Scarcely daring to breathe, Dave kept himself near the top of the tree, doing what he could to hide from the observation of the five German soldiers below. He knew that they most likely had discovered the raincoat, the package of food, and the rifle he had left at the foot of the tree; and that being so, they would take it for granted that he could not be far away.

He heard the five soldiers talking earnestly, and also heard them tear open the package of food he had been carrying.

“Ha! he lives pretty high,” was the comment of one of the soldiers. “Smoked bologna and potato salad! Very good! I think, comrades, we can dispose of this in short order.”

“We certainly can,” returned another soldier, and the whole five, who were evidently hungry, lost no time in disposing of what remained of the food.

Making no noise, Dave succeeded in lowering himself to one of the larger limbs of the tree. Then, as the soldiers continued to talk and eat, having thrown themselves on the ground for that purpose, he worked his way out on the limb until he was almost to the end.

Below him he could make out a mass of brushwood and also several rocks. These partly screened the spot where he might land from the trunk of the tree. But the distance to the ground was all of fifteen feet, and our hero was by no means sure that he could make the drop in safety. If he sprained an ankle or injured his foot, it would be all up with him.

“But I’ve got to take some chances,” he murmured to himself. “I don’t intend to go back to one of their prison pens. Besides, having escaped once, it may be that they would shoot me on sight.”

He gave himself a moment more of thought, and then, gritting his teeth, suddenly swung out to the end of the limb and let his body drop.

As he came swiftly down he heard a yell of surprise from one of the soldiers. Then all leaped up, grabbing their weapons as they did so.

Fortunately for our hero, he came down in some of the brushwood, and this broke his fall to such an extent that he was not injured save for a few scratches. Having landed, he leaped out of the bushes and then sped through the woods at the best rate of speed he could command.

Crack! Crack! went one rifle after another, and the bullets whistled uncomfortably close to him.

However, he was not struck, and soon the brushwood and the trees screened him so completely that further shooting was out of the question.

But Dave knew the German soldiers must be after him, and he kept on running until he was well-nigh exhausted. He was going downhill at the time, and he had to be careful that he did not pitch headlong over some of the rough rocks which cropped out here and there on the hillside.

At the foot of the hill ran a small brook, and here he paused long enough to get a drink. Then he walked along through the brook for quite a distance, doing this that he might hide any trail that he had left behind. He had heard that the enemy occasionally used hounds in getting on the track of escaped prisoners.

Beyond the hill and the brook was a wide valley dotted with numerous farms. Here the country was more or less open, and he wondered how he could make another advance. He moved along the brook, and presently came to an old stone bridge, over which ran a fairly good highway.

One side of the bridge was hidden in a mass of bushes, and here the young lieutenant found a fairly good hiding-place. From this he did not dare to venture until darkness had fallen, in the meantime keeping his eyes and ears wide open for the possible appearance of the soldiers who had discovered him. But they did not come that way, and he at last concluded that he must have thrown them off the trail.

It was probably nine o’clock in the evening when Dave resolved to resume his journey westward. He crawled out on the roadway just as a farmer came along driving a box-wagon loaded with barrels.

“I wonder if I dare chance a ride?” he said to himself; and then, as the back of the wagon passed him, he made a quick leap, landing between several barrels. He wormed his way in between the barrels, finally coming to a sitting position well hidden from the farmer, who sat on the front seat driving.

Two hours passed, and in that time the wagon covered a distance of at least twelve miles. The valley with its farms was left behind, and they were beginning to ascend a slight rise of ground. Here there was another patch of woods.

During the ride Dave discovered that one of the barrels in the wagon contained apples and another pears, and he appropriated as much of this fruit as he wished to eat.

“Get up there, you!” cried the farmer in German to his team. “We’ll soon be there now, and I’ll be glad of it. This has been a long drive.”

Dave could see that they were approaching some sort of an estate, and from the words of the farmer concluded that a stop was to be made there. Consequently, he thought it about time for him to leave the wagon, and lost no time in doing so.

This move was a fortunate one for our hero, because less than two minutes later the wagon turned in at a massive stone gateway where several men were on guard. Seeing the lights flashing in the darkness and the figures of some men moving along, Dave lost no time in dropping out of sight into the woods on the opposite side of the road.

“Well, I’m about twelve miles nearer the fighting front, anyway,” he reasoned. “I suppose from now on I’ve got to be doubly careful as to how I advance.”

With the coming of nightfall the rumble of battle had died away. But from the sounds of the last shots fired, he had reached the conclusion that the fighting front could not be any great distance off.

As the young lieutenant hid in the woods opposite the gateway he heard a sound on the road from the westward, and presently several German officers on horseback came riding along. They were talking earnestly, and turned into the same gate which the farmer had used.

“Hello! maybe that’s some sort of headquarters,” Dave murmured to himself. “If it is, I had better watch out for myself. They must have guards all around here.”

It would have been the part of prudence for our hero to have placed as much distance as possible between himself and such a place. But the young lieutenant had not only the bravery of the average American soldier, but he had likewise his share of curiosity, and now that he was so close to these German officers he wondered how they were carrying on the conduct of the war.

“I’d like to spy on them a little and see just how they do it,” he told himself. “Gracious! what a story it will be to tell if ever I get back!”

His curiosity finally got the better of him, and, watching his opportunity, he slipped across the road again and then climbed the stone fence of the estate. He knew he was taking a tremendous chance, for there might not only be soldiers in that vicinity, but the owner of the place might have a number of watch-dogs.

Looking ahead through the trees and brushwood, the young lieutenant presently made out a large stone-pile, evidently an ancient German castle. All was dark from the outside save the light which peered from around the cracks of dark curtains pulled down over the windows. But as the night was warm, most of the windows were open and the air blowing would occasionally shift a curtain so that a look inside could be obtained.

There seemed to be no soldiers on that side of the building, so our hero had little difficulty in making his way forward until he was within a short distance of the castle. He could hear loud and earnest talking coming from probably six or eight officers. They were gathered in a room not far from where he was standing, and when the wind raised the curtain of one of the windows for a few seconds, Dave saw that they were seated around a large table containing a number of maps and documents.

“And you think the Crown Prince will be here to-night?” questioned one of the officers presently.

“That’s what he said, Captain Baska,” was the reply.

“I doubt if he will agree to this plan,” came from another officer. “Probably he will have a plan of his own,” he added, rather sourly.

The discussion continued, the officers in the meantime consulting the maps and some of the documents which lay before them. All were smoking and to let in some fresh air, one of the curtains of a window was raised several inches.

Presently there was a commotion at the front of the castle, and a moment later an under officer came into the room somewhat out of breath.

“The Crown Prince!” he announced.

Instantly all of the officers in the room arose to their feet and left the apartment, evidently intending to greet the German Crown Prince at the entrance to the castle.

Peering under the curtain into the room, Dave saw that the apartment was empty. The table where the officers had sat was less than two feet away, and on it still rested the maps and the documents they had been consulting.

It was an opportunity too good to be lost. Though he was running a tremendous risk, Dave raised the curtain to the window a trifle higher, threw his body over the window sill, and stretched out his hands toward the table. With a quick move he gathered in the maps and the documents, rolled them into a bundle, and pulled them toward him. Then he dropped from the window again, pulled down the curtain, and ran with all possible speed toward the rear of the castle.

“Now if they catch me they’ll kill me sure,” he thought. “But they are not going to catch me if I can possibly help it.”

He rolled the maps and the documents still tighter, and thrust them into an inside pocket, buttoning his coat tightly over them. Then he continued on his way until he reached the stone fence, over which he climbed with little difficulty.

Fortunately for the young lieutenant, the night was clear, so that when his eyes became accustomed to the semi-darkness he managed to progress fairly well. He stumbled on and on until he reached the roadway once more, and then headed westward as before. He listened for an alarm from the castle, but strange to say it did not come.

“I guess they haven’t gone back to that room yet,” he thought. “Well, I hope they don’t go back until I’m a long distance away.”

He kept to the highway for about two miles further, and then, reaching the outskirts of a small village, turned slightly to the northward. Here there was another patch of woods, and into this he plunged, finally reaching a place where he thought it would be safe to sit down and make up his mind what to do next.

Dave had rested a quarter of an hour when suddenly he heard a noise about a hundred yards further within the wood. Then, of a sudden, came a roar which almost deafened him. This roar was followed by others, until the very ground under him seemed to tremble.

He leaped to his feet, and with good reason. With that opening roar came a discovery which interested him tremendously. He had reached the vicinity of the fighting front without knowing it. Directly in front of him was one of the German batteries, and it was now in full action.