ious good thing!"

"Linemen," said Jack. "But I wonder why they're here? They must have come a
long way. I shouldn't be surprised if they'd ridden on bicycles. And I
never heard of their sending to repair a wire at night before."

"Listen," said Dick. "Perhaps we will find out."

"Well, now that we've found it, we might as well repair it," said the first
lineman, grumblingly. "All comes of someone trying to get a message through
to Bray and making the manager believe it was a life and death matter!"

"Harry must have tried to telephone--that's why they've come," said Jack.
"I was wondering how they found out about the break. You see, as a rule, no
one would try to ring up anyone in Bray after seven o'clock or so. And of
course, they couldn't tell we were trying to ring, with the wire cut like
that."

"Oh, Jack!" said Dick, suddenly. "If they're linemen, I believe they have
an instrument with them. Probably we could call to London from here. Do you
think they will let us do that?"

"That's a good idea. We'll try it, anyway," said Jack. "Come on--it must be
safe enough now. These chaps won't hurt us."

But Jack was premature in thinking that. For no sooner did the two linemen
see them than they rushed for them, much to both lads' surprise.

"You're the ones that cut that wire," said the first, a dark, young fellow.
"I've a mind to give you a good hiding!"

But they both rushed into explanations, and, luckily, the other lineman
recognized Jack.

"It's the vicar's son from Bray, Tom," he said. "Let him alone."

And then, while their attention was distracted, a bullet sang over their
heads. And "Hands oop!" said a guttural voice.

CHAPTER XIII

A TREACHEROUS DEED

Harry Fleming had, of course, given up all hope of catching Graves by a
direct pursuit by the time he accepted the offer of a ride in the motor
truck that was carrying vegetables for the troops in quarters in London.
His only hope now was to get his information to Colonel Throckmorton as
soon as possible. At the first considerable town they reached, where he
found a telegraph office open, he wired to the colonel, using the code
which he had memorized. The price of a couple of glasses of beer had
induced the driver and the soldier to consent to a slight delay of the
truck, and he tried also to ring up Jack Young's house and find out what
had happened to Dick.

When he found that the line was out of order he leaped at once to the same
conclu