Achmed Abdullah

“ Let me stick to Germany and the Uhlans! That's my condition!"
Tom had succeeded beyond his hopes. The Colonel shook his hands again and again, pump-handle fashion.
"Grossartig! Kolossal!" he bellowed. "I shall speak of it to His All-Gracious Majesty. The Fatherland needs men such as you. Why"—with a severe side glance at the little Ensign—"you can set an example in patriotism to many a native-born Prussian." He clicked his heels and saluted. "I thank you in the name of the Uhlans, in the name of the army, the name of the Emperor. And now—let's go back to business—your condition is accepted." ”

“ Tom looked at him with something like admiration for the man's colossal, brutal, sprawling insolence. His own wits were at fever heat. Only one thing mattered—to regain his own liberty, his very life, to help Bertha get out of the country and, if possible, to frustrate the German designs, whatever they were, in connection with the line of ships, with the mine. ”

“ He could not imagine why it should be so hard to find somebody in the United States, most likely a German-American, who would be willing to play cat's-paw for the German Government, and he said something of the sort.
"Why pick on me?" he asked. "The woods are full of people ready to earn a dishonest penny."
The Colonel winked at him in a manner that said, more plainly than words, that Tom knew more than he tried to make believe.
"Lieutenant Graves," he replied, "I'll put my cards on the table, face up. The British Government does not want these ships to get to their destination. ”