d think that they had been brought up
in this country, those German officers!"

"They might as well have been," said Frank. "I've heard stories of how
they prepare for war. They have maps that show every inch of land in
this part of France. They know the roads, the hills, even the fields and
the houses. They have officers with every regiment who know where
ditches are that they can use as trenches, and who have studied the land
so that they recognize places they have never seen, just from the maps
that they have studied until they know them by heart. And it isn't only
France that they know that way, but England, and some parts of Russia,
too. Why, I've even heard that they've studied parts of America, around
New York and Boston, almost as thoroughly."

Henri cried out in anger.

"That is how they have behaved!" he cried. "They have been planning, all
these years, then, to crush France!"

"Oh, cheer up, Harry," said Frank. "I guess you'll find that your French
staff officers have returned the compliment. Unless I'm very much
mistaken, any one of them could tell you just as much about the country
in Alsace and Lorraine, and all through the Rhine Province, as the
Germans could of this section. It wasn't so in the last war. Then French
officers were losing their way in French territory. That was one reason
why the battle at the Speichern was lost--because French reinforcements
lost their way. But this time France got ready, too."

"Shall we still make for Le Cateau?"

"There's nothing else to do, until we find out that the staff has
changed its location."

Riding along in a light that made men out of the shadows of trees and
regiments of the shocked corn in the fields was eerie work. But neither
of them was afraid. They were fired by a purpose to serve the cause in
which they had enlisted. And they were thrilled, too, by the knowledge
of the German force upon which they had spied, themselves unseen.

And then all at once, out of a dark spot in the road, appeared a man,
holding a horse.

"Halt!" he cried, in a guttural voice.

They obeyed, perforce. And when they were close enough, they saw that he
was a German cavalryman, one of the dreaded Uhlans.

CHAPTER X

THROUGH THE LINES

For a moment Frank's heart sank, but suddenly, a hoarse laugh surprised
him and revived his spirits. It was the Uhlan. He was laughing at them.

"Kinder!" he said, deep down in his throat.

"Nothing so alarming in this," t