e uniform, walking around
here. I thought they were up to no good, so I took a couple of shots at
'em. I don't believe I hit either of 'em, but I came so near that I made
'em jump. And then, just before they ran away, across No Man's Land, I
saw them stoop down and pick up something that looked like boxes. I
thought they might be something they had lost in the fight the other
day, for the scrap went back and forth over this section. But now, come
to think of it, they might have been boxes of your films."

"I believe they were!" cried Blake.

"What two fellows were they you saw?" asked Joe.

The soldier explained, giving as many details as he could remember, and
Charlie cried:

"Lieutenant Secor for one--the chap in the blue. A French traitor!"

"He did have a uniform something like the French," admitted the private.
"The other was a Fritz, though."

"Labenstein!" murmured Joe. "I wonder if it is possible that they are
with the Hun army and have learned through spies that we are on this
front. If they have, they would know at once that those were boxes of
films, and that's why they stole them! Do you think it possible, Blake?"

CHAPTER XXI

ACROSS NO MAN'S LAND

Blake Stewart did not answer at once. He appeared to be considering what
the soldier had told him. And then Blake looked across No Man's
Land--that debatable ground between the two hostile forces--as though to
pierce what lay beyond, back of the trenches which were held by the
Germans, though, at this point, the enemy was not in sight.

"Could it, by any chance, have been Secor and Labenstein who got our
films?" asked Joe.

"Very possible," agreed Blake. "Labenstein, of course, would be with the
German forces, and since Secor is a traitor he would be there also. Of
course it may not have been those fellows, but some other two men who
had learned through their spies that we were here taking pictures and
wanted them for their own purposes."

"The question is, can we get them back?" put in Charlie, scowling in
the direction of the Germans.

"That's only one of the questions," observed Blake. "The main one is,
where are the films now, and where did those fellows go with them?"

"Maybe I can help you out there," put in the soldier. "I saw those two
fellows heading that way, down in that depression, and they certainly
carried some sort of flat, square boxes under their arms."

"What's down in there?" asked Joe eagerly.

"Well, it _was_ a mac