“Archie, hold your tongue, I tell you.” In the excitement of the moment, Ada quite forgot that she was a young lady, and brought her foot down on the piazza floor with a decided stamp. “He reads such trashy books, he gets his head full of nonsense,” she added by way of explanation to the others. “People we know don’t do things of that kind. Besides, Gretel isn’t really German herself. She doesn’t even know----” Ada paused abruptly. She had suddenly remembered something. Jimmy Fairfax also remembered, and the two exchanged a startled glance. Neither spoke, however, and in a few minutes Ada rose and walked away to the end of the piazza, where she was quickly joined by her indignant cousin. “I don’t see what makes you so cross,” complained the injured Archie. “I didn’t say anything I oughtn’t to. You know there are a lot of German spies, just as well as I do, and you said the other day you were surprised they let the Schiller girl go to the naval station with the others, because of her German name.” “I never said Gretel was a spy,” snapped Ada. “I never thought of such a thing. You mustn’t talk about such dreadful possibilities. Gretel is a friend of mine.” “I wouldn’t have a German friend,” began Archie, patriotically, but he got no further, for at that moment Jimmy Fairfax joined them, and he deemed it prudent to keep his ideas to himself, remembering Stephen Cranston’s remarks on a similar occasion. Jimmy was looking both grave and troubled. “May I speak to you for a moment alone?” he asked Ada, in a rather low voice. “Certainly. Run away, Archie; I want to talk to Mr. Fairfax. Go and see what they are doing about Gretel. They may have heard something more.” Archie retired obediently, but he did not join the rest of the party. Neither did he go as far away as Ada expected. “I’m a good deal worried about what I told you last night,” Jimmy began, as soon as Ada’s small cousin was supposedly out of hearing. “Of course, the man I saw talking to Gretel Schiller may not have been a German, or even if he were one, Mrs. Chester may know all about the matter. But if the girl has really disappeared, do you think it is my duty to tell Mrs. Chester what I saw that day?” Ada hesitated. She did not want to injure Gretel, and yet Gretel was a German, and there were so many strange stories going about. “I think perhaps we’d better wait a little while,” she compromised. “Gretel may come home all right, and everything be explained. But if she really has disappeared, I suppose we shall have to tell all we know.” Ada’s voice was solemn, but she was not quite free from a little thrill of excitement at the prospect of possibly being the means of unearthing some deep-laid German plot. “It’s a horribly uncomfortable position,” said Jimmy, regretfully. “I hate to tell tales, and yet what I saw might furnish a clue. Besides, our duty as loyal Americans----”