The supper was good and well served, and they were soon chatting pleasantly together. Tom was especially attentive to Alice, the brunette, while Billy devoted himself to her blonde sister, Helen. Frank made himself generally agreeable, chatting with his hostess and occasionally addressing himself to the old man. The latter would arouse himself and make some reply which showed that he had not fully grasped what Frank had been saying. Then he would relapse into his moody muttering, and Frank, for fear of embarrassing him, finally left him to himself. Suddenly something that Helen was saying to Billy caught Frank’s attention. “Yes,” she remarked, “when we were living in Coblenz--” “Coblenz!” ejaculated Billy. “Why that’s in Germany!” “Certainly,” she replied in some wonderment. “Why, what of it?” Frank caught a warning look that her mother directed at Helen. CHAPTER XVIII A PERPLEXING QUESTION “Why, nothing,” stammered Billy, a trifle embarrassed. “I didn’t know that you had ever been in Germany.” “Didn’t mother tell you?” asked Helen. “We lived in Coblenz for years.” Here Mrs. Edsall intervened. “I didn’t mention it,” she said quietly, “because it is a matter of no importance. Yes, we did live in Germany for some years before the war broke out. My father had come over from America to take charge of a branch importing house at Coblenz. My husband had died, and we came with my father. When the war started, or rather when we saw that it was about to begin, we left Germany and came here, where we have lived ever since.” She changed the subject then and the conversation went on, but it was now constrained and formal. From time to time the boys shot a glance at each other that was full of interrogation. And as soon as the meal was finished, they excused themselves and went to Frank’s room where they were soon in earnest conversation. “What do you think of it?” asked Tom in much perplexity. “I don’t know what to think,” confessed Frank. “It may be all right and it may be all wrong. But one thing’s certain, and that is that we’ve got to be on our guard. Those infernal Germans have spies everywhere and we may be in a nest of them. We want to keep as mum as oysters about all military affairs.” “It doesn’t seem as though a nice girl like that Helen could be a spy,” said Billy regretfully. “Nor Alice,” put in Tom. “Maybe they’re not,” admitted Frank. “In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re not, or Helen wouldn’t have made that break about living in Coblenz. It’s the last thing they’d have wanted us to know. But I’m not so sure of the mother. I caught her sending a warning to Helen with her eyes, but it was too late.” “That may have been simply because she knew that it might make us suspicious and she wanted to avoid that,” defended Tom. “That would be natural enough for anyone to do. But it doesn’t say that there is any ground for the suspicion.” “What do you think of the old man?” asked Frank thoughtfully.