"'I beg your pardon, sir!' I says, 'but may I have a word with you?' "'You know, McNab,' he says, screwing his eye-glass into his eye with a smile--'you know that I am at any hour of the day or night glad to have a talk to a man of understanding like yourself.' "'That's good of you, Colonel,' I says, 'to meet me with such kindness. But I think, as you say, that I have just a little more than the usual share of intellec' under my hat, but what I have come to lay before your notice is this: I have discovered why the Boche guns always register on our artillery positions the moment they are taken up, and the source of the leakage of information.' "'Oh, you have, have you?' says he. "''Tis a spy, sir,' says I, 'and it's signalling to the Huns he was when I caught him.' "'Another blessed spy legend,' he yawned, 'I really thought that you, McNab, would be the last man to become afflicted with the spy craze. I have arrested half a dozen so-called spies this week already only to find they were harmless rustics--' "'I beg your pardon, Colonel,' I returns, with that chilling dignity which has at times even made generals falter, 'but there is no legend about Private McNab's spy.' "'Then trot out your spy,' he says, 'and I'll come and look 'im over.' "'I not only caught him red-handed at his nefarious trafficking (them was the very words I used) ... I not only caught the blighter, but I put his light out.' "'What?' he shouts, clutching my arm, 'you killed the poor brute.' "'_We_ did--me and Tommy, and we found this here code in his fob,' said I. "With that I threw the little code book on the bed, and the old man, after looking through it carefully (he could read German, our old man), got out of bed and started dressing in a businesslike way. "'Shut that door, McNab,' says he, 'and let me have the benefit of your invaluable advice.' "All of a sudden I was struck with a brilliant inspiration, and I let the old Colonel have it for what it was worth. "As it happened the old man thought a mighty lot of it--such a lot, in fact, that by one o'clock that day he started to imagine the inspiration had come from his own fertile brain. He liked to think that it was his, and, Lord bless 'im, I don't grudge him the glory. "After laying our heads together, the Colonel went back to the artillery lines and spent three hours talking to the Battery Major, and I looted a dozen three-pounder rockets of var-i-ous colours out of the stores. In the afternoon the Colonel called all his officers together, and kept the blighted motorcycle dispatch riders busy buzzing up and down the line with messages, till late in the evening.