ere in sympathy with the Allied cause, prisoners in
almost as great a degree as he himself had been, and he might find
among them aid and comfort, though such assistance if discovered would
be sure to be visited with hard punishment by the German oppressors.

The way was full of difficulties and almost every step would be
attended by danger. But for the present at least he was free. Free!
The word had never appealed to him so strongly before. He drew in
great draughts of the mountain air. They seemed in a way to cleanse
his lungs from the prison taint.

For what seemed to him hours he never slackened his pace. Many times
he stumbled in the darkness and his body was full of bruises, but in
the joy of his recovered freedom, he scarcely felt the pain. On he
went and on until he felt certain he had placed a safe distance between
himself and the scene of his recent captivity.

To be sure, the German command had other things to rely on than mere
physical pursuit. There were the long arms of the telegraph and
telephone, through which every division on the sector might be warned
to be on the lookout for him. But it was wholly unlikely that this
would be done. On the eve of the great drive, the authorities were too
busy to expend their energies on the recapture of an escaped prisoner.
Even if he should fall into the hands of another body of his enemies,
it was unlikely that they would know anything of his recent exploit.

So with body tired after his strenuous exertions, but with his mind as
much at rest as it could be under the circumstances, Tom threw himself
down at last to take a brief rest under the shadow of a giant beech.

The sun streaming through the branches woke him a little later. For a
moment he did not know where he was and lay trying to get his thoughts
in order. Then it all came back to him with a rush and he sprang to
his feet and looked about him.

There was nothing in sight to alarm him. The place seemed to be wild
and unvisited. A squirrel sat in the boughs over his head chattering
his surprise and perhaps his displeasure at the sight of the intruder.
A chipmunk slipped along a grassy ridge and vanished in the
undergrowth. Birds sang their welcome to a new day. Everything about
him spoke of peace and serenity. It seemed as though there were no
such thing as war in the world.

Yet even while this thought lingered with him there came a discordant
note in the booming of a distant gun. But