"We will go back the way you came," decided the soldier. "I will have my men accompany us, and when we reach a convenient place a rush should take the mill."
"I'll go along with you then, Captain," assented Frank.
"Same here," added Billy; but Pudge shook his head sadly, and reaching down felt tenderly of his knees, as he remarked:
"You'll have to excuse me this time, fellows; I must beg off. After it's all over give me a whoop, and I'll _walk_ to where you are. Crawling doesn't seem to be my special forte, I'm sorry to say."
"That's all right, Pudge, stay here until we give you the signal that the coast is clear," Billy told him.
Orders being given to the soldiers, the entire lot started toward where the dip began. A few minutes later they were making their way along on hands and knees, and appearing to the observant Pudge very much like a trailing snake.
There was not a single shot fired at them as they crept on, and in the end they found themselves at the spot where the big seaplane lay.
As they could go forward no further in that way, orders were given for a charge, and the two boys, still crouching there, were thrilled to see the dozen men in khaki start across the open ground on the run, each one dodging as he saw best in order to take as little chances of being hit as possible.
"Why, look at that, Frank!" cried Billy. "Not a single shot has been fired at them! What do you think the Germans are up to? Are they waiting to mow them down in a heap? Hey, isn't that a white flag waving from the old mill? Why, honest, now, I do believe they mean to throw up the sponge, and surrender. Let's start forward ourselves, Frank."
"Wait and see," cautioned the other. "After the soldiers have gone inside will be time enough for us to hurry up."
"Well, there they go right now, Frank!" cried the other. "Please come on, for I'm dying to know what it all means. It isn't like Germans to give up that way without a hard fight."
When they arrived at the windmill the mystery was soon explained. The terrible garrison consisted of just a single old man, and he was not a German at all, but a French peasant who had lost all he possessed when the Kaiser's army went through this part of France earlier in the war. His mind had given way under the strain, and filled with the idea that his old mill was a fort he had stationed himself in it with his gun, ready to repel the invaders of the sacred French soil.