"That's not my idea at all!" scowled the other man. "This is war. I am in command, my friend, and if I think I have a spy, and see that it is my duty to stand this man up against a wall, then what? Bang! Bang! It is all over. What can be said?"
"What is your idea exactly?" asked the man at the table. "What is the use of hurrying things so? It sounds like murder to me. I think the old man is perfectly harmless. He is probably just what he claims, a professor in one of the American Universities. I've heard of this Princeton. It is a place of some size and standing."
"That is just it, Gustav!" cried the other.
"That is one reason for suspecting him. He is too glib with his Princeton. Himmel! Did you ever hear a man talk so fast and so much and use such words? I can speak as good English as any man my age, but there were words, dozens of them, that I had never dreamed of."
"Is that the real reason why you are going to shoot him as a spy?" asked
Gustav, coming back to the main point once more.
"I don't suppose I shall shoot him at all," answered Otto grimly. "I want to, that's all, but I can't do it unless I have sufficient cause, no matter how much I would like to remove him. He is in the way."
Gustav stared, and laid down his saber. "I see!" he said, nodding his head slowly. "The girl?"
"Yes! The girl!" said Otto. He frowned and continued to walk up and down, while the other laughed.
"What would you?" he demanded. "You would get yourself into all sorts of trouble. There is no kidnapping of young women in this campaign, remember!"
"I would like to marry her," said Otto coolly. "She is so pretty and sweet."