*****
That night, the east-bound passenger was flagged at the little station in the valley, and there boarded it a squad of boy scouts with their leaders, who guarded between them a captured German spy.
"Gordon, how did you manage it?" called a voice, from some distance down the long coach as they entered.
For answer, Mr. Gordon took hold of a little boy who wore his left arm in a sling and, pushing him gently forward, said before that whole car full of curious, excited people:
"We had an American on guard to-night."
*****
The Probate Judge's office in the old courthouse on the square was, the next morning, the scene of a most unusual gathering.
Danny and his mother had been asked by the Scout Master to meet him there at ten o'clock. Mr. Gordon had sent his request in the form of a brief note which explained that the Boy Scout Court of Honor was to be in session that morning, and said that he wished his youngest scout to be present.
Danny's mother was strangely elated over the request, but Danny did not know why. He was so young in the business of scouting that some details of the system had not yet become definitely his.
He ventured one surmise when the note was read—something in connection with the taking of that German spy, of course. Maybe the Whippoorwills were to be commended for delivering the goods. And Danny's mind's eye recalled again the stirring scene—McKenzie and Mr. Gordon marshalling to the station between them the big German whom they had captured and bound, and he and the other scouts trudging along in excited escort. It was a wonderful thing to be a man, Danny thought wistfully—to be big and strong enough to lay a compelling hand on the enemy in our midst and say: