'll sit here," said he, "and ye will not
speak."

He went to the untidy bed, and taking a coarse sacking-sheet he wound it
about the man's mouth. Then he went to the door and waited.

Presently he heard the hum of the car, and saw two twinkling lights
coming from the eastward. Nearer and nearer came the motor-car and
pulled up with a jerk before the hut.

There were two men, a chauffeur and an officer, cloaked and overcoated,
in the tonneau. The officer opened the door of the car and stepped down.

"Franz!" he barked. Tam stepped out into the moonlight.

"Is it ma frien' ye're calling?" he asked softly. "And will ye pit up
yeer hands."

"Who--who--" demanded the officer.

"Dinna make a noise like an owl," said Tam, "or you will frighten the
wee birdies. Get out of that, McClusky." This to the chauffeur.

He marched them inside the hut and searched them. The officer had come
providentially equipped with a pair of handcuffs, which Tam used to
fasten the well-born and the low-born together. Then he made an
examination of the car, and to his joy discovered six cans of petrol,
for in this deserted region where petrol stores are non-existent a
patrol car carries two days' supply.

He brought his three prisoners out, loosened the bonds of the little
man, and after a little persuasion succeeded in inducing his three
unwilling porters to carry the tins across a rough field to where his
plane was standing.

In what persiflage he indulged, what bitter and satirical things he said
of Germans and Germany is not recorded. They stood in abject silence
while he replenished his store of petrol and then--

"Up wi' ye," said he to Hector O'Brien's counterpart.

"For why?" asked the affrighted man.

"Up wi' ye," said Tam sternly; "climb into that seat and fix the belt
around ye, quick--A'm taking ye back to yeer home!"

His pistol-point was very urgent and the little man scrambled up behind
the pilot's seat.

"Now, you, McClusky," said Tam, following him and deftly strapping
himself, "ye'll turn that propeller--pull it down so, d'ye hear me, ye
miserable chauffeur!"

The man obeyed. He pulled over the propeller-blade twice, then jumped
back as with a roar the engine started.

As the airplane began to move, first slowly and then gathering speed
with every second, Tam saw the two men break into a run toward the road
and the waiting motor-car.

Behind him he felt rather than heard slight grunts and groans from his
unha