ined the manner in which
he had obtained his information.

"That lieutenant, you see, thought we were pretty well scared, and it
never entered his head that we might try to escape," he said. "I've got
an idea myself that they haven't found out yet that we've gone, really.
There was no hue and cry raised while we were slipping out of their
lines and back to the automobile, and I'm sure that we would have heard
if there had been any pursuit. It's my idea that they won't discover
that we're missing until breakfast. Even then, they're not likely to
suspect that we know as much as we do, and I don't believe it will occur
to that lieutenant to tell anyone that we learned from him where their
attack was to be made. He'll probably forget that he said what he did."

"I hope so," said General Harkness. "In any case we will act on the
information. If they knew that you had escaped with that news, I think
General Bliss would be quite likely to change his plan. But I imagine
that you are right about the officer who put you in the guard tent. His
every action shows that he is careless and unlikely to think of the
really important nature of the disclosure he made so lightly. I think we
may assume with a fair amount of safety that they will attack by way of
Tryon Creek, and I shall lay my plans accordingly and mass my troops at
that point."

Jack had referred only incidentally to the race with the other car, but
now the bell of the field telephone in the General's tent rang sharply,
and an orderly answered it.

"Colonel Abbey, General," he said. "He wishes to know if he may talk to
you."

Jack and Durland waited during the conversation that followed. General
Harkness began laughing in a moment, and, after a conversation of five
or six minutes, he hung up the receiver, his eyes wet with the tears his
laughter had produced and his sides shaking.

"You leave out the most interesting part of your adventures when you
think you can, don't you?" said he. "Do you know that Captain Beavers is
regarded as the most expert driver of automobiles in the regular army?
He invented the type of scout car that is being tried out, and you have
beaten him squarely at a game that he should be the absolute master of."

"I hadn't heard a word about this," said Durland, showing a good deal of
interest.

"I suppose we never would have from Danby," said the general. "That's
what Abbey said--that was why he called me up."

And he proceeded to recount,