mber that they refused to take our word for anything. They
simply went ahead and acted on the opinion they received from first
sight. Our statements were not given any weight at all."

"Perhaps the officers were a trifle over-zealous, we will admit,"
continued the Kaiser, "but you have been well treated, have you not?"

"Fairly well," replied Jimmie. "I may say," he added, "that we have
been very well treated considering all things. But I'd like to have
that little package that was taken from me."

The Kaiser turned an inquiring glance toward von Liebknecht.

"It is this little package to which I referred briefly in my
statement," explained von Liebknecht, producing the packet that had
been rescued from the Cossack uniform by Jimmie when Otto had attempted
to put the discarded clothes in the fire.

"And what do you say is in this packet?" inquired the Kaiser,
addressing Jimmie, as he readied out a hand to take the parcel from von
Liebknecht. "Is it your own property?"

"It was given to me by a man who was trying to make money selling
munitions to the Russians," replied the lad. "He was a villain if ever
there was one. He stole a lot of money in the United States and came
over on a ship to Riga. He kidnapped me and had me enlisted in a
Russian regiment of Cossacks, where he also found himself enlisted
against his will. When an attack was made on a German troop train
before the assault on Peremysl he was badly wounded."

"Ah, then you both were there?" asked the Kaiser interestedly.

"Yes," went on the boy. "When he found he was so badly wounded he gave
me this packet and asked me to go back to New York, where he had put
papers and other things in a safe deposit vault. He wanted me to try
to straighten out some of his wrongdoings."

"Then this does not refer in any way to information that might be of
value to our enemy?" questioned the Kaiser, looking keenly at the lad.

"Not in the least!" declared Jimmie, returning the other's gaze frankly
and fearlessly. "You are a good enough judge of human nature to
determine whether I'm telling you the truth or not."

"I rather think you are telling the truth so far as you know it," was
the answer, accompanied by a smile in recognition of the tribute the
lad had paid. "But," he added, "is it not possible that the man
himself may have been telling things that were not so in the hope that
the information would fall into the hands of the Russians?"

"I don't b