that you send in the prisoner and witnesses to him at once.'

"Very well," said the Captain. "Here they are and I hand them over to
you together with Private Watkins, who arrested them."

They were then marched into the next room where they found a big
white-haired man sitting at a desk busily engaged. The orderly stopped
his charges at a respectful distance. The Commandant kept on writing for
a few minutes but suddenly he turned around and gave a sharp and
piercing look at the young Americans.

"Americans," said he, in rather a relieved tone. "Captain Abercrombie,
let me know the gist of this affair."

"Major-General Norris, I shall have to ask Private Watson to give you
the details at first hand, for as yet I know nothing about the matter,
except that one of these young men is accused of being a spy."

"Private Watson, give me the details of the matter."

"Your Excellency," said Private Watson, "I know nothing more than that
as I stood at my post on the Ramparts, near Gun No. 145, I saw this
young man (pointing to Bill) suddenly produce one of those very small
German cameras and try to take a photo of the gun and its location."

"Young man, is this so?" asked the Commandant in a serious voice.

"It is so, except that I did not intend to do any harm; the gun seemed
very picturesque to me and I wanted a photo of it," said Bill.

"Were you not told that you should leave cameras of all kinds with the
gateman?" asked the Commandant.

"No," said Bill. "We came in a carriage and nothing was said to us."

"Then, you were given a card and asked to read it, were you not?"
continued the Commandant.

"Yes," said Bill, "but to tell the truth, I didn't read it carefully."

"Where is that card?" was the next question.

Bill fumbled in his pocket and in a moment held it out.

"Private Watson, kindly show the prisoner the order relating to
cameras," said the Commandant.

Private Watson then came forward and, taking the card, he showed Bill
the paragraph stating that all cameras must be left at the gate.

"I am very sorry, sir, that I was so careless," said Bill. "I did not
think that anything I could do would get me into trouble here and I
didn't think it necessary to read the card. There were so many things
to see that I just put it in my pocket."

"That is not much of an excuse," said the Commandant in a stern voice.
"You must remember that you are here in a military fortress and that we
can't be too strict in s