in back of you?"

"This is the last load from Lille," Dave said. "I don't know about any
others."

"Lille?" the soldier gasped and seemed startled. "I thought the Jerries
were there!"

"I fancy they are, now," Freddy spoke up. "I say, will there be room
enough for us on that train, do you think?"

"Always room for two more on anything," the soldier grunted and watched
the stretchers disappear into the maze of moving lights. "You chaps
just follow me, and I'll...."

The soldier never finished the rest of that sentence. At any rate, if he
did, the boys didn't hear him. At that moment there came the faint drone
of engines high in the sky and to the east. Instantly it seemed as
though a thousand men put whistles to their lips and all blew them at
the same time.

"Bombers!" roared one fog horn voice.

"Everybody aboard!" bellowed another.

"Never mind your kit, you men, get aboard!" thundered a third.

"All lights out!" a fourth voice carried above all the others.

In the wink of an eye the moving lights stopped moving and went out. All
was plunged into darkness. A darkness filled with grunting sounds on the
ground, and the throbbing beat of approaching airplanes overhead.
Instinctively Dave and Freddy grabbed hands and started moving toward
the train. No sooner had they taken a dozen steps than they ran smack
into a wall of solid flesh. They tried to force their way through but it
was as futile as trying to push a tidal wave to one side. They alone
were not the only ones trying to get aboard that train. A few hundred
others had the same idea.

Suddenly the shrill whistle of the engine cut through all other sound. A
moment later the angry roar from hundreds of throats told Dave and
Freddy that the train was moving. They stopped trying to push forward,
and simply stood there listening to the angry shouting of the troops who
could not get aboard, and the sound of the train as it picked up speed
and went racing off toward the east.

"Here they are! Everybody scatter!"

Perhaps it was the same fog horn voice, and perhaps it wasn't. Anyway,
everybody heard the command and started moving. A moment later the air
became filled with the howl of diving wings. Further orders were not
necessary. In a flash Dave thought of the bomb blasted bridge. The road
had once dipped down under it, but now it was no more than a cave made
out of jagged chunks of stone with twisted steel rails and splintered
ties for roof shingling. H