epended on it. He
was pulling out his pistol, too. What--"

The sharp bark of a revolver interrupted him. It spoke three times and
there was a cry from above. They looked up, to see the figure of a man
dropping from the opening of the clock. A moment later Captain Hardy
came down, reloading his revolver.

"Good work, youngster!" he said. "Your eyes were sharp that time! If you
hadn't seen the hands of that clock moving we might have been caught in
a nice trap! Wait here--I'm going to make a barricade of the omnibuses."

"What does he mean?" cried Henri, almost frantic with curiosity.

"Why, I saw that the hands of the clock had moved! You said it had
stopped, and I looked up. Then the next time I looked, the hands had
moved around--two or three hours!"

"But how--and why--if the clock had stopped?"

"That's just it! That clock must be visible for some distance around,
Harry. Suppose a German was there? He could be signalling, couldn't he?"

"Oh, a spy! I never thought of that! You mean he would tell other
Germans to come here--that there was work for them to do?"

"Yes. I only hope Captain Hardy stopped him in time."

But Hardy was taking no more chances than he could help. He had guessed
as quickly as Frank the probable reason for the strange antics of the
clock's face. And now he made his dispositions quickly. Counting the
armed drivers of each omnibus, and the extra man each carried, he had
less than thirty men. But he drew up several of the omnibuses in a
square formation in the central square of the village, and thus had an
improvised fort. When he had done that he called sharply to the two
boys.

"Get along with you--get away from here!" he said. "If we're going to
have a fight it's no place for you. You've done us a mighty good turn--I
don't want you running into danger because of it."

Even as he spoke a shot rang out. It was from the direction in which
they had come!

"Just in time, too," he said, coolly.

A soldier came up to report.

"Uhlans, sir--a sight of them, too. Coming from the road we were taking.
I think we got one of them, sir. Toppled him off his horse, anyhow,
sir."

"All right. Let them come," said Captain Hardy. "Go along now, boys. If
you see the cavalry sent to escort us, tell them to hurry! We'll try to
beat them off until we get help."

He turned away, and Frank picked up his wheel.

CHAPTER IX

A GLIMPSE OF THE ENEMY

Other ears than theirs had heard that fi