He was a brave man and a useful man to his country, but the German
boastfulness would out.
"Ach, but I should have found you out soon! Me, you would have found
out never!"
His eyes rolled round our party and I could see curiosity overcoming even
his bragging.
"Who did tell you?" he demanded.
"If it is any satisfaction to you to know," replied Sir Francis, "your
machinations were discovered and you were tracked down and caught by a
girl." He turned to Jean and added, "An exceedingly clever, brave and
patriotic girl."
I am sorry to say our prisoner still further smirched his record. What he
said was fortunately in German and the words at the beginning of his
sentence were not the kind that Jean would know. Before he had finished
it my uncle had struck him with the butt end of the torch on the mouth.
"Hold your foul tongue!" he cried and then turned away and I could see a
kind of shiver run over him.
"God forgive me!" he murmured. "I never struck a man when he was down
before!" And then he recovered himself a little and added, "But is a
German a human being?"
Meanwhile Jean was already bringing a bundle of rope from the corner
under my cousin's direction, and in a few minutes his practised hands had
knotted our prisoner up so securely that we were able to move aside from
him and hold a hasty council of war.
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