scaped. Now the alarm was being given. Bitter anger for wasting
time talking flashed through him and was gone. He reached down quickly
and pulled Freddy up onto his feet.

"They've discovered our escape!" he cried. "We've got to start moving,
and fast. Stick close to me. We'll still head north."

"But why north?" Freddy protested. "We should go west if we want to
reach the Belgian outposts as soon as possible, and get them to take us
to Allied G.H.Q., Dave!"

"No, north!" Dave said. "They'll guess we're trying to get to the
Belgians, you see? So they'll start hunting toward the west, and sending
word ahead. If we go north we'll be fooling them for awhile ... I hope.
Anyway, it's our best bet. See? There go a couple of their cars racing
down the road toward the west. Come on!"

CHAPTER NINE

_A Desperate Mission_

Dawn was a little over an hour away and Dave Dawson couldn't drag his
body forward another step. For hours he and Freddy Farmer had trudged
across strange country through the darkness striving to put more and
more ground between them and the pursuing Germans. A dozen times they
had almost stumbled headlong into roving German mop-up patrols. And once
they had crouched for a solid hour in a road ditch while a long line of
tanks, and motorized artillery units had rumbled by heading westward.

But now he just couldn't go another step. He didn't care if the whole
German Army was right at their heels. He had to stop and rest. There is
a limit to the endurance of even the strongest of men, and Dave and
Freddy had most certainly proved themselves to be men, not just mere
boys, during those hours of mad flight across enemy held ground. Where
they were Dave didn't know, nor did he care much right at the moment.
The North Star had been his guide all the way, but they had been forced
to change their direction in order to skirt bomb blasted villages filled
with German troops, and roads clogged with parts of the mighty Nazi war
machine, so it was impossible even to guess how far they had traveled,
or in what general direction.

Now, though, as he came to the outer edge of some woods and saw the
shadowy shapes of barren fields beyond, Dave flung himself down under
some bushes and gave his body over to the utter fatigue and weariness
which had been trying to drag him down for the last several miles. His
throat was dry and craving for water, and his stomach was screaming for
some of the bread and the hunk of ch