General Pershing leaned forward in the car and gazed at the two lads closely.
“Surely I know you two officers,” he said. “Your faces are very familiar.”
“Yes, sir,” said Hal. “We had the pleasure of going to Berlin for you, sir.”
General Pershing clapped his hands.
“I know you now,” he said. “Colonel, these are the young officers who went to Berlin and brought back the list of German spies in America.”
“That so, sir?” said Colonel Gibson. “Seems to me they are very young to have been entrusted with such a task.”
“Young they are in years,” said the American commander-in-chief, “but they are older than a good many of us in experience, so far as this war is concerned. If my memory serves me right, I believe they put in several years with the French and British before the United States entered the conflict. Am I right?” he asked of Hal.
“Yes, sir.”
“Now, sir,” said General Pershing, “you will make all haste toward my headquarters.”
Hal sent the car forward with a lurch and in a moment they were speeding toward Soissons at a rate of speed close to sixty miles an hour.