"I saw him, and talked with him," came the convincing response. "He remembered me, though he put his finger on his lips, and looked around him as though he were suspicious. He is, as you said, in charge of a manufacturing plant, or appears to be, though he may have been sent there to spy upon the people, and learn valuable facts for the service. But I am glad to be able to do even a little in return for your kindness."
As two soldiers wearing the Red Cross on their sleeves came along just then with a stretcher, the boys beckoned to them, and had Philip Krauss carried off to the field hospital. They did not see him again after that. If, however, they should ever reach home again, they determined some day to look the Hoboken man up, and learn of his further adventures.
CHAPTER XX.
THE CAMP FIRES OF AN ARMY.
"Here, it's getting well along into the afternoon," remarked Tubby with a forlorn look on his face, "and I'm so knocked out that if you told me you meant to make a start for the little Belgian town right away I'd faint, sure I would."
"Don't think of doing it, then, Tubby," Rob told him, "because the rest of your chums are feeling in pretty much the same box themselves."
"We've had a terribly hard day of it, for a fact," agreed Merritt, as he looked around upon the scene, and shuddered in spite of his well known nerve.
"Then please tell me what's the program?" pleaded the fat scout. "That munch of black bread was good enough to keep a fellow from starving to death; but I certainly do hope there's a better prospect ahead of us for supper."