"When we got back to billets and examined our loot, it was a sure enough German spy's code book, and it contained a rough sketch of all our trenches and what not, quite sufficient to use in conjunction with the squared map he carried. The book was printed in German.
"'You know,' said Tommy, 'we must report this to the Colonel as soon as we can.'
"'An' be collared for being out at night without a pass first thing? Not much,' said I.
"'We must hide this loot. They may search us when they find him out there,' said Tommy, looking to the future.
"'Hide away, then,' I said, but my mind was elsewhere, for all of a sudden, I had been hit in the eye with a brilliant inspiration.
"The following morning, when I took our ole man his early tea, I found 'im sitting up in bed sucking a fat cigar and bewilderin' himself with the brigade orders.
"'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.'
"''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.'