Alone with Wyble the colonel still maintained his pose of majestic surveillance.
Then with no warning he spat forth the question: “_Wer bist du?_”
Not the best character actor unhung could have simulated the owlish ignorance in Cash’s face. Not the shrewdest spy could have had time to mask a knowledge of German. And, as Colonel von Scheurer well knew, no spy who did not understand German would have been sent to enlist in the German Army.
The colonel at once was satisfied that the newcomer was not a spy. Yet to make doubly certain of the recruit’s willingness to serve against his own country Von Scheurer sought another test. Pulling toward him a scratch pad he picked up a pencil from the table before him and proceeded to make a rapid sketch. When the sketch was complete he detached the top sheet and showed it to Cash. On it was drawn a rough likeness of the American flag.
“Old Glory,” answered Cash after a leisurely survey of the picture; adding in friendly patronage: “And not bad drawed, at that.”
“It is the United States flag,” pursued the colonel, “as you say. It is the national emblem of the country where you were born; the country you are renouncing, to become a subject of the All Highest.”
He wanted to be sure of every step. While he did not at all know the meaning of “renounce,” yet his attendance at mountain camp-meeting revivals had given him a possible inkling as to what “All Highest” meant.
“What?” inquired the puzzled colonel, not catching his drift.
“The ‘All Highest’ is Gawd, ain’t it?” said Cash.
“It is His Imperial Majesty, the Kaiser,” sharply retorted the scandalized colonel.
“Oh!” exclaimed Cash, much interested. “I see. In Wes’ V’ginny we call Him ‘Gawd.’ An’ over in this neck of the woods your Dutch name for Him is ‘Kaiser.’ What a ninny I am! I’d allers had the idee the Kaiser was jes’ a man, with somethin’ the same sort of job as Pres’dent Wilson’s. But——”
“This picture represents the flag of the United States,” resumed the impatient Von Scheurer, waiving the subject of theology for the point in hand. “You have renounced it. You have declared your wish to fight against it. Prove that. Prove it by tearing that sketch in two—and spitting upon it!”
“Hold on!” interposed Cash, speaking with tolerant kindness as to a somewhat stupid child. “Hold on, Cap! You got me wrong. Or may be I didn’t make it so very clear. I didn’t ever say I wanted to fight Old Glory. All I said I wanted to do was to fight that crowd of smart Alecks over yonder who jail me all the time an’ won’t let me fight in my own way. I’ve got nothin’ agin th’ old flag. Why, that ’ere’s the flag I was borned under! Me an’ pop an’ gran’ther an’ the hull b’ilin’ of us—as fur back as there was any ’Merica, I reckon. I don’t go ’round wavin’ it none. That ain’t my way. But I sure ain’t goin’ to tear it up. And I most gawdamightysure ain’t goin’ to spit on it. I——”