Possibly he did not understand; the conversation--or that part of it which concerned us--was carried on exclusively in English.

His face, as he bowed to accept the certified warrant for the flour, gave us no hint of his mental processes.
Major Bayer claimed a professional kinship with those of us who were newspaper men, as he was the head of the Boy Scout movement in Germany and edited the official organ of the Boy Scouts.

He had a squad of his scouts on messenger duty at his headquarters--smart, alert-looking youngsters.

They seemed to me to be much more competent in their department than were the important-appearing German Secret Service agents who infested the building.

The Germans may make first-rate spies--assuredly their system of espionage was well organized before the war broke out--but I do not think they are conspicuous successes as detectives: their methods are so delightfully translucent.
Major Bayer had been one of the foremost German officers to set foot on Belgian soil after the severance of friendly relations between the two countries.