It was indeed a plausible story, and the judges were plainly impressed with it. Not a doubt of the lieutenant’s honesty and veracity had entered the mind of a single member of the court-martial.
At length the lieutenant finished and resumed his seat; and the accused girl arose to face her judges, whom, she was now certain, would also be her executioners.
“Do you wish to make a statement?” she was asked.
“I do,” was her reply, as she stood trembling and on the verge of tears, and she continued: “I solemnly swear I am innocent of this grave charge. It is true my father is a German, but that does not prove I am a spy. I accuse that man there,” and she pointed a trembling finger at Lieutenant Taylor, “of conspiring to destroy the British fleet!”
Lieutenant Taylor sprang to his feet angrily.
“Absurd!” he cried, and sat down again.
“Is it not true?” continued the young girl, facing him steadily, “that you are not an Englishman? Is it not true that you are an American?”
“And what of that?” exclaimed the lieutenant. “I am nevertheless an officer in the British navy.”
The girl turned from him and faced her judges again.
“Gentlemen,” she said, “that man came to me two nights ago and declared to me that he was a captain in the German army, and that he was plotting the destruction of the English fleet off Helgoland. He thought that because I am a German, and because I had ignored him, that he could gain my sympathy by disclosing his reason for being with the English. He told me his plans. He, not I, is the traitor!”