"What do you think, boys? Will he come back?"
"Yes, sir," said both boys together.
"Why?" asked the General.
"Why, he was telling the truth!" said Porky,
"They don't look like that other times," said Beany. "He was straight, all right."
"He will have to prove it," said the General grimly. "Men who leave a job without warning, no matter what the needs of the situation, do not fill me with confidence."
"I guess he is sorry now, anyway," said tender-hearted Beany.
"We will hope so," said the General. "Porky, you may typewrite these letters for me, and you, Beany, may check up these lists. If you can do this properly, it will release a man for other duty."
For two hours the two boys were too busy to know what went on in the tent. When the task was done the General dismissed them with strict orders that they were not to go more than thirty feet in any direction from his tent.
When the Germans had occupied that side of the valley, they had also used the hill as a temporary headquarters. Porky and Beany, like a pair of very restless and inquisitive hounds, went over the ground inch by inch. They could not help feeling that something good must be waiting for them within their screen of trees. The fighting miles away went on all day, and the time dragged for the boys until about three in the afternoon.