Jane is there,
we've got to get her, Bob--get her some way, somehow."

We could plan no further than that. But to return to Government
House, to face Jane's father with the tale of what had happened, and
then become involved in an official attempt to attack with open
hostilities the enemy in Paget--that was unthinkable.

* * * * *

At the foot of Government Hill, with a trumped-up excuse, Don got us
away from our escort. The night was far darker now; a gray-white
mass of clouds had come up to obscure the moon. We cycled through
the outskirts of Hamilton to the harbor road and followed it around
the marshy end of the bay and into Paget. There had been at first
many vehicles coming in from the beach, but when we passed the
intersection and nothing lay ahead of us but the Paget ridge we
found the road deserted.

We had had our handle-bar flash-lights turned on, but now we shut
them off, riding slowly into the darkness. Don presently dismounted.

"Better leave our wheels here."

"Yes."

We laid them on the ground in a little roadside banana patch. We
were no more than a quarter of a mile from the enemy now; the glow
of their green beams standing up into the air showed on the
ridge-top ahead of us.

"We'll take the uproad," Don whispered. "Shall we? And when we get
to the top, follow some path, instead of a road."

"All right," I agreed.

We started on foot up the steep side road which led from the bay
shore to the summit of the ridge. The houses here were all dark and
deserted, their occupants long since having fled to Hamilton. It was
enemy country here now.

We reached the summit and plunged into a cedar grove which had a
footpath through it. The green light-beams seemed very close; we
could see them in a little group standing motionless up into the
darkness of the sky.

"Can't plan," Don whispered. "But we must keep together. Get up as
close as we can and see what conditions are."

And see if Jane were here.... It echoed through my head, and I knew
it was also Don's guiding thought.

* * * * *

Another ten minutes. We were advancing with the utmost caution. The
cedar grove was almost black. Then we came to the end of it. There
was a winding road and two white houses a hundred feet or so apart.
And beyond the houses was a stretch of open field, strangely denuded
of vegetation.

"There they are, Bob!" Don sank to the ground with me beside