"There's no use in sitting here and wishing that things were different," he said, at last. "Come on! Let's get back to the road! If we can't go behind our own lines, let's go behind the Germans, and see how far we can get. They may be too busy to pay much attention to us, anyhow. Oh, I wish we had some way of getting around except by walking! We're losing all this time. That's what is going to ruin everything for us, just when it seemed that we had a chance to do something."
They got back to the road from which they had turned to avoid the enraged peasants of Hannay, and went along mournfully. Once they heard a loud crackling, and dodged immediately into the shelter of the hedge along the road. A German soldier, mounted on a powerful motorcycle, sped by; but he went so fast that they might have stayed in the road without attracting his attention. He came from behind them, from the direction of Hannay, and Paul groaned as they went out into the road again.
"They must be in force in that direction, too," he said. "That shows that it probably wouldn't have done us much good to go back around Hannay to try to strike another road. We would only have run into a lot more Germans, I suppose, if we had."
"There seem to be Germans everywhere," said Arthur. "How can there be so many of them?"
"That is the way they go to war. It is their plan always to have more men than the enemy. It is a good way, too. A thousand brave men cannot beat five thousand, no matter how brave they are. The weight of numbers has won many a battle."
"Listen," said Arthur. "Do you hear that? It sounds as if another motorcycle might be coming from behind us."
They were climbing a stiff little grade, and were near the top. Paul stopped, and listened.
"No," he said. "That's not a motorcycle, but an automobile. I wonder—" He stopped and thought for a moment. "It's still half a mile or so away. It's worth trying! It would be a chance! And it can do no harm. Arthur, do you remember how we stopped their motorcycle when those two officers were chasing us after we had escaped from the house where they had hidden the guns and the shells?"
"Yes!" Arthur saw the idea at once. "We haven't any glass—but if we could find some sharp pointed stones?"
"Quick! Let's look!"