"Yes," admitted Hal.
"What shall we do?"
"You fellows get down on your faces—flop!" broke in the leader of the ruffians. "That's what you'll do!"
"Will you be kind enough to shut up?" retorted Private Dietz coolly. "We're taking our orders from the sergeant."
"Let him come down here and give the orders, then," jeered the leader of the invaders.
"You'd better give in, Dietz and Johnson," order Sergeant Hal. "You can't do anything and I don't want to see you killed."
"That's your order, then, is it, sergeant?" inquired Private Johnson.
"Yes; it can't be helped."
Dietz and Johnson, therefore, lay down as directed. Some of the scoundrels who were not armed busied themselves with tying the soldiers, and this work the miscreants did with a thoroughness that spoke eloquently of practice.
But the diversion gave Hal a chance to do something that had popped into his head at the instant when he had stepped back for the mirror.