us. You can perhaps tell us some things about America that we would like
to know."

Hal accepted the invitation, mentally congratulating himself upon their
good fortune. After a lengthy conversation, Hal rose to go.

"It's getting late," he said. "Come, Chester, we may as well turn in."

Chester also rose. In going to the door it was necessary for Hal to pass
behind one of the Austrians. As he did so, he quickly threw out a hand
and clutched the man by the throat. At the same moment Chester sprang
upon the second unsuspecting officer, and the cry that the latter would
have let out was stifled in his throat by the pressure of the lad's
fingers.

Hal now produced a revolver, and Chester did likewise. They covered the
two officers.

"One outcry and you are dead men," said Hal calmly.

While Chester kept them covered, Hal bound and gagged them. Then the two
lads stripped them of their uniforms, which they donned themselves.
Feeling perfectly secure in these, the lads saw that the prisoners were
well tied and unable to cry out, and then left the room, shutting the
door behind them.

In the hall they encountered their host, but the latter, recognizing the
Austrian uniform, did not even speak to them. The lads left the house
quietly, and turned their faces toward the north, intending to go back
by the way they had come.

Several times they were spoken to by Austrian officers as they walked
along the streets, but to these salutations they made no reply, trusting
that their apparent rudeness would cast no suspicion upon them. And it
did not.

At length they came to the farthest Austrian outpost, and here, for the
first time they were challenged. Hal stepped a little ahead of Chester
and spoke.

"We are inspecting the lines," he said calmly.

"You cannot pass here," came the reply. "My orders are to shoot anyone
who attempts to get by. The general himself couldn't pass. You will have
to go back."

"Oh, all right, if that's the way you feel about it," said Hal, turning
his back upon the sentry.

The sentry, believing that the lads would go away, lowered his rifle,
and in that moment Hal turned quickly again and sprang upon him. A quick
blow knocked the sentry from his feet, and the lads dashed forward. In
the distance Hal made out the form of several horses, and the lads ran
toward them.

"Quick, Chester!" cried Hal.

But the Austrian sentry had not been knocked unconscious. He was only
stunned. He staggered