“You find it!” said the man. “I don’t want no new one! I know the feel of me own tools, and no others need apply!”
He went off grumbling, and the boys, now wide awake, watched him.
“I told you how it would be,” groaned Beany. “He’ll never let up on me. Wonder where I could have dropped it. In No-Man’s-Land probably, where it would be as easy to find as a needle in a haystack, and where we can’t go anyhow, now it’s light. Look there! Oh praise be, I believe he has found it himself!”
It was so. The man suddenly pounced on an object lying on the ground, took it up, examined it with a tenderer care than would usually be bestowed on a tool, and with a scornful look turned and waved it at the watching boys. “Got it!” he called.
“Good!” said Beany affably.
“No thanks to you!” called the chauffeur. He stalked away.
“I would never let myself get so wrapped up in a little thing like that,” said Beany. He threw himself back on his bed.
“Don’t do that,” said Porky. “We are going to the General’s tent at seven, you know, to hear what the Fritz person is going to say for himself. I bet he tells the truth anyhow. If the General fixes his gimlet eye on him once, he will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
“I would in his place,” said Beany. “It wouldn’t seem just healthy to lie to the General.” He commenced the simple process of dressing as practiced by soldiers in the field. It consisted of very brief bathing in a couple of teacups of water in a collapsible, and usually collapsing washpan, made of canvas waterproofed, and after that the simple drawing on of breeches, canvas puttees and shirt. A soldier sleeps in his underwear, but sleeping in his outer garments is very strictly forbidden, no matter how cold the weather may be.
The boys reached the General’s tent at ten minutes to seven, and although they knew that the great man had been up for a couple of hours, they sat quietly outside until their watches told off the very tick of the expected hour. Then, just as they saw the guard bringing up the prisoner, they tapped on the tent flap, and at a word of summons entered.