Colonel Spriggs bit his lip, and down went another black mark against General Shields. But his desire for revenge, and a chance to exhibit his petty tyranny, assisted him to accept the snub in silence, and he simply replied: ‘I am obliged to you, sir. I will start as soon as possible.’
‘By the way, what did you do with the balloon?’ inquired Shields.
‘Left it where it was,’ answered the colonel. ‘I could not very well do otherwise.’
‘Hm!’ said Shields. ‘Well, I’ll see about it later. Good-morning, sir.’
Spriggs saluted again, but at the door he turned. ‘I suppose, general,’ he inquired, ‘that if I come up with those two spies, you give me full discretionary powers?’
General Shields, who was already deep in thought, heard the question without grasping its significance, and muttered absently, ‘Yes, oh yes, of course,’ whereupon Spriggs immediately left the hut.
Three or four minutes later, the general, coming out of his reverie, and having still the sound of the question in his ears, exclaimed suddenly: ‘Discretionary powers! What do you mean by that?’
‘It is very evident,’ answered the brigadier. ‘And you have given him full permission to hang the two fellows out of hand.’
‘Confound the man!’ muttered the general, walking quickly to the door. But Spriggs was already out of sight. ‘Well,’ he said, returning, ‘it does not matter much, for after all they are spies, and it is a hundred to one that he never finds them.’
To the two listeners in the loft it mattered a good deal, but unfortunately their position made protest out of the question.