"I did have," was the answer, "but the Germans took it to-day."
"Are they near here?"
"You can see the light of their fires."
"The river is guarded, I suppose?"
"Every foot of it."
"Yet we must cross."
"Swim, then," responded the peasant, laconically.
"Swim, carrying this?" retorted the hunchback, holding up the iron cage, and showing the "captive Kaiser," while, in a few words, he described the omen of victory.
The peasant nodded his head in evident appreciation of the symbol.
"The Germans must not be allowed to get it," he said, obviously more interested in the fate of the bird than of his friend. "But there are three men guarding the boat."