“I’ve been here a long time!” laughed the other, looking at the lad.
“You’ve made a quick trip, all right!” returned Jimmie.
The others crowded forward with eager, questioning looks. Upon the face of each was to be seen amazement, wonder and perplexity.
“Come aboard, Mackinder,” invited Ned. “We’d like to hear an explanation of the strange goings on hereabouts. Can you help us?”
“First, I’d like to hear your explanations,” stated the newcomer. “But before you start your story, please tell me why you call me Mackinder.”
“Isn’t that your name?” asked Jimmie. “Tell us that!”
“Yes, that’s my name, you know!” replied the stranger, smilingly. “But how did you happen to know it? I’m rather puzzled, you know!”
“Why, you told us yourself on the train running into Amsterdam!” stated Jimmie, with rising indignation. “Then we called you by that name while you were trying to delay our start. Also Captain von Kluck used that name when he referred to you. I guess it’s your name all right!”
“I don’t deny that!” stated the newcomer. “What puzzles me is how you chaps know it so quickly, don’t you know.”
“It don’t make much difference how we know the name so quickly,” went on Jimmie. “We’d know you anywhere we saw you. We’d especially recognize that hand with the scar! That’s a dead giveaway!”