ours with the motorcycle," he said to
Tom. "How did you ever think of it?"

"I didn't want to be caught, Jack, that's all. I guess you were right
the other day when you said we never knew what we could do until we had
to do it. It's certainly true with me, because if anyone had ever told
me that I would do a thing like that, I'd have told them they were
crazy."

"Well, whatever the reason was, it was good work. If they'd caught you
with your signal flags, they might have smelled a rat, and the best part
of our catching Canfield was that they didn't know anything about it.
That's what made him such a very valuable prisoner for us to have."

CHAPTER VIII

THE ENEMY'S TRICK

Jack Danby was pretty tired after his exertions. Captain Durland, glad
that his Troop, except for the one prisoner, poor Harry Warner, of the
Raccoons, was still all together under his command in Bremerton, found
quarters for them in the little village hotel.

"We'll turn in early," he said, "and get all the sleep we can. I think
there'll be some hard fighting to-morrow, and we can't tell yet what
part we'll be called on to play in it when it comes. So we'll get all
the sleep we can. I shouldn't wonder if the battle to-morrow began long
before dawn. If we can turn the right wing of the Blue army, which
doesn't seem very likely now, we will want to start the action as soon
as possible, because, when you have the enemy trapped, the thing to do
is to strike at him just as quickly as you can. Every minute of delay
you give him gives him just that much more of a chance to get out of the
trap."

"That means if General Bean gets to Newville in time, doesn't it, sir?"
asked Dick Crawford.

All the Scouts had listened with the greatest interest to what Jack had
told them of his day's adventures. He had been at the very heart of
things, and he was able, from the information that he and Tom Binns had
intercepted, to get a complete view of the whole scene of the
operations, far superior to that of any of the others, who knew, of
course, only what was going on in their own immediate neighborhood.

"Yes--that's what I mean, of course," said Durland. "But it's a forlorn
hope. There's a limit to human endurance. Even regular troops would call
what Bean's brigade did before sunset a hard day's work. Just think of
it--they were in motion before daybreak this morning, ready for their
dash across the line. Then they marched several miles toward Hardport