Step by step he explained how they found that Mrs. Hawtree had hurriedly left the city of Antwerp in the company of the doctors and nurses connected with the sanitarium and started overland to Paris, where a branch hospital existed; and also how they had followed.
Somehow Thad seemed to tell all this in such an interesting way that he had the colonel spell-bound. Minutes were passing; the boom of bursting shells could be heard all around them; the Germans were undoubtedly coming closer and closer all the time, yet he stood there and let the boy proceed to the very end, where he told of the chase along the road, the destruction of the bridge, the coming of the Uhlans, the blowing up of the ammunition wagon by the driver, and last, but not least, how the field battery shelled the cavalrymen and saved the boys from a premature end.
It certainly made a thrilling story, and small blame to the colonel for allowing himself to stand there and drink it in. A Frenchman loves to hear of daring, because he himself is by nature adventurous. When Thad, in addition, showed him various letters they had received, which all went to prove his declaration to the effect that Giraffe would sooner cut off his right hand than do anything to betray the interests of France, evidently the colonel had made his mind up.
Turning to the secret agent, he conversed with him in low tones for a brief time. Then he once more faced Thad and held out his hand.
“The gentleman is himself now convinced that he must have made a mistake, though he still says it was a boy resembling your friend in a remarkable degree whom he saw talking with the seized German spy. Let us then forget it. What can I do to show you how French soldiers appreciate their American cousins across the sea and also to make amends to you in a measure for having put you to this trouble?”
Bumpus thereupon gave Thad an eager thump with his elbow, and managed to say, half aloud:
“Don’t forget it’s nearly dinner-time, Thad, and we haven’t had hardly a bite since last night in the bargain!”
“M’sieu le Colonel,” said Thad, paying no attention to this imperative demand from the rear, “all we can hope for is that if we are sent back at least allow us to see something of the battle from some friendly hilltop. And, believe me, that all the while we watch from a distance we shall be hoping that victory comes to those who are defending their capital against the invaders. Our sympathies are with the lilies of France!”
That quite completed the conquest of the doughty colonel. He gave Thad’s hand an extra squeeze and hastened to say:
“I shall simply insist that you retire from the firing-line. After that I wash my hands of you, young messieurs from our sister republic. You shall see how my brave enfants meet the rush of the army that has broken its sacred treaties and swept across a neutral country thinking to catch us asleep. Ah! and you will never forget what glorious deeds the defenders of Paris expect to accomplish this day, and the next, and the next, until the invader has been chased back to his strongholds beyond the Rhine. I am from Alsace, and our hour has struck for revenge. Yes, and I shall give orders also that you dine with my men in the field. That is all. Adieu!”