"Vy not _billions_, huh ?" Roscoe gathered that he was sneering skeptically about the number of Americans reported to be in France.
"Ve know just how many," the officer added; "vell, vat you got, huh ?" At this two of the Boches proceeded to search the captives, neither of whom had anything of value or importance about them, and handed the booty to the officer.
"Vat is diss, huh ?" he said, looking at a small object in his hand.
Tom's answer nearly knocked Roscoe off his feet.
"It's a compass," said he.
So Tom had had a compass with him all the time they had been discussing which was the right direction to take! Why he had not brought it out to prove the accuracy of his own contention Roscoe could not comprehend.
"A compass, huh.

Vy you not use it ?" "Because I was sure I was right," said Tom.
"Always sure you are right, you Yankees! Vat ?" "Nothing," said Tom.
The officer examined the trifling haul as well as he could in the darkness, then began talking in German to one of his men.

And meanwhile Tom watched him in evident suspense, and Roscoe, unmollified, cast at Tom a look of sneering disgust for his bungling error--a look which seemed to include the whole brotherhood of scouts.
Finally the officer turned upon Roscoe with his characteristic martial ferocity.
"How long you in France ?" he demanded.
"Oh, about a year or so." "Vat ship you come on ?" "I don't know the name of it." "You come to Havre, vat ?" "I didn't notice the port." "Huh! You are not so--vide-avake, huh ?" "Absent-minded, yes," said Roscoe.
The officer paused, glaring at Roscoe, and Tom could not help envying his friend's easy and self-possessed air.
"You know the _Texas Pioneer_ ?" the officer shot out in that short, imperious tone of demand which is the only way in which a German knows how to ask a question.
"Never met him," said Roscoe.
"A ship!" thundered the officer.
"Oh, a ship.

No, I've never been introduced." "She come to Havre--vat ?" "That'll be nice," said Roscoe.
"You never hear of dis ship, huh ?" "No, there are so many, you know." "To bring billions, yes!" the officer said ironically.
"That's the idea." Pause.
"You hear about more doctors coming--no?
Soon ?" "Sorry I can't oblige you," said Roscoe.
The officer paused a moment, glaring at him and Tom felt very unimportant and insignificant.
"Vell, anyway, you haf good muscle, huh ?" the officer finally observed; then, turning to his subordinates, he held forth in German until it appeared to Tom that he and Roscoe were to carry the machine gun to the enemy line.
To Tom, under whose sullen, lowering manner, was a keenness of observation sometimes almost uncanny, it seemed that these men were not the regular crew which had been stationed here, but had themselves somehow chanced upon the deserted nest in the course of their withdrawal from the village.
For one thing, it seemed to him that this imperious officer was a personage of high rank, who would not ordinarily have been stationed in one of these machine gun pits.

And for another thing, there was something (he could not tell exactly what) about the general demeanor of their captors, their way of removing the gun and their apparent unfamiliarity with the spot, which made him think that they had stumbled into it in the course of their wanderings just as he and Roscoe had done.