“He says he thinks you will try to escape on the way from Yozgad to Angora, and then he and the rest of the party will be strafed. So they don’t want you with them.”
Hill and I laughed. It was a difficult thing to do on the spur of the moment, but we managed to laugh quite naturally. We pretended to find much amusement in X’s ignorance of the real object of our journey. The Pimple was almost equally amused. Then our conversation turned to other matters.
“I wonder if he was testing us?” Hill said when the Pimple had gone.
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “He dropped the subject too quick. If it had been a trap he would have shown more interest in it. X said it all right, I expect. He is probably trying to frighten the Commandant out of sending us away, to be ‘strafed,’ as he thinks! He’s had that bee in his bonnet ever since the trial.”
“I still think it is a trap,” Hill said. “Even if X had a whole hive in his hat he wouldn’t say a fool thing like that!”
“We’ll be on pretty thin ice if they ask the Spook about it,” I said. “Are we to believe X said it, or not?”
We were not left long in doubt. While we were talking, Matthews, Price, and Doc. O’Farrell came in. They all looked unhappy, and after a few generalities and beating about the bush they “broke the news” to us that the Commandant had been “warned.”
“The Pimple has just told us,” we said.
The three looked their astonishment.
“What’s to happen to you?” Matthews asked, with consternation in his voice.