"We'll appropriate these," said Hal. "Luckily they were here or we should have been forced to swim across."
The men piled into the boats, and pushed off. They reached the opposite side without discovery, and hastily clambering up the bank were soon hidden from sight in a clump of trees. Here Hal called another halt, until he was able to decide upon his next move.
The boats had been pulled into the trees, to be used for their return trip. The driver of the auto truck was ordered to remain where the party had left him. All in readiness for a hasty retreat, Hal now bethought himself of a way to successfully accomplish their mission.
After a consultation the party moved forward, keeping as much as possible in the shelter of the trees. As they approached the edge of the little woods they came suddenly upon three German horsemen.
The latter had not seen them, so quietly had they crept along. Hal, Chester and Lieutenant Anderson were upon them before they knew it, their men right behind them. Seeing that they were far outnumbered, the Germans did not put up a fight.
The hands of all three immediately went into the air, and one of them called out in German:
"Dismount!" ordered Hal, and the Germans obeyed.
"This is what I call luck," said Hal to his friends.
"What do you mean?" demanded Lieutenant Anderson.
"Why," said Hal, "here we have three horses and three German uniforms. If that isn't luck, I don't know what is."
Quickly the three Germans were stripped of their uniforms, bound and gagged.
When Hal, Chester and Lieutenant Anderson had donned the German uniforms, Hal called three of the British troopers to him.
"You men," he said, "will leave all your weapons here, except your revolvers, which you will hide in your clothes. Then you will accompany us, afoot, apparently as prisoners."
"Then, Bristow, we appoint you to take command while we are gone. The rest of you will remain here until we return, or until you find it necessary to retreat across the river."
"Very good, sir," said Bristow, and fell back and informed his companions of the situation.
"Do you realize," asked Lieutenant Anderson of Hal, "that if we are captured in these German uniforms it will mean a spy's death for all of us?"