"Yes, under veiled threats of withdrawing from the Peace Conference," Don supplemented. "I guess all this is sad news to the Huns, eh?"
"There's probably German trickery back of the situation somewhere," assented Jack.
"Which doesn't settle the question of who's going to fry the steak and potatoes for supper," interjected Andy. "Only, if it's Fred, for the love of Mike will he please see that the frying process reaches the in'ards of the steak."
Accepting the reminder that it was near dinner time, and that it was, indeed, his day as cook, but utterly ignoring the suggestion that he didn't cook things through, Fred arose to prepare the meal, and the useless consultation broke up with Don starting to the store for lard, butter and other necessities, and Big Jack accepting the assignment of bringing in the wood.
CHAPTER VII Summoned to Washington
Could our friends have been in Washington early the following day and in the confidence of the inner circles of the Government, their spirits might have been far above what they were.
In the first place, the State Department had received word during the night, from no less an authority than the President himself, that the questioned documents in which Japan had shown such an interest were to be sent to France at the earliest possible moment, by the quickest and most expeditious way, in the care of the most trustworthy messengers to be found.
That of itself was a large order, and one likely to cause more than ordinary perturbation in the State Department; but when a Cabinet meeting was called and held a little later, and those present, knowing the seriousness of the situation as no outsider could know it, decided that the mission should be accomplished in record time, and that incidentally in so doing America would set a pace for the world by sending the documents over by aeroplane, then among the staid and conservative old-school statesmen of the service there was a great wagging of heads, whisperings and forebodings.