haven't done anything wrong!" howled Nappy. "Please don't point
that gun at me!"

"I don't understand this," said Slugger nervously. "There must be some
mistake."

"The only mistake is the one you made, young man," declared one of the
soldiers briefly.

In the meantime there was an interesting scene going on in the main
room of the cabin. The German in charge of the place and the fellow
who had come in on the motorcycle were talking earnestly to Slogwell
Brown and Nelson Martell. The men from New York had a number of
documents on a table, and were trying to prove that the Germans owed
them over eleven thousand dollars, while the Germans were equally
emphatic in declaring that the amount due was less than ten thousand
dollars.

"You've got to pay the full amount," growled Mr. Brown. "I won't take
off a cent!"

"That's the talk!" broke in Mr. Martell. "And you ought not to kick,
either. We have taken terrible chances in having these things
supplied to you."

"Yes, and don't forget that you would never have had this secret base
on Barlight Bay if it hadn't been for me," put in Slogwell Brown.

"We're not forgetting anything," said one of the Germans. "And if you
insist upon it that we owe you that amount, we will pay it."

The man who had come in on the motorcycle had opened his valise, and
now he took out several packages of banknotes. Evidently Brown and
Martell were to be paid in cash. Probably they had refused to accept
anything in the way of a check.

The money had just been paid over and some receipts given when the
leader of the Secret Service men gave the order, and the cabin was
immediately surrounded.

"Hands up in there, everybody!" was the stern command.

If Slugger and Nappy had been surprised, their fathers were even more
so, while the two Germans were taken completely off their guard. Each
of the latter was armed, but one look at the United States officers
with their pistols and the soldiers with their rifles was too much for
them, and with grunts of disgust they threw their hands into the air.

"Who--what--I--er--I don't understand this," stammered Slogwell Brown,
turning pale.

"There--there--must be--er--some mistake," faltered Nelson Martell,
and then with shaking knees he sank slowly back on a bench.

A brief war of words followed, Brown and Martell doing everything they
could think of to explain the situation so that they might not be
placed under arrest. But their guilt was so bare