Then another idea struck me, and it was undoubtedly this idea that saved the situation. We got the old ship’s bell and hung it up on a rope as near the window as possible, and hammered it with the boat-hook, taking turns of five minutes each.
This created an immense volume of sound, and though, of course, it was more--far more--likely to bring the spy back than anybody else, we had now reached a pitch of despair, and would have even welcomed the spy in a sort of way. Cornwallis from time to time still worried about our duty, but I had long passed that, for it was nine o’clock. So at last I told him to shut up and hit the bell harder.
It was now quite dark, and from time to time heavy drops of rain fell through the window. The sea-going lamp would have been very useful now, for we might have signalled with it; but though there was an oil-lamp in it, we had no matches, and it was therefore useless.
Then, in a lull, when I was handing over the boat-hook to Cornwallis, whose turn it was to hammer the bell, we distinctly heard the stealthy sound of the motor-boat returning, and Cornwallis, mounting my shoulders, and nearly breaking my neck in his excitement, reported a red light below.
"We are now probably done for, Towler. The spy has evidently been to a submarine, and he’s heard the bell, and you can pretty easily guess what submarine Germans will do to us. In fact, our Fate is right bang off."
"Surely they wouldn’t kill two kids like us?"
"Killing kids is their chief sport. They can’t be too young--from babies upward."
So it looked pretty putrid in every way, and it wouldn’t be true, and it wouldn’t be believed, if I said Cornwallis and me weren’t in the funk of our lives.
But the awful moments didn’t last long, for, almost before the padlock was undone, what should we hear but the well known yelp of Brown!
Our first thought was that the crew of a German submarine had also got Brown; but even in our present condition we felt that was too mad. All the same, when he actually appeared, with two other men and the spy, he looked such a ghastly object, and was so white and wild, that it seemed clear that he was in a mess of some kind.
What he said when we both appeared in the lantern light was: