“Yes,” said the officer curtly. “But first we’ll search you. Go through them,” he ordered one of his men, and when an automatic pistol and several hand grenades had been taken from each of the prisoners, their hands were allowed to come down. They uttered sighs of relief.
“Now, how did it happen?” went on the officer.
“Ve surrender to suberior force, und dot iss no disgrace,” said the German soldier who had first spoken. “Ven ve saw der little man ve try to capture him. But he turned on us, und by der—vot you call machine—on his back mit total destruction threatened us. As ve did not vant to die—vell, ve surrendered. Dot’s all!”
“Ja!” murmured his two companions.
“Yes, I guess that is all,” said the lieutenant, smiling grimly. “Take ’em to the rear, to the temporary prisoner-cage,” he ordered one of his men. And then, when the Germans, with a last wondering and fearful look at the professor, had gone, the lieutenant, turning to the scientist, asked with a smile:
“What sort of infernal machine have you there, anyhow? Does it generate a new kind of gas?”
The professor laughed and unslung the apparatus 189 from his back, where it was carried by means of straps, like those on a haversack.
“No, it isn’t a gas machine,” he said. “It’s just a little apparatus for taking moving pictures of insects. It’s as harmless as the chocolate sodas my friend Bob likes so well. I got it up to take views of grasshoppers and crickets, and I wanted to get some pictures this morning of those insects showing them as they hopped about normally. Then, later, I intended to set the machine out in the open space, and leave it there when heavy firing was going on. I hoped to get contrasting pictures then, and show the effect, if any, of the sound of big guns on the creatures. But those Germans spoiled my plans.”
“And I fancy you spoiled theirs,” said the lieutenant with a laugh. “So you threatened them with your moving-picture machine, did you?”
“Yes, I couldn’t think of anything else to do when I saw them confronting me. So I yelled that my machine was a new product of the war, and that unless they did exactly as I said I would at once destroy them, even down to their finger nails, by a blast of terrible fire from the machine. Fortunately they understood my very poor German, mixed with English as it was.”