s chums.

"Farmhouse ahead half a mile or so," was the burden of his call; "I
glimpsed it against that bright place in the sky. As the sun's already
gone down we'll have to take our chances, and apply for lodging there."

"I'm with you, Rod!" called out Josh immediately, while Hanky Panky
added:

"I only hope none of the enemy slip up in the night and gather us in,
that's all."

CHAPTER IX.

THE NIGHT ALARM.

Their arrival at the dooryard of the roadside farm was signalized by a
frantic clatter. Dogs barked, chickens squawked on their way to their
roosts, ducks quacked, and even a calf tethered to a stake in the rear
of the house set up a pitiful bleating, as if under the conviction that
the dreaded butcher's cart had arrived, and the last hope of life now
hung by a slender thread.

"One thing I'm glad to see," announced Josh, as they came to a halt
amidst all this bustle and clamor.

"What's that?" asked Hanky Panky, in duty bound.

"The terrible Germans have not come this way so far, that's sure,"
remarked the observing one.

"I'd like you to tell us just how you know that?" demanded the other.

"Shucks! open your eyes, and look around you, my friend. Would it stand
to reason that a bunch of hungry soldiers, raiding through an enemy's
country, could pass by, and allow all this fat of the land to exist?
Ducks, and chickens, and pigs, and calves would have gone to make up a
German feast this night. And like as not the dogs would have been shot
in cold blood because being French they had dared to bark at the
uniforms of the Kaiser's men."

"Guess you're right there, Josh," admitted Hanky Panky, easily convinced
when the evidence was there before his very eyes.

"Here are the good people of the house come to see what's broken loose
to give their live stock such a scare," observed Rod just then.

A woman with a tottering, silver-haired old man just behind her,
appeared around the corner of the low building. Possibly they had been
alarmed by hearing the splutter of the coming motorcycle brigade's
machines, and hesitated about showing themselves. But when Rod advanced
toward them, making a courteous salute, and they saw what a frank boyish
face he had, somehow they lost all fear.

Arrangements were soon made that assured the lads some sort of
entertainment. That they were not the terrible Germans was enough for
the good woman of the farm house. In her mind the whole world was
divided into two clas