Standing by the side of a tree, he began tapping on the bark.

The smiling Don translated the following message:

"Perhaps the castle by moonlight may be too much for our friend's nerves."

The aviator's son replied:

"I wonder if he'll have an irresistible impulse to run."

"He wasn't cut out for this sort of life."

"No; an easy chair in an office for him."

"Bodkins' woodpeckers again!" broke in Chase, with a yawn. "A funny kind of a habit, I call it."

"Maybe so," grinned Don.

The three began to stroll leisurely here and there, quite often accompanied by one or more of the poilus. Down by a little creek they came across a number lined up alongside the bank engaged in the prosaic occupation of washing clothes and hanging them out to dry on convenient saplings and branches.