This time it was a battery of light artillery—four guns, going along almost as quickly as the cavalry had done.
"That ought to settle it," said Frank, with satisfaction. "Even if they run into a brigade of Uhlans, the guns ought to do the trick. I don't believe they had any guns or we'd have heard them by this time."
"They're still fighting back there," said Henri, as they wheeled their bicycles back to the road. "I can hear the firing."
"Yes, and I think it must be a pretty lively skirmish, too," said Frank. "Captain Hardy would keep them at it. Listen! The Uhlans must outnumber them three or four to one. I hope the others get up in time."
A few minutes gave assurance that they had. They heard the firing still more loudly; then, a few minutes later, the heavier sound of the guns chimed in. And then there was silence behind them.
"Score one for our side," said Frank. "We know a little more than we did before, too. I think it's a safe guess that the Germans aren't in this direction. We can go along without worrying about them."
As he said that they were coasting down a little hill, at the bottom of which, Henri had said, another road crossed the one on which they were riding just around a little turn in the road. And as they took that turn, their feet off the pedals, they almost fell off their wheels in astonishment. For the transverse road was gray-green with soldiers; soldiers with spiked helmets, marching south!
A moment later they did fall off their wheels, deliberately, and at a common impulse, because it was the only way there was of stopping before they were in the midst of the German infantry. There was just a chance that they had not been seen and they took it, and fled to the hedge again, leaving their bicycles behind. There was no time to bother about such trifles now. The thing to do was to make good their escape, if they could.
"Whew!" said Frank, whistling. "That was a close shave, if you like! Where on earth did they come from? And how is it they didn't see the English cavalry?"
"Perhaps they didn't care, if they did see them," said Henri, wide-eyed with astonishment. "Look, Frank, there must be thousands of them! Where can they be going?"