d caught a mess of German soldiers."

"That simply goes to show us, boys," gravely commented Ned, "that we
ought to be extremely careful about our outward appearance. It's so
easy for others to mistake us for what we are not."

"Hands up!" the boys heard a rough voice say. They turned to see a
rifle muzzle showing through a clump of bushes.

CHAPTER XXIII

TABLES TURNED

"What's coming off here?" asked Jimmie, jumping to his feet.

"Halt!" cried the voice from the shrubbery again as Jimmie rose.

"Who's there?" asked the lad, wheeling toward the low undergrowth which
concealed their visitor. "Come out into the open if you dare."

"Ach, yes!" replied the other. "I dare come out. You will all
stand--and in a line, please. Aber you don'dt, I shoot!"

"What's this," asked Ned, "a hold-up or a joke?"

"Nein," the newcomer replied. "Aber you don'dt line up dere you find
oudt it is no joke, not. Beside yourself stand, quick!"

"This is enough to make anybody fairly beside themselves!" Jimmie
declared, unable to repress his tendency toward a joke.

"Come on out, you Dutchman," taunted Jimmie in a moment. "I can see
you crouching there and see your uniform. Come on out!"

As the faces appeared, Jimmie gave a gasp of astonishment.

"Otto! Fritz!" he almost shrieked. "We left you guarding that old
barn up there. How does it come that you are here?"

"My post I deserted," he began, stepping from the bushes, but with his
rifle still cautiously pointed toward the lads. "This country is
familiar to me, for that house was my uncle's. Many times have I in
this brook waded and swam. Today I thought of it when we over the hill
came and when we had put you in the barn I came right here to see the
beautiful brook once more and hear the birds singing in the trees."

"Otto, open your left hand and let me see what you have in it!"
commanded Jimmie, as the other finished speaking.

"Nothing have I in my hand," declared Otto, opening and extending the
member palm outward. "See, nothing in there is!"

"Oh, I thought you had the spark plugs from the Eagle," remarked the
lad. "You know you took them out. Where did you put them?"

"In my pocket have they gone," answered Otto, simply as if stating the
most casual fact. "They are all there safe and sound."

"So I see," acknowledged Jimmie. "That's very obvious. What are you
going to do now that you and Fritz have returned?"

"We shall take you back t