While some of the prisoners were weeping, others wringing their
hands, and others standing in an attitude of completest dejection,
he was apparently as self-possessed and unalarmed as though he had
been standing in front of the barracks at Ehrenbreitstein.
"Same old Tom!" whispered Frank to Bart. "The Germans never cowed
him yet."
"He's faced death too many times to fear it now," answered Bart,
with a catching of his breath. "They knew, too, what they were
about when they tied his hands."
"You bet they know what those hands can do," added Billy.
Two or three minutes elapsed while a dispute seemed to be going on
between the men seated at the table. Then, at a given signal, the
guards marshaled the prisoners in line and led them toward the
wall at the back of the parade ground.
The Army Boys were in a fever of apprehension.
"What's the lieutenant doing?" asked Bart impatiently. "Can't he
see that now's the time?"
"Don't worry," admonished Frank, though he himself was frantic
with the desire for action. "He knows what he's about."
The prisoners were lined up in a row about ten feet from the wall.
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