ence office. But,
after all, that's only my personal feeling. You've done your country
an immense service, and that's a much bigger thing still.
Unfortunately, it can never be publicly recognised: this affair must
remain a profound secret; and men, you know, have received medals and
open honour for smaller things than you have done to-day.'

'We don't trouble at all about that, sir,' said Dick quietly. 'We're
not out for what we can get for ourselves: we're boy scouts.'

'I beg your pardon,' said the colonel. 'I beg your pardon. Of course,
you're boy scouts, and that puts you on a different footing at once.
You look at the thing from a real soldier's point of view--all for his
side, and nothing for himself. That's it, isn't it?'

'Theer's Scout Law 2,' growled Chippy; 'it's all theer.'

Ah! Law 2,' said the colonel, who was not, like Chippy, a walking
encyclopaedia on 'Scouting for Boys.' 'I should like very much to hear
how that law runs.'

Chippy recited it, and the colonel listened attentively as the scout
said, 'A Scout is loyal to the King, and to his officers, and to his
country, and to his employers. He must stick to them through thick and
thin against anyone who is their enemy, or who even talks badly of
them.'

'A splendid law,' he said, 'and you boys have obeyed it nobly to-day.
And now I'm going to ask you to be very quiet about the seizure of this
man. You may, if you wish, tell your parents, but bind them over to
strict secrecy. You see, this man belongs to a nation with whom at the
moment our own is on the most friendly terms, and it will never do for
his capture to get abroad. Now, how are you going to get back to
Bardon?'

Dick mentioned the station at which they were all to meet. The colonel
looked at his watch, and shook his head. 'You can't do that now,' he
said; 'but we'll manage it all right. My chauffeur shall run you over
to Bardon direct, and drop you at the station. There you'll meet your
friends when they arrive. My Napier will do that comfortably. But we
must find you something to eat first. Come with me to my quarters.'

Half an hour later the colonel put the two scouts in his big splendid
six-cylinder Napier, and the great car was ready to start. As he shook
hands with them at parting, he wished to tip them a sovereign apiece,
but the boys would not hear of it. Chippy, to whom the money was a
little fortune, was most emphatic.

'Not a bit of it, sir,' he growl