“Herr Radwig is a German we all know and honor,” retorted the colonel. “Who you are we do not know. Therefore, between you, we must believe him.”
“You don’t mean that you believe I am a spy?” blurted out Jack.
“The evidence shows it,” rejoined the colonel coldly. “You are aware of the rules of war?”
The whole room suddenly swam before Jack’s eyes. A deadly chill passed through him. For an instant he could not assure himself that it was not a hideous dream from which he must soon awaken. But the next instant, the reality, the horrible fact that he was about to be sentenced to death as a spy, rushed back upon him. He tried to speak but his dry lips refused to deliver a word.
The colonel and Radwig whispered, and then the former announced in his harsh grating voice:
“It will be at reveille to-morrow. Remove the prisoner.”
“But you don’t understand,” he choked out, “surely you don’t mean to execute me, an American citizen, without a chance to explain. I——”
“I will assume full responsibility,” was the cold reply.
Jack struggled with his captors, but a cruel blow in the small of the back with the butt of a rifle so dizzied him, that by the time he recovered his senses, he was back in the dark, foul-smelling smoke house once more.