“Do you mean?” asked Hal, “that 150 men, at large in these woods, have defied the whole German army?”
“There are less than a hundred now,” replied the brother of Alexis, whose name the lads learned was Stephan. “We have been conducting this guerilla warfare for more than two weeks now, and we have done inestimable harm to the Germans. We have evaded large bodies of troops sent out to kill or capture us. Of course, some of our men have been picked off, but we are not going to run yet.”
“But how do you live?” demanded Chester.
“We have been living on roots and herbs,” was the reply, “and such other food as we have been able to take from the enemy.”
“And where do you sleep?”
“This forest,” said Stephan, “makes an ideal hiding place. It is filled with large caves, the presence of which seems to be unknown to the foe. Many of the caves are large enough for twenty men, although it is seldom that there are more than five or six men in one at a time.”
From the rear came the sound of galloping horses. Stephan sprang to instant action.
“Come with me,” he cried, and led the way into the very thick of the forest.
Hal, Chester, Alexis and Marquis followed him and soon were safe from discovery in a large cave, the mouth of which was screened from view by a dense mass of shrubbery.
Outside, after a few minutes, the lads could hear the sounds of moving horses and the exclamations of their riders. The horsemen halted near the entrance to the cave and held a consultation.