apt to do whenever excited.

"The prize is bigger than you imagine," responded Max, dragging out the
bag and glancing quickly about the room. "Could you follow what was said
well enough to understand why they rounded on Schenk, or Schenkendorf,
as his name seems to be?"

"No, old man, my German isn't nearly equal to the job, especially when
I'm submerged in trunks and desks."

"Well, among the papers we've stuffed into this bag are the plans of
some special siege-guns the Germans seem to set no small store on.
Schenk was just going to wire in making them, by the look of it. We've
upset the whole business, and if he isn't under arrest he's very near
it. But come along; we must get out of this."

The bottom panels of the door were quickly removed and Max and Dale
crawled through, carrying the now doubly precious bag with them. The
manager and the two officers had by this time reached the front entrance
of the building but appeared to have halted there and to be talking
earnestly together. Hastily removing their boots, Max and Dale crept
quietly down the stairs to the door of the drawing-office. They paused
and listened before opening it, and heard the party at the entrance
descend the steps, still talking together, and the scrunch of the gravel
under their feet as they strode away. Then, almost immediately, they
heard a harsh command and the rapid tramp of feet as the guard turned
out at the entrance to the works.

Max whipped open the door of the drawing-office and they entered and
closed it behind them. The window through which they had come an hour or
two before gaped before them, and they eagerly moved to it and peered
out. All seemed clear for the moment, but they could hear men in motion
somewhere, and in the passage they had just left they were startled to
hear the voice of the manager talking in a peremptory tone to someone,
one of the guard they imagined, and the tramp of their feet as they
passed the door and began ascending the stairs.

"Quick; jump out," whispered Max, and he assisted his friend to drop as
noiselessly as possible to the ground. Then he handed down the bag and
lowered himself down after it. In silence and in great trepidation they
sped towards the outer walls at the point at which they had entered.
Without mishap they helped one another up and over, and fled at the top
of their speed towards their lodging. At any moment they feared a
general alarm might be sounded, and the truest caution