llow! I do, indeed! However, you can come along
with us as far as that. Then I'll wash my hands of you. But I can tell
you that if you go on much further, you'll get into some fighting that
isn't meant for boys!"

They made no reply, for as they understood their errand, they were not
supposed to tell every officer they met what they were doing, but were
to answer questions only when it was plain that not to do so meant that
they would be prevented from reaching their destination.

It was not the easiest of tasks to manage the reversing of the supply
train of omnibuses, but the officer in charge was efficient, and it was
managed. When the convoy had turned around, he rode up beside the boys.

"Seen any signs of Germans?" he asked.

"Only at a culvert a few miles back," said Frank. He described the fight
there as best he could, and the officer looked a little worried.

"As far as that, eh?" he said. "We hadn't heard of their being in that
quarter at all. H'm!"

Then he rode on ahead, to what had, until a few moments before, been the
rear of his train.

"He's doing well enough, now that he knows his way," said Frank in an
undertone to Henri. "But I think he was in a bad way. I've got an idea
that the Germans are behind us. Do you know what I think? It's funny for
a supply train like this to be here without any escort of troops, isn't
it?"

"Yes. I thought of that, too."

"Well, I believe he was supposed to meet a guard, and missed it. Suppose
he'd run into the Germans?"

"Yes, that would have been a nice mess! I suppose some English soldiers
would have gone hungry to-night!"

The road was rising a little, enough for them to feel the added pull in
propelling their wheels. And now, at the crest of the little rise, they
saw that the officer had dismounted. He had unstrapped a box from his
machine and was setting it up. In a few minutes, as they reached him,
he had set up a tripod-like machine, not unlike a surveyor's
instrument, and was flashing a small mirror.

"Hello!" he said. "Field heliograph kit. Ever see it before?"

"No, sir, but I know about it," said Frank, while Henri looked on
admiringly. "I know the Morse code, too."

"Do you? Good! Then watch those answering flashes. Check off the message
for me."

Harry obeyed, having spotted in that moment the answer of a similar
instrument on a hill perhaps five miles away. He read off the Morse
signs carefully, and the officer nodded.

"And that's all ri