is big hands and jabbed a desk button
with a thick finger. As though by magic a side door swung open and a
German soldier with a Staff Orderly's arm band about his tunic sleeve
popped into the room. The officer fired words at him so fast that Dave
couldn't catch a single one of them. The orderly saluted and then
motioned for Dave and Freddy to walk out ahead of him. When he had
closed the door he pointed toward a flight of stairs, and then up. He
stopped them on the second landing, pushed open a door and waved them
inside. There were two army cots with a blanket for each, a couple of
broken chairs, and nothing else. A single window was at the rear of the
room and its sill was a good five feet up from the floor. It was thick
with dust and cobwebs and looked as if it hadn't been opened in years.

The two boys glanced at the room in dismay. Then the click of the door
latch, and the grating sound of a bolt being shot home, spun them both
around. Dave leaped for the door and grasped hold of the knob. It
turned in his hand, but the door refused to open. He gulped and glanced
back at Freddy. The English youth's face had paled a bit, but his eyes
were grimly defiant.

CHAPTER SIX

_They'll Never Beat Us!_

"Keep the old chin up, Freddy," said Dave. "They can't do anything to
us. They wouldn't dare! Don't let it get you, fellow."

Freddy lifted his face and smiled wryly. There was the faintest
suggestion of tears in his eyes.

"I'm not afraid of them!" he said scornfully. "I'm mad at myself. I
could kick me all around this room. Through my own stupidity I've gone
and lost our boys a perfectly good ambulance. That's what I can't get
over. I could chew nails when I think of it falling into the hands of
the blasted Germans. I'm just no good, Dave."

Dave laughed and doubled up a fist and put it under the other's chin.

"Hey, none of that!" he cried. "You're my pal, and I don't let people
say crazy things about my pals. Gee whiz, you were swell downstairs,
Freddy. You talked right up to him when I was all the time quaking in my
boots. You bet! Don't worry about that ambulance. Maybe we'll get it
back. Heck! Maybe we can figure out some way to steal it back."

Bright hope flickered in the English youth's eyes.

"You think so, Dave?" he whispered. "You think there's a chance we might
steal it away from them?"

"We can sure try," Dave replied with a vigorous nod. "You just keep
everything under control, and.... Sh-