"He _did_ go out," interrupted Roger. "I saw him go. It was about half-past seven, I guess. He came back in a great hurry, too, about ten minutes before Taps sounded. I was just turning in. You fellows were both in bed. I was thinking about poor Schnitz when I saw Bixton and Eldridge hustle in." "He's done it then; queered Schnitz just as he threatened." Bob's accusation contained savage conviction. "He put that stuff in Schnitz's suitcase some time during the night. It would be a cinch for him, because he bunks next to Schnitz." "But how and where could he get the glass in such a hurry?" demanded Jimmy. "There's the list, too. Bixton's not smart enough to make any such list himself. Besides, he wouldn't be able to get hold of a book on poisons in this camp, and he certainly wasn't away from camp in that short time." "Those are some of the things we must figure out." Bob's lips set in a straight line. "This is no joke. It's a life or death proposition for Schnitz. Very well. Now we're going to keep close mouths and run this thing down." "Let's go to the K. O. and tell him about it," proposed Jimmy eagerly. "He'd take it up in a hurry." "Where's your proof to back it?" shrugged Bob. "You can't accuse a man offhand of such a serious thing. No; we must watch and wait and work, and spring the trap on Bix just the way he watched and waited, and sprang the trap on Schnitz." "We might be too late to do any good," demurred Roger gravely. "Don't you believe it," disagreed Bob. "This affair won't come to a head in a hurry. There'll be more or less delay and argument over the poison itself. Then there'll be a merry chase for more evidence. The K. O.'s not anxious to see one of our men condemned for murder. There are so many German plots floating around that this business will be thoroughly sifted first. Suppose the poison had been mixed in the rice before it was cooked or put in the milk. All that has to be looked into and it will be. The papers say that the Secretary of War intends to investigate this thing to the limit. That means he's going to give Schnitz a chance for his life." "Maybe Bixton had something to do with the poisoning," Jimmy theorized. "He's a slacker. We know that. Maybe _he's_ a traitor, too." "Nothing doing." Bob shook his head. "He's only mixed up in queering Schnitz. He saw his chance and grabbed it. I'd sooner think it might be one of the fellows on kitchen detail with Schnitzel than Bixton. Bix and Iggy both finished their kitchen detail at the same time." "Tough luck." Jimmy vented his feelings in his favorite expression.