Bob met Larry’s eyes, lighted with a faint, mocking gleam, and fell silent. Michelle said doubtfully:
“I, too, trust Elizabeth’s friendship for America. But Franz—no, I do not trust him.”
“What in the world can they have to say to each other?” Lucy wondered, thinking it over once more. “Where can she have met him first?”
Larry rose to throw pine-boughs on the fire and remarked, sitting down again, “You’re rather easy, both of you.” He glanced at Lucy and Bob. “All Franz’ and Herr Johann’s plotting and sneaking is forgotten at a word from Elizabeth. I know she’s a good sort and fond of you, but, after all, she’s a Boche. Couldn’t she be influenced by a clever rogue among her fellow-countrymen? There’s not a doubt but that she’s in hand and glove with Franz. Why, Lucy, didn’t we see her meet him by the river? And, more than that, she begged us not to say a word to anyone.”
Lucy shook her head and still spoke confidently. “If she knows Franz and is friends with him it is not to plot against the Allies. I know Elizabeth better than you do, Larry. She’s honest. If she were our enemy she would never have asked Bob to bring her from Berlin.”
“And suppose she wanted to get here for reasons of her own?” Larry muttered under his breath. Aloud he said, “Germany is pretty well down and out. Even those Germans who, like Elizabeth, didn’t favor the war, might be persuaded they must work for her now.”
“Wouldn’t she tell you how she happened to know Franz, Bob?” Lucy asked, almost pleadingly. “I’m sure she will if I ask her.”
“We caught up with her after she left Franz, but I didn’t have much time to question her. And she looked as though she hoped I wouldn’t.”
“How did she behave, Captain Gordon, when she saw you?” asked Michelle. “Did she look frightened?”
“No, she didn’t. Did you think so, Larry?”