"Well," said Chester, "you had a pair of guns wabbling in your hands and I was afraid one might accidentally go off. Safety first, Mr. Stubbs."
"That sounds all right," was Stubbs' dry comment, "or rather, I should say, it would sound all right if I didn't know you so well. It's my candid opinion you just jumped me because a good opportunity presented itself."
"Come, Mr. Stubbs," said Chester, "you know I wouldn't——"
"Oh, I do, do I?" exclaimed Stubbs sarcastically. "I know all about you, Chester, you can bet on that."
"Then maybe you can tell me what Hal and I are doing here," replied Chester.
"No, I can't do that exactly, but its a safe assertion that you are up to your old snooping tricks again."
"Then why are you here, Mr. Stubbs?" Chester wanted to know.
Stubbs smiled wryly.
"I guess you have me there, my boy," he said good-naturedly. "I'm here to snoop a little myself."
"As I thought," Hal put in. "By any chance, Mr. Stubbs, have you heard rumors that Austria has or is about to sue for peace?"
Stubbs sat up straight in bed.
"Now where did you get that idea?" he demanded.
"Because we're here in an attempt to verify that rumor," was Hal's reply.
Stubbs sighed.
"Well, there is no use trying to conceal my mission," he said; "and yet I was in hopes I was the possessor of information that would give me a 'scoop' for my paper; or an exclusive 'beat,' if you like that better."
"But surely you didn't hope to have such information if it were not known to the military authorities," protested Chester.
"And why didn't I?" demanded Stubbs, with some heat. "Let me tell you something, my boy. It's no infrequent thing for a newspaper man to gain knowledge of a certain thing long before it comes to the ears of the proper authorities."
"Then it is up to you to acquaint the proper authorities with your information," said Hal.
"Not a bit of it. Not a bit of it. My duty is to get the facts to my paper ahead of the correspondents of the other papers. That's what I'm paid for; and you can bet I'll do it if I get a chance."
"That's all beside the question right now, Mr. Stubbs," said Chester. "It seems that you are here on a mission similar to ours. Now the question is, shall we join forces or shall we work separately?"
"I don't know," said Stubbs. "You see, I've been on the ground longer than you have and have already made considerable progress. Looks to me like I'd be giving you my information in return for nothing."
"Oh, of course if that's the way you feel about it," said Chester, considerably nettled.
"Hold on, now!" protested Stubbs. "Not so fast, if you please. I didn't say I wouldn't throw in with you, did I?"
"No, you didn't say it," returned Chester significantly.
"Then don't cry until you're hurt," enjoined Stubbs. "At the same time there is another reason that tells me to let you go at this thing in your own way."
"And that, Mr. Stubbs?" asked Hal.
"That," returned Stubbs, "is because every time I get mixed up with you fellows I get in trouble. Either I'm moving forward a couple of leaps ahead of a bayonet, or I'm all snarled up in a knot of struggling Germans; and I don't like that, I tell you. I'm a peaceable man."
Hal and Chester laughed.
"Oh, yes, we know how peaceable you are," said Hal. "We're perfectly willing to bank on your courage, Mr. Stubbs."
"Well, I'm not exactly willing to bank on it myself," replied Stubbs grumblingly, but he was plainly pleased.
"Whatever you think best, Mr. Stubbs," said Chester.
"Surely, Chester," said Stubbs, "you didn't take me seriously? Surely you knew that I am willing to do whatever I can to further the cause of America and her allies. I was simply joking."
"Maybe you were," returned Chester, not at all convinced, "but all I've got to say is that you have a mighty poor way of showing it."
"Then I'll do better," said Stubbs. "Listen." He proceeded in a low tone. "I've been here for two days. I heard rumors some time ago that Austria and Germany were at the breaking point. Bulgaria, out of the war, as she has been for several weeks, it became apparent that Germany's other two allies would soon leave her in the lurch. Now Turkey doesn't matter so much, although with the Ottomans out of the war the strain on the allies will be lessened considerably. But with Austria—the kaiser's most important and powerful ally, ready to quit—the moment seems auspicious. Now, I wanted to be on the ground floor when the news broke. That's why I took a chance and sneaked through the German lines; that's why I'm here.
"That's why we're here, too," said Hal quietly.
"Now, Mr. Stubbs," said Chester, "you inferred that you had already learned something. What is it, if I may ask?"
"I didn't exactly say that," protested Stubbs. "However, I have found what in the newspaper business is called a 'leak' and I have hopes it will produce some news before many hours have passed."
"And what is this leak, Mr. Stubbs?"
"Why," said Mr. Stubbs, "its none other than our friend the night clerk whom you so unceremoniously ordered from the room a few minutes ago. He thinks I'm a pretty regular fellow. The reason is plain enough. I've been supplying him with tobacco for the last two days."
Both lads smiled.
"It's no wonder then," said Chester. "Tobacco is one of the luxuries in Germany to-day. But who are you supposed to be, Mr. Stubbs?"
"Me?" said Stubbs, "why I'm nothing more than a German-American who was caught in Germany by the war, who is in sympathy with the German cause and not at all anxious to get back to the States. In fact, the clerk is positive I'd be wearing a German uniform if I were not above military age."
"But you're not above the German military age, Mr. Stubbs," Hal protested.
"Well, the clerk doesn't know that," said Stubbs significantly.
"You're a pretty shrewd customer, Mr. Stubbs," said Chester. "I guess if you've managed to fool the clerk this long you'll get by, all right."
"I will, unless you get me mixed up in some of your scrapes," declared Stubbs. "But you boys must be tired. Ring the bell there for the clerk. I'll tell him that we have found we have mutual friends and that I will permit you to spend the night in my room."
The clerk returned in response to the summons and Stubbs outlined the situation. The clerk offered no protest; in fact, he offered to supply cots for Mr. Stubbs' visitors.
These arrived directly and as soon as the clerk withdrew, Hal and Chester tumbled into their beds. "There is nothing that may be done to-night," said Stubbs. "Get a good rest, boys."
In spite of the fact that it was late when they retired, all three were up bright and early in the morning and went to breakfast in the small dining room of the hotel.
As they were finishing their coffee—without sugar or cream, by the way, these being other verboten luxuries in Germany—Chester's attention was arrested by the entrance of a tall, stately German woman, accompanied by a girl of perhaps eighteen years. They sat down at a table but three removed from where the friends were seated.
Hal followed the direction of Chester's eyes and smiled.
"Don't play the gallant now," he whispered in a low voice.
Chester flushed.
"By Jove!" he said. "You're the limit. Can't a fellow look at a pretty girl without drawing some such remark from you?"
"But I know you so well," laughed Hal.
"Rats!" Chester ejaculated.
At that moment two young German officers entered the room and strode toward the table where mother and daughter—as Chester had surmised the two to be—sat. They stopped suddenly, noticing apparently for the first time that the table was occupied.
"Himmel!" one exclaimed. "Conditions are pretty bad when a man cannot find a seat at his own table."
The words were plainly audible to the mother, and daughter, and their faces turned red. The elder made as though to rise, but the girl restrained her.
"We have as much right here as they have, Mother," she said.
Chester grinned to himself. It did him good to hear the girl talk like that, for he had not been favorably impressed with the appearance of the officers—both in the uniform of captains—in the first place.
"We shall have to ask you to leave our table," said the German officer who had spoken before.
It was the girl who protested.
"We'll stay where we are," she said.
The German grew angry.
"Is this the manner in which to treat one of his majesty's officers?" he demanded.
The girl deigned no reply.
"Did you hear me?" demanded the German again.
Still no reply.
The German stepped quickly forward, and laying his hand on the back of the girl's chair, jerked it back from the table. As he did so, the girl leaped to her feet. Her hand shot out and the German staggered back, his face red where the girl's open palm had struck.
"Himmel!" he cried angrily.
He stepped forward and seized the girl by the wrist.
Now Chester had been watching these proceedings with rising indignation. When the man seized the girl's wrist, for the moment Chester lost all thought of his surroundings, threw caution to the winds and rose quickly. As quickly he stepped across the room.
"Let the girl alone," he growled angrily.
The German wheeled on him, and recognizing in the lad no superior officer, stood his ground.
"And who are you?" he demanded.
"I'll show you," said Chester angrily.
He struck out with his right fist. "Smack." The German staggered back.