Assuring himself that there was not, he crept cautiously forward, foot by foot, until he was at the edge of the shelf of rock and could gaze almost directly down upon them. The fire gave good illumination. There was a young German lieutenant and four of his men. A short distance away, in the shelter of some trees, five horses were tethered. Slim finally had consented to talk--if what he was doing could be called talking. And in what was purposely the most miserably broken German imaginable, he was telling them that he got separated from his unit several days ago (which was true), and that he had been wandering about that part of the country for the last couple of days (which also was true), and that he did not know where he was (which likewise was the truth). While this was going on Jerry had scribbled upon a piece of paper: "Am near. Look lively if they sleep." This he wrapped around a small stone. For a moment all the Germans turned toward the fire, where one of the men was preparing supper. In that instant Jerry tossed the message straight at Slim's feet. Slim gave a little start, recovered himself immediately, stooped over, and, pretending to wash his hands in the snow, unwrapped and hastily read the note, and then trampled it into the ground. When one of the Germans turned suddenly, he was innocently drying his hands. CHAPTER XIX TURNING THE TABLES To Jerry, lying there half frozen, stiff in every joint and scarcely daring to move for fear of making some sound that might not only divulge his presence and result in his own capture, but also prevent the escape of Slim, it seemed that never did it take men so long to eat a meal. And as they ate, his own appetite became ravenous. The cruelest punishment of all was to lie there half starved and hear them vulgarly smacking their lips over the warmed-up remains of a chicken undoubtedly filched from a countryside barnyard. But at last, after what seemed to Jerry to have been hours of feasting, they did finish. With a derisive laugh the German lieutenant gathered all the bones from every other tin plate and shoved them, with mock courtesy, toward Slim. The latter was biding his time, and, his courage increased by knowledge that his friend was close by, refused to get angry. He merely waved the plate aside. Their stomachs filled, the Germans almost immediately began to think about sleep. In truth, they all looked as though they had been up all of the night before, as probably they had. One of them, a mere youth certainly not yet out of his teens and the youngest in the party, yawned. The lieutenant saw it, and in a fit of apparently unreasonable anger said, in his native tongue: "So! You want to serve notice that you desire to sleep? Very well, you shall do sentinel duty--and all night. And mind that you do not sleep!" A pitiful look came over the boy's face, but without a word he saluted and departed to the circle of outer shadows to take up his long and tedious vigil.