the roar of an automobile climbing a hill
with the muffler open would seem to suggest he was right. But still
Jimmie remembered once before he had knelt at that same spring, and that
when he raised his eyes he had faced a crouching panther. "Mebbe dad
told me it happened to grandpop," Jimmie would explain, "or I dreamed
it, or, mebbe, I read it in a story book."

The "German spy" mania attacked Round Hill after the visit to the boy
scouts of Clavering Gould, the war correspondent. He was spending the
week end with "Squire" Harry Van Vorst, and as young Van Vorst, besides
being a justice of the peace and a Master of Beagles and President
of the Country Club, was also a local "councilman" for the Round Hill
Scouts, he brought his guest to a camp-fire meeting to talk to them. In
deference to his audience, Gould told them of the boy scouts he had seen
in Belgium and of the part they were playing in the great war. It was
his peroration that made trouble.

"And any day," he assured his audience, "this country may be at war with
Germany; and every one of you boys will be expected to do his bit. You
can begin now. When the Germans land it will be near New Haven, or New
Bedford. They will first capture the munition works at Springfield,
Hartford, and Watervliet so as to make sure of their ammunition, and
then they will start for New York City. They will follow the New Haven
and New York Central railroads, and march straight through this village.
I haven't the least doubt," exclaimed the enthusiastic war prophet,
"that at this moment German spies are as thick in Westchester as
blackberries. They are here to select camp sites and gun positions, to
find out which of these hills enfilade the others and to learn to what
extent their armies can live on the country. They are counting the cows,
the horses, the barns where fodder is stored; and they are marking down
on their maps the wells and streams."

As though at that moment a German spy might be crouching behind the
door, Mr. Gould spoke in a whisper. "Keep your eyes open!" he commanded.
"Watch every stranger. If he acts suspiciously, get word quick to your
sheriff, or to Judge Van Vorst here. Remember the scouts' motto, 'Be
prepared!'"

That night as the scouts walked home, behind each wall and hayrick they
saw spiked helmets.

Young Van Vorst was extremely annoyed.

"Next time you talk to my scouts," he declared, "you'll talk on 'Votes
for Women.' After what you said to-ni