"But Frank," interrupted Pudge, "perhaps it won't be necessary for you to skip out and leave."
"Tell me what you mean, Pudge?" Frank asked him.
"Use the telephone, and talk with the Major. Yes, it was knocked out of commission by those smarties, but while you were away this morning, having nothing else to do, I amused myself hunting for the break in the wire, which I found and easily spliced."
"Does it work all right now, Pudge?" questioned Billy, grinning at the thought of the other doing all that climbing, because action of this sort was hardly the forte of their stout chum.
"As good as ever, for I tested it," he was told.
Frank, however, shook his head in the negative.
"I think I had better go personally and see the Major," he told them.
"How's that, Frank?" remarked Billy quickly. "Do you suspect that in some way those men may have tapped our wire?"
"Well, I wouldn't put it past them," came the reply. "Spies have to be up to all sorts of clever dodges, and that would be just in line with their work."
Billy gave a whistle to indicate the state of his mixed feelings.
"Gee whillikins, to think that we haven't whispered a single sentence along that wire but what some outsider was drinking it in! Frank, I guess you're right, and that in a particular case like this it's best to deal at first hand with Major Nixon."
"I'm sure of that, boys," the leader told them in his quiet, convincing way.
"And I suppose that you want us to stick by the hangar while you're away; is that the game, Frank?" Pudge wanted to know.
"Yes, and be mighty careful how you take your eyes off the prisoner for even a minute," Frank directed. "I'm going to look all around the place before I leave, so as to make sure there isn't another spy hidden away in some corner. As soon as I step out, fasten the door and keep it so. I may call you up over the wire, and if I do you'll know my voice. Besides, to make absolutely sure I'll give you our old signal. That's about all."
He bustled around for several minutes, and thoroughly explored the whole interior of the hangar. When Frank had finished his task he was absolutely sure that no intruder larger than a mouse could have escaped his search.
Once outside he made for the gate, where he found a couple of rosy-cheeked British khaki-clad Tommies on guard, with whom he exchanged pleasant greetings.