"Well, as nearly as I can figure it out," responded Blake, as he and his chums marched onward in the darkness, "Secor and Labenstein must have hidden the films in the hut after they stole them from the place where we went down under the gas attack. For some reason they did not at once turn them over to the German command."
"Maybe they wanted to hold them out and get the best offer they could for our property," suggested Charlie.
"Maybe," assented Blake. "Whatever their game was," and he spoke in a low tone which could not carry to the two plotters who were walking ahead with the German captain, "they went to the hut to get the films they had left there. And as luck would have it, we came on the scene at the same time."
"I wish we'd been a little ahead of time," complained Macaroni. "Then we might have gotten back with our films."
"No use crying over a broken milk bottle," remarked Joe.
"That's right," Blake said. "Anyhow, there we were and there Secor and his German friend were when the others came and——"
"Here we are now!" finished Joe grimly.
And there, indeed, they were, prisoners, with what fate in store none of them could say.
Suddenly from the darkness a sentinel challenged in German, and the captain of the little party answered, passing on with the prisoners.
A little later they turned down into a sort of trench and went along this, the boys being so placed that each walked between two Germans, who carried their guns with bayonets fixed, as though they would use them on the slightest provocation. But Blake and his chums gave none.