They understood, and showed that they did by obeying, though if looks could kill Frank would have been blasted by the venomous glance that the German leader shot at him.
Only then did Frank permit himself to relax. He lowered his rifle with a sense of relief.
"We've got them corralled now," he remarked to his comrades. "Let your rifles down, boys, but keep your eyes on them. If any one of them tries to make a break, we can pot him before he gets to his feet."
"Well, now that we've got them what are we going to do with them?" asked Billy.
"Sort of white elephant on our hands it seems to me," said Tom, in some perplexity.
"No more sleep for any of us to-night, I guess," observed Bart.
"Oh, I don't know," said Frank. "Two of us will be enough to guard these fellows at a time, while the others get a few winks. I think I'll question the fellow who seems to be running this shooting match and see if I can get anything out of him."
He motioned to the leader to get to his feet and come forward, which the latter did with a thunderous frown on his face.
Frank had a faint hope that the man would be able to speak
English, in which case his task would be comparatively easy. But
when he asked the captive in German whether he could speak
English, the latter replied with a surly negative.
So Frank was compelled to muster his limited vocabulary and pick out enough German to make himself understood. In that language, then, the questioning proceeded.