"Who is more dangerous than Milikoff?"
"The boy Stepan Dushan!"
"Stepan Dushan! I do not believe there is such a boy! You tell me of him, but you can never show him to me!"
For a moment Dick could not understand. But then he smiled at his own stupidity. Of course Steve was known to Mike Hallo under an assumed name; he would never have used his own, so obviously that of a Servian.
"It makes no difference whether you believe me or not, I am telling you the truth," said the newcomer with a show of spirit. "He is young, but he has done more to discover the truth than any of them. He has brought information of the concentration of the Austrian troops along the Drina. It is through him that they learned where the stores and supplies were being massed in the mountains there. I told you yesterday of the plans that were made for a Servian raid, but it was too late. A raiding column crossed the Drina last night and destroyed most of the stores you had collected."
"There has been a leak somewhere in my own place!" said Hallo, savagely. "Even the men who executed the orders did not know where those supplies were going! I trusted no one!"
"That is just the bad part of it, master," said the spy. "They will be saying next that you yourself gave away the truth to the Servians."
"Who will believe them?"
"If it is known that you have been in touch with Milikoff?"
"It is known, fool! It is known that I am treating with them simply to gain information of their plans. But now—it is no time for talk. We must move quickly, or they will explode their mine."