"Whew, but that's going to be a pack!" muttered Hal, gazing at it almost ruefully. "However, I've got to take it. I won't leave a blessed thing behind." The canteens Overton threw over his shoulders, so that he had one on each side, in addition to his own, which hung at his left hip. The corporal's shoes he tied to his belt. It was the bunching of the four service rifles, with their weight of more than forty pounds, that gave him his real trouble. But at last he had the four pieces lashed together and started. "I've yet got to look out that I don't run into any scouts of the enemy," thought the soldier boy half ruefully. "Whew, what a break it would be to be picked up with all this loot!" It was a welcome sound indeed when, at last, the young scout heard, near the spot where he had left his own party, the almost whispered challenge: "Halt! Who's there?" "Friend," responded Hal Overton in a tone no louder. "Halt where you are, friend, until a sentry advances to recognize you," returned cautious Corporal Cotter. It was the corporal himself who came forward. "Great Scott, Overton, what have you----" "It's loot," returned Hal proudly. "Where on earth did you----" "From the enemy's outpost. And I located the camp, too. I could guide you right to either outpost or main camp. Will you take these guns, Corporal? My back feels broken." "I should think it might," was Cotter's grinning response, as he reached out and took the lashed rifles. "Great Scott! What won't the lieutenant and Captain Cortland say!" Just as they stepped softly back, Private Noll Terry challenged someone approaching softly from the rear. "Halt! Who's there?" "Officer of the day," returned Lieutenant Prescott's low voice. "Advance, officer of the day, to be recognized." Lieutenant Prescott advanced into the group. "Do you see all this stuff, Lieutenant?" asked Corporal Cotter, calling attention to Hal's loot as it lay on the ground. "Overton went forward as a scout, and located one of the enemy's outposts, also the main camp. And he brought back these souvenirs of the outpost." "To whom do the shoes belong?" questioned Lieutenant Prescott after looking at the stuff. "To Corporal Raynes, sir, in command of the outpost," returned the soldier boy, with a grin. "How did you get hold of all this stuff, Overton?" Hal told his story briefly. "Great Scott! Bombshells and grenades, what a roaring joke on the enemy! Overton, you're a man worth having in B Company. Dark as the night is, your exploit would reflect credit on a trained Indian scout. Overton, I'm going to take you back to camp with me. I'll wake Captain Cortland to hear your report as to the enemy's position. And the captain will surely want to see this loot of the outpost and to hear your tale of how you got it. Here, let me have a couple of those rifles to carry for you." Lieutenant Prescott led the way hack to B Company's camp. And he shook with laughter all the way. CHAPTER V