While Bob was speaking, he saw that the other's hand moved nervously among the papers on the desk; he saw too that he fidgeted uneasily in his chair, as though with difficulty he restrained himself. "And you think the Kaiser is responsible for this war?" "We believe that he has been preparing for it for years. For a long time we fought against the belief, and a great part of the country held that those who regarded him as a kind of War god were mistaken: now we know otherwise. Doubtless, in many respects, he is a great man--a strong man; but he is mad." Again the man in the chair started: then he touched the bell, and the officers who brought Bob there again returned. The man at the desk nodded to them and they led Bob out. As he withdrew, the last sight which met his gaze was that of the lonely figure seated at the desk, his face still largely in obscurity, but the eyes plain to be seen--light, steely, penetrating--the eyes of a master of men. A few minutes later Bob heard two of the officers, with whom he had been previously brought into contact, conversing in their own tongue: "It was unlike him to give an audience to a subaltern like that," said one. "Yes," was the reply; "but he said he was dissatisfied with the reports of the spies; he wanted to see England's position through English eyes. I wonder what the young cuckoo said to him." Still between his guards, Bob walked away from the house where he had been for more than an hour; he was oblivious of the fact that he was passed from sentry to sentry, from guard to guard; his mind was full of the strange scene in which he had taken part. The figure of the lonely man at the desk, who was thinking and working while others were asleep, haunted him, and he wondered. As he came to the tent from which he had been led more than an hour before, he again saw the officer who had given the command which had ended in the scene we have just described. "Whom have I been speaking to?" he asked, as the officer entered the tent with him. "Didn't you recognise him?" "I fancied I did, but I dared not think I was right." "You've been speaking to the Emperor of Germany," was the reply. "I'm glad I spoke my mind," Bob said. CHAPTER XX During the three days which followed the one on which he was captured, Bob's experiences were difficult to explain. He found himself being moved farther and farther away from the English lines; but he knew nothing of what was taking place, neither could he understand why he was treated with such kindness and consideration. He had expected to be immediately forwarded to some dirty German prison, where he would suffer the same fate as many of his English comrades. Instead of which, however, he might almost have been a guest of honour. For this reason he could not help coming to the conclusion that this special treatment was for some purpose.