“I tell you I must see him,” said Slade.
“Make me no troubles,” advised the Hessian sergeant. “Get away, or you’ll feel der ramroad your back across.”
“I have business with him—important business.”
“Der colonel no business listens to, to-night yet,” stated the beefy sergeant.
“He’ll listen to this,” cried Slade, desperately, almost sinking down in the snow from very weakness. “Ask him to give me a moment.”
But the sergeant, bored, gestured him away. Two of the men seized him by the shoulder.
“Wait!” cried Slade. “Just a moment.”
From his pockets he took a number of broad gold pieces; and at sight of them the sergeant’s eyes shone.
“These are yours,” said Slade, “if you carry a note to your colonel.”
The sergeant nodded.