ay," said Merritt. "Many a boy who
boasts of having lots of nerve would have shrunk from doing what he has.
Tubby's all right, and that's a fact. But it's high noon, and I warrant
you he's feeling mighty hungry."

"He would, under ordinary conditions," said Rob, "but just now I don't
believe any of us could eat a mouthful. I know the very thought of it
makes me feel queer."

"That's because we're not used to such sights and sounds," Merritt
explained. "I expect to wake up many a night with a groan and a shiver,
dreaming I'm on a battlefield again, after those awful Maxims have been
doing their murderous work."

"Well, we might take one last turn around," suggested Rob, "and if we
fail to find any more wounded men, we'll call it a day's work, and
quit."

"For one thing, I'm glad I don't mean to follow this up as a
profession," his comrade continued. "I think I've had enough experience
of fighting to last me a lifetime, and yet, on second thought, if it
should happen again that they needed what little help I could give, why
I'd have to pitch in."

CHAPTER XIX.

AN IMPORTANT CLUE.

"There was one thing I meant to mention to you, Merritt," said Rob, as
they once more started to zigzag across the field where so many windrows
of fallen Germans lay, just as they had dropped when making that daring
charge.

It was perhaps a little strange how the boys could come to converse as
they did while surrounded by such gruesome sights; but after several
hours' familiarity with such scenes these begin to lose some of their
harrowing features. And while Rob and his chum were still shocked by
frequent sights, they did not feel the same weakness that had, in the
beginning, almost overpowered them.

"Then, tell it now," urged Merritt.

"It was about Anthony," continued the other.

"Well, as we know only one Anthony just now," pursued Merritt, "I reckon
you must be referring to our late guide, the same who gave us the slip
like a coward. What about Anthony, Rob?"

"I guessed right about him," replied the patrol leader. "It was not fear
that tempted him to leave us in the lurch, but a craze to get in action.
I think Anthony, while too old a man to be on the active list of the
Belgian army, must have been a reservist."

"Yes, he told me so," said Tubby, coming up and catching what was being
said by his chums.

"Well," Rob continued, "apparently he knew where to go to get a suit,
for there he was as big as life, and h