"Otto, open your left hand and let me see what you have in it!" commanded Jimmie, as the other finished speaking.
"Nothing have I in my hand," declared Otto, opening and extending the member palm outward. "See, nothing in there is!"
"Oh, I thought you had the spark plugs from the Eagle," remarked the lad. "You know you took them out. Where did you put them?"
"In my pocket have they gone," answered Otto, simply as if stating the most casual fact. "They are all there safe and sound."
"So I see," acknowledged Jimmie. "That's very obvious. What are you going to do now that you and Fritz have returned?"
"We shall take you back to the barn and put you in the loft once again," declared Otto in the same tone of voice he might have used in commenting on the fact that the sun was shining.
"Oh, you shall, shall you?" almost sneered Jimmie. "All right, but you wouldn't put us back there hungry, would you? We were just about to eat a little lunch. This won't be quite as good as you used to get at Dick Stein's place, but it's eatable at any rate. If you think you could eat a bit, we'll ask you to join us."
"I can not eat now," replied the other. "I must guard you as prisoners. But if you are hungry, we will let you eat."
"Oh, I say," protested Jimmie, "you'll have at least a cup of coffee with us! That isn't sociable to stand and hold a gun at a fellow's head while he's eating. It looks rather rough, too!"
"You are now prisoners," replied Otto, shaking his head.