Amos was undoubtedly a better German scholar than his Western cousin, and could therefore understand what was passing between the two men. Jack felt him give a violent start once or twice, from which he guessed the other had caught something said which had seemed to have escaped his ears. It was no time to indulge in a whisper, however, and so he had to possess his soul in patience, and wait for a more fitting opportunity to learn what had upset his chum. Once the Uhlan captain spoke of the fierce fight that must have taken place at the battered windmill, showing that he had read all the signs aright, even to the freshly turned earth over under the willow tree on the bank of the little brooklet near by. There was a note of pride in his raspy voice when he spoke of the apparent fact that those who had used the buttress of the windmill for a fort must have held out until every man of them had been slain. In the eyes of a German such devotion to the dearly beloved Fatherland was only what might be expected. When the captain rose from his hard seat, Amos for one terrible moment feared that the catastrophe he had dreaded was about to descend upon them, for he heard the second man make a remark that brought things directly home. “Do you think our brave comrades could have found and buried all those who fell here, Captain, after first accounting for scores of the detested British?” was what he said. Even as he spoke he bent down and tried to see under the pile of wreckage; and certainly both boys held their breath. But Fortune was kind to them, for it happened that the sun was under a cloud, and the man’s eyes could not penetrate the gloom that lay around them. “Even if they did not, what does it matter?” remarked the commander. “A soldier needs no tomb. It is enough that he has done his duty toward his country and his emperor. If there should by chance be a body uncared for it will soon be buried just the same. Come, let us be going, Lieutenant Krueger. The horses will be all the fresher for this short halt. Twenty miles we should cover before sunset, and strike terror to thousands of French hearts with our passage through the land!” Yes, thank fortune they were going now. The eyes of the lieutenant had been unequal to the task of seeing what lay under all that piled-up rubbish; and he did not think it worth while to thrust in with his sword. Amos was breathing freely again, though far from easy in his mind. Now they knew the men were climbing down from the elevation. The horses had become restive, as though eager to be once more on the mad gallop to which they were so accustomed. Amos had reached out his hand and found that of his chum, to which he was clinging, squeezing Jack’s fingers convulsively as though he might be laboring under a tremendous strain.