“What do you propose to do?”
“Let us follow him. Maybe we’ll get a chance to square accounts.”
“I don’t see what we can do if he is just walking in the woods,” said Nat. “Of course, we could both jump on him and give him a good beating.”
“Something may develop. Come on before he gets out of sight.”
Nat was willing, and side by side the pair hurried off in the direction our hero had taken.
Reaching the spring, Dave procured a drink of water, refilled his canteen, and then proceeded on his way. The road led up to the top of a small hill, and here he thought he might get a good view of the surrounding country in the moonlight.
While on the way Dave paused once or twice to look around him. When he did this Gebauer and Nat lost no time in dropping flat on the ground just as if they were making a night sortie into No Man’s Land. As a consequence, our hero did not become aware that he was being followed.
When Dave reached what he thought was the top of the hill he was rather surprised to find himself among some rather rough rocks and a large quantity of loose stones and dirt. Then he made a discovery, which filled him with wonder. A series of nest-holes for artillery had been constructed on the top of the hill, evidently by the Germans. But there were no evidences of field-pieces having been used there, so Dave came to the conclusion that the enemy had changed their plans after the nests had been made.
There were eight of the openings, and having walked to the last of them the young engineer made another discovery. Here there was a wide trench running downward into a cave-like opening. What was beyond, he could only surmise.
“It looks to me as if that slope leads down into some part of the abandoned mines,” he told himself. “This is worth investigating. I’ll have to report to the captain and we’ll have to see what it looks like in the daytime.”