“Man!” he exclaimed. “You can’t ride with me. You would break this horse in two.”
The officer turned to the soldier.
“Give your horse to the prisoner,” he commanded, “and you climb up behind the man nearest you.”
The soldier did as commanded, and a moment later Alexis also was in the saddle. Then the little troop got under way again, headed for the German lines.
There was no conversation as the little troop rode along, and at length they were well inside the German trenches. Here, after some delay, the three prisoners were conducted before General von Hindenburg, the Teuton commander in the East, a man of kindly face and courteous bearing, the man whose successes, brief though they were, earned him the name of “The German Napoleon.”
“How comes it,” asked General von Hindenburg of Hal, “that you two American lads are fighting with the Russians? How comes it that two lads born and reared in a civilized country have espoused the cause of the barbarians?”
“In the first place,” answered Hal boldly, “I do not consider the Russians barbarians. In the next place, we joined the Allies when the Germans ravaged Belgium.”
“Ravaged!” exclaimed the German commander with some heat.
“Exactly,” said Hal. “We joined the Belgian army before Liège, and we hold commissions in the Belgian army. We were also attached for a time to the British forces under Sir John French. We bore communications from Sir John French to Grand Duke Nicholas, that is how we happen to be here.”
“And how did you carry these dispatches, may I ask?” inquired General von Hindenburg.