igure and his ears alert to learn if,
perchance, the Boche was being pursued. Not a sound could he hear except
that of the distant shooting.

It occurred to him that the precaution of camouflaging might be useful
to him also, and he silently disposed one of the leafy boughs which the
German had left diagonally across his breast with the fork over his
shoulder so that it formed a sort of adjustable screen, more portable
and less clumsy than the leafy mound which had covered the Boche.

With this he stole along, sometimes hiding behind trees, sometimes
crouching among the rocks along the bank, and keeping at an even
distance from the man. His method with its personal dexterity was
eloquent of the American scout, just as the Boche, under his mound of
foliage, had been typical of the German who depends largely upon
_device_ and little upon personal skill and dexterity.

The scout from Temple Camp had his ruses, too, for once when the German,
startled by a fancied sound, seemed about to look behind him, Tom
dexterously hurled a stone far to the left of his quarry, which diverted
the man's attention to that direction and kept it there while Tom,
gliding this way and that and raising or lowering his scant disguise,
crept after him.

They were now in an isolated spot and the distant firing seemed farther
and farther away. The stream, reduced to a mere trickle, worked its way
down among rocks and the German followed its course closely. What he was
about in this sequestered jungle Tom could not imagine, unless, indeed,
he was fleeing from his own masters. But surely open surrender to the
Americans would have been safer than that, and Tom remembered how
readily those other German soldiers had rushed into the arms of himself
and his companions.

Moreover, the more overgrown the brook became and the more involved its
path, the more the hurrying German seemed bent upon following it and
instead of finding any measure of relief from anxiety in this isolated
place, he appeared more anxious than ever and peered carefully about him
at every few steps.

At length, to Tom's astonishment, he stepped across the brook and felt
of a clump of bush which grew on the bank. Could he have expected to
find another camouflaged figure, Tom wondered?

Whatever he was after, he apparently thought he had reached his
destination for he now moved hurriedly about, feeling the single bushes
and moving among the larger clumps as if in quest of somethin