! But I's gone an' done whut I said I'd do!"

"What's that, Rad? Come on, tell us! Don't keep us in suspense."

"I's done some deteckertiff wuk, lest laik I said I'd do, an' I's
cotched him! By golly, Massa Tom! I's cotched him black-handed, as it
says!"

"Caught him? Whom have you caught, Rad?" cried Tom. "Do you suppose he
means he's caught the man you saw up the tree, Ned? The man you think
is a German spy?"

"It couldn't be. I left him only a little while ago hunting for his
telescope."

"Then whom have you caught, Rad?" cried Tom. "Come on, I'll give you
credit for it. Tell us!"

"I's cotched dat Dutch Sauerkrauter, dat's who I's cotched, Massa Tom!
By golly, I's cotched him!"

"But who, Rad? Who is he?"

"I don't know his name, Massa Tom, but he's a Sauerkrauter, all right.
Dat's whut he eats for lunch, an' dat's why I calls him dat. I's
cotched him, an' he's locked up in de stable wif mah mule Boomerang.
An' ef he tries t' git out Boomerang'll jest natchully kick him into
little pieces--dat's whut Boomerang will do, by golly!"

Chapter IX

A Night Test

"Come on, Ned," said Tom, after a moment or two of silent contemplation
of Eradicate. "I don't know what this cheerful camouflager of mine is
talking about, but we'll have to go to see, I suppose. You say you have
shut some one up in Boomerang's stable, Rad?"

"Yes, sah, Massa Tom, dat's whut I's gone an done."

"And you say he's a German?"

"I don't know as to dat, Massa Tom, but he suah done eat sauerkraut
'mostest ebery meal. Dat's whut I call him--a Sauerkrauter! An' he suah
was spyin'."

"How do you know that, Rad?"

"'Cause he done went from his own shop on annuder man's ticket into de
secret shop, dat's whut he went an' done!"

"Do you mean to tell me, Rad," went on Tom, "that one of the workmen
from another shop entered Number Thirteen on the pass issued in the
name of one of the men regularly employed in my new shop?"

"Dat's whut he done, Massa Tom."

"How do you know?"

"'Cause I detected him doin' it. Yo'-all done made me a deteckertiff,
an' I detected."

"Go on, Rad."

"Well, sah, Massa Tom, I seen dish yeah Dutchman git a ticket-pass
offen one ob de reg'lar men. Den he went in de unlucky place an' stayed
fo' a long time. When he come out I jest natchully nabbed him, dat's
whut I done, an' I took him to Boomerang's stable."

"How'd you get him to go with you?" asked Ned, for the old colored man
was feeble, and