stables here could help us much, Dick," said
Harry. "They'd give everything away, and we probably wouldn't accomplish
anything except to put them on their guard. I vote we wait until dark and
try to find out what we can by ourselves. It's risky but even if they catch
us, I don't think we need to be afraid of their doing anything."

"I'm with you," said Dick. "We'll do whatever you say."

They spent the rest of the afternoon scouting around the neighboring
country on their motorcycles, studying the estate from the roads that
surrounded it. Bray Park, it was called, and it had for centuries belonged
to an old family, which, however, had been glad of the high rent it had
been able to extract from the rich American who had taken the place.

What they saw was that the grounds seemed to be surrounded, near the wall,
by heavy trees, which made it difficult to see much of what was within. But
in one place there was a break, so that, looking across velvety green
lawns, they could see a small part of an old and weatherbeaten grey house.
It appeared to be on a rise, and to stand several stories above the ground,
so that it might well be an ideal place for the establishment of a
heliograph station. But Harry's suspicions were beginning to take a new
turn.

"I believe this is the biggest find we've made yet, Dick," he said. "I
think we'll find that if we discover what is really going on here, we'll be
at the end of our task--or very near it. It's just the place for a
headquarters."

"I believe it is, Harry. And if they've been so particular to keep
everything about it secret, it certainly seems that there must be something
important to hide," suggested Harry, thinking deeply.

"I think I'll write a letter to Colonel Throckmorton, Dick. I'll tell him
about this place, and that we're trying to get in and find out what we can
about it. Then, if anything happens to us, he'll know what we were doing,
and he will have heard about this place, even if they catch us. I'll post
it before we go in."

"That's a splendid idea, Harry. I don't see how you think of everything the
way you do."

"I think it's because my father's always talking about how one ought to
think of all the things that can go wrong. He says that the way he's got
along in business is by never being surprised by having something
unfortunate happen, and by always trying to be ready to make it as trifling
as it can be."

So Harry wrote and posted his letter, taking car