While Chester kept them covered, Hal bound and gagged them. Then the two lads stripped them of their uniforms, which they donned themselves. Feeling perfectly secure in these, the lads saw that the prisoners were well tied and unable to cry out, and then left the room, shutting the door behind them.
In the hall they encountered their host, but the latter, recognizing the Austrian uniform, did not even speak to them. The lads left the house quietly, and turned their faces toward the north, intending to go back by the way they had come.
Several times they were spoken to by Austrian officers as they walked along the streets, but to these salutations they made no reply, trusting that their apparent rudeness would cast no suspicion upon them. And it did not.
At length they came to the farthest Austrian outpost, and here, for the first time they were challenged. Hal stepped a little ahead of Chester and spoke.
“We are inspecting the lines,” he said calmly.
“You cannot pass here,” came the reply. “My orders are to shoot anyone who attempts to get by. The general himself couldn’t pass. You will have to go back.”
“Oh, all right, if that’s the way you feel about it,” said Hal, turning his back upon the sentry.
The sentry, believing that the lads would go away, lowered his rifle, and in that moment Hal turned quickly again and sprang upon him. A quick blow knocked the sentry from his feet, and the lads dashed forward. In the distance Hal made out the form of several horses, and the lads ran toward them.
“Quick, Chester!” cried Hal.
But the Austrian sentry had not been knocked unconscious. He was only stunned. He staggered to his feet, brought his rifle to his shoulder and fired. He was too unsteady to aim carefully, however, and the lads were unhurt.