it, if you have been having it any easier," said the
Scout-Master, with a smile. "This job that you've got on your hands now
means a whole lot of work. You're to go to Fessenden Junction first, and
make a detail map of the tracks about the depot there. I don't know just
why it's wanted, or why it wasn't done before, but that's none of our
business. Then when that's done, you're to bring it back here. After
that I guess you'll have plenty more to do. But I won't tell you about
the rest of it until you've finished that."

"Am I to go alone?" asked Jack.

"No. I want it done as quickly as possible, so you'd better take Peter
Stubbs and Tom Binns along with you. Divide the work up and it won't
take you very long. That's the easy part of it."

The Boy Scouts had studied map-making from a practical, working point of
view, and it was no sort of a job for the three of them to make the
required map.

"I see why they need this map, all right," said Jack. "There are a whole
lot of new tracks in here, and the whole yard has been changed around
within the last few weeks. That explains it. The old maps wouldn't be of
much use for anyone who was depending on them for quick understanding of
the railroad situation here."

"Now," said Durland, when they returned, "I've got the most difficult
task that's been assigned to you yet, Jack. You've got only about one
chance in a thousand of succeeding in it, but it's my own plan, and I'll
be very pleased and proud if you do accomplish it. I want two of you to
take the car, get inside the enemy's lines, with or without the car, as
far as you can, and then get yourselves taken prisoners. What we want is
for you to be near enough to General Bliss's headquarters to get some
sort of an inkling of the nature of the attack that will be made.

"There is a dangerous weakness of the position here, which could hardly
have been foreseen when the campaign was laid out in advance. That is,
anyone getting control of Tryon Creek, which is practically dry in the
summer, is in a position to dominate one side of the prospective
battlefield. There are two lines of attack open to General Bliss. If he
chooses Tryon Creek we must keep him from occupying it at all costs. To
do that we would have to uncover the other side--the road from Mardean."

"I'm to try to find out which line of attack they will follow, then,
sir? Is that it?" asked Jack.

"Yes. We must know before the actual attack begins, or it will be