"It does indeed!" Cowan agreed fervently. "Perhaps you recall how I bawled him out for cutting formation over Vitry that day when we were on our way up for our first action? And how I sent him over the lines on a mission to locate von Herzmann's Circus?"
McGee nodded. "I certainly do remember it. You sure said plenty!"
"Hokum! All hokum!" Cowan said. "Actually, he was going over on a daylight mission of an entirely different nature, and what I said in your presence was merely to mislead you. Unfortunately, you happened to see him running the Archie fire and saw the signals which he had used again and again in crossing over. When you reported to me, we feared the cat was out of the bag. There seemed to be only one way out--to pledge you to secrecy and lead you to believe that we were simply waiting for the proper time to bag him. I knew you would keep your word, and that is another reason why you are here--as a sort of reward. You are the only one who has ever had any such suspicions."
Larkin laughed, mirthlessly. "That makes a lot of chuckle-heads out of the rest of us, doesn't it?"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, Lieutenant. But you did make life rather hard for Siddons. He was afraid to form close friendships. Poor Hampden was the only one he was ever very close to, and Hampden was as ignorant of the facts as any of you. Siddons had to be careful. He knows that the Germans also have spies. Should they get proof of his duplicity, he would be a doomed man."
"Well," McGee sighed again, "he can have my share of that kind of service. I prefer to meet mine without any blindfold over my eyes. I'll make my apologies to him, and admit to his face that he has more nerve than most men I know. But there is one thing I can't get through my head, Major. How could he keep fooling them if he never took them any information?"
"He did take them information. But it was always so cleverly false--just near enough the truth that he could hardly be blamed for not having it more accurate--or else it was the real truth but too late to be of any value to them. You can be sure we gained by his work."
"One more question from me, Major," Larkin spoke up. "What makes you so sure that Count von Herzmann--"