"Yes, Excellency."
"Then hasten; you ought to return here by midnight."
The two soldiers, strangers in a strange district, saluted and hurried away, glad to be clear of the obnoxious influence of the Hun who was temporarily their commanding officer.
The Moke waited until he was fairly certain that the coast was clear; then he unlocked the door of his chum's place of incarceration.
"How about a good tuck-in, Slogger?" he asked briskly.
"Right-o, Moke!" was the cheery reply, recalling long-past tuck-shop days in peaceful England.
A search in the farmhouse larder provided a rye loaf, a piece of freshly made cheese, and a portion of a meat-pie. This, with a hastily prepared salad and a bottle of wine, furnished a substantial repast. Both men were hungry, Farrar especially, and hardly a word was exchanged until the sub announced that he was "properly whacked," and "down to Plimsoll line."
"Now change," suggested the Moke, indicating the deserter's uniform. "For the next few hours you are my soldier servant. We'll make for the marshes east of Livenza. According to well-authenticated reports I hear that there are large numbers of Austrian deserters who lurk there and live on the fish that they catch and the food they steal from the Italian peasantry. The Austrians have not sufficient military police to stop the desertions; in fact, several of the policemen desert themselves. If we are stopped before we get there I'll have to spin a plausible yarn."
"That's all very well," objected the sub as he struggled into an ill-fitting tunic; "but the nearer we get to the lines the greater risk we run of being closely examined. I can quite understand your being able to ape the blustering Hun in the interior of the Austrian Empire, but there are numerous German troops on the Italian front, and they are dead nuts on detecting spies. I don't fancy dangling at the end of a rope."
"Nor do I," admitted Sylvester, perhaps for the first time realising the extreme penalty that he had been incurring by his Kopenick stunt. "Can you suggest anything better? That's the main point."