"You bet he's a plucky boy!" replied Jimmie, condescending to administer a friendly slap upon the Uhlan's shoulder. "They don't make 'em any more so! And he's a Boy Scout, too!" he added.
"But there is still another boy under the machine," observed Fritz.
"Oh, he'll get out all right!" was Jimmie's confident answer. "You'll have to go some with your whole army to beat four Boy Scouts!"
"Maybe," admitted Fritz with another smile. "But I see that your friends are heading this way. Perhaps they intend paying you a little visit before we start to Verdun," he added.
"They sure are headed this way," the lad said. "And the fellow underneath is riding that way on purpose. I wonder why?"
"Who can tell why a boy does anything?" was Fritz's comment.
"I can tell you why Boy Scouts do a great many things," declared Jimmie vehemently. "They do the things that are right and square because it is best and because they are living up to the rules of conduct that they are taught. That's why they do those things!"
"And do the Boy Scout rules teach them to be spies?"
"Now you're talking through your hat again!" was the lad's answer. "Can't you ever get it out of your head that we are not interested in your war? We don't want to mix up in your private scraps."
Fritz wagged his head sagely and smiled in a manner that spoke more eloquently than words of his disbelief in Jimmie's protestations.