“My papers!” he cried. “My papers and money—they are all lost! I must have left them in the boat.”
“Come along with us,” said the sergeant. “I have to report to my captain, who is ten miles off. I believe you are a spy, and woe befall you if my captain thinks so, too; for he had a brother strung up as a spy by you Austrians last year, and he has sworn that an Austrian officer shall swing for it.” Then, to a trooper:
“Dismount, and get a horse from the farmhouse over there and follow us.”
The trooper dismounted, and Gavin, obeying a signal, got into the saddle, and in another minute he was trotting briskly down the road with the party.
Gavin had scarcely heard the word spy, he was so distressed and disheartened by the loss of his money and papers. The sergeant, who rode by his side, asked him no questions, and in perfect silence they traversed the road rapidly by the light of a brilliant moon.
It was quite midnight before they halted at a little village, and, riding up to one of the chief houses, dismounted. Gavin was at once ushered into the presence of the commanding officer, Captain Dreisel, an ill-looking man, whose appearance was not improved by a dirty nightcap over a frowzy wig.
The sergeant, who was by nature a lover of sensations, coolly announced that he had captured a spy. Gavin, who had paid no attention to the man, received a sudden and terrible shock when Dreisel said, in the coolest manner in the world:
“You must disprove what this man says, or you will be hanged as a spy in twenty-four hours.”
“But I am in my uniform as sublieutenant of General Loudon’s hussars! I am a prisoner of war.”
“So was my brother,” replied Dreisel, coolly lighting a huge pipe. “Nevertheless, the Austrians hanged him. They made a thousand explanations afterward, alleged that it was an infernal mistake, and all that, and punished everybody connected with the affair; but it could not bring my brother back. And, besides, you may have stolen that uniform. At all events, I have three sublieutenants here, and we will settle the matter for you after breakfast to-morrow morning, without troubling headquarters with it. Meanwhile, I am going to bed. Sergeant, watch this man;” and Dreisel sauntered into the next room.