In fact Schnitzel showed a decided predilection for the society of a Cuban, named Fernando, who lived in Company E's adjoining barrack. Fernando was a man who had almost as little to say as had Schnitzel. Though not a citizen of the United States he had enlisted shortly before the four Khaki Boys had come to Camp Sterling. At the time of the poisoning he had been on kitchen detail also and, soon after Schnitzel's release, the German-American had struck up a friendship with him. "I no like him, that Koobain," Ignace frequently protested to his bunkies. "Never I see why Schnitzel go by him all time. He no good." Growing distrust of Fernando prompted Iggy to poke about in the discreet wake of Schnitzel and the Cuban. His frequent absences from barracks in the evening occasioned a good deal of curious comment on the part of his bunkies. One night as they discussed this Iggy was hiking along through a fine rain after his quarry. He had followed Schnitzel out of barracks and seen him meet Fernando. This evening the two had elected to walk far despite the bad weather. Coming at last to an outlying barrack in an early stage of the process of erection, the two paused before it and began to talk. Seeing them stop, Iggy stopped also at a safe distance. He dared go no nearer to them. Deeply disappointed, he was about to turn back when a brilliant idea assailed him. Keeping well in the shelter of a neighboring barrack which was almost completed, he made a wide circle and approached the skeleton of the other barrack from the back. It would be easy enough for him to climb into it and make his way to the partially open front, provided he could do it without being heard. Once there he could crouch low within a few feet of the two men and perhaps overhear what they said. He had already heard at different times enough of their talk to worry him. Now he proposed to hear still more--if only they did not go away before he got to them. The first words he heard, spoken in German, nearly toppled him over. "You are willing to do this for the Fatherland?" It was the supposed Cuban who spoke. "Yes. I long to be of use to Germany. Nothing else can wipe out the trouble that these cursed Americans have made me. I wish now that I had been the one to poison those dogs. Then I would have gloried in it."