CHAPTER XXIII
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 whichconcealed their visitor. "Come out into the open if you dare."
"Ach, yes!" replied the other. "I dare come out. You will allstand--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 findoudt it is no joke, not. Beside yourself stand, quick!"
"This is enough to make anybody fairly beside themselves!" Jimmiedeclared, unable to repress his tendency toward a joke.
"Come on out, you Dutchman," taunted Jimmie in a moment. "I can seeyou 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 oldbarn up there. How does it come that you are here?"
"My post I deserted," he began, stepping from the bushes, but with hisrifle still cautiously pointed toward the lads. "This country isfamiliar to me, for that house was my uncle's. Many times have I inthis brook waded and swam. Today I thought of it when we over the hillcame and when we had put you in the barn I came right here to see thebeautiful 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 themember palm outward. "See, nothing in there is!"
"Oh, I thought you had the spark plugs from the Eagle," remarked thelad. "You know you took them out. Where did you put them?"
"In my pocket have they gone," answered Otto, simply as if stating themost casual fact. "They are all there safe and sound."
"So I see," acknowledged Jimmie. "That's very obvious. What are yougoing to do now that you and Fritz have returned?"
"We shall take you back to the barn and put you in the loft onceagain," declared Otto in the same tone of voice he might have used incommenting on the fact that the sun was shining.
"Oh, you shall, shall you?" almost sneered Jimmie. "All right, but youwouldn't put us back there hungry, would you? We were just about toeat a little lunch. This won't be quite as good as you used to get atDick Stein's place, but it's eatable at any rate. If you think youcould eat a bit, we'll ask you to join us."
"I can not eat now," replied the other. "I must guard you asprisoners. But if you are hungry, we will let you eat."
"Oh, I say," protested Jimmie, "you'll have at least a cup of coffeewith us! That isn't sociable to stand and hold a gun at a fellow'shead 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 andwe couldn't make a decent get-away if we tried. Besides, you twofellows 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 wenton, "you sit here," indicating a position between the fire and theaeroplane, "and we'll sit on the opposite side of the fire. You mayhave your rifles across your laps or ready at your side. If we breakand run for it, you may shoot as fast as you please."
"That's fair enough," urged Ned. "It isn't just the square thing totake us prisoners without letting us get some food."
"See here," continued Jimmie, reaching out a hand toward the coffee potbubbling over the tiny flame and lifting the lid, "did you ever smellbetter 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 hespoke. "When a German admits that any other nation on earth can makegood coffee it is going some. The Germans can make real coffee!"
"We generally let Dave pour the coffee, because he's an extra boy inthe crowd and we make the newcomers do all the heavy work, but he'sawkward at it yet owing to his just recently coming off a cattle ranchin Canada, where he had to lasso a lot of cattle every day. This timeI'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 youto move. Remember," he added, "I'm doing this part of it. All you areto do is to follow instructions. You're better at the lasso than youare at pouring coffee!"
"Yes, I guess that's the truth," admitted Dave with a mock sign ofresignation at finding his short-comings flaunted before strangers.
It was well that the meal was served in the open, for Jimmie poureduntil 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. Iguess you boys didn't make very much, did you? Here, Dave," he hurriedon, "you chase yourself up to the Eagle and get some of that coffee outof the locker on the right-hand side. We'll brew another pot of it. Ihaven't begun to eat yet."
"See how quickly you can lasso a cup or two of the real stuff and hurryback here," commanded Jimmie. "We'll have more in a jiffy."
"Have a little of this stew while you're waiting," urged Ned, extendingthe pot of stew toward the soldiers. "It's mighty good!"
Ned and Jimmie rattled on in a whirlwind of conversation to keep theattention of the soldiers in their own direction. So absorbed wereOtto and Fritz in listening to the chatter that they failed to hear thefaint whistle of a rope through the air, and it was not until the nooseof Dave's lasso settled about their shoulders and they were jerkedincontinently 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 whenhe saw that the two were securely held by his companions.
"Let me get at this chap's pockets a moment," said Ned, advancing. "Ithink 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 tobring 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 utensilsaboard 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 uniformfor 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 thisfighting they won't have time to chase us very far. Hear those cannonsgoing all the time?" he went on. "They're wasting a lot of good powdershooting at the Frenchmen and the allies!"
As the aeroplane rose above the tree tops, two other planes weresighted high overhead.