They seemed to be taking an interminable time
about it. Now and then a rough guttural voice rasped out an order.
The boys waited for what seemed hours to them, and the very moment
they would move, along would come another contingent of some sort.
They had evidently struck a corps shifting southward. At last a
good sized gap in the long, ghostly line gave them courage to
cross. They got through safely enough, and kept on steadily for
a time across country. They skirted two villages, and reached a
haystack near a river-bank before daybreak. Out toward the east
they saw the faint outlines of a fairly large town. Before them
lay the river, spanned by a bridge guarded at each end by a German
sentry. Hope fell several degrees.
The boys had climbed upon the stack and pulled the straw well over
them. As they lay looking toward their goal, to the north, the
home of the owner of the stack was at their backs. He made his
appearance at an early hour, and came not far distant. After a
whispered conference, Bob hailed him in a low tone.
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