s to be a factor in their obtaining entrance to
Holland. They knew little of the detail of what happened. They
were guided one night by a dwarfed cripple to a little wood, and
there spent four hours in weary waiting in absolute silence. Then
the cripple returned and motioned them to follow him. This they
did, and when they reached the edge of the wood, commenced crawling
on all fours, as their guide was doing.

They crawled for some hundreds of yards, winding about the scrub
brush and tall grass, and then suddenly came upon a wire fence.
A dark shape loomed up on the far side of this barrier. The cripple,
aided by the man on the other side, held apart two strands of the
wire, and cautioned the boys to step quickly through the opening.

The cripple disappeared in the black night, the dark form beside them
motioned in a ghost-like way to the blackness ahead of them, and
without a sound they pressed on, as though in a dream, hardly daring
to hope all would come out well.

By daylight they were able to distinguish something of the general
outlines of the country, which was flat, damp and fog covered.
A tall line of poplars led them toward a road. As they reached it,
in the gray of the morning, Bob turned to Dicky and said the first
words either of them had spoken for more than an hour.

"Do you think we are really in Holland, and free?" he queried.

"The whole thing was done in such a mysterious fashion, and silence
so rigidly enjoined by everybody, that I would not be surprised
if we have been smuggled out of Belgium, Bob," was Dicky's reply.

Nevertheless, they were most cautious as day came. They hid for a
time, then decided to go to some homely cottage and see what manner
of folk they would find. Stealthily approaching a simple home, they
waited until they caught sight of the housewife who was outside it,
feeding her chickens.

"She looks Dutch," said Dicky. "Let's try her."

They came upon her suddenly, but she showed no great surprise. Perhaps
she had seen escaping soldiers of the Allied Armies in that part of
the world before. She could not understand either English or French,
but offered the boys a drink of milk and some bread, taking the money
they proffered for it and looking at the coins curiously before she
placed them in her pocket.

"She is Dutch as Dutch," was Bob's conclusion.

Sure enough, they were in Holland at last.

Careful maneuvering enabled them to get a passage to England, th