"Oh, just a sc.r.a.p of paper," laughed Bart. "Just like the Belgian treaty."
"Something the wind"s blown up against the door, I guess," conjectured Tom.
"Wind nothing!" exclaimed Frank, whose vision was keener than that of any of the others. "It"s under the door and it"s getting bigger and bigger all the time. I tell you what it is, fellows," he went on excitedly, "it"s a note that"s being pushed out by the fellow inside."
"Let"s get behind these trees and see what"s going on," suggested Bart, indicating a clump of trees near which they happened to be standing.
In a moment they were screened from observation. Then they watched with the keenest interest what would follow.
That Rabig had caught sight of the paper was evident, for he stopped his pacing and turned his eyes on the door. Then he looked stealthily about him. The nearest sentry was some distance away, and the boys were well hidden by the trees.
Then Rabig made a complete circuit of the little hut, as though to make sure that no one was lurking about. Having apparently satisfied himself on that point, he returned and resumed his pacing until he was directly in front of the door.
Here he paused and drew out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead. But as he went to put it back, it dropped from his hand so that it lay close by and almost upon the protruding piece of paper.
He was stooping to pick it up, when he caught sight of a sergeant coming in his direction. Instantly he straightened up, and as he did so the b.u.t.t of his rifle knocked against the door.
The paper disappeared as though it had been drawn swiftly back from the inside, just as the sergeant came up.
"Gee!" gasped Tom.
"Prisoner all right, Rabig?" inquired the sergeant.
"Yes, sir," replied Rabig. "He seems to be keeping pretty quiet. I looked in a little while ago and he was lying asleep on the bench."
"Keep a close watch on him," counseled the sergeant. "What he tried to do to Raymond yesterday shows that he"s a desperate character. But I guess that by this time to-morrow he won"t need any one to watch him."
The sergeant pa.s.sed on and the boys looked at each other with speculation in their eyes.
"What do you think of it?" asked Frank thoughtfully.
"Think?" snorted Tom. "I think that Rabig is a bad egg. What else is there for any one to think?"
"It certainly looks suspicious," said Bart with a little wrinkle of anxiety creasing his brow.
"One thing is sure," declared Billy. "It was a note that was being pushed outside that door. The fellow inside was trying to get into communication with Rabig."
"True," a.s.sented Frank. "But that in itself doesn"t prove anything. You or I might be on sentry duty and a prisoner might try to do the same thing to us."
"Yes," agreed Billy. "But we wouldn"t act the way Rabig did. We"d have picked up the note and given it to the sergeant of the guard."
"And we wouldn"t have sneaked around the hut to see if any one was near by," said Tom. "Why did he drop his handkerchief, except to have an excuse for picking it up and copping the note at the same time?"
"And his rifle b.u.t.t didn"t hit the door by accident," put in Billy.
"That was a tip to the prisoner that some one was coming. Did you see how quickly the note disappeared?"
"I hate to think that there"s a single man in the regiment who"s a disgrace to his uniform," remarked Frank, "but it certainly looks bad.
That fellow Rabig will bear watching."
"I told you he was a Hun," declared Tom. "His body"s in France, but his heart"s in Germany."
CHAPTER VIII
COLONEL PAVET REAPPEARS
The Army boys thought over the situation in some perplexity.
"What do you suppose we ought to do?" asked Bart.
"We ought to go hotfoot to the captain and tell him what we"ve seen,"
declared Tom with emphasis.
"I hardly like to do that," objected Billy. "At least not at this stage of the game. After all, we haven"t any positive proof against Nick. His handkerchief might have dropped accidentally. And the knocking of the b.u.t.t of his gun against the door could have happened without his meaning anything by it. He could explain his going around the hut by saying he wanted to be especially vigilant in guarding the prisoner."
"Yes," agreed Frank, "we haven"t proof enough against Rabig to hang a yellow dog. And I wouldn"t want to get him in bad with his officers on mere suspicion."
"That note might be proof if we could only get hold of it," suggested Tom.
"Swell chance!" returned Bart. "You can bet that note is chewed up and swallowed by this time. The first thing the Hun thought of, when he was tipped off that some one was coming, was to get rid of the evidence that might queer his chance of escape."
"I"ll tell you what we"ll do," said Frank. "We"ll just go down and see Rabig and ask him casually about the prisoner. That may make him think that we"re on to something, and if he"s planning to do anything crooked it may scare him off. It won"t do any harm anyway, and we"ll take a chance."
They left the clump of trees and strolled down carelessly in the direction of the hut.
Rabig saw them coming, and the surly look that was habitual with him became more p.r.o.nounced than usual. There was no love lost between him and any of them. He had been thoroughly unpopular in Camport because of his bullying nature even before the outbreak of the war, and his evident leaning toward Germany had deepened this feeling.
Since he had been drafted, he had of course kept his pro-German views to himself, for he valued his skin and had no desire to face a firing squad. But his work had been done grudgingly, and his disposition to shirk had more than once gained him short terms in the guardhouse.
Of all the group approaching him he most heartily disliked Frank. In the first place, Frank had never permitted him to bully him when they were with Moore & Thomas, and the two had been more than once on the brink of a fight. And since the boxing bout in the camp, when he had tried foul tactics and Frank had thrashed him thoroughly, his venom toward his conqueror had been more bitter than ever.
The boys stopped when they reached the front of the hut.
"h.e.l.lo, Rabig!" they greeted him.
"h.e.l.lo!" responded Rabig, still keeping up his pacing.
"Right on the job, I see," remarked Bart, pleasantly enough.
"Your eyesight"s mighty good," replied Nick sullenly.
"Yes," Bart came back at him, "I can see a bit of white paper from quite a distance."
Rabig gave a sudden start.
"What do you mean by that?" he demanded.