But in another minute the sentry had halted.
"Huh!" the bunkies heard him mutter. "I reckon I'm getting as nervous as a sick cat, after what happened to Corporal Raynes's outpost last night."
Then the lurkers heard the sentry slowly returning to the point from which he had first challenged them.
It was three full minutes ere cautious Private Overton ventured to crawl away from the spot. He crawled for more than a hundred and fifty yards, too, ere he ventured to rise to crouch, peering all around him. Then he nodded to Noll, close behind him, and the bunkies proceeded.
It was not until they had made fifteen minutes more of the most stealthy progress that Hal and Noll began to feel really easy.
"Now, see here, bunkie," spoke Private Overton at last, "we're not as well 'out of the woods' as we might be fooled into imagining. I think it is even dangerous for us to go together just now. We might run into a scouting detachment, lurking among the rocks, or behind bushes, and get captured after all. Look hard through the darkness. Do you see that massive, peculiar formation of rock ahead? About three quarters of a mile from here, I would say."
"Yes; I remember noting it in daylight," nodded Terry.
"All right. You make a wide detour to the left, and I'll do the same to the right. Go cautiously every step of the way, and have your eyes and ears open. Take your time. I'll meet you there."
"But what's the good of doing that?" objected Noll.
"Just this: If we go together we may run into a superior force of the enemy and be captured. If we go singly we won't both be caught by the same force, anyway, and there'll be a chance for one of us to get through to Captain Cortland with the news. Left oblique for yours, Noll! March!"