Herter--entirely trusted by his German pals--was
told off to talk English with me; and a flash of his eye said, _here_
was the friend! It was only a flash, and I couldn't be sure, but
it put me on the _qui vive_. I noticed that in asking me the
question he was told to ask, he emphasized certain words which
needed no emphasis, and spoke them slowly, with a look that
made me determine to fix each one in my mind. This I did, and
putting them together when I got the chance, I made out, 'I
want to get you home. Say you invented this model, and could
put the thing in working trim.'
"That was a big order! If I said it and could keep my word,
would it be a patriotic job to present the enemy with a
perfectly good machine, of a new make, in the place of a wreck they
didn't understand? This was my first thought. But the
second reminded me of a sentence I'd constructed with some of
the emphasized words; '_I want to get you home_.' How did he
expect to get me home--if not by air?
"With that I caught a glimpse of the plan, as one sometimes
catches sight of the earth through a break in massed
clouds when flying. If the man meant to help me, I would help
him. If he turned out a fraud, the Germans shouldn't profit
by his treachery I'd stop that game at the last moment, if I died
for it!
"You will know nothing about the new and curious bombing
biplane of super-speed invented by Leroy Harman of Galbraith,
Texas.
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