in the underground passage, demand
• 1:30:48
  Speaker 3: seemed to lose all fear and dropped his cautious manner
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 3: Turning on Danny, he poured forth a torrent of abuse,
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 3: half in German, half in English. Then with a savage kick,
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 3: he flung him onto the ground. After standing for a moment,
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 3: as if considering what to do next, he drew from
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 3: his pocket a piece of stout cord. Cutting this into two,
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 3: he knelt down and tied Danny's feet securely together, Forcing
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 3: the boy's hands behind his back.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 2: He nodded the.
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 3: Cord about his wrist. Then he stood over Danny and
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 3: sardonic grinned on his face. There, he said, with a
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 3: snarling laugh, there, young scout, or what you call yourself,
• 1:31:22
  Speaker 3: no more harm will you be able now to do?
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 3: Turning on his heel, he walked a few paces down
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 3: the passage, and then came back as if a thought
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 3: had struck him. Taking a large silk handkerchief from his pocket,
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 3: he gagged his young prisoner, There, little English pig, he said,
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 3: now you would disturb no one, and with a cruel laugh,
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 3: he walked quickly away. Turning his head, Danny watched the
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 3: retreating figure from where he had lay on the cold
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 3: stone floor. He gazed at the dancing light of the
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 3: torch until it grew fainter and fainter, and suddenly disappeared
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 3: around a corner. Then, in the lonely darkness, a great
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 3: sob rose in his throat, a sob of despair. He
• 1:31:57
  Speaker 3: was alone, quite alone underground. His feet were tied so
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 3: that he could not get up, his hands bounds, he
• 1:32:02
  Speaker 3: could not move. There seemed no possible way of escape.
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 3: Would he be left here to die of cold and starvation,
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 3: or would the spies come back and do something horrible
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 3: to him? The silence seemed to throb and sing in
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 3: his ears, his eyes ached with peering into the darkness
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 3: and lying there, he had realized the sad truth that
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 3: he had brought it all on himself. Why had he
• 1:32:23
  Speaker 3: been such a little fool and tried to catch these
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 3: Germans single handed for the sake of his own glory.
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 3: He had risked the safety of England at a personal pride.
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 3: He had withheld important information, And now here he was lying,
• 1:32:36
  Speaker 3: helpless and useless, while from the tower of the spies
• 1:32:39
  Speaker 3: were signaling to the enemy, and this man was escaping
• 1:32:43
  Speaker 3: or setting out, perhaps to tamper with the cables in
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 3: some mysterious way, and so send England's secrets to the kaiser.
• 1:32:50
  Speaker 3: There was no one now to warn the police. He
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 3: had been given the chance to serve as country. He
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 3: had not taken it. He had given it to himself.
• 1:32:58
  Speaker 3: Lying his face on the cold floor, he gave up
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 3: all hope, and a big hot tear rolled down his cheek.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 3: But there was still a spark of courage in his heart,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 3: a bit of a pluck that always remains in a
• 1:33:08
  Speaker 3: scout when all the spirit of the ordinary boy has gone.
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 3: He was a cub. He would not give in. Oh God,
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 3: he whispered in the damp darkness, give me another chance.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 3: I will not fail this time. I will do my duty.
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 3: I will not give in to myself. Rolling against the wall,
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 3: his face struck on the sharp corner of a projecting stone,
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 3: A brilliant idea came into his head. Wiggling himself round
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 3: as best he could, he managed to get the cord
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 3: that bound his wrist against a sharp stone. Then, scraping
• 1:33:37
  Speaker 3: and sawing, he set to work to cut through the rope.
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 3: It was a long job and painful one. Soon he
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 3: felt warm blood trickling down his sleeves. The pain made
• 1:33:46
  Speaker 3: him feel quite sick. At last, he felt he must
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 3: give up, but Remembering he was a cub, he clenched
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 3: his teeth and determined that no pain or fear should
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 3: break his courage. Suddenly, the cord gave and Danny found
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 3: his hands free. It was the work of a moment
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 3: to untie his feet. Feeling that the battle was already
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 3: half won, he jumped up, his heart full of joy
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 3: and gratitude. God was giving him another chance. He was
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 3: to find a way to escape. Taking his little torch
• 1:34:14
  Speaker 3: from his pocket, he pressed the button, and a rail
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 3: of light pierced the darkness. End of section seven.
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 5: Chapter eight of Danny the Detective. This is the LibriVox recording.
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 5: All libervox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 5: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 5: by Dorian Marcott. Danny the Detective by VERA. Charlesworth Barclay.
• 1:34:45
  Speaker 5: Tapping the cable, the first thing that Danny noticed was
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 5: something that had not been there before when he had
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 5: explored the passage. It was something that had happened since
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 5: the German had gone away with the light. It was
• 1:34:59
  Speaker 5: a great crack in the stone wall, a huge stone,
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 5: the very one he had been pushing and rubbing against
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 5: to cut, his bonds had shifted his position. Here, surely
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 5: was he opening to a secret way out of the passage.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 5: Pushing the stone gently, Danny found that it swung round
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 5: on a pivot, just allowing room for a man to pass.
• 1:35:23
  Speaker 5: Stepping through, he flashed his light about him. He was
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 5: in a great arched vault, hanging on a pillar just
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 5: in front of him, with a lantern containing a candleland
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 5: and a box of matches. Thankfully, Danny took the stand
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 5: from its hook, for already the light was getting faint
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 5: the battery was giving out. Lighting the lantern, he held
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 5: it aloft as his yellow light flickered in the dark
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 5: corners and between the massive pillars, A sight met his
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 5: eyes that sent a thrill of horror and excitement through
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 5: his heart. Standing in the narrow aperture of the secret door,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 5: Danny gazed in fascinated horror at the scene before him.
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 5: A great low hall stretched away into the darkness, so
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 5: that he could not see the end of it. Massive
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 5: pillars supported the vaulted roof, which was not more than
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 5: eight feet high, and amid the dust and the scents
• 1:36:24
  Speaker 5: of old days long gone by, of a dead, forgotten past,
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 5: he had come all unexpectedly on war and its most
• 1:36:34
  Speaker 5: deadly instruments, lurking, hiding, and somehow terribly alive and modern.
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 5: For there, row upon row, shining, perfect ready for use,
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 5: lay a vast store of machine guns. In the yellow
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 5: light of the guttering candle, they seemed to fix a
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 5: hundred black and hollow eyes upon the boy. Like so
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 5: many traders startled in their high place. Belts of ammunition
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 5: lay like piles of coiled snakes. Cases, boxes rose in
• 1:37:07
  Speaker 5: pyramids to the roof. Rifles were stacked against the wall.
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 5: A kind of helpless horror failed Danny. It was all
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 5: so tremendous, so prepared, so very very unexpected. His knees
• 1:37:23
  Speaker 5: knocked together, his heart seemed to thump against his ribs,
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 5: A great lump rose in his throat. And then, as
• 1:37:31
  Speaker 5: he gazed with a kind of numb horror, the truth
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 5: crept into his mind that this great army of death
• 1:37:37
  Speaker 5: dealing iglements was not alive, was in fact weak, useless, powerless,
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 5: That he was alive, That he, in his small self,
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 5: had more power than all these guns, for he had life, will,
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 5: a human brain, and courage. These traitorous slave of Germany
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 5: must cower before him he had found them out, and
• 1:38:05
  Speaker 5: surely he had found them out in time. The detective
• 1:38:09
  Speaker 5: instinct in him tempted him to explore the vault, but
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 5: the voice of duty had become the loudest in Danny's ears.
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 5: At last, curiosity and ambition must have no say. He
• 1:38:22
  Speaker 5: had been trusted with a momentous secret over England hung
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 5: the possibility of a great catastrophe. Here was his duty
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 5: to get out of this place without a single moment's delay,
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 5: to make his report as clearly as possible to those
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 5: who could take action.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: With his life.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 5: He would guard the secret, and if the carrying of
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 5: it the delivering of it cost him his life, he
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 5: would not be afraid to offer it. He had not
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 5: taken his chance when it was easy. Now that it
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 5: was hard, nothing would hold him back. But caution as
• 1:38:59
  Speaker 5: well as courage was necessary. Turning round, he entered the
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 5: passage once more and began to walk quickly and as
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 5: silently as possible in the wake of the German spy.
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 5: A mile of passage lay before him. At the end
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 5: of it, the steps descended, as he knew, into the
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 5: chill waters of the pool. He would have to descend
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 5: these steps Gradually the water would creep up to his knees,
• 1:39:27
  Speaker 5: his waist, his neck, a big breath, a duck four
• 1:39:33
  Speaker 5: five six strong strokes, and his head to be above
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 5: the surface. He would be breathed in the pure air
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 5: of the upper world. He would be free. And yet
• 1:39:44
  Speaker 5: what lay between him and this freedom he knew not
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 5: at all. He dared not try to imagine, But bracing
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 5: up his spirit with the brave determination to forget self
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 5: and put duty first, he pressed on. If his heart quailed,
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 5: it was at the thought of entering the black water.
• 1:40:05
  Speaker 5: What if he met an enemy down there? So intent
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 5: was his mind upon this possible horror that he was
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 5: startled and taken aback at the strange sight and sound
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 5: that reached him simultaneously. As he rounded a sharp bend
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 5: in the passage, buz buz, buz buz buzz broke on
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 5: his ears, and there, some twenty yards away, stood the
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 5: German who had captured him an hour ago. He was
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 5: standing half turned away, wholly intent upon an apparatus fixed
• 1:40:38
  Speaker 5: on the wall. From this the buzzing sound proceeded. Several
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 5: wires rose from it up the wall, disappearing through the
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 5: round hole that Danny had discovered before it as a
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 5: drain pipe by which the spies talked together through the
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 5: speaking tube. Now he realized at once that something far
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 5: worse was on foot than a mere conversation with a
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 5: fellow's spy in a dish. The man was using a
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 5: telegraph apparatus. He was doing that which the police had
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 5: feared might happen, in which the scouts had been called
• 1:41:08
  Speaker 5: out to prevent, namely, tapping the cables, listening here in
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 5: his safe hiding place to the secret communications of England statesmen,
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 5: substituting in their place false messages. A kind of impetuous
• 1:41:22
  Speaker 5: rage filled to Danny. He clenched his fists, and his
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 5: whole body quivered with a desire to throw himself tooth
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 5: and nail upon the spy eavesdropping, sucking in England's secrets.
• 1:41:36
  Speaker 5: But what was he a little boy against this man, armed,
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 5: as he knew, with a revolver. Yes, there lay the
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 5: sinister little weapon on the shelf that held the candle.
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 5: Danny's first impulse, on seeing the enemy had been to
• 1:41:52
  Speaker 5: drop to the ground at the same time extinguishing his candle.
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 5: Now he squatted, hidden by the darkness, his eyes fixed
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 5: in fascinated horror on the scene, following up the wires
• 1:42:07
  Speaker 5: with his eyes to where they disappeared through the pipe.
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 5: He asked himself how they could be connected with the cable. Then,
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 5: like a flash, he remembered the telegraph pole that rose
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 5: out from a mass of nettles, quite close to the drain.
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 5: Before him rose the picture of the artist's spy. On
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 5: that Sunday morning at five a m. Coming along the
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 5: road of the piece torn off his coat, and the
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 5: finding of the piece hooked on the nail in the post.
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 5: A few minutes later. That was the day before war
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 5: was declared. Klu was fitting into clue like the pieces
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 5: of a jigsaw puzzle. The detective's heart beat fast with excitement. Then,
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 5: like a cold hand crushing the hope out of him,
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 5: came the realization that the man with the buzzer stood
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 5: full in his path, preventing him from reaching the end
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 5: of the passage with the steps and the water that
• 1:43:03
  Speaker 5: led to freedom. He was bolked. Never before in his
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 5: life had Danny so long to be a man, to
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 5: be big and strong and a match for this spy.
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 5: Then he would have crept up the passage and springing
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 5: on the man grappled with him, flinging into the ground
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 5: there to leave him bound and help us while he
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 5: made his escape and bore his secret safe with him.
• 1:43:28
  Speaker 5: But what chance would a boy have against this enemy.
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 5: Danny did not lack courage for the attempt, but he
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 5: well knew that it would be a throwing away of
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 5: all possible chance of escape. To sacrifice himself thus would
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 5: do no good whatever. The spy would be free to
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 5: go on with this terrible enterprise. The secret, Danny alone knew,
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 5: would die with him. It would be much wiser to
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 5: retire and seek for some other way of exit from
• 1:43:59
  Speaker 5: the past. Sometimes action, with its element of excitement, with
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 5: the invigorating spirit of sacrifice that accompanies it, is much
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 5: easier than a safer, wiser course. It was hard for
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 5: Danny to turn his back on this dangerous enemy of
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 5: his country, to leave in unmolested at his eavesdropping, and
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 5: to creep back along half a mile of passage. Yet
• 1:44:25
  Speaker 5: to seek for every possible chance of getting out and
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 5: making known the facts to the military was his clear duty.
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 5: He had not yet explored the vault. There might possibly
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 5: be a way of escape through this. Pushing the heavy
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 5: stone of the secret entrance to the vault. Danny crept
• 1:44:43
  Speaker 5: once more into the mysterious place, holding aloft his lantern
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 5: on every hand, guns, rifles, cases of ammunition surrounded him.
• 1:44:53
  Speaker 5: All was so silent and horrible, and yet so sinister
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 5: and alive. Suddenly he started, a gasp of horror, rising
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 5: in his throat. There, in the yellow light of his candle,
• 1:45:07
  Speaker 5: he saw a prostrate figure lying motionless upon what looked
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 5: like a low stone bench. It was closed in a
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 5: long crimson robe. Gold glittered here and there upon it.
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 5: Drawing nearer and struggling with his fear, he saw to
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 5: his relief that it was but an image, a carving
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 5: of some saintly bishop, long dead, his white hands folded
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 5: peacefully upon his breast, his miter on his head. This then,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 5: was the crypt of the abbey church. Danny drew near
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 5: and looked reverently at the carving of the peaceful holy
• 1:45:46
  Speaker 5: old face. Here too lay a prince in blue and
• 1:45:50
  Speaker 5: ermine and a crown. There behind the pillar was the
• 1:45:54
  Speaker 5: effigy of a white robed father. A pile of rifles
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 5: had been propped against his Further on with a little chapel,
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 5: the altar still standing somehow It all comforted Danny, making
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 5: him feel less alone, giving him a sense of unseen protection.
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 5: Filled with a new courage and confidence, he stepped forward,
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 5: how strange in this holy place, to find a store
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 5: of German weapons. Five hundred years it had laid hidden,
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 5: to be discovered at last by the enemy and used
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 5: as a storehouse of munitions of war. Quietly, Danny began
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 5: his search for a way out, and before long he
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 5: was rewarded a wooden door. In the corner of the
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 5: crypt stood ajar. Passing through this, Danny found himself in
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 5: a small room. From it led but once had been
• 1:46:51
  Speaker 5: the staircase up into the church, but this was now
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 5: broken and completely choked with stones and pieces of fallen masonry.
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 5: On the opposite side of the room, the wall was
• 1:47:03
  Speaker 5: cracked and broken. In one place a crevice yonned wide
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 5: enough to let a man creep through into the darkness beyond.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 5: Leaning through this, Danny strained his eyes to try and
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 5: pierce the gloom. There was nothing to see, but against
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 5: his hot face he felt a cool wind blowing. It
• 1:47:25
  Speaker 5: was altogether different from the heavy, suffocating atmosphere of the
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 5: passage encrypt Instead of the moldy smell that had reached
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 5: his nostrils. Danny was conscious of the pungent, salty odor
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 5: that is borne on a sea breeze. It filled his
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 5: heart with hope. Holding aloft his lantern, he climbed the
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 5: opening and stepped forward over the rough and stony floor.
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 5: End of chapter eight, Chapter nine of Danny the Detective.
• 1:48:02
  Speaker 5: This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 5: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 5: visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Dorian Marcott. Danny the
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 5: Detective Bavera Charlesworth Barclay Free. The narrow place Danny had
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 5: clambered into seemed more like a crevice than a passage.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 5: In parts, the rough walls were so close together that
• 1:48:28
  Speaker 5: he could only just pass. Further on, he had to
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 5: bend his head, so low was the rocky roof. In
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 5: another place, a craggy boulder had to be climbed over,
• 1:48:39
  Speaker 5: and a deep crack jumped across and ever the cool
• 1:48:43
  Speaker 5: breeze fanned his face, making his candle flare and gutter.
• 1:48:48
  Speaker 5: As he stopped to listen, A faint sound reached his ears,
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 5: a kind of sigh. As he pressed onwards, the sound
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 5: increased the sea, he whispered, and then through the dense
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 5: blackness ahead a gray patch showed, pricked here and there
• 1:49:08
  Speaker 5: with a faint star. A rush of joy and relief
• 1:49:12
  Speaker 5: filled Danny's heart. Fresh air the upper world again. Hurrying
• 1:49:18
  Speaker 5: over the rough floor, he reached the opening in the
• 1:49:21
  Speaker 5: rocky wall and stepped out onto a ledge, very narrow,
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 5: very perilous. Away Before him stretched a vast, expansive sea,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 5: heaving and shimmering in the pale light of dawn. Taking
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 5: a great breath of the cold, salty air, Danny looked
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 5: about him. Below him, the cliff dropped, smooth and precipitous,
• 1:49:45
  Speaker 5: to where the green water churned and foamed among sharp
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 5: points of rock. The gray wall above his head ran skywards,
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 5: straight and smooth. There was no way up or down,
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 5: and in front of the lonely sea tossed and foamed,
• 1:50:03
  Speaker 5: with never a boat in sight. Seagulls swooped about with
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 5: their sad, sharp cries, their gleaming silver wings, seeming to
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 5: mock the boy prisoner on a ledge that was to
• 1:50:14
  Speaker 5: them but a resting place. Once again, Danny came very
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 5: near to despair. A wild recklessness seized him. He would
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 5: jump down into that churning foam and water and hope
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 5: for the best, hope that he would not strike a rock.
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 5: It was the only thing to do. He could almost
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 5: feel himself falling, falling through the cold air, feel the
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 5: shock of the splash into the foaming sea far below.
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 5: There was something exhilarating about it. He would probably be killed, Oh,
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 5: he would be a relief from the horror of the
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 5: last few hours, and he would be dying for his country.
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 5: With the thought of his country, however, he returned to
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 5: a saner mood. No, that was all rot To hurl
• 1:51:03
  Speaker 5: yourself to useless destruction is not to die for your country.
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 5: He had a great secret to carry and deliver so
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 5: as to save England. He knew that there was only
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 5: about one chance in a thousand that if he jumped
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 5: down he would ever be able to reach the shore
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 5: in safety. It was not for him to take risks.
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 5: His heart sank as he realized the only course left
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 5: to him for to shout for help, would be useless.
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 5: This was a lonely place at best, and there was
• 1:51:35
  Speaker 5: no chance of any one being near at dawn. I
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 5: must go back. He spoke the words aloud and his
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 5: voice sounded weak and shaky. Oh, the horror of going
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 5: back into that nightmare of dark passages and vaults. But
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 5: it was his duty here. There was no chance of
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 5: escape there there might possibly be. It's more horrible to
• 1:52:01
  Speaker 5: go back than to jump down into the sea, he said.
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 5: But I'll do it for England's sake, and to keep
• 1:52:07
  Speaker 5: my promise to do my duty and not give in
• 1:52:10
  Speaker 5: to myself. Clenching his fists tight, he turned his back
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 5: on the sea and faced the darkness. Why had he
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 5: come here if it was all for no purpose? Even
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 5: as he wondered this, his eye fell on something that
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 5: gave him the answer. In a cranny in the wall,
• 1:52:29
  Speaker 5: three objects were stowed, a powerful telescope, a signaling flag,
• 1:52:35
  Speaker 5: and a strong flashlight. So the spies also had discovered
• 1:52:40
  Speaker 5: the sledge. To whom did they mean to signal? Obviously
• 1:52:44
  Speaker 5: to someone out to sea, to a submarine, a stealthy
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 5: scout set from some enemy's squadron, lying out in a
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 5: bank of mist. The picture rose in Danny's mind. Picking
• 1:52:57
  Speaker 5: up the telescope, he scanned the see half, expecting to
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 5: see a little black point a periscope, watching, watching for
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 5: the expected signal, there was nothing in view, but he
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 5: had made an important discovery, namely that such a watching
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 5: scout was expected by the spies, that they had made
• 1:53:20
  Speaker 5: arrangements to signal across the sea, as well as by
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 5: the other means. Danny had discovered. To have learnt this
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 5: important piece of information made his difficult task of getting
• 1:53:31
  Speaker 5: to the cliff worth while. The time so expended had
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 5: not been time lost. Danny knew now why he had
• 1:53:39
  Speaker 5: been led thither. With this added information to report, he
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 5: was more than ever impatient to be out, more full
• 1:53:46
  Speaker 5: of hope and determination. Back along the rocky crack, he
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 5: went back through the crypt, back into the passage for
• 1:53:56
  Speaker 5: the second time. He hurried silently along it. At the
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 5: place where it turned a sharp corner, he paused to
• 1:54:02
  Speaker 5: listen breathlessly. Yes, there it was, buzz, buzz bus buzz.
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 5: Danny put out his lantern. In the darkness, he turned
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 5: the corner and watched the spy at work.
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: The yellow light of the.
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 5: Candle was not sufficient to pierce the shadows and reveal
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 5: him to the enemy. What should he do now? As before,
• 1:54:26
  Speaker 5: he longed to attack the man, But this course would,
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 5: he knew, be worse than useless. The spy was very
• 1:54:34
  Speaker 5: much intent upon his work. Inch by inch, Danny crawled nearer.
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 5: What should he do? Suddenly an inspiration came. The man
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 5: was facing the wall, his back to the passage. His
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 5: ears were filled with the noise of the buzzer, his
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 5: eyes fixed on a notebook he held in his hand.
• 1:54:56
  Speaker 5: His whole attention was engrossed. It might be possible, with
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 5: great care, to slip behind him in the dim light
• 1:55:03
  Speaker 5: and pass by. It would be a desperate attempt, but
• 1:55:07
  Speaker 5: it was the only way. Danny measured the space with
• 1:55:11
  Speaker 5: his eye. His heart beat wildly. Dare he attempted? Of
• 1:55:16
  Speaker 5: course he would dare anything for England, And this was
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 5: not a forlorn hope. It was a chance of escape,
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 5: dependent upon steady nerve, self control, and infinite care. He
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 5: remembered how he had always been the best cub at
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 5: stocking when the cubmaster stood blindfold and the cubs had
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 5: to creep near him. That practice had not been wasted.
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 5: Inch by inch, he crept up. Buzz buzz went the apparatus. Oh,
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 5: if only it would go on buzzing, If only the
• 1:55:52
  Speaker 5: spy would stick to his job for five minutes longer.
• 1:55:56
  Speaker 5: Nearer and nearer, Danny crawled once. He lay flat and
• 1:56:00
  Speaker 5: froze as the spy changed his position and actually glanced
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 5: up the dark passage. Then he resumed his slow progress.
• 1:56:10
  Speaker 5: At last he crouched a yard from the man. The
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 5: buzzer buzzed hard. The spy bent forward, writing in his book.
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 5: Like a mouse. Running silently along the wainscot, Danny slid
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 5: past him, almost brushing the man's legs without pausing or turning,
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 5: Not daring to breathe, he crawled on. At last, hidden
• 1:56:34
  Speaker 5: by the shadows, he paused, and, kneeling up, slowly turned
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 5: his head. The man was still intent on his work.
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 5: The task was accomplished. Danny breathed again, there his infinite
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 5: gratitude in his pounding heart. Rising softly to a standing position,
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 5: he tiptoed on down the passage. He had been forced,
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 5: of course, to leave his lantern behind. He dared not
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 5: use his electric light in case another spy lurked ahead
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 5: in the pitch darkness. He pressed on as quickly as
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 5: he could. Every now and then he paused to listen.
• 1:57:12
  Speaker 5: There was no sound of following steps. He felt pretty
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 5: confident that he would not meet a German at the end.
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 5: Of the passage, for they would not dare try to
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 5: get in or out by daylight, and by now the
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 5: sun must have risen. Before long the scouts on the
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 5: day watch would be coming to relieve those who had
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 5: patrolled the roads a long night through. No, the spies
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 5: would have little chance above ground. They must stay in
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 5: their horrible underground haunts, or up in the tower. They
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 5: were like rats in a trap. Danny nearly laughed aloud
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 5: at the thought, for once he was out of the passage,
• 1:57:50
  Speaker 5: these rats would be in his power. Splash, splash, he
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 5: had stepped, without knowing it, into the water. He paused
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 5: a minute, nerving himself for what was to follow. Then
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 5: the thought that only this lay between him and freedom
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 5: gave him new courage. Waiting in, he was soon wasted deep.
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 5: When the water was up to his neck and he
• 1:58:15
  Speaker 5: had already descended four steps, he took a big breath
• 1:58:19
  Speaker 5: and dived three four, five strong strokes, and he was
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 5: out in the dim green light. At the bottom of
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 5: the pool, a fish swam out of his way. Weeds
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 5: and lily bud swayed about him. He raised his hands
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 5: above his head, kicked with his legs, and rose to
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 5: the surface of the pool. He was free, free, free.
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 5: The early morning sun shone down in golden glory through
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 5: the trees. A thousand birds were singing, scrambling out of
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 5: the water. Then he stood on the bank and looked
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 5: around him at the beautiful world he had scarcely hoped
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 5: to see again. Thank God, he said from the bottom
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 5: of his heart. Then he set briskly out to perform
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 5: the great duty that lay before him. End of chapter nine.
• 1:59:16
  Speaker 6: Chapter ten of Danny the Detective. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 6: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:59:25
  Speaker 6: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Danny
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 6: the Detective by VERA Charlesworth Berkley. In the hands of
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 6: the Scouts for a few minutes, Danny could do nothing
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 6: but stand on the edge of the pool, in the
• 1:59:46
  Speaker 6: glorious sunlight, beneath the great blue sky, and realized that
• 1:59:50
  Speaker 6: he was free. It was like waking up from a
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 6: ghastly nightmare. After shaking himself like a dog and squeezing
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 6: some of the water his clothes, he turned up the
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 6: little path leading to the road. Where should he go?
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 6: To whom should he report? He had such a wonderful
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 6: story to tell, such a network of clues, to unravel
• 2:00:12
  Speaker 6: such important information to report, It was difficult to know
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 6: where to start, and would they ever take him seriously?
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 6: He wondered. Feeling in his pocket, he drew forth a
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 6: flat cigarette tin. It contained his precious note book, for
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 6: with the forethought of a true scout, he had realized
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 6: that at any time a swim in the pool might
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 6: be necessary, and that it was important to keep his
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 6: book dry. It contained his report, carefully written out with
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 6: dates and diagrams up till the night of his capture.
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 6: The events since then were not entered, of course, but
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 6: they were imprinted forever on his brain. Can anyone ever
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 6: forget moments when death seems very near, or when an
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 6: unseen hand seems to protect one marvelously and set one free.
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 6: Glancing at his entries, Danny decided that his little book
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 6: would not be much use in helping to explain the
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 6: immediate dangers that must be dealt with. It was useless
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 6: to try and tell the whole story from the beginning.
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 6: To get the Germans caught was all that mattered. His
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 6: book would be useful as evidence later, so he replaced
• 2:01:21
  Speaker 6: it in his pocket and set out along the road
• 2:01:24
  Speaker 6: in search of the scouts. It was not long before
• 2:01:28
  Speaker 6: he came on two of them, marching briskly along their
• 2:01:31
  Speaker 6: piece of road.
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 2: Hollo.
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 6: They said, what on earth are you doing out at
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 6: this time of the morning, and you're soaking wet and
• 2:01:39
  Speaker 6: in no end of a mess? Your uniforms all torn,
• 2:01:42
  Speaker 6: and what's up with your wrists? They're all bleeding? My word,
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 6: you will get in a row. Can't help that, said Danny.
• 2:01:51
  Speaker 6: There's something jolly important up. Who's the p L in charge?
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 6: I've got to report it at once? Michael Burns just
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 6: come on with us. But Dick is only just going
• 2:02:02
  Speaker 6: off with the night chaps. If you buck up, you'll
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 6: catch him, said the scouts. Thanks, said Danny, and set
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 6: off down the road at the double. Old Mike was
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 6: a good chap and a friend of Danny's, but somehow
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 6: he didn't seem the best chap to whom to report.
• 2:02:18
  Speaker 6: The senior p L was the very person Danny wanted.
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 6: Rounding the corner, he saw a party of scouts ahead,
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 6: walking slowly towards the village. It must be those who
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 6: had been on duty all night, just going back to bed.
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 6: Danny slowed down into a walk again to get his breath,
• 2:02:35
  Speaker 6: but before long he had caught them up. Stepping up
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 6: to Dick's side, he saluted smartly. Hullo, Danny, said, Dick, surprised.
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 6: The other fellows all opened their mouths to make the
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 6: same kind of remarks that the first two scouts had made,
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 6: but Danny spoke at once without waiting for them. Dick,
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 6: he said, I've got something jolly important to report to
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 6: you at once. Can I speak to you alone? We
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 6: mustn't lose a sec right, oh, said Dick Church, and
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 6: Danny noted with relief that he spoke perfectly seriously. Some
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 6: of the scouts began to laugh and make jokes about
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 6: Danny the detective, but Dick rounded on them. Shut up,
• 2:03:14
  Speaker 6: you chaps, he said, can't you see the kids as
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 6: white as a sheet and all over blood, and his
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 6: clothes torn and soaked. He wouldn't get in that state
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 6: for fun? Go on, don't wait for me. He turned
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 6: to Danny and suddenly took his arm, for the boy
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 6: was swaying, his head was turning dizzily. Jim, he called,
• 2:03:34
  Speaker 6: after the retreating scouts, have you got some tea left
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 6: in your Billy Jim came back. Here you are, kid,
• 2:03:41
  Speaker 6: have a drink, said Dick, giving him the cup. Sit down,
• 2:03:45
  Speaker 6: you'll be all right in a minute. The tea bucked
• 2:03:48
  Speaker 6: Danny up no end. His knees stopped knocking together. Thank you,
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 6: he said. Don't know why I felt so funny. I'm
• 2:03:55
  Speaker 6: all right now. Then what is it you have to report,
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 6: said Dick, sitting down on the bank. Well, said Danny. First,
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 6: I think you may want those chaps when you hear,
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 6: he pointed after the scouts, Dick blew his whistle, I say,
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 6: he shouted, as they turned around. Sit down and wait
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 6: for me. I shan't be long. The scouts obeyed, now,
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 6: said Dick, fire away. Danny took a big breath. There's
• 2:04:20
  Speaker 6: a party of German spies, he said, quite near here.
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 6: One is tapping this very cable. Others are watching and
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 6: signaling from the abbey tower. They have a store of
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 6: guns and ammunition. Are you kidding, said Dick, Searching Danny's
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 6: face with keen eyes, the boy shook his head. I'm not,
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 6: he said, on my honor. Have you seen these spies,
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 6: said Dick, quietly, watching the cub intently. Yes, when I've
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 6: been their prisoner all night and have only just escaped.
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 6: He held out his hands. I hurt them, he said,
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 6: getting free. Dick nodded. Where are they hiding, he asked,
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 6: In an underground passage and in the tower. Are they
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 6: there now? Yes? Where's the entrance to the underground passage?
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 6: There are two. One is in the abbey ruins and
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 6: one at the bottom of the mill pond. Where are
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 6: they tapping the cable? About three hundred yards down this road.
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 6: Wires run down the telegraph post. The man has a
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 6: buzzer below in the passage. Dick took his whistle from
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 6: his pocket and blew three short blasts and a long one.
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 6: Two leaders and two seconds jumped up from the seated
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 6: group ahead and came up at the double. Alan said, Dick,
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 6: take your patrol down to the mill. Set three boys
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 6: to watch the pond, and you and the others searched
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 6: the mill and outhouses. Don't leave the pond unguarded for
• 2:05:46
  Speaker 6: an instant. It is being used by spies, Great Scott,
• 2:05:51
  Speaker 6: said Alan. If you pass, Michael said Dick, tell him
• 2:05:55
  Speaker 6: I've sent you back on duty for a special guard. Right,
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 6: said Alan, and doubled off. Marchhant you and your chaps
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 6: must come with me, said Dick. We are on the
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 6: scent of something hot this time. Lead ahead, Danny. The
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 6: kangaroos passed at the double, a grin of content on
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 6: every face. This really was war. The otters fell in
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 6: behind Dick and their leader with mystified expressions. Ten minutes later,
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 6: the party had arrived at Danny's house. You must come
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 6: through my garden, he said. The scouts followed him across
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 6: the cabbage patch. They crept between the gooseberry bushes and
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 6: through the little hole in the hedge. White dew lay
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 6: thick on the grass, and a whole colony of rabbits
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 6: darted up, surprised and scuttled away. Here, said Danny, as
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 6: the party halted by the ruins of the abbot's house.
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 6: Here is the entrance to the secret passage. You have
• 2:06:49
  Speaker 6: to get through the window. Get through, commanded Dick. Following
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 6: their guide, the patrol got through. It was pitch dark.
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 6: Dick switched on his electric torque. Down the steps they crept.
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 6: This is the door to the passage, said Danny. As
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 6: the scouts reached the low archway. How many spies are
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 6: in the passage, asked Dick, one, said Danny. Two of you, chaps,
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 6: Bill and Nobby stay here on guard. Have you got staves? Yes,
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 6: and axes, added Nobby with a ferocious emphasis. If anyone
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 6: tries to open that door from the inside, keep it shut.
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 6: See right, said Bill. With Danny leading the way, the party,
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 6: now minus two, crept out again into the sunlight. This
• 2:07:35
  Speaker 6: is the way they get from the passage to the tower,
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 6: said Danny, as they walked across the open space of
• 2:07:41
  Speaker 6: grass and climbed through the hole in the wall into
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 6: the cloisters. I saw their wet footprints on the flagstones
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 6: leading up to the door of the tower, he added.
• 2:07:50
  Speaker 6: How many are in the tower, said Dick. I don't
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 6: know for certain, replied Danny, but I've seen four belonging
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 6: to the gang myself. One is in the past, and
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 6: there are probably three or more up there. Dick tried
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 6: the door. It was locked. Four of you stand on
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 6: guard outside this door, he said. Two get further out
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 6: in the ruin. One must keep his eyes on the
• 2:08:14
  Speaker 6: top of the tower, and the other just patrol around. Danny,
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 6: come with me. Five minutes later, Dick was pushing his
• 2:08:21
  Speaker 6: motorbike out of its shed. Before long the boys were
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 6: tearing down the road, Danny sitting on the carrier, clinging
• 2:08:28
  Speaker 6: to Dick's belt. Stop me at the telegraph post, won't you?
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 6: He called over his shoulder. Right panted Danny through the wind. Whoa,
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 6: he shouted, Presently, here we are. Dick stopped and jumped off,
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 6: leaning his bike against the bank. There do you see,
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 6: whispered Danny, brushing aside a mass of nettles and revealing
• 2:08:47
  Speaker 6: the old drain pipe. There goes the wire.
• 2:08:50
  Speaker 5: Do you see?
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 6: It runs up the post. They've cut a groove for
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 6: it and tarred over it, so it scarcely shows. The
• 2:08:57
  Speaker 6: German chap is just down there. Put your ear to
• 2:09:00
  Speaker 6: the hole. You may hear the buzzer. Dick laid down
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 6: in the ditch, his ear glued to the pipe. By jove,
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 6: so I can, he whispered excitedly. It's quite clear. Yes, yes.
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 6: He listened intently for some minutes. Then he got up.
• 2:09:15
  Speaker 6: I can't make any sense of it. It's in code.
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 6: He ground his teeth. And to think that beast is
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 6: taking it all down, he whispered. Then a sudden inspiration
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 6: seized him. Will soon put a stop to his eavesdropping.
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 6: He exclaimed. It may give the show away that he's
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 6: found out, but if he tries to escape, our chaps
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 6: will nab him all right. Taking his axe from its case,
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 6: Dick dealt a blow to the post, severing both wires.
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 6: Now I must connect them again up there, he said,
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 6: and proceeded to swarm quickly up the post. Danny watched admiringly.
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 6: Clinging on with his legs, Dick worked with deft fingers.
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 6: He had not got his telegraphist badge for nothing. That's done,
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 6: he said, sly down now for Captain Miles. As they
• 2:10:03
  Speaker 6: flew past the mill. Danny waved his hand to Allan
• 2:10:06
  Speaker 6: and the kangaroos on duty there. Then he began to
• 2:10:09
  Speaker 6: think anxiously of the report he was to make to
• 2:10:12
  Speaker 6: Captain Miles, and of chapter ten.
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 2: Chapter eleven of Danny the Detective. This is a LibriVox recording.
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 2: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 2:10:32
  Speaker 2: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Danny
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 2: the Detective by Vera Charlesworth Barkley Caught at last outside
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 2: Danny's garden gate, an important looking group of people were standing.
• 2:10:49
  Speaker 2: In fact, they looked so important and so interesting that
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 2: most of the inhabitants of the village had turned out
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 2: to stare at them. Two sixes of cubs had been
• 2:10:59
  Speaker 2: posted as a cordon to keep the staring crowd from
• 2:11:02
  Speaker 2: touching the three gray motor cars or otherwise annoying the group.
• 2:11:07
  Speaker 2: This consisted of Captain Miles and a young officer, a
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 2: sergeant and ten hefty privates, a police inspector and three constables,
• 2:11:16
  Speaker 2: a private detective, Dick and Danny. Here he comes, said Dick.
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 2: The scout who had been sent up to the hall
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 2: was returning, accompanied by the pompous butler bearing the great
• 2:11:29
  Speaker 2: iron key that unlocked the gate of the abbey Ruins.
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 2: It would have been rather ignominious for an officer of
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 2: the British Army to have to crawl through cabbages and
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 2: gooseberry bushes and a small hole in a privet hedge,
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 2: or so thought the scouts, though Captain Miles was quite
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 2: prepared to do so. But it would be difficult bringing
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 2: the prisoners out that way, said Danny. The constables grinned
• 2:11:53
  Speaker 2: at the small boy's assurance, and the private detective the
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 2: real one, looked green within. They lead the way. Young
• 2:12:01
  Speaker 2: cub said Captain Myles, as the gate swung open with
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 2: a screech of rusty hinges for a second time that day.
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 2: Danny walked across the grassy space of the Abbot's garden,
• 2:12:12
  Speaker 2: and his heart was light and his ambitious soul satisfied,
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 2: for behind him walked an officer and men with fixed bayonets.
• 2:12:21
  Speaker 2: Two privates relieve the scouts, who still crouched in the
• 2:12:24
  Speaker 2: darkness within the ruin of the abbot's house. They blinked
• 2:12:28
  Speaker 2: like owls as they climbed out into the sunlight again.
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 2: We will deal with the tower first, said Captain Myles.
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 2: Danny led the way to the tower door. To their disappointment,
• 2:12:39
  Speaker 2: the officer ordered Danny and the scouts to retire to
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 2: a safe distance, but from there they watched their hearts
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 2: beating with excitement. Two of the privates, after several efforts,
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 2: succeeded in bursting open the little door. Then, with his
• 2:12:54
  Speaker 2: revolver in his hand, and followed by the sergeant and
• 2:12:57
  Speaker 2: three privates, Captain Myles entered. Several breathless minutes passed, and
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 2: then they reappeared, but not alone, sheepish, sullen, and securely handcuffed.
• 2:13:09
  Speaker 2: Three Germans stepped out between their burly guards. Come on,
• 2:13:14
  Speaker 2: called Captain Myles to the scouts, a grin of satisfaction
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 2: on his cheery face. Danny and scouts obeyed with alacrity.
• 2:13:22
  Speaker 2: Well we've caught Fritz and his pals, all right, said
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 2: Captain Myles, thanks to Danny the detective. The three Germans
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 2: stared at Danny with an expression of such loathing that
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 2: it made cold shivers run down his back. Two sentries
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 2: were posted with fixed bayonets each side of the tower door,
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 2: for the forced by was to be caught before the
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 2: tower was investigated. The party moved over to the abbot's house.
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 2: Captain Myles, the sergeant, and four privates climbed through the
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 2: ruined window and disappeared into the darkness. The group outside
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 2: stood listening breathlessly. They heard the iron door creek as
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 2: it swung back on its rusty hinges, then silence, but
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 2: suddenly a yell rent the air, followed by a great explosion,
• 2:14:08
  Speaker 2: then silence again. The young officer, accompanied by the privates
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 2: and constables, climbed through the window and dashed across the
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 2: dark house into the passage feverishly. The scouts waited without
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 2: the minutes seemed to drag by like ours. What had happened?
• 2:14:25
  Speaker 2: Then a sound fell on their ears. Heavy shuffling steps
• 2:14:29
  Speaker 2: were crossing the rough floor of the house. Here, give
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 2: us a hand, said a voice within. The scouts were ready.
• 2:14:37
  Speaker 2: One by one, the members of the first party were
• 2:14:39
  Speaker 2: passed through the window. They were badly wounded. Several were
• 2:14:44
  Speaker 2: unconscious laying among the grass. The scouts turned a dick
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 2: for instructions. Each received his orders promptly and clearly. One
• 2:14:52
  Speaker 2: sped off for a doctor, another to telephone for an ambulance,
• 2:14:57
  Speaker 2: another to fetch such articles as could be borrowed, to
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 2: render first aid to the wounded men quickly and skillfully
• 2:15:04
  Speaker 2: Turnichuts replied, to rest the flow of blood that already
• 2:15:07
  Speaker 2: dyed the grass red. Every one was pale and horrified.
• 2:15:12
  Speaker 2: What happened was the whisper that passed from one to
• 2:15:15
  Speaker 2: the other. The chap threw a bomb and made off,
• 2:15:21
  Speaker 2: said the only man fit to speak. The young officer
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 2: had returned. Captain Myles has had a narrow shade, he said,
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 2: but he's all right. He's gone with some more men.
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 2: Now let's see to these poor chaps. But he found
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 2: they were all being seen too very well, and he
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 2: learned for the first time what the scout model means.
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 2: Through years of peace, the scouts had been preparing themselves
• 2:15:46
  Speaker 2: with keenness and energy. They had been learning, practicing much
• 2:15:51
  Speaker 2: that seemed outsiders of bud little use. Be prepared was
• 2:15:55
  Speaker 2: the mot of their chief had given them. And stick
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 2: to it was the they had added. The war has
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 2: proved too, after all, was in the right. The kangaroos
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 2: had been told to guard the mill pond. They had
• 2:16:08
  Speaker 2: not been told why it was necessary to keep a
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 2: sharp watch upon it, beyond that it was being used
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 2: by the enemy, But being scouts, they had obeyed the
• 2:16:18
  Speaker 2: order and kept a vigilant lookout. Though it seemed quiet
• 2:16:21
  Speaker 2: and peaceful enough, The two whose turn it was to watch,
• 2:16:25
  Speaker 2: were lying well ambushed their eyes upon the water, when,
• 2:16:28
  Speaker 2: to their immense surprise, a head suddenly rose above the surface.
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 2: Its hair was plastered down with slime and duck weed.
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 2: Its eyes looked about in a terrified manner. Seeing no one,
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 2: the owner of the head swam to the side of
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 2: the pond and quickly cautiously climbered onto the bank. Then
• 2:16:47
  Speaker 2: the two scouts dashed forward. In a minute, they had
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 2: him down his arms pinned to his sides. A long
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 2: coo oi brought up the other kangaroos at the devil,
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 2: and Fritz found himself a help prisoner, leaving the rest
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 2: to keep watch on the pond. The leader of the
• 2:17:04
  Speaker 2: kangaroos marched off as prisoner between two hefty guards. End
• 2:17:08
  Speaker 2: of chapter eleven. Read by Nancy Cochrane Gerkin, Gilbert Arizona,
• 2:17:14
  Speaker 2: July ninth, twenty twenty four. Chapter twelve of Danny the Detective.
• 2:17:25
  Speaker 2: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 2:17:28
  Speaker 2: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 2: visit LibriVox dot org. Danny the Detective by VERA charles
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 2: Worth Barkley. Well done, Danny. Meanwhile, Captain Miles and his
• 2:17:44
  Speaker 2: party searched the passage in vain the spy had vanished.
• 2:17:48
  Speaker 2: Realizing what might have happened, the officer sent back a
• 2:17:52
  Speaker 2: party to go as quickly as possible to the mill,
• 2:17:55
  Speaker 2: whilst he continued to search the vault, and so the
• 2:17:58
  Speaker 2: party bound for the mill that the prisoner and his
• 2:18:01
  Speaker 2: guards on the road, and returning reported this to Captain Myles,
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 2: packing the four Germans in their guards into a motor lorry,
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 2: and putting the young officer in charge. He sent them
• 2:18:12
  Speaker 2: to the town and turned his attention to the necessary investigations.
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 2: Pausing at the door of the tower. Look here, young Wolcob,
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 2: he said, you've done some very smart work in discovering
• 2:18:24
  Speaker 2: all this and proved yourself some detective. You may come
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 2: with me and investigate the tower. That valuable note book
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 2: of yours will then contain the end of the story.
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 2: It will be a treasure worth keeping. And so Denny
• 2:18:38
  Speaker 2: in the Seventh Heaven of Happiness accompanied the officer up
• 2:18:42
  Speaker 2: the winding stairs. At the top of the tower, they
• 2:18:45
  Speaker 2: discovered a wireless apparatus, a cage of carrier pigeons, a
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 2: powerful flashlight, and a large door of provisions. We knew
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 2: there was something bad on, said Captain Myles, but not
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 2: like this. You've done your country good turn. Indeed in
• 2:19:02
  Speaker 2: discovering it. Well done, Danny. That night, the troop in
• 2:19:06
  Speaker 2: the Pack met at troop headquarters. Much ginger beer flowed.
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 2: Then the scoutmaster blew his whistle and, standing on a
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 2: soap box, addressed the assembled company. It was a long speech,
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 2: but everyone listened spell bound, for he told them the
• 2:19:23
  Speaker 2: whole story of Danny's adventures since the first day after
• 2:19:27
  Speaker 2: the paper chase, when he had done the troop and
• 2:19:31
  Speaker 2: pack broke into cheers. Order, Order, shouted the leaders as
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 2: the cubmaster mounted the soap box. Your grasping scout master
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 2: has tried to steal Danny and get him for his troop,
• 2:19:44
  Speaker 2: he said, but Danny has chosen to stay with us.
• 2:19:47
  Speaker 2: I must announce that he has been elected pac leader
• 2:19:51
  Speaker 2: by the unanimous vote of the pack, and we are
• 2:19:54
  Speaker 2: jolly proud of him. Speech speech. Everyone called, and some
• 2:19:59
  Speaker 2: one put down on the soap box. I wish you'd
• 2:20:02
  Speaker 2: I'll chuck it, he said. I don't deserve any praise.
• 2:20:06
  Speaker 2: It was simply ripping fun, just what I had always
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 2: longed for. I have had great luck. That's all. Your
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 2: pack leader will need a cap several sizes larger soon,
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 2: said the scout master to the cubmaster as he opened
• 2:20:20
  Speaker 2: the morning paper the next day. Before long, there was
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 2: a letter of thanks from the government, a medal and
• 2:20:26
  Speaker 2: a check for one hundred pounds. But there was something
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 2: Danny valued more than all the rest. It was just
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 2: a short letter of congratulations, but he took it away
• 2:20:36
  Speaker 2: and read it all by himself in the garden, and
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 2: did not show it to anybody else for quite a
• 2:20:41
  Speaker 2: long time. It was from the chief's scout end of
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 2: chapter twelve, read by Nancy Cochran Gergen Gilbert, Arizona, July twelve,
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 2: two thousand, twenty four. End of Danny the Detective by
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 2: Vera Charlesworth Barclay