to safety and do not give it,
could you blame them if they felt rather unfriendly toward you?"

"Now see here, Mister--whatever your name is--," began Ned, slightly
nettled, "we came here only to find a place to buy some gasoline and
some food. We are not in this country as spies, and we have repeatedly
declined to give information to either side. We can't start now."

"All right, then," said the man, nodding his head slightly, "have your
own way about it. But," he went on, "if you fail to make any purchases
such as you desire, please don't blame anyone but yourselves."

With these words he turned on his heel and left the three lads staring
after him in amazement. He proceeded quickly, and was soon out of
sight behind a house slightly larger than the others.

"Well, he told us where we were, at any rate," said Ned with a huge
sigh as the man disappeared from their view. "He's generous!"

"Nix on the sarcasm," counseled Harry; "it strikes me that we are in a
pretty tight fix right now. That fellow won't do a thing but make it
interesting for us if he gets half a chance."

"You're right, Harry," put in Jack with vigor. "Do you know, boys, I
wouldn't object to making a little bet that our visitor is a German
himself, put here for the purpose of keeping an eye on everything that
goes on. He was just trying to pump us, that's all."

"Do you really think so?" asked Ned. "He seemed all right at first."

"I thought so, too," went on Jack, "but did you notice how rather
uppish he got when we wouldn't tell him all we know and then some?"

"He was inclined to get rather dictatorial toward the last," admitted
Ned. "Come to think about it, he didn't look like an ordinary villager
at that. Wonder who he could have been."

"I'm not wondering so much at who he could have been as what he's
liable to do," was Jack's answer. "I began to suspect him just the
minute you warned us. I'm glad we didn't tell him anything."

"Let's get out of here, boys," suggested Harry. "If that fellow is
within fourteen rows of apple trees of the truth and this village is
deserted by all the able-bodied men, we won't have much chance of
getting gasoline or food or information at this place."

"What shall we do?" asked Ned. "What is your idea?"

"I move we go back to the Eagle and 'get out of town'."

"Second the motion," cried Jack eagerly. "I don't like this place a
little bit! Let's be going now."

"All right, then; right ab