how you!"

"You say 'We,'" responded the soldier. "It would appear that you
expect your friends to join you presently for some enterprise."

"Well, it looks as if they expect to come pretty close to this place,
whether I expect them to or not," observed Jimmie, turning his eyes
toward the approaching plane and shading his eyes with a hand.

"We shall return to the stables," decided Fritz. "Come."

A movement of the Uhlan attracted Jimmie's attention. The lad saw a
glint of steel and wheeled to observe the erstwhile peaceable man
turned into an entirely different sort of individual, with his short
saber held in his hand in a threatening manner.

For a moment the boy contemplated flight. An instant's reflection,
however, showed him the folly of such an attempt. He knew that,
although he was fleet of foot and believed that he could easily outrun
the other, he would be no match for a bullet if one should be sent
after him. Besides, he saw that his friends could not possibly reach
him with the plane if he should leave the elevated position on which he
stood.

Concluding that his only hope of escape lay in patient waiting, the lad
turned reluctantly from his position and prepared to accompany Fritz as
he had been directed. He felt that he was giving up the only certain
means of getting away from the regiment he now thoroughly hated.

"Gee!" he exclaimed petulantly, stepping forward a pace. "It seems as
if the whole bloomin' German army was determined that I should get
mixed up in the war! First it's von Liebknecht and now it's you and
Otto keeping after me, and I never did a thing to any of you!"

"No?" queried Fritz. "But you do not say what you would like to do or
what you would do if you had the opportunity."

"All right; you win the argument!" said Jimmie in a hopeless tone.

"Then we go now to care for the horses and prepare for the trip to
Verdun," decided Fritz, with a twist of the keen blade he held.

Entertaining visions of what might happen if Fritz became too careless
in his attentions with the saber, Jimmie cast a last look over his
shoulder at the rapidly approaching airship. He again took a
hesitating step toward the German, as if to accompany him.

Fritz, believing that Jimmie was preparing to follow without further
parley, began replacing his saber in its scabbard. For an instant his
attention was concentrated on the task in hand.

That instant was enough for the alert boy. With a su