“When you were captured, your answer to the first official who questioned you about me did much to give them greater confidence in me. When I was called to assist in questioning you, it was a part of their plan to make me commit myself; our faces were closely watched. Your angry manner at seeing me convinced them that you, whom they knew to be my former friend, believed me to be a traitor to your country. My act in dropping the book in your pocket as I passed you, with all their keenness, was not observed. “Now, however, doubt and more than suspicion, yea, almost certainty, that I have played them false is closing around me; their hounds of the secret service are on my track. If I feared them or death, I could not keep my nerve. “I have learned that my brother is under arrest and in prison, and possibly by this time has met his fate; for these men do not hesitate to kill even on suspicion. Now that all their cherished plans for universal dominion have been foiled, they are suspicious of every one--even of each other--and this alone may lead to their final ruin. “I feared, when I connived at your escape, that they might capture you; I therefore, as a precaution, put the misleading letter to you in the saddle, with that to Colonel Burbank. For though it was seeming plain treason to the American flag, yet to him I knew it would have another meaning. The letter would explain my conduct, and throw them off their guard from looking further. “I knew how much you must have suffered from doubts of my loyalty. It cuts me like a knife when I think of it. I had written ‘_rip the saddle_’ thinking you must understand; I then dared to write no more. “The information I have just sent to Colonel Burbank of the German plans are of but little value, because I am watched so closely, and my brother can not relieve me, to give me time. I think you will understand. “With hopes that this may safely reach you, and that you will make clear to one I may never see again on earth, my loyalty to the flag, I am your faithful friend, “JONATHAN NICKERSON.” CHAPTER XXIX THE SUPREME SACRIFICE The men of our regiment were falling in line, and my company had already formed, as I took my place on its right awaiting orders to advance. The bugle rang out and the advance began. At the foot of a little hill which was scarred by battle-marks we halted, while our air craft circled about it for observation. The tanks were awkwardly trundling into place. A first aid station was set up, and surgeons and devoted Red Cross helpers were coming to do their part. It presaged a battle. Then I heard the sharp crack of rifles, and calls and cries of men in the distance. “The Boches are coming!” I heard some one say. “It’s new,” said another, “for them to advertise a raid in that way.” “And don’t you believe it,” said another; “they haven’t gone crazy yet. But something is up.”