The destruction from the explosions was not so damaging but that complete repairs could be made in a few weeks and the work, crowded into the other buildings, go on without serious interruption. Mr. Stapley, organizing a crowd of workers on the spot, turned for one moment to listen to his son.

“Say, Dad, it would be a fine thing to land the dubs that did this; wouldn’t it? I have an idea—”

The president of the Stapley Mills laughed outright. “That you know the miscreants? Oh, the confidence and the imagination of youth! Well, go bring them in, my son; bring them right in here!”

“Well, maybe it’s only a joke, but—but, Dad, if I did—if we did, would you—?”

“I’d give you about anything you’d ask for if you even got a clue to the devils! What do you know—anything?”

“Tell you later, Dad. Would you—er—let me—enlist?”

“Yes, even that! Anything! But here now, don’t you go and start anything rash. Better wait until the detectives and police get on the job. I’m too busy now to—”

“All right. See you later, Dad.”

Slipping away in the darkness, the boys began talking in low tones, and made for the Galaville road, laying plans as they went. Don offered the principal suggestions and Clem, lacking definite ideas of proceeding, was fair enough to comply. They approached the Shultz farmhouse with keen caution, making a wide detour and coming from back of the barn. A dog barked near the house and that was the only sign of life. But there was a method of bestirring the inmates, and the boys believed that the miscreants would show themselves to render hasty aid to a fellow countryman in gratitude for the shelter and care they had received from Shultz.

Working like beavers the lads gathered a lot of loose cornstalks, tall straws, and barnyard litter of a most inflammable nature, and piled it all on the side of the barn opposite the house, and far enough away to be beyond danger. At half a dozen places almost at once they set fire to the pile and having selected positions of ambush they rushed into hiding, Clem behind the barn bridge, Don crouching in the shadow of the corn-crib. The signal of action was to be the sudden move of either.

The plan worked. No one could have turned in and slept at once after the noise of the explosion in the town, much less these people who, the lads felt assured, had been expecting it. If the farmhouse occupants had been in fear of showing themselves they would ignore that for the few minutes needed for saving the animals in a burning barn. That they would, on looking out, believe the barn was on fire there could be no question, as no view from the house could detect the exact location of the flames.

A door slammed; there was the sound of excited words, of commands, of hurrying feet. Could it be possible that only Shultz and his family would appear on the scene? Had the Germans of the train departed? Or was it, after all, merely a coincidence that those men had come here and had talked in the train in a way that led the boys to think they were up to some such tricks, and that others had caused the explosion? Might it not have been some workman who was a German sympathizer?

Such doubts filled the minds of the young adventurers as they waited, hidden, and wondering. But they were not long to remain in doubt for things began to happen. Fat Shultz was not the first to appear, for three figures rounded the corner of the barn ahead of his puffing form.

The dog was fleetest of foot; that half-mongrel dachshund bade fair to spoil the game for the boys, for he was far more interested in the presence of strangers than in a bonfire, no matter how high it blazed. Yaw-cub, or whatever the beast was called, began to bark at the corn-crib, but the followers of the elongated hound fortunately paid no attention to this. Close together came the next in line—FraÜlein Shultz and a man, both plainly seen as they came within the zone of light from the fire. The woman turned the corner and stopped as though she had bumped against a post, her hands going to her bosom in relief and for want of breath. The man almost ran into her; then he let out a German remark, doubtless an oath, and wheeled about. Surprise number one had relieved, if disgusted, him; number two, which confronted him before he had taken two retracing steps, made him lift his arms as if trained in the art.

“Hands up!” was Don’s order.

“And be blamed quick about it!” supplemented Clem.

“And you, too, Shultz!” Don addressed the on-coming and puffing old saloon keeper.

“Eh? Vat? Bah! I safe mein barn! I safe mein horses und coos und mein piks!”

“Hands up and stop! Your horses and cows and pigs are all safe. Put your hands up, if you don’t want to get some lead in you!”

Shultz stopped, but rather at the command or announcement of his more active wife than because of an order from his captors. His bumptious self-importance would not permit him to knuckle to anybody, much less to mere American youths.

“Huh! Vat? Chust poys, py gollies! Raus mit ’em! Clear oudt! I ring der necks off bodt! Put down dose pistols! Eh? Vat? Bah!”

It instantly became evident that something most radical, however unpleasant, must be done to convince this egotistical German what young America can do when started. The preparations for war, the flower of our youth enlisting, the early determination to beat the Huns had evidently made little impression on this tub of conceited Prussianism. It was the certain duty of his youthful captors to impress not only a lesson on Shultz, but to maintain their own position in the rÔle they had chosen to assume. The necessity was also very apparent of repelling a weighty and sudden charge of the declared enemy, for Shultz, by reason of his calling, was given to combatting foes of almost every sort, albeit this must have been a somewhat new experience.

It was Don who, as usual, saw first the need of action and improved upon it. Your trained, competing athlete, boxer, wrestler, leader of team contests must be as quick with his head as with his hands and the event of weapons on a possibly tragic mission and against a really dangerous opponent flabbergasted the boy not a bit. Words, he saw, were entirely useless; delay might be fatal—to someone, at least.

The boy’s revolver barked and spit out its fiery protest over Shultz’s head; the tongue of flame against the dark background of the night was enough to command any minion of the Old Scratch, and Shultz proved no exception to this. The other chap, whose whiskered face the lads had recognized instantly, acted more wisely, hoping, no doubt, for some moment to arrive where strategy or surprise might count.

“Vat? Eh? Py shoose, you shoot me? Veil, no, you shoot me nod! I vas holt mein hands up so, und shtop poinding dot peestol! Uh! It might vent off!”

“It will sure go off and through your fat gizzard if you don’t turn round and head for the road and town! Both of you, now march!”

Don issued this order, then he turned to Mrs. Shultz who had suddenly lifted her voice in a loud lament, much resembling a screech.

“Now, listen, please: Your man must be all right; all we want him for is to tell about this other fellow. Don’t worry; he’ll be back right soon. Say, Clem, you explain to her; I guess she’s going crazy.”

This was pretty close to the facts, although long association with the hard knocks of a troubled existence had saved her from going crazy now. But, woman-like, she must fly to the defense of her man, even though, German-like, she was his slave. She was making a vehement protest of some kind, largely by rushing to Shultz and trying to reach her arms around his ample waist; she may have meant to carry him off bodily and protect or hide him, but she fell short in estimating his avoirdupois.

Clem gently pulled the woman back and again reassured her; by insisting about twenty times that it was all right and that she need not worry he managed at last to get her a little calmer and then Don ordered the men forward.

But now the bearded fellow had something to say and it was in the best of English, without a trace of foreign accent. He did not offer to lower his arms.

“I suppose, young gentlemen, this is some kind of a holiday prank; is it not? A schoolboy pleasantry, though rather a severe one, but being once young myself I can sympathize with the exuberance of youth. When you see fit to end this, permit us both and this poor woman to enter the house. I am quite ill and we have all lost much sleep of late. Be then so kind as to—.”

“We can imagine that you have indeed lost much sleep and you will probably lose more!” Don was sarcastic. “But we didn’t come here to parley. If this is a schoolboy joke it’s sure enough a hefty one; all you’ve got to do is to fall in with it and do as you’re told. The next time this gun cracks it’s going to be right straight at one of your carcasses, by cracky, and you’ve going to get hurt! So, hit the road out yonder for town and hit it lively! Get moving, or I’m going to pull this trigger the way she’s pointing. Now then, go on!”

“But, my boy, you have no right to thus threaten and order us about. You do not appear like bandits; surely you can mean us no harm and we have done nothing—”

“But we think you have,” put in Clem, which was not altogether diplomatic, if it seemed best not to put this man on his guard. Don saw the drift that matters would soon take and parleying was not in order.

“Say, Dutch, listen: You’re wrong; we are bandits and this is a real hold-up; see? If you’re not the party we want you can hustle back here again, quick.”

Shultz put in his inflated oar:

“Bah! You do not vant me. No! I vill not go mit you!”

“Oh, yes you will, or get a lot of lead in you,” Don asserted.

“We surely wish you to do just as we say,” Clem added. Perhaps it was growing a little hard for him to keep up his courage, but not so with Don; the more that youth was confronted with difficulties, the more determined he became and he was now about as mad as a June hornet.

“Go on out into the road and head for town and no more shenanigan! In two seconds more I’m going to begin shooting and I’d rather kill somebody right now than get a million dollars.”

“Now, just a minute, young gentleman.” The bearded man’s voice was most appealing. “If this is a hold-up and you want money, why then, I can gladly—” The fellow’s hand went into his hip pocket and he edged toward Don.

“Back up! Say, by thunder I’m just going to kill you, anyhow!” was Don’s reply and upon the instant he almost had to make good his word, for the man leaped right at him, with a snarl resembling that of an angry cat. But the boy was ready and even quicker; dropping the muzzle of his weapon a little he fired and dodged aside at the same time. The man stumbled and fell upon the frozen ground; he floundered a little; then sat up.

“You back up, too, Shultz, or you’ll get it! Now, then, Clem, hunt a wheelbarrow and we’ll just cart this chap to town, anyway. You and Shultz can take turns. Hurry, Clem; there must be one around somewhere. Go into the house, Mrs. Shultz; we won’t hurt your husband if he doesn’t get gay.”