TABLES TURNED
"What's coming off here?" asked Jimmie, jumping to his feet.
"Halt!" cried the voice from the shrubbery again as Jimmie rose.
"Who's there?" asked the lad, wheeling toward the low undergrowth which
concealed their visitor. "Come out into the open if you dare."
"Ach, yes!" replied the other. "I dare come out. You will all
stand--and in a line, please. Aber you don'dt, I shoot!"
"What's this," asked Ned, "a hold-up or a joke?"
"Nein," the newcomer replied. "Aber you don'dt line up dere you find
oudt it is no joke, not. Beside yourself stand, quick!"
"This is enough to make anybody fairly beside themselves!" Jimmie
declared, unable to repress his tendency toward a joke.
"Come on out, you Dutchman," taunted Jimmie in a moment. "I can see
you crouching there and see your uniform. Come on out!"
As the faces appeared, Jimmie gave a gasp of astonishment.
"Otto! Fritz!" he almost shrieked. "We left you guarding that old
barn up there. How does it come that you are here?"
"My post I deserted," he began, stepping from the bushes, but with his
rifle still cautiously pointed toward the lads. "This country is
familiar to me, for that house was my uncle's. Many times have I in
this brook waded and swam. Today I thought of it when we over the hill
came and when we had put you in the barn I came right here to see the
beautiful brook once more and hear the birds singing in the trees."
"Otto, open your left hand and let me see what you have in it!"
commanded Jimmie, as the other finished speaking.
"Nothing have I in my hand," declared Otto, opening and extending the
member palm outward. "See, nothing in there is!"
"Oh, I thought you had the spark plugs from the Eagle," remarked the
lad. "You know you took them out. Where did you put them?"
"In my pocket have they gone," answered Otto, simply as if stating the
most casual fact. "They are all there safe and sound."
"So I see," acknowledged Jimmie. "That's very obvious. What are you
going to do now that you and Fritz have returned?"
"We shall take you back to the barn and put you in the loft once
again," declared Otto in the same tone of voice he might have used in
commenting on the fact that the sun was shining.
"Oh, you shall, shall you?" almost sneered Jimmie. "All right, but you
wouldn't put us back there hungry, would you? We were just about to
eat a little lunch. This won't be quite as good as you used to get at
Dick Stein's place, but it's eatable at any rate. If you think you
could eat a bit, we'll ask you to join us."
"I can not eat now," replied the other. "I must guard you as
prisoners. But if you are hungry, we will let you eat."
"Oh, I say," protested Jimmie, "you'll have at least a cup of coffee
with us! That isn't sociable to stand and hold a gun at a fellow's
head while he's eating. It looks rather rough, too!"
"You are now prisoners," replied Otto, shaking his head.
"Why, of course, we are!" admitted the boy with an attempt at a laugh.
"We're prisoners in more ways than one. You have the spark plugs and
we couldn't make a decent get-away if we tried. Besides, you two
fellows have your rifles and we are unarmed."
"I guess you've got us dead to rights," put in Dave.
"Sure you have," resumed Jimmie. "Now, I'll tell you what," he went
on, "you sit here," indicating a position between the fire and the
aeroplane, "and we'll sit on the opposite side of the fire. You may
have your rifles across your laps or ready at your side. If we break
and run for it, you may shoot as fast as you please."
"That's fair enough," urged Ned. "It isn't just the square thing to
take us prisoners without letting us get some food."
"See here," continued Jimmie, reaching out a hand toward the coffee pot
bubbling over the tiny flame and lifting the lid, "did you ever smell
better coffee in your life? That's worth drinking, I say!"
"Dot's goot cooffee!" announced Fritz, solemnly. "I take a cup."
"Sure, you'll both have a cup!" declared Jimmie.
"That's a real compliment, Otto," laughed Jimmie, winking at Dave as he
spoke. "When a German admits that any other nation on earth can make
good coffee it is going some. The Germans can make real coffee!"
"We generally let Dave pour the coffee, because he's an extra boy in
the crowd and we make the newcomers do all the heavy work, but he's
awkward at it yet owing to his just recently coming off a cattle ranch
in Canada, where he had to lasso a lot of cattle every day. This time
I'm going to pour the coffee myself."
As Jimmie spoke he glanced back toward Dave, sitting with the others.
"Now, you just sit there, Dave," Jimmie chattered on, "until I tell you
to move. Remember," he added, "I'm doing this part of it. All you are
to do is to follow instructions. You're better at the lasso than you
are at pouring coffee!"
"Yes, I guess that's the truth," admitted Dave with a mock sign of
resignation at finding his short-comings flaunted before strangers.
It was well that the meal was served in the open, for Jimmie poured
until every cup ran over, thereby wasting much of the liquid.
"Have some more, won't you?" he asked, grasping the coffee pot.
"Just a little more," replied Otto. "I never had better."
"Why," cried Jimmie in a surprised tone, "the pot is almost empty. I
guess you boys didn't make very much, did you? Here, Dave," he hurried
on, "you chase yourself up to the Eagle and get some of that coffee out
of the locker on the right-hand side. We'll brew another pot of it. I
haven't begun to eat yet."
"See how quickly you can lasso a cup or two of the real stuff and hurry
back here," commanded Jimmie. "We'll have more in a jiffy."
"Have a little of this stew while you're waiting," urged Ned, extending
the pot of stew toward the soldiers. "It's mighty good!"
Ned and Jimmie rattled on in a whirlwind of conversation to keep the
attention of the soldiers in their own direction. So absorbed were
Otto and Fritz in listening to the chatter that they failed to hear the
faint whistle of a rope through the air, and it was not until the noose
of Dave's lasso settled about their shoulders and they were jerked
incontinently backward that they suspected anything wrong.
Otto and Fritz were compelled to surrender to a superior force.
Lengths of small line secured from the Eagle were brought by Dave when
he saw that the two were securely held by his companions.
"Let me get at this chap's pockets a moment," said Ned, advancing. "I
think he has some spark plugs that would look better in another place.
We can use them to good advantage ourselves."
"Just the thing!" cried Jimmie, gleefully. "How thoughtful of him to
bring them back here so we could run the little old Eagle."
Ned lost no time in producing the plugs and fitting them into position.
"Now we 're off!" declared Jimmie. "Let's get the cooking utensils
aboard and beat it out of here. We won't want no wireless now!"
"For one, I want to get to some place where I can exchange this uniform
for some real clothes!" stated Jack, vehemently.
"And I want a real feed!" protested Jimmie. "I haven't eaten in weeks.
All I could do was to lunch along on this awful grub!"
"All right, boys, I guess you're right," Ned agreed with a laugh.
"We'll load up and be on our way even if it is daylight."
"Won't the Germans see us rise out of here and take a shot at us?"
"What if they do?" scorned Jimmie. "They'll be so busy with all this
fighting they won't have time to chase us very far. Hear those cannons
going all the time?" he went on. "They're wasting a lot of good powder
shooting at the Frenchmen and the allies!"
As the aeroplane rose above the tree tops, two other planes were
sighted high overhead.