“Glory be, it’s you, Lieutenant! By the jumpin’ geehaw, I came near lettin’ you have it, thinkin’ you were a Hun!” This, though said excitedly, as one may imagine, was little above a whisper. And then Jennings, whom Don had by no means expected to see, put his finger on his lips. “Sh! They’re down yonder; hear ’em? I follered ’em from near their biv’wack up there most a mile. Where they’re goin’ to you can search me, but they’re headin’ the wrong way for our comfort back to the rocks.” “How many are there down there?” Don questioned. “‘Bout three hundred; sev’ral comp’nies, I reckon. Machine guns an’ such. Headin’ the wrong way. We gotta foller ’em an’ see.” The two did follow, toiling along the ridge most warily until they came to its end, where the evident roadway from the valley turned a little to the southwest. “They’re goin’ to locate right where we come up,” the scout whispered. “Hadn’t we better go back and report?” Swiftly they retraced their steps along the ridge and then, Don leading at a pace that caused Jennings to breathe hard, they went straight to the camp. And there was Gill, just returned ahead of them. “They’re fillin’ up the whole woods south of us,” he was saying. “Coming in from every direction and making an unbroken line across. We can’t get through, Lieutenant; not even at night.” And to this information Don and Jennings could but acquiesce. CHAPTER XII SURROUNDED “TRAPPED, eh? I was afraid something like that would occur!” Lieutenant Whitcomb exclaimed. “It’s not the first time the Heinies have vacated ground and then quietly occupied it again; a trick of theirs to take us by surprise when we go after them. Well, this is bad for us in two ways.” “How’s that, Herb?” asked Don. “Why, you can see it. In the first place we’re surrounded, for you may bet the Huns are in close touch with each other; they always are. So we probably cannot get out, as Gill says. If we try to hold out, then when our boys make the next drive we may be between two fires. But our worst fear is of discovery before the next drive commences.” “We’re in here pretty snug, Lieutenant; they may never get on to us at all,” offered the corporal. “That’s possible, but hardly likely. We’ve got to lie low.” “We’ve a crackerjack place to defend, Herb,” Don said. “Very good and I don’t want to be a pessimist, but with a good many hundred against twelve--well, we might hold ’em off for a time, even with only one machine gun. But there’s a limit to grub and ammunition, and especially to water. What do you fellows know about water near here?” “A spring run ’bout as big as a shoe lacin’ over yon a couple o’ hundred yards to the northeast,” said Jennings. “Very good. Who will volunteer to refill all canteens?” “I’ll go, Lieutenant!” “Me, too!” “Count me in on that, please!” “Say, Lieutenant, if I kin shove my ol’ face into that ’ere riv’let fer ’bout five minutes, I wouldn’t want another drink fer close on to a week!” Jennings declared.