Chapter 19

LESE MAJESTY

"But we're not spies!" snapped Jimmie truculently. "We wouldn't be spies for anything!"

"Silence!" commanded the officer in a voice denoting his displeasure at the interruption. "It will be best for you to keep silent."

"You may give your answer to the charges if you desire," said the Kaiser in a not unkindly tone. "But," he went on, "you will remember that if the report of Captain von Liebknecht is at all correct matters look rather unfavorable for you at present."

"I'll admit that latter part without argument," said Jimmie, much relieved that he was being given an opportunity to speak. "Things look rather odd, as you say, but it is only looks. The facts are that we are over in this country on a peaceful mission, and have refused to give information to either the Germans or the Russians. That rather squares the account, doesn't it?"

"In a measure, yes," admitted the Kaiser. "But your presence with the Russian troops does not incline us to look with much favor upon yourself or your comrades. Further," he continued, "the fact that your comrades have a high-powered aeroplane in our territory and have tried to rescue you from our regiment appears as if they do not care to be open and frank with us. Can you explain that?"

"I think I can," replied Jimmie gravely. "I can see now that our actions would appear rather mysterious to your officers, but you must also remember that they refused to take our word for anything. They simply went ahead and acted on the opinion they received from first sight. Our statements were not given any weight at all."

"Perhaps the officers were a trifle over-zealous, we will admit," continued the Kaiser, "but you have been well treated, have you not?"

"Fairly well," replied Jimmie. "I may say," he added, "that we have been very well treated considering all things. But I'd like to have that little package that was taken from me."

The Kaiser turned an inquiring glance toward von Liebknecht.

"It is this little package to which I referred briefly in my statement," explained von Liebknecht, producing the packet that had been rescued from the Cossack uniform by Jimmie when Otto had attempted to put the discarded clothes in the fire.

"And what do you say is in this packet?" inquired the Kaiser, addressing Jimmie, as he readied out a hand to take the parcel from von Liebknecht. "Is it your own property?"

"It was given to me by a man who was trying to make money selling munitions to the Russians," replied the lad. "He was a villain if ever there was one. He stole a lot of money in the United States and came over on a ship to Riga. He kidnapped me and had me enlisted in a Russian regiment of Cossacks, where he also found himself enlisted against his will. When an attack was made on a German troop train before the assault on Peremysl he was badly wounded."

"Ah, then you both were there?" asked the Kaiser interestedly.

"Yes," went on the boy. "When he found he was so badly wounded he gave me this packet and asked me to go back to New York, where he had put papers and other things in a safe deposit vault. He wanted me to try to straighten out some of his wrongdoings."

"Then this does not refer in any way to information that might be of value to our enemy?" questioned the Kaiser, looking keenly at the lad.

"Not in the least!" declared Jimmie, returning the other's gaze frankly and fearlessly. "You are a good enough judge of human nature to determine whether I'm telling you the truth or not."

"I rather think you are telling the truth so far as you know it," was the answer, accompanied by a smile in recognition of the tribute the lad had paid. "But," he added, "is it not possible that the man himself may have been telling things that were not so in the hope that the information would fall into the hands of the Russians?"

"I don't believe it," returned Jimmie, positively. "He knew he was going to die, and tried, I believe, to right the wrongs he had done."

"No doubt you are correct. At any rate, I'm inclined to take a chance and return the packet to you if you agree to keep it as directed and do your best to follow the man's wishes."

"I'll readily do that!" cried Jimmie, stretching his hand for the extended packet. "I'll promise that as I promised him."

"Thank you," smiled Kaiser, in one of his, rare moods of unbending from the dignity that marked his demeanor. "I am trusting you."

"Then I suppose that we will be permitted to depart for America as quickly as we can locate our comrades?" asked Jimmie, eagerly.

A shake of the head preceded the reply to this question.

"That can hardly be permitted at this time," said the other in a deliberative manner. "There are several matters to be settled."

"Will we have to go into action with the regiment and fight?"

"Have you any objections to assisting us in return for the favors we have granted you?" asked the Kaiser with apparent surprise.

"Yes, sir, we have!" declared the boy, earnestly. "We are not at all concerned in the war and we don't wish to become engaged in it. We'd rather not shoot at anybody unless it is necessary to do so for our own protection or the defense of our country."

"Those are very noble sentiments, my lad," was the answer to this statement. "Just yet we cannot give you permission to depart, but we shall not require from you service that you are not able to give."

"Thank you, sir," both boys said in chorus.

"But, if you please," objected von Liebknecht, with a look of meaning in the direction of his superior, "the young men may be of great value to us in the future, and I suggest that they be held in reserve for any emergency that may arise."

"Not a bad idea, I'm sure," agreed the Kaiser. Then, turning to the boys, he added, "You will, of course, be expected to make no attempt at escape. Your matter will be decided later on."

In company with the officer who had guided them to the compartment they returned to the rear of the coach and fell to discussing the prospects the future held for them.

They were awakened from a sound sleep into which they had fallen to find that the train had made another stop and that the regiment was disembarking. Men and horses were all about the track, baggage was being hastily unloaded and every indication showed that their journey by rail was at an end.

"Ho, hum!" yawned Jimmie, before beginning his setting up exercise, in which the lads found much benefit, "nothing to do till to-morrow, eh?"

"Looks that way, I declare!" said Dave. "But if I'm a judge, this is tomorrow itself. I wonder are we going into action."

"Something's brewing as sure as fate!" declared the other. "We wouldn't unload like this just for exercise on a fine morning."

"It is a fine morning, sure enough," agreed Dave, "but I think it is going to rain. I thought I heard thunder just now."

"Does sound remarkably like thunder," said Jimmie, with a glance at the sky, "but," he continued, "there isn't a cloud in the sky, and a thunder storm seems about the last thing we could expect."

"What on earth is it, then?" queried Dave, puzzled at the strange sound that came to their ears. "I see some of the Uhlans noticing it, too. Only they seem to be pleased about something."

"I know what it is!" announced Jimmie. "It's the sound of firing!"

"I believe you are correct, Jimmie," acknowledged Dave.

"Sure, I'm right!" declared the other. "Can't I tell what a cannon shot sounds like? I ought to, for I heard them some time ago, but from the other side of the lines."

"You did?" asked Dave, interestedly. "How was that?"

"Why," went on Jimmie, with just a touch of pride in his voice, "we were in France with the airship we had built before this present one. We got nicely tangled up with the battling forces and nearly got blown to bits once. We got lost in the fog above the lines where the big shells were flying around like mosquitoes."

"My word!" was Dave's astonished ejaculation.

"Yes," continued the red headed lad, "we thought once or twice we were goners, but got out after all. The airship lived through all of it and finally was drowned in the North Sea as we were trying to get home. I was certainly sorry to lose that airship."

"But you were fortunate to escape without losing your lives."

"Sure were," was Jimmie's comment. "But look there! There's some movement on foot or I'm mistaken. Wonder what it is?"

The boys were not long left in doubt. An officer came toward them apparently in some haste. As he approached he signalled the two to follow him to a position where the Uhlans were mounting their horses.

"You will follow these men," he said, as the lads drew near. He indicated two soldiers nearby who were mounted and leading two horses.

"Hello, Otto!" said Jimmie with a smile, as he wrinkled his freckled nose. "And I declare! If little Fritz isn't on deck also!"

"Here comes the Kaiser and his staff," said Jimmie, directly the line was at rest. "He seems to be in a hurry about something."

"They're stopping here," announced Dave.

A group of approaching horsemen, at one side of which rode the Kaiser, drew rein exactly opposite the two lads. Jimmie's mount, in a somewhat restive mood, refused to remain standing, but gave the lad some trouble. In his effort to quiet the animal the lad did not notice that he was gradually drawing closer and closer to the Kaiser.

Presently he succeeded in quieting the horse and took time to glance in the direction in which the Kaiser was peering through a pair of binoculars. The lad saw stretching far below him a gradual slope that had once been wooded by a forest. Now, however, there stood only the shattered stumps of trees, indicating that the place had been subjected to a most galling fire from the enemy.

A puff of smoke caught his attention. With a startled exclamation he pointed to a small object flying through the air straight toward the position occupied by himself and the Kaiser's staff.

The next moment he kicked the Kaiser's mount in the ribs and dug his heels into the flank of his own horse. Both leaped forward.