rank himself, careless of torn finger nails and bleeding hands.
They carried the trench to the foot of one of the barrels, and Frank
turned the tap. The gasoline ran out into the trench, and flowed to the
hole. Frank ran back to the hole.

"Stop it when I give the word," he said. "Now!"

Then he was busy with the copper wire he had brought from the automobile
for several minutes. The wire had been carried either to repair cut
telegraph or telephone wires, or to serve as the conductor for a field
system of lighting. But whatever its original purpose had been, Frank
was thankful now that he had found it. He worked fast, and was satisfied
at last.

"Now a little straw and a few twigs over the hole and the trench--and
the sooner they come, the better!"

"Yes, the sooner, the better!" echoed Henri, tremendously excited, now
that he understood, even if rather vaguely, what Frank planned. "Vive la
France! A bas les Allemands!"

As they went back toward the road Frank trailed the wire behind him in
two lengths. And when they reached the road, he dropped into the ditch,
and was busy for some minutes.

"Now if it only works!" he said. "Perhaps it will; perhaps it won't. But
it can't do any harm. That's certain."

"They're coming closer. I think I can see their shapes now--and there
are two of them," said Henri. "Do you see?"

For a moment Frank could not. Henri's eyes were sharper than his. But
then he did make out vaguely two immense shapes that were coming through
the air. Soon, too, the faint hum of their powerful motors made itself
heard.

"Zeppelins and big fellows, too," said Frank. "All the better!"

He wondered if his plan would work, and if he would be able to carry it
out. If, in the final test, would he dare to do what he had tried to
arrange? Time enough to think of that when the moment for decision came.
And meanwhile there were a hundred things that might happen to ruin his
plan. There was nothing to do now but wait. But every moment of waiting
brought the climax nearer. The hum of the motors of the airships rose
louder on the quiet air, broken only by the faint and distant mutter of
the battle that was still being fought miles away. It sounded now like
the buzzing of a swarm of bees, magnified a thousand times. And then the
field was full of men, rushing from the inn. He wondered how they could
have been concealed there. But such wonder was idle, and he did not
think of it. Instead he watched keenly. Fi