omrades. The sentries became more and more scattered as
he went along, the main body being posted in front of the village. The
last few men were warned that he was going forward, and that they were
not to fire until he returned. He sent the last man on the line to
communicate with the outposts, furnished by the corps occupying the
ground farther to the right, that some men were going out to
reconnoitre. Then he and his companions cautiously crawled forward.

They were rather more than half-way across the ground, when Cuthbert
uttered an exclamation as he came in sudden contact with a figure
advancing with similar caution in the opposite direction. It needed not
a guttural oath in German to inform him that it was an enemy. Touching
as they were, neither could use their arms, and instinctively they
grappled with each other as they lay on the ground.

"Look out, Leroux, I have got hold of a German," Cuthbert said in a low
voice, while at the same moment his antagonist said something to the
same effect in German.

The lieutenant and the other two men leapt to their feet, and as they
did so, four or five men sprang up close in front of them.

"Fire!" Leroux exclaimed, and the two men discharged their pieces! Some
shots flashed out in front of them but in the darkness none were hit,
and in a moment they were engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with their
foes.

In the meantime Cuthbert and his antagonist were rolling over and over,
locked closely in each other's arms. Seizing a moment when he came
uppermost, Cuthbert steadied himself, relaxed his hold of his opponent,
and, half-kneeling, managed to free himself from his embrace, and
gripped him by the throat.

The fight between the others was a short one. The lieutenant had run one
of his opponents through the body, but a German had equalized matters by
bringing the butt of his musket down on the head of one of the
Franc-tireurs, and being now but two against four, Pierre called to the
other to retreat. The Germans followed a few yards and then halted. As
they passed him Cuthbert gave a final squeeze to his antagonist's
throat, and, feeling sure that he would not be able to speak for some
time, he crept away for a few yards and lay still among the cabbages
that covered the field.

"Where is the sergeant?" one of the Germans said, in a low voice, as
they retraced their steps; "he must have been somewhere here when he
called."

After two or three minutes' search they came