After that the strip of rag carpet was carefully replaced, and on top of that he lifted the table. All was as innocent looking as before, and no one not in the secret would ever suspect that down underneath the cottage floor lay a strange secret and which had all the earmarks of treachery to the cause of the Allies. The old man and his wife now moved to the other end of the room. They were talking it all over in soft tones, and Amos could see that apparently the man tried to encourage his better half, for he seemed to be assuring her that what they were doing was for the best. Amos, lying there a prey to varied thoughts, was sorry for them. He actually believed that the temptation must have been too much for their standard of loyalty to their sorely stricken country. With the gold they would receive for this work perhaps they meant to go to America, there to build a new home amidst strangers, and forget if they could the land they had betrayed. “Oh! it’s too cruel, and I can hardly believe any one would be so mean as to do such a thing,” Amos was saying to himself, as though trying his best to find a gleam of comfort. Jack, pulling at his arm, aroused him. “Let’s get back to the mattress, and talk it over,” the Western boy said in his ear, and at that they both began to move softly along, Jack apparently having a thorough knowledge of the attic, as though he had made a mental map of his surroundings at the time the candle still burned. Once again they stretched themselves out there. If a board creaked under their weight, as they moved so cautiously, it could easily have been mistaken for a gust of wind outside whining around the corners of the cottage. Amos was eager to hear from his chum. He placed such an exaggerated value upon Jack’s opinions that in this emergency he wanted to learn what the other thought about it, what their course should be, and all other things along similar lines. “Do you still think that he must be a spy, Jack?” he asked, to get a start made. “I can’t see anything else so far,” replied the other. “Their fear of being interrupted seemed to say as much. Then the several words spoken in plain German make that stronger. It must be the man is afraid to go out again, which was why they’ve hidden him down in the cellar.” “P’raps what information they mean to give him isn’t quite complete yet, and he’ll have to stay over until the next night?” suggested Amos. “That isn’t a bad idea,” commented the ranch boy, soberly. “But, Jack, what ought we do about it?” asked Amos. “’Course this isn’t any funeral of ours. We’re neutrals; but I hate a traitor so much I feel like setting my heel on one as I would on a viper. If these silly old people have gone and sold themselves for German gold, they ought to be punished for it. That’s what I think, Jack; now tell me if you’re of the same mind,” and Amos stopped whispering to give his chum a chance to speak. CHAPTER XIX. JACK DEMANDS THE TRUTH.