horses.

"Hello, Otto!" said Jimmie with a smile, as he wrinkled his freckled
nose. "And I declare! If little Fritz isn't on deck also!"

"Here comes the Kaiser and his staff," said Jimmie, directly the line
was at rest. "He seems to be in a hurry about something."

"They're stopping here," announced Dave.

A group of approaching horsemen, at one side of which rode the Kaiser,
drew rein exactly opposite the two lads. Jimmie's mount, in a somewhat
restive mood, refused to remain standing, but gave the lad some
trouble. In his effort to quiet the animal the lad did not notice that
he was gradually drawing closer and closer to the Kaiser.

Presently he succeeded in quieting the horse and took time to glance in
the direction in which the Kaiser was peering through a pair of
binoculars. The lad saw stretching far below him a gradual slope that
had once been wooded by a forest. Now, however, there stood only the
shattered stumps of trees, indicating that the place had been subjected
to a most galling fire from the enemy.

A puff of smoke caught his attention. With a startled exclamation he
pointed to a small object flying through the air straight toward the
position occupied by himself and the Kaiser's staff.

The next moment he kicked the Kaiser's mount in the ribs and dug his
heels into the flank of his own horse. Both leaped forward.

CHAPTER XX

CAPTURED

"What was that noise?" asked Jack, instantly, as he busied himself with
the levers in an effort to maintain the position of the Eagle.

"That sounded to me like one perfectly good aeroplane going to
smash--just like that!" answered Ned, leaning over the rim of the
fuselage and peering through the glasses.

"Was it the German who was pursuing us?" asked Harry, eagerly.

"I believe it was," declared Ned. "Yes," he went on, "I can see the
smashed plane there beside the train now. That's peculiar!"

"What's peculiar?" asked Jack. "The train being there, or the plane,
or what? Please be a little more explicit."

"No nonsense, now!" Ned replied. "I mean its peculiar how that plane
came to be smashed that way. I didn't see anything drop on it."

"Perhaps a piece of the machinery gave way as he was starting."

"It needn't worry us a particle to explain how it happened," said
Harry. "It's enough to know that the fellow can't chase us."

"That's a good thing, anyway," was Ned's comment.

Had the lads only known how close they had been t