Even as he let the flashlight wink out, since it was dangerous to use it more than was necessary, he heard a cautious movement within a few feet.  At first he thought it was an animal he had heard, so silent were its movements.  But in a moment a hand touched his own.  He started slightly, but kept quiet.

“Hush —­ I’m a friend,” said a voice, almost at his elbow. “’I thought you were somewhere around here but I couldn’t find you until you flashed your light.  You’re caught in a trap, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Dick.  “Who are you?”

“That’s what I want to know about you, first,” said the other boy —­ for it was another boy, as Harry learned from his voice.  Never had a sound been more welcome in his ears than that voice.  “Tell me who you are and what you two were doing around here.  I saw you this afternoon and tracked you.  I tried to before, but I couldn’t, on account of your motorcycles.  Then I just happened to see you, when you were on foot.  Are you Boy Scouts?”

“Yes,” said Harry.  “Are you?”

“Yes.  That’s why I followed —­ especially when I saw you coming in here.  We’ve got a patrol in the village, but most of the scouts are at work in the fields.”

Rapidly, and in a whisper, Harry explained a little, enough to make this new ally understand.

“You’d better get out, if you know how, and take word,” said Harry.  “I think my chum got away, but it would be better to be sure.  And they’ll be after me soon.”

“If they give us two or three minutes we’ll both get out,” said the newcomer, confidently.  “I know this place with my eyes shut.  I used to play here before the old family moved away.  I’m the vicar’s son, in the village, and I always had the run of the park until these new people came.  And I’ve been in here a few times since then, too.”

“That’s all right,” said Harry.  “But how am I going to get out of this trap?”

“Let me have your flashlight a moment,” said the stranger.

Harry gave it to him, and the other scout bent over his ankle.  Harry saw that he had a long slender piece of wire.  He guessed that he was going to try to pick the lock.  And in a minute or less Harry heard a welcome click that told him his new found friend —­ a friend in need, indeed, he was proving himself to be, had succeeded.  His ankle was free.

He struggled to his feet, and there was a moment of exquisite pain as the blood rushed through his ankle and circulation was restored to his numbed foot.  But he was able to stand, and, although limpingly, to walk.  He had been fortunate, as a matter of fact, in that no bone had been crushed.  That might well have happened with such a trap, or a ligament or tendon might have been wrenched or torn, in which case he would have found it just about impossible to move at all.  As it was, however, he was able to get along, though he suffered considerable pain every time he put his foot to the ground.