n't get out, I
gave up. I did shoot one through a crack, but a moment later a shot came
through and caught me in the side. That's the last I remember until I
returned to consciousness and learned that you had saved me."

"Well," said Chester, "you certainly have had an eventful time."

"There is no question about that," Hal agreed. "But how do you feel
now, captain?"

"Tip top. And you?"

"First rate."

The troop continued at a trot, and Hal now believed that they were out of
danger--that there was no likelihood of encountering a force of the
enemy--and turned to his friends, remarking:

"Well, we might as well--Hello!"

He broke off suddenly and checked the pace of his horse.

"What's up?" demanded Chester, doing likewise.

For answer Hal pointed down the road. A man was approaching them at
a dead run.

CHAPTER V.

ANTHONY STUBBS, WAR CORRESPONDENT.

"Now, what in the name of all that's wonderful do you suppose is the
matter with him?" ejaculated Chester.

Hal shrugged his shoulders expressively.

"You've got me," he admitted; "but by the look of him he's not
running for fun."

"Right," agreed Captain Anderson; "but whatever is on his trail will have
to travel pretty lively to catch him. Look at him come!"

As the stranger dashed toward them, head hanging and arms working like
pistons, the three friends suddenly broke into a loud laugh. A more
comical-looking specimen of humanity would be hard to imagine. The
friends looked him over carefully as he came on.

Large he was, there could be no mistake about that, but he seemed to be
about as wide as he was long. Hal and Chester took in his dimensions
with an appraising eye. Stout and chubby, he must have weighed all of
200 pounds, and his height, the lads saw, could not be more than five
feet four.

As he tore down the road as fast as his peculiar build would permit, he
did not once raise his head, and therefore did not perceive the British
troops in his path. The lads could see that his face was red, and that he
was puffing and snorting from lack of breath. Not perceiving the men who
barred his path, he would have dashed right in among them had not Hal
brought him to a sudden stop with a word of command.

"Halt!" he cried.

With a gasp of amazement the man halted and gazed at the British as
though bewildered. One look he gave them and then exclaimed in a shrill
piping voice, in English:

"You are surrounded! Run, Anthony, run!"

He s