fag, you!" mimicked
Archer. "It's as good as fixed already."

"Better knock wood, Archie."

"I'll knock something thickerr'n wood if you don't get out o' the way!"
said Archer.

One by one they strolled away laughing.

"I'll give that bunch one parting shot, all right!" said Archer.

"Shh!" said Tom, "look out what you're saying."

Whether it was because the grim authorities who presided over
this unfortunate community believed that the renewed activity of
the pump would be advantageous to themselves, or whether it was
just out of the goodness of their hearts that they supplied the
small quantity of sal ammoniac, it would be difficult to say, but
in the afternoon a small bottle was forthcoming with the label of
Herman Schlossen-something-or-other, chemist, of the neighboring
town.

The boys smeared some of it on the crack and then poured some into a
little vial which had contained toothache drops.

"Things are so bad in Gerrmany they have to use sal ammoniac for files,"
said Archer. "If the warr keeps up much longer the poor people'll be
usin' witch hazel for screw drivers."

"Shhh!" said Tom. It was about all he ever said now.

After dark, with fast beating hearts, they went down to the place which
Tom had selected for their operations. It was near the extreme end of
the grounds, at a place where the wire ran through some thick shrubbery.
Even a file might have been used here, if a file had been procurable,
for one might work fully concealed though always in danger of the
sentry's hearing the sound. But no file could ever get inside of that
camp. They were not even obtainable in the stores of the neighboring
town, except upon government order and every letter and package that
came to the camp was scrutinized with German thoroughness. Since the
recent army reorganization in which the number of sentries at camps all
through the Empire had been reduced, and since the discontinuance of
electrified wiring at this particular camp, the little file was watched
for with greater suspicion than ever before, so that the prisoners had
regarded it as a joke when Archer expressed the wish for one. The very
thought of a file on the premises was preposterous. And what other way
was there to get out?

It was necessary, however, to watch for the sentry outside and here was
where the team work came in. Archer spotted the gleam of his rifle at
some distance up near the provision gate, and he scurried in that
direction to hol