“You are quite sure?”

“Quite sure.”

“Think again, my man,” said Frank.

“Look here,” said Cutlip, “do you mean to insinuate that I’m lying?”

“I don’t insinuate anything.  I know you are lying.  Hold up there!”

For Cutlip had taken a threatening step forward.

“A party of three German sailors from a submarine nearby were seen to come this way,” Frank went on.  “You must have seen them.  Now, if you are not trying to shield them, tell me where they are.”

“I don’t know.  I haven’t seen them.”

“Call a couple of men, Lieutenant,” said Frank to Hetherton.

Hetherton raised a hand, and two sailors came forward.

“Once more,” said Frank to Cutlip, “will you tell me what you know of those men?”

“I tell you I don’t know anything,” answered Cutlip doggedly.

“Tie him up, men,” said Frank briefly.

The sailors sprang forward and laid rough hands on Cutlip.  The latter protested vigorously with his mouth, but he offered only feeble resistance.

“Now,” said Frank to Hetherton, “we can’t leave him around here for if the Germans saw him they might take alarm.  We’ll have to have him sent back to the ship.  I guess those two men are big enough to get him there.”

“Plenty big enough, sir,” said one of them with a grin.

“Good.  Take him back, then, and come back when you have turned him over to Captain Templeton.  Tell the captain to hold him until we return.”

The man touched his cap.

“Aye, aye, sir,” he said.  Then to Cutlip in a rough voice:  “March, now.”

The three disappeared, Cutlip grumbling to himself and the sailors grinning.

Frank turned to young Cutlip, who had watched these proceedings with some disfavor.

“Now, my boy,” he said, “we can get ready for business.”

“They won’t hurt him, will they?” asked the boy, pointing after his father.

“They will not,” said Frank.  “Only keep him safe until the trouble is over.”

“All right.  Then, I’ll help you the best I can, sir.”

“That’s the way to talk, my boy.  Now let me look around a bit.”

Lieutenant Hetherton and young Cutlip accompanied Frank on his tour of inspection.  The lad found that the cabin was cuddled securely in a miniature forest, or rather at one end of it.  On both sides and in the rear were a profusion of dense trees.  Only the approach from the front was in the clear.

“It’s all right,” Frank said.  I’ll throw my men around the house from three sides, and when the Germans have gone in we can surround it completely.  If they come after dark, there is little doubt they will approach from the front.”

“And what shall I do, sir?” asked young Cutlip.

Frank turned the matter over in his mind.

“I am afraid I shall have to ask you to play rather a dangerous part,” he said at last.  “You must be inside to receive them.  If there were no one there they might take alarm and run.  Now, we’ll go inside and see if your father has complied with the enemy’s demand.”