him, being filled with curiosity.

"You ran across something while you were out, Josh, and I'd thank you to
open up and tell us about it," he went on to say. "Did the French chaps
with the baggy red trousers and the big yell manage to bring down any of
the German raiders when they used up so much powder and ball?"

"I believe they did, for one woman who could talk some English managed
to tell me the zouaves took three prisoners back with them, and in
addition one fellow who would have to be buried, she said, because he
was dead."

Hanky Panky would have shivered at one time on hearing such gruesome
news, but after witnessing the terrible sights accompanying the battle
along the bank of the Marne he somehow seemed to think little of it.

"Was that _all_ you saw or heard, Josh?" he continued, bent on
making the other confess to the limit.

Josh grinned, showing that he had purposely acted so as to excite the
suspicion of this curious comrade. Having attained his end, he consented
to explain further.

"Well, no, not quite all, Hanky," he remarked calmly; "I'm most sure I
saw a man skulking around who showed a whole lot of concern when I
approached, and even hurried away. He wasn't an old man either, and let
me tell you, Rod, he hid his face from me in the bargain. Now, what do
you think of that?"

"Was it Jules, do you reckon?" asked Hanky Panky, as quick as a flash;
for somehow he could not imagine any other person wishing to avoid
meeting one of them.

"I got the notion in my head," admitted Josh, "that it must be either
him or else some party hitched up with Jules. He acted in a way that
made me sure of that."

"Huh!" Hanky Panky went on to say, with one of his odd chuckles, "I'm
only surprised, Josh, you didn't step right up to the fellow and ask him
if he answered to the name of Jules Baggott; also if he happened to know
a woman called Jeanne D'Aubrey. That'd be just like your way, Josh."

The other grinned affably as though he considered this one of the
highest compliments his chum could pay him.

"Oh, well, to tell you the truth, though I'm almost ashamed to admit
it," he remarked, "I did want to chase after him and say that very same
thing; but, hang the luck, he was too slippery for me. Besides, you see,
it was getting dark; anyhow he managed to leave me in the lurch. But it
was one of that bunch, believe me."

"Still after that paper, it seems, Rod," said Hanky Panky with a frown;
"mebbe we'll hav