"There was two doors, one on each side, open. On the right was the room where the officers had been dining. The sight of that table was too much for me, famished as I was. I must eat if I died for it. I was just a-going to begin when a little sound almost made me jump out of my skin. I snatched up a carving knife and whipped round, and there, across the passage, in the room opposite, was an officer writing at a table, with his back to me. Quick as lightning I thought if I could only get into his uniform I’d have a chance of getting through their lines in the dark. I listened: the house was quiet as a graveyard: and with the carving knife in my hand I stole across the passage." He described his brief operations with the German lieutenant and his subsequent proceedings. "And all I want now," he concluded, "is a photo of that Frenchwoman to send to the missus, and I hope she’ve come to no harm." "You’re a trump, Ginger," cried Harry, clapping him on the back. "You’ve certainly won that Iron Cross." "It’ll do for the kids to play with," remarked Ginger. "Myself, I wouldn’t wear the thing the Kaiser gives away by the ton. Ah! I said I only wanted one thing, but there’s another." "What’s that?" "Why, to find that farmer that helped the German chap to strap me to the aeroplane. And he pretended to help us hunt for him. He’s a spy, that’s what he is." "He was taken into our lines. I don’t know what became of him," said Kenneth. "You must tell the captain to-morrow all about it, and he’ll make enquiries. You must be fagged; get to bed. Our men will be jolly glad to have you back again." Ginger’s feat made him the hero of the battalion. The colonel promoted him full corporal, and sent a messenger at once to the Wessex regiment to enquire what had become of the farmer. The reply was that the French authorities had nothing against the man, who had lived in the neighbourhood for years, and he had been allowed to return to his farm. Colonel Appleton at once resolved to arrest him. "We had better do everything in order," he said, to Captain Adams. "We’re in France, and the authorities might feel hurt if we dispensed with them. I’ll get the police commissaire of the district to take the matter up as there are no French military officers within thirty miles: it will save time. Tell the Three Musketeers to be ready to go with him to identify the man."