"I'll try to skirt the wood."
"You needn't do that. Keep straight on the road we were taking, instead of turning off at the foot of the hill. About half a mile beyond the crossroads the road rises again, and you'll find a windmill. If you climb to the top of that you can see beyond the woods, and you ought to be able to tell if the Germans are moving out of the woods."
"Splendid!" said Frank. He admired Henri's readiness, once he had made up his mind that Frank was going alone, to help him with his greater knowledge of the countryside. Some boys would have been sullen, and would not have volunteered that information, he was sure.
Before Frank started on his lonely errand, he carried Henri's bicycle back of the hedge. Then he mounted his own, and coasted down the hill. His object was to seem entirely indifferent, should some German scout or straggler spy him, but plainly the Germans had decided to leave the road uncovered.
"I guess they decided it was better to risk being surprised than to give themselves away," he said to himself. "Otherwise they'd have been pretty sure to leave an outpost of some sort here because this road looks like just the place for troop movements. It looks more and more as if they had really managed to make a secret of this column."
It did not take him long to find the windmill of which Henri had told him. The place was deserted; there was no one to oppose his entry. And, when he reached the top, he found that there was an excellent view of the country for several miles, a much better one than they had had from their shelter on the hillside above the Germans.
He could see the woods into which the invading troops had disappeared, looking dark and mysterious in the deepening twilight. There was no sign of life about them; no smoke rose above the treetops. And no Germans were beyond them. Then his guess had been right, he decided. They had made for those woods to obtain shelter, and they relied upon the fact that the allies did not know of their presence. It was a daring move; it might well have been successful, save for the accident of the two boys who had observed it. Indeed, even now there was a chance, and something more than a chance, that the German object, whatever it was, might be attained. Frank and Henri were a long way yet from having reached the British headquarters. Unknown dangers and obstacles lay between them and their destination.
"With the German attack developing so quickly as this, we don't know where we may not run into them," mused Frank, as he descended from the windmill and mounted his wheel, preparing to start back to join Henri. "They may be anywhere. I don't want to see them win, but they certainly are wonderfully good fighters. They have good leaders, too."
When he reached Henri he found that his French comrade was lighting the lamp of his bicycle. With a laugh he blew out the flame.
"But it's dark and we'll be arrested if we ride without a light," said Henri, protestingly.