ine rested in a little grade not far from
a brook overshadowed by the arching branches of trees.

"There!" sighed Ned, clambering from the fuselage and springing to
earth. "The Eagle is a good little machine, all right, but it seems
good to get the ground under foot once more."

"And I'm glad that we came down when we did, for a little longer up
there," said Jack, pointing to the graying eastern sky, "and we'd have
been fair targets for any old 'Schutzenfest' these chaps wanted."

"Right you are!" declared Harry. "And now what I'd like would be a
real old fashioned imitation of three boys eating a hearty breakfast.
Just a plain, common, every-day square meal, I mean."

"This is a pretty place," observed Ned, "all sheltered and obscure. We
ought to be able to get a dandy bath there in that brook and then make
whatever breakfast we want off the supplies we got from Peremysl."

"My appetite is just about now equal to that of our absent and
red-headed friend McGraw," said Harry with a laugh. "I'm hungry."

"A bath first," cried Ned, beginning to disrobe, "then the eats."

Soon the lads had divested themselves of the German uniforms and were
enjoying the plunge in the cool, clear water of the brook. Presently
they emerged from the stream and again donned the uniforms they had
taken from the room that was intended as a prison.

"Now," said Ned, as the three were again dressed, "what shall be the
menu of the morning? With this glorious sun peeping over the tops of
the hills to the eastward of us we ought to have a fine breakfast. The
weather looks mighty fine."

"Yes," agreed Jack, "but it don't sound very fine. I thought I heard a
rumble of thunder just now. Did you hear it?"

"No," replied Ned, "I can't say I did. Was it thunder?"

"Sounded like it," declared Jack. "There it goes again!"

"That don't sound like thunder exactly," said Harry. "I wonder what it
can be. I thought it was a wagon passing a bridge."

Ned's face went rather pale as he faced his comrades.

"Boys," he stated, "I believe that must be the sound of cannon firing
we hear. It is coming more regularly now!"

"Then we're pretty close to Verdun," was Harry's rejoinder.

"Yes, that's my idea, too," said Ned. "Let's get breakfast and be
prepared for whatever may happen. We don't know what may come along so
close to the lines as we are now, and we must not be napping."

"I'll get a bucket of water from the brook," volunteered Ja