"It worked, anyway," said Stubbs. "But the general must have been in a particularly good humor. Otherwise such a question might have meant prison, at least, for all of us."
"As it chanced," said Hal, "the general was in a particularly good humor. Chester had just put him there; and by the way, Chester, it's all right to be gallant and all that, but it strikes me you should have used a little more discretion."
"I didn't hurt anything," Chester grumbled. "On the contrary, if I hadn't interfered as I did we wouldn't know what we do now."
"That's true enough," Stubbs admitted. "But I stand with Hal. It's not wise to rush to the aid of every fair damsel in distress, especially when you're masquerading in the uniform of the enemy. It might bring a firing squad, and I have no particular fondness for firing squads."
"All the same," said Chester, "you couldn't stand by and see a boor of a Dutchman pick on a couple of helpless women."
"Careful on that Dutchman stuff, Chester," Stubbs cautioned. "Remember the Hollander has no more use for a German than you have."
"Well, all right," returned Chester sulkily, "but Hal always starts picking on me if I look at a girl."
"It's no time to be looking at girls when you are on business," declared Hal grimly. "You're altogether too susceptible to the charms of the fairer sex, Chester."
"Rats!" said Chester. "You make me tired, both of you."
"Well, we'll pass all that up," said Anthony Stubbs. "The question to consider now is whether we shall take the general's statement as sufficient to brand the Austrian peace rumor as a German plot."