"Yes!" said Riley quickly. "What is it? We have heard nothing of the
General."
"Ah!" said the messman, eyeing him thoughtfully, "I thought maybe ye
had heard."
"We have heard nothing," said Riley. "What is it you are talking
about?"
"About them fifty thousand francs, sorr," said the messman, cunningly,
"or five thousand, was it?"
"What's this?" said the Captain, and the others making no attempt to
answer his question, left the messman to tell a voluble tale of a
German General ("though 'twas a Field-Marshal some said it was, and
others went the length of Von Kluck himself") who had been killed some
days before, and lay out in the open with five thousand, or fifty
thousand, francs in his breeches pocket, a diamond-studded gold watch
on his wrist, diamond rings on his fingers, and his breast covered with
Iron Crosses and jeweled Orders.
That both Riley and Brock, as well as the Captain, professed their
profound ignorance of the tale only served, as they well knew, to
strengthen the Tearaways Rifles' belief in it, and after the man had
gone they imparted their plan with huge delight and joyful anticipation
to the Captain.
When they had finished tea and left the keep to return to their own
posts, they were met by Sergeant Clancy.
"I just wanted to speak wid you a moment, sorr," he said.
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