not harbor some poisonous reptile
which might strike unexpectedly.

"They're still keeping up that shouting!" announced Merritt, listening.
"Which I take it is a queer thing for them to do. If they're German
raiders why don't they come across and interview us, I wonder? I thought
I saw uniforms among the bunch. How about that, Rob?"

"The sun was in my eyes, and I couldn't say for certain," acknowledged
the one spoken to, jerking at the bridle of his horse.

"One thing is sure," said Tubby, "the horses are not at all thirsty;
else there's some thing they don't like about this place down here."

All of them were really puzzled by the strange actions of their horses.
It was no longer simply Tubby's mount that acted so contrary, but the
other three also.

"Guess my nag got cold feet about something; and it's catching as the
measles," Tubby announced, as he shook his head in the manner of one who
finds himself with too hard a nut to crack.

"Well, that water looks cool and clear," said Merritt, "and I think I
could enjoy a few swallows myself, if the horses won't."

"Sure it ain't poisoned, are you, Merritt?" queried Tubby dubiously.

"Oh! get that crazy notion out of your poor head, Tubby. Germans don't
make war that way. They face the music, and stand up before the guns.
What makes you look at me like that, Rob?" and Merritt as he asked this
question stopped short, for he had been in the act of putting his threat
into deeds, and getting down beside the stream to take a drink.

"I smell it too, Rob!" exclaimed Tubby just then. "And, oh! let me tell
you it's a rank odor. Isn't it in this country they make all that
Limburger cheese; or over the border in Holland? Well, if you asked me
I'd say it was something like that."

"Smells more like burnt powder to me!" snapped Rob, showing visible
signs of increasing excitement.

With that he commenced looking hurriedly around. Perhaps a sudden
tremendous suspicion may have flashed into his mind, and he was seeking
to justify it by making some sort of discovery.

The gully was of considerable width, as has been said before, though
just at that time in the late summer the stream that flowed through it
did not appear to be of any great depth, and could be easily forded.

There were bushes and grass and weeds growing all about, besides stray
stones that may have fallen there when the solid masonry of the really
fine bridge had been constructed years before.

Although he