the fact that he was a German officer, for if the color of the uniform
was unfamiliar, its cut was not. But a German officer in uniform here!

"Zu befehl, Herr Hauptmann!" said the man of the cottage.

"It's come, Froebel," said the captain. He stretched his arms, as if
glad of the chance. "I've had a fine trip from Aachen! The worst
roads I ever tried to push a motorcycle over! But I'm here--so that's
even! There are more coming. General von Emmich's army is on the
march already. We have even now taken possession of Luxembourg.
To-night the Belgian government finally declined to give us the right
to move our troops through their little toy country! So we must fight
them, too."

"I'm not sorry," said Froebel. Some of the stiffness had gone out of
his manner. "I'll be glad to get a chance to do some fighting instead
of this eternal spying! And who knows? If I am lucky, I may get a
little swifter promotion than I had hoped for."

"Oh, I forgot," said the other. "Congratulations, Froebel! You have
your captaincy, and a staff detail. That's unofficial, of course. But
I've seen the order."

"Good," said Froebel, impassively. "But if you stay with the line,
Poertner, you'll be a colonel before I'm a major. Enough--to business!
I have bad news."

"Bad news? What sort?"

"It's that clumsy fool Ridder! He has been mapping the whole field of
operation here, as you know--details of the forts, and the location of
all the concealed gun mountings and platforms we have put in in case
the Belgians should be foolish enough to try to stop us by force."

"Yes, yes! What of it?"

"Eh? He had those papers--those simply invaluable papers! And he was
alarmed by two Belgian boys in Boy Scout uniform--thought they were
soldiers coming to arrest him! He took to his heels and naturally,
being boys, they followed! He dropped his papers going over a fence!
When he missed them he went back. But he found no trace of them. He
is sure that the two boys got them."

"Donnerwetter! That's a bad business, Froebel! I fear for our friend
Ridder! The intelligence department will not be altogether pleased by
this. But what if the boys have them? Is there a chance, do you
think, that they will understand them?"

"Who knows? Some devil might lead them to take them to a Belgian
officer! However--even so, there is this much of good about it. There
is no time for them to do anything. They can't get at our gun
pla