. They were only too
glad of a chance to rest.

He burrowed deeper and deeper into the recesses of the thicket. He lay
as close to the ground as possible. What would he have given for the
friendly shelter of a trench!

The men conversed lazily together while the officer sat some distance
apart. At times the Germans' eyes rested carelessly on Tom's shelter,
but without any sign of suspicion.

At last the order came to resume the march, and Tom drew an immense
sigh of relief. A few minutes more and they would be gone.

The men had formed in loose marching order and the lieutenant lifted
his hand to give the signal.

Suddenly a loud ringing came from the center of the thicket, whirring,
rattling, clanging.

_The time-piece Tom was carrying was an alarm clock!_

CHAPTER IX

THE CONFESSION

To poor Tom that ringing was the crack of doom.

The world seemed to end for him then and there. The first surprise had
paralyzed him. Then he rolled upon the betraying clock, tried to crush
it, strangle it, press it into the earth. But it kept on remorselessly
until the alarm ran down.

The Germans had been almost as startled at first as Tom himself. But
they hesitated only for a moment. There could be no mistaking where
that insistent buzzing was coming from. There was a rush for the
thicket, and the next moment Tom was hauled out and stood upon his feet
among his captors.

It took only a glance to tell them that Tom was an American. His face
as well as his uniform betrayed that fact. Amid a hubbub of excited
exclamations he was taken before their leader.

But this time the officer was not able to talk English and there was no
interpreter at hand, so that Tom for the present was spared the ordeal
of questioning.

The fateful clock was passed around among the men with jest and
laughter. It was a good joke to them, but Tom was in no mood to see
the humor of the situation. To him it meant that all his strivings had
come to naught.

Why had he not noticed that the clock was of the alarm variety and that
the alarm had been set? He promised that he would never forgive
himself for that.

A number of men were counted off to take Tom to the local prison camp,
while the rest of the party went on with their expedition.

The journey was long, but it was not attended by the rough treatment
that would ordinarily have been meted out to the prisoner. The men
were glad, for one thing, that they were relieve