“Pardon, M’sieu,” Thad had started to say, “there must be some terrible mistake about this. We are all American boys, as we can prove without any trouble. Please give us a chance to explain how we happen to come here.”
The colonel frowned at first. Evidently he had it on the tip of his tongue to say gruffly that there was no time to bother with explanations, when at any moment his regiment might be engaged in a life and death struggle with the invading foe, and that all of them must be put in confinement until later on, when they could be placed on trial.
Just then it happened that the old soldier came under the magical influence of Thad’s winning smile. He set his teeth harder together, as though resisting the evident blandishment of that frank, eager, boyish look; but it was no use. Perhaps memories rushed into his mind of some favorite son or grandson at home. He shrugged his square shoulders, nodded his head, and went on to say, in excellent English:
“I will give you a very brief opportunity to explain, as you call it, young m’sieu. Lead them all to my temporary quarters!”
Several minutes later the four boys found themselves confronting the colonel and several of his officers. A number of armed privates stood alongside, where they could seize the boys should occasion arise. The commanding officer looked at Thad, and he was still frowning as though not sure that he should go to all this bother for just a quartette of fairly grown lads in khaki, who could just as well be sent to the rear under guard, to await his pleasure when he had less weighty affairs on his mind.
“Please tell me of what my comrade is accused, M. le Colonel?” asked Thad.
“It is all very simple,” replied the soldier, shortly. “This gentleman, whom you see with me, happens to be a confidential agent of my government. He has declared to me most positively that he certainly saw yonder boy in close conversation with a notorious spy of the German Government, and who has since been apprehended. This, he says, was just two days before war was declared by Germany on France and while Paris was feverish with excitement, for it was on the streets of the capital he tells me this meeting took place. That justifies me in making an arrest.”
Thad looked relieved. Grave as the accusation might be reckoned, he felt sure of being able to clear Giraffe, if only the colonel showed any inclination to be reasonable.
“I do not in the least doubt the intentions of the gentleman,” Thad went on to say; “and, of course, he believes all he states to you; but at the same time he has mistaken some other party for my chum here. In the first place, we were away up on the Rhine when war was declared. We had left the mother of this other chum at a famous sanitarium in Antwerp to be treated, and we were making a trip down the Rhine in a small cruising boat when we heard the thrilling news.”
Then Thad went on in a graphic fashion to narrate how they determined to hasten to the Belgian seaport as fast as they could go; with what perplexing difficulties their passage through that section of Belgium had been attended, and how in the end they had been compelled to turn back so as to go through the friendly Netherlands to Rotterdam in order to get a boat that would take them to the city on the schedule.