"Looks so," said Beany, "but you never can tell."
And they couldn't.
CHAPTER XIV
ORDERS ARE ORDERS
Night fell dark and stormy. As soon as it was dusk Fritz begged to be released and, receiving the General's permission, slipped away.
"I doubt if he comes back," said the General, "but it will spread the news at least. No, it is too much to expect that a man will persuade a couple of men, to say nothing of twenty, to give themselves into the hands of an enemy they have been taught to believe is ruthless, but if he does, we will know that the conditions in the German army are worse than we dream."
Time dragged away. The boys, still believing in Fritz, sat at the head of the only trail, watching. They almost wore their watches out looking at them, and trying them to see if they were wound. Time seemed to stand still and yet, somehow, ten o'clock came, and eleven and a quarter past. At half past the drivers prepared the cars for their silent night journey to the next sector. The tents were down, all but the screen of blankets behind which, with a closely shaded light, the General sat.
Ten minutes and the boys looked once more at the illuminated dials, and sighed.
"I'd have bet on that duck, if I was a betting man," said Porky sadly. "I bet he meant to come."
"Hark!" said Beany, listening.