ck, running about evenly, were still fifty
yards behind Frank.

The fugitives doubled around the next corner without diminishing their
speed and Frank did likewise. The next corner saw the same maneuver
enacted, and this time Frank brought up against trouble as he followed
unwarily.

As the lad turned the corner something struck him in the face and he
went tumbling to the ground in a heap. He felt as though he had collided
with a wall. He was just picking himself up when Jack and Lord Hastings
darted around the corner and almost stumbled over him.

Jack would have stopped, but Frank shouted:

"After them! Never mind me."

Jack and Lord Hastings dashed on, and Frank pulled himself up and took
account of his injury. A stream of blood flowed from a cut just over his
left eye, but Frank knew that he was not badly hurt.

"One of them bumped me with his fist," the lad told himself. "I wonder
which? Guess it must have been Davis. I don't believe a German could do
as much damage with his hand."

Quickly he staunched the flow of blood and then darted after Jack and
Lord Hastings, who at that moment were disappearing around another
corner.

In spite of the cut on his face, Frank felt greatly refreshed by his
enforced but brief rest, and he took after the others with renewed
energy.

"They must be getting pretty tired," he told himself as he dashed along.
"If Jack and Lord Hastings can just keep them in sight until I overtake
them, I'll promise not to be fooled again."

Two minutes later he was again on even terms with Jack and Lord
Hastings, and a moment later once more took the lead. A minute later he
again found himself less than fifty yards behind the fugitives, who were
now plodding along more slowly and plainly out of wind.

"A little sprint here, I guess," Frank muttered to himself, and suited
the action to the word.

But the fugitives were able to round another corner before the lad could
come up with them. Remembering his past experience, Frank turned the
corner more warily and then he came to a dead stop, a cry of dismay on
his lips.

There was no one in sight.

"Now what in the name of all that's wonderful can have happened to
them?" he asked himself.

He looked around quickly. The fugitives were not on the street. Frank
gazed at the house before which he stood. It was a two-story brick
building and stood right upon the street. There was no yard. A flight of
eight stone steps led to a small vestibul