"That's not my idea at all!" scowled the other man. "This is war. I
am in command, my friend, and if I think I have a spy, and see that it
is my duty to stand this man up against a wall, then what? Bang!
Bang! It is all over. What can be said?"

"What is your idea exactly?" asked the man at the table. "What is the
use of hurrying things so? It sounds like murder to me. I think the
old man is perfectly harmless . He is probably just what he claims, a
professor in one
.of
the American Universities. I've heard of this Princeton. It is a
place of some size and standing."

"That is just it, Gustav!" cried the other.

"That is one reason for suspecting him. He is too glib with his
Princeton. Himmel! Did you ever hear a man talk so fast and so much
and use such words? I can speak as good English as any man my age,
but there were words, dozens of them, that I had never dreamed of."

"Is that the real reason why you are going to shoot him as a spy?"
asked Gustav, coming back to the main point once more.

"I don't suppose I shall shoot him at all," answered Otto grimly. "I
want to, that's all, but I can't do it unless I have sufficient cause,
no matter how would like to remove him. He is in the way."

Gustav stared, and laid down his saber. "I See!" he said, nodding his
head slowly. "The girl?"