isoners! No chance for
quarter! Burrow down!"

And amid the dirt and dead leaves of the little patch of woods the
boys scratched shallow hiding places for themselves, stuffing their
food inside their shirts.

They were only just in time, for no sooner were they as well covered
as they could manage in the hurry than the Germans came tramping into
the little grove.

However, they did not seem to be acting on any precise information,
as presently, after a cursory search in the grove, they left, and the
boys breathed easier again.

"Shall we chance it now?" whispered Bob to Jimmy, cautiously raising
his head from the hole amid the leaves.

"Wait a bit," advised his chum. And, in ten minutes more, when it
seemed that the party of Huns must be far enough away, the lads emerged.

"Close call!" murmured Bob, brushing off some of the dirt. "But I
guess we can eat now--such stuff as we have! Say, Roger, did you--"

He paused, to gaze in the direction where Roger was looking. And
Jimmy, attracted by the attitude, gazed also. And they saw a strange
sight.

Marching away, for which the three Brothers felt great relief, was the
searching part of Germans. But this was not at what Roger was looking.
It was the sight of a man, in a German uniform, seated on a fallen
log at the edge of the clump of trees. The man was looking over some
papers, and he must have been there when the searching party passed.
Perhaps he had been with them.

"Look! Look!" murmured Roger. "It's the captain again. Captain Frank
Dickerson--the officer who saved our lives at the red mill; and he's
in a German uniform!"

CHAPTER XXI

BACK WITH FRIENDS

There was no doubt of it. So dramatic had been the circumstances under
which they had first seen this strange man that the boys would never
forget his face. He was dressed differently now--in an unmistakable
uniform of the Germans--but it was the same man.

"What in the world is he doing here?" demanded Bob.

"There can be only one answer to that question," said Jimmy, and his
voice was low and intense.

"And what is the answer?" Roger wanted to know.

"He's a German spy!" was the declaration.

"When he saved us at the burning mill he was in an American uniform.
And now he is in German uniform. He's a spy!"

"He's in German uniform all right, there's no question of that"
declared Bob. "But what makes you think he is a spy--I mean a German
spy, Jimmy?"

"Because he was within our lines