The officer, Joe and Frank started off on their long tramp back to camp,
and Jerry and Slim watched them until they were out of sight.

"That looks like the last regiment of the Germans going over the
opposite hill there, too," said Jerry, as they turned to observe the
enemy army. "We can start in a short while."

And in half an hour, Jerry carrying the heavy pack-set and Slim toting
the equally weighty rations and incidentals, they set off on the Boches'
trail.

Out in the open, and especially in the mountains, distances are
deceptive. Jerry and Slim learned this when they had been traveling for
two hours, and the point where they had seen the last German disappear
over a hilltop seemed as far away as when they started.

"Ever travel along in a train at night watching the moon, and notice how
it seemed to move right along with you?" asked Jerry.

"Lots of times," answered Slim, as he puffed along, "Why?"

"Well, that's the way that hill seems to be traveling along, always
keeping the same distance ahead of us."

"I've heard of armies 'taking' a fort, or a city, or a trench," said
Slim. "Do you suppose those Germans are 'taking' that young mountain
along with them?"

"Seems so to me," said Jerry, coming to a halt to shift the heavy
pack-set to the other hand.

As a matter of fact, early evening--a cold, biting winter evening--was
settling about them when they finally climbed to the crest of that hill
to cautiously "see what they could see."

Far beyond the slope ahead of them, in the dim dusk, they could discern
a mass of men, evidently halted for the night.

"That's their rear guard," announced Jerry, with the field glasses to
his eyes. "I can even make out their sentries."

Slim took a look and agreed. "Hadn't we better report?" he asked.

"I think we ought to make this bunch of trees here our position, and
then scout ahead a little first," said Jerry.

"All right," Slim agreed. "Which one of us shall go?"

"Let's toss."

They did, and it fell to the lad who had claimed to have the scent of a
deerhound to go out and reconnoitre, while the "natural-born scout"
remained behind.

Divesting himself of all his burdens but his revolver and ammunition
belt, Slim started off. Leaving Jerry to arrange their effects, he gave
that young man a real shock when he silently returned five minutes later
unheard by Jerry, and, standing only half a dozen feet behind him,
blurted out:

"Forgot my field glasses."