"All right," continued the boy, "you don't have to believe it if you don't want to, but if you live long enough we'll show you!"
"You say 'We,'" responded the soldier. "It would appear that you expect your friends to join you presently for some enterprise."
"Well, it looks as if they expect to come pretty close to this place, whether I expect them to or not," observed Jimmie, turning his eyes toward the approaching plane and shading his eyes with a hand.
"We shall return to the stables," decided Fritz. "Come."
A movement of the Uhlan attracted Jimmie's attention. The lad saw a glint of steel and wheeled to observe the erstwhile peaceable man turned into an entirely different sort of individual, with his short saber held in his hand in a threatening manner.
For a moment the boy contemplated flight. An instant's reflection, however, showed him the folly of such an attempt. He knew that, although he was fleet of foot and believed that he could easily outrun the other, he would be no match for a bullet if one should be sent after him. Besides, he saw that his friends could not possibly reach him with the plane if he should leave the elevated position on which he stood.
Concluding that his only hope of escape lay in patient waiting, the lad turned reluctantly from his position and prepared to accompany Fritz as he had been directed. He felt that he was giving up the only certain means of getting away from the regiment he now thoroughly hated.
"Gee!" he exclaimed petulantly, stepping forward a pace. "It seems as if the whole bloomin' German army was determined that I should get mixed up in the war! First it's von Liebknecht and now it's you and Otto keeping after me, and I never did a thing to any of you!"
"No?" queried Fritz. "But you do not say what you would like to do or what you would do if you had the opportunity."
"All right; you win the argument!" said Jimmie in a hopeless tone.