el, and, collapsing there, rolled backwards into it.

As one can imagine, though the under-officer had given vent to no
sound--no shout of warning--the noise of his coming through the tunnel,
the flash of his torch and its beams sweeping through the opening
above, had attracted the attention of the sentry. The man faced that
direction promptly, and brought his rifle to the ready. Then for a
while he waited, while Stuart was dragging the German upward, and,
indeed, until there came the heavy thud which told of the
under-officer's arrival at the bottom of the tunnel.

"What's that?" challenged the sentry. "Who goes there? Halt, and
declare yourself!"

"Fire!" whispered Henri, and, standing up, he cast first one stone and
then the other at the sentry, while Jules followed suit without
waiting, a loud cry of pain and the dull sound of a blow telling that
one of the missiles at least had hit the German.

"Now come!" said Stuart. "We're lucky in the fact that the fellow
hasn't fired his rifle, though he's shouting hard enough to rouse every
man in the camp, and will soon have them all about him. Which way, you
fellows? You know more about the business and the place than I do, for
I'm a stranger in these parts, and, bad luck to it, know precious
little of Germany and the Germans. Bad luck, did I say? when I've seen
far too much of them in these months past since I came to Ruhleben.
But what's the move? Which way do we turn? Where do we go? And how
are we going to get on for victuals?"

That was the worst of this sudden escape, this movement out of the camp
without calm thought and contemplation of the future. They had no
plans--not a single one--and they had no idea whither to go, or which
way to turn, nor where they might seek safety. True, Henri and Jules
had discussed the matter on many an occasion, and had, indeed, as we
know, been diligently, and with much self-sacrifice, hoarding up what
food they could--and in all conscience they had little enough of
it--and what money they could gather. But as to their course when once
in the open--that had seemed something so far in the distance, so
difficult to contemplate, so very unlikely, that they had given it but
the smallest consideration. And now they were face to face with the
difficulty and must act promptly.

"Of course the town's out of the question," said Henri, taking upon
himself to guide the party, for, indeed, as we have mentioned already,
he kne