“It was a man,” said Bumpus, severely, “if you want to know, and he dodged into the bushes there as quick as a flash when we came around the bend.”
“Oh! he did, eh?” continued Giraffe; “and now mebbe you could tell us what sort of a man it was, Bumpus, white or black, tall or short, soldier or just a plain ordinary citizen. Speak up, Bumpus, we’re waiting.”
“He looked to me about like our friend the Kaiser!” said the fat scout, with a trace of a smile on his rosy face; “and there’s where he dodged into the brush, too!”
Thad stopped the car.
“Nothing more likely than that it was the very man,” he remarked. “I should think he might have gotten this far along the way to the Dutch border by now,” and then raising his voice the patrol leader called: “Hello! Kaiser, don’t you want to buy a dog? Show yourself, Bob; you ought to know your friends!”
At that a lanky figure bobbed up and there was an inarticulate cry, after which the circus fugitive hurried to join them.
“Why, this is a surprise, I must say, and a pleasant one in the bargain,” he declared, fairly bubbling over with delight as he shook first Thad’s hand and then that of each scout in rotation; “I never dreamed I’d see you boys again on this side of the water. What made you change your minds?”
“A stout officer in the uniform of a Uhlan colonel,” laughed Thad. “The fact is we ran smack into a squadron of Uhlans, and they made us promise to cross over to Holland; so, as scouts always keep their solemn word we’re bound that way right now. And there’s room enough for you to crowd in, if you think we can make faster time than afoot.”
The tattooed man did not wait for a second invitation, and easily squeezed in with the two boys in the rear. There was not much room to spare, owing to the fact of Bumpus being so very corpulent; but then Kaiser was as thin as he was long, so that he occupied very little space. Giraffe said he “wedged” himself in, which was about the truth.
He was greatly interested in hearing of the adventure that had befallen Thad and his three chums since they separated from him that morning. For the first time he learned how they had saved that German Taube man from the treetop, afterwards binding up his wound.