"Stop him! head him off! he'll make a goal!" shouted Charlie, in great excitement, forgetting his surroundings utterly; and seizing a cane that was lying on a bench, he started off in mad pursuit, colliding recklessly with girls and officers, and sending several stiff little cadets sprawling on their backs. The next minute, by a dexterous stroke, he knocked up the hockey, dislodged the ball, and before his astounded opponent could recover himself, had carried it in triumph to the end of the pond.
"Goal!" he cried, waving his stick as the other boy came up.
"You went out of bounds," he retorted; "but, George! you do know how to play hockey! Are you an American?"
"Yes. Are you?"
"Rather"—emphatically. "We're only spending the winter here, because Edith, my sister, is taking violin lessons. Here she comes"—as a remarkably pretty girl, accompanied by a "colossal schneider" hussar, glittering in blue and silver, skated towards them.
"Are you on the war-path, Dick?" Edith Hartley asked, laughingly, "Herr Von Lutzow says that the dead and wounded are lying all over the pond, and that the German army will have to hold you to account."
"All right. We'll challenge the German army to a game of hockey—won't we!" turning to Charlie.
"Easily," he replied.
"Hear that, Rahden?" said Von Lutzow, to a Second Lieutenant in the Infantry Guards who had joined Miss Hartley.
The young officer laughed. "Is it what you call the American cheek—yes? I have heard of it. Guädiges Fräulein, may I have the honor?"