appeared to "work" well in the
dark, for the men on guard in the trench merely saluted.

CHAPTER XXII

PLAYING GOO-GOO IN A GRIM GAME

Down the slope the Army boys walked boldly for a few hundred yards. The
night was so dark that there was small possibility of being seen at a
distance.

"Now, we'd better go a little more cautiously," whispered Hal, checking
his companion by a touch on the arm.

"It's going to rain within a very few minutes," Noll whispered in
return, as he looked up at the inky sky overhead.

"The more rain the better. I hope there will be no lightning."

"Where are you going to try to slip through the lines?"

"Do you remember the gully that runs back through the woods below,
somewhat to our left as we stand now?" queried Hal.

"Yes; certainly."

"That gully is a trap such as sane soldiers would hardly dare venture
into. If they did, and were discovered, the Moros could annihilate them
from above."

"Surely," nodded Noll.

"Therefore I have an idea that the Moros haven't attempted to guard that
gully in force, though there may be men on either side above it. Noll,
if we are careful not to make a sound I think we can steal through that
gully without getting caught."

"Or else we'll run into a hundred times as much trouble as we can
handle," replied Noll thoughtfully.

"It's worth taking a chance, isn't it?"

"I think it's the best single chance I can see."

"Come along, then," whispered Hal. "You might keep just a little behind
me. I think I can find the mouth of the gully, even in this pitchy
blackness. If you see me drop to my knees, do the same."

Hal started forward again. The natural-born scout, once he has observed
a place in the daylight, has some kind of an instinct that guides him to
the same spot in the darkness.

Sergeant Hal had not gone far when the rain began to descend. There were
distant rumblings of thunder, but no lightning. For this he was
thankful. He hoped to be behind the Moro lines before lightning began to
flash.

Two wanderers in front of the enemy's lines would be sure to excite
suspicion, while two seeming natives behind the lines would attract
little attention.

Presently Sergeant Overton dropped to his knees, peering ahead and
listening keenly, as he crept along. Sergeant Terry imitated his chum.
Hal crawled within fifty feet of the mouth of the gully, just a little
south of it. After a moment's pause he obtained his bearings and
extended