he sentry
to make sure that everything was all right. Perhaps the sentry at the
point where he should try to pass the line might be the same one who
had let Rabig through, and he might notice the difference in personal
appearance. Any one of a dozen things might happen to arouse suspicion.

Luckily it was growing dark and Tom had pulled Rabig's hat well down
over his face, yet not so far as to make it appear that he was trying
to evade scrutiny. He walked on briskly to a point where a sentry on
duty before an opening in the wire fence was standing.

"_Halt! Wer da?_" hailed the sentry.

"_Ein Freund_," replied Tom.

"_Losung._"

"_Potsdam._"

At the same time Tom carelessly extended the pass which the sentry
glanced at and returned to him with a curt gesture, in which Tom
thought he saw contempt. But it meant that he was free to pass, and he
did so with an air of indifference.

His heart was beating so fast that it seemed as if he would suffocate.
At every step he feared to hear a shout behind him that would tell him
that the ruse was discovered. But the fortune that had frowned upon
him so many times of late this time was friendly. Behind him were the
usual camp noises and nothing more.

In a few minutes he had gotten out of sight of the lines and was in the
woods at a point where the trees grew thickly and only a half-beaten
trail led through the underbrush. Then he quickened his pace and soon
found himself running.

If he were pursued, he had fully made up his mind what he would do. He
would never again see the inside of a German prison. He had the
revolver and he would fight to the last breath. He might go down,
probably would, considering the odds that there would be against him,
but he would die fighting, and would take one or more of his enemies
with him.

He was racing along now at top speed and he only slackened his gait
when he knew that he had put miles behind him. By that time it had
grown wholly dark, and in the woods it was as black as pitch. He was
safe for that night at least. His enemies could not have seen him if
they had been within ten feet of him.

And the darkness brought with it a word of warning. While in one sense
it was a protection, on the other it had in it an element of danger.
He could no longer know the direction in which he was traveling. He
knew the danger there was of traveling in a circle. If he kept on he
might swing around in the direction of the Germa