"Not the slightest, Percy. It must be across the river, or not at all. The sentries will not be anything like so thick, upon that side."
Had anyone looked into the wagon, at eight o'clock next morning, he would have been surprised at the occupation upon which the boys were engaged. Each was sewing a piece of thin waterproof cloth upon a pair of white woolen gloves; so that the fingers, when outspread, had the appearance of the webbed foot of a frog.
"That ought to help us," Ralph said, when they finished. "For a really long swim, I daresay they would be very fatiguing; but it is cold, not fatigue, we have to fear, and speed is therefore everything."
At nine o'clock, Ralph went to the office of the general in command. There were a number of other persons waiting for permits, and Ralph waited his turn to go in to the officer engaged in signing them.
"I am from Frankfort, as my papers show," he said, handing the officer his pass. "I wish for a pass to go, with my horse and cart, to Bellevue. There are, I hear, many officers desirous of selling, or sending home, articles they have saved."
Saved, it may be mentioned, was the word employed in the German army for stolen--which has an ugly sound.
The officer signed the paper.
"You must not go by the Sevres route," he said. "You must turn off at Viroflay, and go by Chaville."
Half an hour later they started in the wagon At the gates of Versailles-- a mile from the town--they were stopped by sentries; but allowed to pass on production of the order, with the necessary stamp.
"Everything is going on well, thus far," Ralph said, as they turned off from the main road, at Viroflay. "It looks like snow, too, which would exactly suit us."