ce of safety."

This Tom readily did, though as yet he could hardly understand just how
their promise could be fulfilled. One they might manage to take aloft
with them, by crowding, but the Caudron was not capable of seating four;
nor would it be safe to carry a couple of inexperienced passengers along
with themselves.

"But we're losing valuable time," he observed. "The sooner we get in
touch with Mrs. Gleason the better. There's a whole lot to be done
before we can say we're on the safe side of the fence."

"Then first of all we'd better climb inside the room, hadn't we?"
suggested Jack.

In answer Tom proceeded to get one leg over the sill, and then pass his
entire body across. Jack quickly followed. In the semi-darkness, for the
moon gave a dim light, they clustered there, and continued to map out
their immediate plans in whispers that could not have been heard a dozen
feet distant.

It appeared that Bessie knew where her mother was confined, though both
doors were fastened on the outside to prevent their having
communication. But the girl had found a way. Night after night she was
accustomed to slipping from her window, when everything was quiet below
and the lights all out, making her way along that narrow coping, or
ledge, and tapping softly at the window of her mother's room.

They would remain together until toward morning, when the girl made it a
practice to return by the same perilous route.

On this particular night it had seemed as though the lights below would
never go out. Carl Potzfeldt, the master spy, expecting important news
and a messenger from the headquarters of the Crown Prince, had been
waiting up until long after midnight in order to fullfil the important
duties entrusted to him.

Jack suggested that he creep along that coping and inform the lady of
the golden chance for escape that had arrived. But as she would hardly
be able to return by the same way, it seemed as though some other scheme
must be considered.

Bessie herself had a brilliant thought bordering on an inspiration.

"Listen, and I will tell you," she said at this juncture. "All the time
I have been here my one thought has been of escape. I dreamed nothing
else save getting my poor mother away from the clutches of that coward
who had hypnotized her in the past, and made her believe he was a good
man as well as her cousin from Alsace-Lorraine. And I know of a way it
can be done."

"Tell us your plan, please," begged Jack