ining three-quarters of an hour they spent in close study of the
map that Major Jones had given them, and promptly at seven o'clock they
started upon the dangerous mission.

With nightfall the big cannonading had noticeably shut down, but to the
south of them artillery firing still could be heard distinctly. It was a
black night and they proceeded with the greatest caution.

They did not dare use the flashlights that each of them carried, and
frequently all of them would have to drop suddenly flat upon the ground
as a big rocket went up from either side, lighting the whole section for
trace of skirmishing parties.

In this way they went forward, yard by yard, until they reached a thick
clump of trees. There, after listening intently for several minutes
without hearing a dangerous sound, they spread out their coats,
tent-like, while Lieutenant Mackinson, with gingerly flashes of his
light, examined the map again, to make certain of their location.

They had hardly progressed a hundred feet further when the unlucky Slim
tripped and went sprawling on the ground with a pained but suppressed
grunt.

"Sh-h-h-h!" warned Lieutenant Mackinson in a whisper, while Tom Rawle,
quietly chuckling at the fat lad's misfortune, aided him to his feet.

"Down flat!" said Mackinson again, as he discerned several shadows
moving across a space a considerable distance to the north of them.

For fully ten minutes, which seemed like an hour, they lay there, not
daring to move. They watched the enemy scouting party get a like scare,
and then, after what seemed to be a whispered consultation, turn back to
the German lines.

"What did you fall over?" the lieutenant finally asked of Slim, in a
scarcely audible tone.

"I just found it," replied Slim. "It's a wire. Here, let me have your
hand." And he guided the lieutenant's fingers to that which had been the
cause of his downfall.

"Copper!" exclaimed the lieutenant. "Hoskins, let me have that kit."

And without the aid of a light he extracted from the leather case which
Hoskins gave him a very small telegraph instrument. The instant it was
attached to the wire the receiver began to tick irregularly.

Neither Rawle nor Hoskins understood German, but to the others they were
words easy to translate.

They had accidentally struck an enemy wire and had tapped it! That part
of the message which they had intercepted read:

"--lead enemy to believe whole attack centered from your