“I’ll knock something thickerr’n wood if you don’t get out o’ the way!” said Archer.
One by one they strolled away laughing.
“I’ll give that bunch one parting shot, all right!” said Archer.
“Shh!” said Tom, “look out what you’re saying.”
Whether it was because the grim authorities who presided over this unfortunate community believed that the renewed activity of the pump would be advantageous to themselves, or whether it was just out of the goodness of their hearts that they supplied the small quantity of sal ammoniac, it would be difficult to say, but in the afternoon a small bottle was forthcoming with the label of Herman Schlossen-something-or-other, chemist, of the neighboring town.
The boys smeared some of it on the crack and then poured some into a little vial which had contained toothache drops.
“Things are so bad in Gerrmany they have to use sal ammoniac for files,” said Archer. “If the warr keeps up much longer the poor people’ll be usin’ witch hazel for screw drivers.”
“Shhh!” said Tom. It was about all he ever said now.
After dark, with fast beating hearts, they went down to the place which Tom had selected for their operations. It was near the extreme end of the grounds, at a place where the wire ran through some thick shrubbery. Even a file might have been used here, if a file had been procurable, for one might work fully concealed though always in danger of the sentry’s hearing the sound. But no file could ever get inside of that camp. They were not even obtainable in the stores of the neighboring town, except upon government order and every letter and package that came to the camp was scrutinized with German thoroughness. Since the recent army reorganization in which the number of sentries at camps all through the Empire had been reduced, and since the discontinuance of electrified wiring at this particular camp, the little file was watched for with greater suspicion than ever before, so that the prisoners had regarded it as a joke when Archer expressed the wish for one. The very thought of a file on the premises was preposterous. And what other way was there to get out?
It was necessary, however, to watch for the sentry outside and here was where the team work came in. Archer spotted the gleam of his rifle at some distance up near the provision gate, and he scurried in that direction to hold him with his usual engaging banter, for even glowering “Fritzie” was not altogether proof against young Archer’s wiles and his extraordinary German.