Like Dick, he was hopelessly at sea, for the moment, as to his whereabouts.  And he had, more-over, to reckon with the turns and twists of the tunnel, which there had been no way of following in the utter darkness.  But Jack Young, who, of course, could have found his way anywhere within five miles of them blindfolded, helped him, and they soon found that they were less than half a mile from the place.

“Can you come on with me, Jack?” asked Harry.  He felt that in his rescuer he had found a new friend, and one whom he was going to like very well, indeed, and he wanted his company, if it was possible.

“Yes.  No one knows I am out,” said Jack, frankly.  “The pater’s like the rest of them here —­ he doesn’t take the war seriously yet.  When I said the other day that it might last long enough for me to be old enough to go, he laughed at me.  I really hope it won’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if id did, would you?”

“No, I wouldn’t.  It’s too early to tell anything about it yet, really.  But if the Germans fight the way they always have before, it’s going to be a long war.”

They talked as they went, and, though Harry’s ankle was still painful, the increased speed the bandaging made possible more than made up for the time it had required.  Harry was anxious about Dick, he wanted to rejoin him as soon as possible.  And so it was not long before they came near to the place where the cycles had been cached.

“We’d better go slow.  In case anyone else watched us this afternoon, we don’t want to walk into a trap,” said Harry.  He was more upset than he had cared to admit by the discovery that he and Dick had been spied upon by Jack, excellent though it had been that it was so.  For what Jack had done it was conceivable that someone else, too, might have accomplished.

“All right.  You go ahead,” said Jack.  “I’ll form a rear guard —­ d’ye see?  Then you can’t be surprised.”

“That’s a good idea,” said Harry.  “There, see that big tree, that blasted one over there?  I marked that.  The cache is in a straight line, almost, from that, where the ground dips a little.  There’s a clump of bushes.”

“There’s someone there, too,” said Jack.  “He’s tugging at a cycle, as if he were trying to get ready to start it.”

“That’ll be Dick, then,” said Harry, greatly relieved.  “All right —­ I’ll go ahead!”

He went on then, and soon he, too, saw Dick busy with the motorcycle.

“Won’t he be glad to see me, though?” he thought.  “Poor old Dick!  I’ll bet he’s had a hard time.”

Then he called, softly.  And Dick turned.  But —­ it was not Dick.  It was Ernest Graves!

CHAPTER IX

AN UNEXPECTED BLOW!

For a moment it would have been hard to lay which of them was more completely staggered and amazed.

“What are you doing here?” Harry gasped, finally.