The man insisted.
“That will I not!� declared the boy, speaking in English. “Nothing to hurt, all to help!�
“Coward that you are!� the man cried in his guttural language. “You, a boy as at play, could do it without suspicion. Must I risk, not only myself, but the Cause?�
Then he discovered Black Mayo, almost at his elbow, apparently intent on the pigeons—scrawling a line and affixing it to a bird. He released it; it soared, circled, and was gone.
Mr. Smith knew that, at that nearness, Mr. Osborne must have heard his words and understood probably his purpose. With an oath he jerked out a pistol. Albert caught his arm, and before he could free it and take aim, Black Mayo said: “Look out! That pigeon carried my message home: ‘High bridge. Threatened by Smith.’�
For a minute the two men stood silent, face to face.
Smith thought quickly. To shoot down this unarmed man whom he hated—only to be arrested as a murderer—— The game was not worth the candle. He spoke with an angry laugh: “You did startle me. Ach! I was talking nonsense with my nephew. Go, with your little birds! But if�—he scowled, and his evil left eye became a mere glinting spark—“if you make harm where there is none, I will shoot you with my last act.�
Black Mayo considered a moment before he answered: “I will go home and receive my own message. But I will put another where it will be found the minute harm comes to me.�
Mr. Smith laughed and put his pistol into his pocket. “Go, save your skin,� he sneered. Then he said to his nephew: “Ach! That is the man you adore, a coward who dares not tell on me for fear of himself. It is well. The German victory is a matter now of the days.�
Was that indeed true? Every day brought new Allied losses; guns and men and miles; on the north the English were being forced back; in the south the French were being forced back.