He lay quiet a minute longer until the sounds of preparation increased to such an extent that he felt sure the Germans would soon be on the move. "About time for me to hunt cover," he thought with a grin that even his perilous position could not repress. "The sooner I get out of this and warn our men the better it will be." With this thought in mind he turned cautiously about and had started back when suddenly he saw something that made his heart lose a beat. All over the wire entanglements that lay across his path of escape long sparks were leaping and hissing with a subdued crackling sound like the snapping of a wood fire. The Germans had electricified their wires in the hope of entrapping any scouting party of Americans who might chance to penetrate them! Now indeed Frank found himself in a terrible predicament. He knew that in the maze of wires he could hardly hope to find the place where he had entered, and he was sure that with the heavy current in the wires it would be certain death to touch them with his clippers. On the other hand he knew that the current would be shut off only a minute or so before the Boches left their trenches to attack. He would hardly have time to cut his way out before being discovered and shot. However his only chance seemed to be to lie still and await developments. This he did, resolving to make a dash the second the current was cut off. As he lay there his ears caught the sound of measured footsteps approaching him. "It's a sentry!" flashed through his mind. His hand flew to the bayonet at his side and he prepared to strike quick and hard. But then another thought came to him. There must be a way through the entanglements that the Germans used. If he could capture the sentry he might be able to make him act as a guide. It was a chance--and a desperate chance. Would the sentry prove to be alert and resourceful? Would his love of the Fatherland, or at least his training that the individual must be always subservient to the government, cause him to give the alarm at the expense of his personal safety? Or would he be slow to think and act, and would the very training, having undermined his self-reliance, make him yield to the quick intelligence and the poise that freedom had given to the American? Noiselessly he shifted his hand to his revolver and drew it forth. He knew that it would be fatal to risk a shot, but he grasped the barrel of the weapon and as the heavy footsteps came abreast of him leaped to his feet and brought the butt down with stunning force on the head of the dim stolid figure that loomed through the mist. The man dropped without a cry but Frank listened anxiously to judge if the sound of his fall had reached the trenches. Apparently it had not, and satisfied of this the young American turned his attention to the inert figure at his feet.