p out of my skin!" exclaimed Billy
with glowing eyes as the three stood on deck watching the familiar
shores slip by them and the skyscraper buildings grow taller and
taller and taller as they approached them.

"See!" said Billy. "We are about to dock. Now the next thing to settle
is where we are going when we first land."

But the question was settled for them in a most unexpected way. For
before Billy's remark could be answered, all three of them felt ropes
being slipped around their necks, and heard the loud guffaws of three
sturdy sailors as they pulled the ropes tighter, saying, "This is the
time we caught you fellows off your guard!"

"We surely caught you slick as a whistle," remarked one of the
sailors. "And now we have you, we are going to carry out the Captain's
orders and look after you until he hears from France whether we are to
take you back to your regiments when we return with more troops or
keep you here."

"Return to France?" whined Stubby. "Just when we reach home safe and
sound after braving all the terrors of submarines, sunken mines and
dropping bombs? To be captured and sent back is really too much! I
don't feel as if I would survive the disappointment, do you, Billy?"

"Not on your life will I go back!" replied Billy. "Not unless they
take me over dead. For I shall fight to the last drop of my blood
before I submit to being shipped back."

"And so will I," said Button. "I'll scratch their eyes out first. And
from this day forward I shall begin to let my claws grow long and
sharp for that very purpose. I'll see whether or not they take _me_
back!"

"But they haven't started back yet, and 'There's many a slip twixt the
cup and the lip.' We'll have two or three weeks to make a getaway
before they sail as they have to coal the ship before even thinking of
sailing. And if in that time we three can't put our heads together and
think of some way to slip through their fingers, we are pretty stupid
and deserve to be shipped back. Don't pull back or make any fuss,"
counseled Billy, "but just go along with the sailors and watch for a
chance to escape. It may come any minute. And remember if any one of
us sees a chance, he is to take it and not wait for the others. Just
get free and then wait around until the rest of us get loose."

"Seems to me you have a good deal of baaing to do this morning, Mr.
Billy," said the sailor who was holding the rope around Billy's neck
as he stood watching the ship t