"Maybe that's where they took my friend's sister and his mother," Tom said. "I will tell you vere zey take them," the old man interrupted. "You know Alsace--no? So! See! I tell you." He approached, poking Tom's chest with his bony finger and screwing up his blue eyes until he seemed a very demon of shrewdness. They wondered if he were altogether sane. "Nuzzing can zey hide from Melotte," he went on. "Far south, near Basel, zere lives my comrade--Blondel. To him must you show your button--yess. In Norne he lives." "We'll write that down," said Tom. "Nuzzing you write down," the old man said sharply, clutching Tom's arm. "In your brain where you are so clevaire--zere you write it. So! You are not so clevaire as Melotte. Now I will show you how you shall find Mam'selle," he went on with a sly wink. Emptying some wool out of a paper bag, he pressed the wrinkles from the bag with his trembling old hand and bending over the rough table close to the lantern, he drew a map somewhat similar to, though less complete than, the one given here. [Illustration: SHOWING THE ROUTE TAKEN BY TOM AND ARCHER.] There is nothing like a map to show one "where he is at," to quote Archer's phrase, and the boys followed with great interest as Melotte penciled the course of the Rhine and the places which he wished to emphasize in the southern part of Alsace. "Here at Norne lives my comrade, Blondel," he said. "Two years we work togezzer at Pas_sake_--you know? In ze great silk mills." "Passaic," said Tom; "that's near Bridgeboro, where I live." "Pas_sake_, yess. So now you are so clevaire to know who shall leeve in a house, I will tell you how you shall know ze house of my comrade, Blondel. _By ze blue flag with one black spot!_ Yess? You know what ziss shall be? _Billet!_" He gave Archer a dig in the ribs as if this represented the high water mark of sagacity. "Oh, I know," said Archer; "it means Gerrman officerrs are billeted therre. Go-o-od _night_! Not for us!" The old man did not seem quite to understand, but he turned again to his map. "Here now is ze new road," he said, drawing it with his shaky old hand. "From ze Rhine road it runs--south--so. Now you are so clevaire--Yankee clevaire, ha, ha, ha!" he laughed with a kind of irritating hilarity; "why should zey make ziss road? From ze north--from Leteur--all around--zey bring our women to make ziss road. Ziss is where Mam'selle is--so! Close by it lives my comrade, Blondel. Ziss is noble army to command, ugh!" He gritted his teeth. "_All are women!_"