111
XIX. Tom is Questioned 119
XX. The Major's Papers 127
XXI. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere 133
XXII. "Uncle Sam" 140
XXIII. Up a Tree 150
XXIV. "To Him That Overcometh" 156
XXV. "What You Have to Do--" 162
XXVI. A Surprise 169
XXVII. Smoke and Fire 175
XXVIII. "Made in Germany" 184
XXIX. "Now You See It, Now You Don't" 194
XXX. He Disappears 205

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PREFACE

It was good advice that Rudyard Kipling gave his "young British soldier"
in regard to the latter's rifle:

"She's human as you are--you treat her as sich
And she'll fight for the young British soldier."

Tommy Atkins' rifle was by no means the first inanimate or dumb thing to
prove human and to deserve human treatment. Animals of all sorts have
been given this quality. Jack London's dog, in _The Call of the Wild_,
has human interest. So has the immortal _Black Beauty_.

But we are not concerned with animals now. Kipling's ocean liner has
human interest--a soul. I need not tell you that a boat is human. Its
every erratic quality of crankiness, its veritable heroism under stress,
its temperament (if you like that word) makes it very human indeed. That
is why a man will often let his boat rot rather than sell it.

This is not true of all inanimate things. It depends. I have never heard
of a steam roller or a poison gas bomb being beloved by anybody. I
should not care to associate with a hand grenade. It is a matter of
taste; I dare say I could learn to love a British tank, but I could
never make a friend and confidante of a balloon. An aeroplane might
prove a good pal--we shall have to see.

Davy Crockett actually made a friend and confidante of his famous gun,
_Betsy_. And _Betsy_ is known in history. It is said that the gun crews
on armed liners have found this human quality in their guns, and many of
these have been given names--_Billy Sunday_, _Teddy Roosevelt_, etc.

I need not tell you that a camp-fire is human and that trees are human.

The pioneers of old, pressing into the dim wilderness, christened their
old flintlocks and talked to them as a man may talk to a man. The
woodsman's axe was "deare