“How far ought we to go on, Herb?” Don asked.
“The captain wants us to find out about this Hun,” he said. “I didn’t exactly grasp what he meant and he added that we ought to discover, if possible, where the trail goes that the spy uses, find his camp if he has one, or lay for him up here where he won’t suspect us. If any general orders come in the captain will send a runner. I expect we’d better follow this pathway another quarter of a mile, or until we find an extra good place for an ambush. There some of us can lie low and a few can scout around. What say you?”
“I’m agreed, Herb. You know best.”
“No, and I hate taking the responsibility in this sort of thing. I really don’t mind a scrap or going against what a fellow can see, but this thing of risking men on the possibility of walking into a trap gets my nerve a little.”
“You think a trap is possible?” Don asked.
“Well, you might not call it that; it wouldn’t be intentional, but we might walk into a noose, nevertheless.”
“Say, Herb, what do you think of this? Dandy spot for an ambush, eh? I suggest we stop right here.”
They had come up out of the valley, rounded a little knoll, over the top of which some of the men had climbed and come out at the head of another valley. At one side, well on up the hill, there was a mass of squarish boulders forming a sort of restricted and oblong basin perhaps a hundred feet in length and three or four feet in average depth. On every side among the rocks, grew low, branching spruces, their spreading branches making a dense shade over the spot.
“A ripper! Dandy! Perhaps old Mother Nature put this here for our express purpose, nothing else.” Herbert was enthusiastic. He gave the word to halt and to assemble; then, stooping under the spruces, led his men into the natural little fortress.