right," Jimmie replied. "I guess we'd better be going now,
so I'll get my bucket from the place where I dumped its contents into
the ditch and we will go back to camp. I hold no resentment against
you for your harsh treatment of me, especially since you weigh just
about three times as much as I do."

"The bucket will do well enough where it is," came the answer in a low
tone, cold as ice. "Just now you will appear before the Captain. Do
you not know you are under arrest?"

"Under arrest?" puzzled Jimmie. "Who's pinching me?"

"Ach! Ach!" protested the soldier, raising his hands in a gesture of
despair. "What a strange person! What a strange language!"

"You're quite right there," Jimmie said, "and if I had my way we'd be
stranger still. Yes," he added, "I think we'd be still strangers.
That would just about suit me to perfection."

"Come on, now," the German ordered, with a trace of impatience tinging
his phlegmatic manner. "Long enough we have waited."

"I'm willing," said Jimmie, turning upon his heel. "We might as well
get the trouble off our minds. If I'm to be shot for keeps I hope
they'll do it soon and do a good job while they're at it."

Although the boy's manner was light and buoyant enough to deceive even
the experienced and hardened Uhlan who had constituted himself captor,
his heart was heavy, for he well understood the danger of his position.
He could hope for little nursing from the peculiar German minds with
which he had to cope. Appearances certainly were against him, and he
knew that the evidence would be taken only at face value.

Resolved, however, to make the most of a bad bargain, the boy
resolutely forced a smile to his freckled face and bore himself erect
and with apparent fearlessness as the two neared camp.

No time was lost by the soldier who had Jimmie in charge. He went
directly to the spot where Captain von Liebknecht's tent was pitched.
A sentry paced up and down the narrow limits of his beat, carrying his
rifle in the prescribed position. In accordance with regulations, he
was equipped with his full outfit, including a vicious looking sword
bayonet and bandoliers of cartridges that gave forth a silent message
which to Jimmie's troubled mind spelled a most gloomy and forbidding
prospect for the immediate future.

A challenge from the sentry halted the pair until the necessary
questions and answers could be exchanged. Upon being convinced that
Jimmie's conductor h