ess they would have been in the open.
Let me tell you, that tunnel was not prepared in a day or two, or even
in a week, I am certain. It is the work of days and days, grim, hard
work, and has been carried right up beyond the hut and under the wire
entanglements. There it stops, though already it was rising to the
surface, and to-morrow morning, when we investigate the place, I feel
sure that a thrust with a bar will break a way into the open. March
the prisoners across to the guard-room; and you, my friend, come along
and make your report to the Commandant. Ha! What are all these
rascals doing here? Curious, eh? Get back to your stables!"

There was an instant move on the part of the prisoners interned in the
camp, who had collected in this corner to see what was passing.
Turning about promptly--for to disobey an order when under the thumb of
Germans was to court a shot from a rifle--they went off briskly in the
dusk to their own particular huts, while behind them was heard the
sharp command of the sergeant in charge of the sentries, the tramp of
heavy feet, and the passage of the sentries and prisoners in the
direction of the guard-room.

"Come along," said Stuart, his hands deep in his pockets, his head held
forward, his chin on his breast. "I'm frightfully sorry for those poor
fellows. Just fancy! To be within, say, a foot of freedom and then to
fall, and then to be detected by the merest mischance."

"Within a foot of freedom! That's what that officer said," Henri was
muttering to himself. "Just a foot, just a thrust of an iron bar, and
then to safety, freedom--freedom from this prison. Why not!"

"Why not?" he asked suddenly, clutching Jules's coat.

"What? Why not?" the latter asked. "Don't understand."

"Why not complete the work? Those fellows have done precisely what we
should have done--they've dug a hole and have run a tunnel from the
bottom of it out below the open and below the entanglements. It's
there--ready for anyone who wants to get out of this place. Anyone,
Jules! Don't you understand?"

Stuart grabbed at Henri, and thrust his big, healthy face close up to
his. He was breathing deeply, in heavy gusts, and, but for the
gathering darkness, it would have been seen that his eyes were shining,
while he showed every sign of excitement.

"Why not? You fellows were thinking of making an escape?" he asked.

"Certainly," Henri told him; "we've been saving our grub, and what
money