“Yes,” Phil agreed; “I don’t believe there’s any argument to be made against that. If we keep together, we’re bound to attract attention. If we travel singly, or in twos, we can hide better in the daytime. We’ll be hampered, too, with these uniforms. If we separate, traveling by night and hiding in the daytime, perhaps some of us may be able to exchange them in some of these French villages for something less convicting. We may find some old work clothes that the boches overlooked or rejected with contempt, or we may find some French inhabitants caught in the big drive of the enemy, who will bend an effort to help us camouflage our American looks.”
“Before we separate, I want to make an announcement.”
Everybody turned questioningly toward the speaker.
“Who are you?” asked one of the escaped prisoners who stood near the boy that volunteered this interposition and looked curiously into his face. Evidently the inquisitor had spotted him as a stranger.
“He’s all right,” said Phil, coming to the support of his friend. “Boys, this is Tim Turner who was with us at Belleau Woods. After I was captured, he followed in the dusk, hoping to be able to come to my relief. But he also was taken prisoner and escaped today. Dan Fentress and I found him down here, or, rather, he found us, and he’s been waiting for our return with you boys. What is it, Tim? What announcement do you want to make?”
“This,” the bullet-headed corporal answered. “I don’t believe you and Dan caught the significance of what those two Huns were talking about down here, did you?”
“No, we’ll have to confess that we didn’t,” Phil replied. “We flunked bad in our German test.”
“Well, I got it,” Tim continued impressively. “I never studied German at school, but I worked for a German farmer two years and got so I could carry on a conversation with him and his family without any trouble. Those two Huns were planning one of the most fiendish plots you ever heard of—dastardly, just about as bad as sinking the Lusitania or torturing Belgian women and children. They were planning to kill most, or all, of the prisoners in this place and make it appear that an American did the deed.”
CHAPTER XXI
THE PLOT
“I understood almost every word they uttered and the plot is as clear as day,” Tim declared excitedly. “It’s simply dastardly and as treacherous as the violation of the Belgian treaty. Incidentally I learned something more, too, that will interest you considerably.