r through an open fence into a field
beside the road.

"I want to see what's doing here," he said. "That doesn't sound very
good to me."

The trouble with his engine had been providential, for ten minutes later
he realized that had he gone on at full speed he would have encountered
the advance guard of at least a full division of the enemy.

Quietly and steadily the Blue troops were marching on. There was purpose
in the look of them, and a grim earnestness that made Jack whistle.

"Tom," he whispered, "you certainly hit it! They're setting a trap all
right. They're going to cross at Mardean and swing around to cut off our
troops from Bremerton. They've got a nice plan--just to steal our
position, and make us fight on our ground--but with positions reversed."

CHAPTER IX

JACK DANBY'S GOOD NEWS

Hardly daring to breathe lest they be heard, the two Scouts waited while
the Blue troops passed. It took more than two hours for the regiments,
marching in close order, to get by them, and it was nearly light when
the last stragglers had passed their hiding-place.

"Gee," cried Jack, "that's certainly a surprise to me! Say, Tom, do you
know what they've done? They've buffaloed General Bean, and fooled him
completely--and our whole army! They've left not more than two regiments
there. Of course, that was a stronger force than Abbey had, but they
managed it so cleverly that they're holding up General Bean and his
whole brigade."

"How can that be, Jack? I thought the umpires decided on the strength
and the probable result of any encounter between the armies--and they
surely couldn't decide that two regiments could beat a brigade?"

"No--but if the two regiments masked their real weakness so cleverly
that they weren't attacked by the brigade, there wouldn't be anything
for the umpires to decide--and that's what I'm afraid of. That's clever
tactics, you see, and they'd get the credit for it, of course--and
they'd deserve it, too. Well, here's where we stop loafing. We've got to
cut a telegraph wire somewhere and get word of the true state of affairs
to General Harkness. He can't wait until full daylight to move his
troops now."

"What good will cutting a wire do, Jack?"

"Lots of good, Tom. This car has a regular apparatus for cutting in on a
wire, and a set of sending and receiving instruments. If we cut the
wire, it goes dead until we connect it with our instruments. Then only
the section beyond where we cut