"Your sister she have did it," said Von Rahden, for Germans too are descended from Adam.
"Yes," acknowledged Edith, penitently, but with a twinkle in her eye, "it was my fault. Herr Von Lutzow said, 'What is a German officer, a hussar, without his sword or spurs? He is not, as you say, "inside it."'"
"I have said, we had not the time," protested this maligned hussar.
"Or the skill," she answered, laughing. "At any rate, they regularly backed out, Dick, so Mr. Moore and I concocted this scheme in order to cover their disgraceful retreat, and redeem at least their uniforms."
"Beastly things," growled Mackintosh; "handicapped us like everything."
"Take them off, then," she retorted. "You'll play it out boys? America against England instead of Germany?"
The little corporals looked at the strapping young Englishmen, all good football-players, and some old hockey-players as well; but they did not have the Napoleonic spirit for nothing.
"Yes, we'll play them," they said, and the whole team echoed it.
Then the bogus hussars peeled off their tight gold-laced jackets, and breathed once more freely. It would be an international struggle, and they must put forth all their strength and skill. The teams lined up.
"We'll pass the block to each other as we did before," whispered Dick, "and then scoot for the open ice. And tell the fellows, Charlie, not to try and stop Mackintosh, but to hook his hockey the way you did; and we'll work that circling trick again, too."