The newcomer glanced quickly at his right hand, which Jimmie had indicated. As he brought it up to view, the boys could see a jagged scar running clear across the back. They had seen such a scar before.
With an accusing finger pointing at the disfigurement, Jimmie snapped out in crisp accents that indicated plainly his excitement:
“That’s the same hand that tied and gagged me in the warehouse in Amsterdam, and the same hand that I saw shoved into the window of the frontier hut to get the ‘U-13’ package. Deny it if you can!”
“I am not going to deny anything, you know!” returned the other coolly. “You seem so positive about it there’s little use denying!”
“You bet there’s no use denying anything like that!” declared Jimmie with some heat. “You can’t deny that you tried to sic the German torpedo boat destroyer onto us, either. You can’t deny that you sneaked away from this very submarine when I was painting the name on the bow. You’d better not try to deny that you showed us to the British gunboat a while ago and got them to fire at us. If you start denying anything,” the boy went on, “I’m going to deny that I’m neutral!”
With a laugh the newcomer threw back his head in amused fashion.
“Have your own way about it, you know,” he replied, “but I’m going to tell you one thing. I’m not Mackinder!”