urrrrse."

Tom laughed.

They tramped up through the main street of a village, for the populated
area was too extensive to afford hope of a reasonably short detour. The
few people whom they passed in the darkness paid no particular heed to
them. They might have been a couple of khaki-clad boys in America for
all the curiosity they excited.

At the railroad station an army officer glared at them when they saluted
and seemed on the point of accosting them, which gave them a momentary
scare.

"We'd better be careful," said Tom.

"Gee, I thought we had to salute," Archer answered.

They followed the railroad tracks through an open sparsely populated
region as far as the small town of Ottersweier. The few persons who were
abroad paid no particular attention to them, and as long as no one spoke
to them they felt safe, for the street was in almost total darkness.
Once a formidable-looking German policeman scrutinized them, or so they
thought, and a group of soldiers who were sitting in the dark entrance
of a little beer garden looked at them curiously before saluting. Most
of these men were crippled, and indeed as they passed along it seemed
to the fugitives that nearly every man they passed either had his arm in
a sling or was using crutches.

"Do you think maybe they had a hunch we werren't Gerrman soldierrs at
all?" Archer queried.

"No," said Tom. "I think they just didn't want to salute us till they
were sure we were soldiers like themselves. I think a soldier hasn't got
a right even to salute an officer here unless the officer takes some
notice of him. Maybe the officer's got to glance at him first, or
something."

"G-o-od _night_!" said Archer. "Reminds you of America, don't it--_not
'arf_, as the Tommies say. Wouldn't it seem funny not daring to speak to
an officerr therre? Many's the chat I've had with French generals and
English ones, too. Didn't I give old Marshal What's-his-name an elastic
band to put around his paperrs?"

In all probability he had, for he was an aggressive and brazen youngster
without much respect for dignity and authority, and Tom was glad when
they reached the hills, for he had been apprehensive lest his comrade
might essay a familiar pleasantry with some grim official or launch
himself into the perilous pastime of swapping souvenirs with a German
soldier.

But they were both to remember this business about saluting which, if
Tom was right, was eloquent of the German military syst