One
object is to come in contact with some German post, try to hear
what's going on from their talk, and make some captures if we can.
Do you all understand German?"
It developed that they did--at least no one would confess he did not
for fear of being turned back. But, as it developed, they all had
some, if slight, acquaintance with the language.
A little period of anxious waiting followed--a sort of zero hour
effect--until finally the word was received from some source,
unknown to Tom and Jack, to proceed. The night was black, and there
was a mist over everything which did not augur for clear weather on
the morrow.
"Forward!" whispered the lieutenant, for they were so near the
German lines that incautious talking was prohibited. Out of their
trenches they went, Tom and Jack well in front, and close to the
leader.
As carefully as might be, though, at that, making noise which the
members of the patrol thought surely must be heard clear to Berlin,
they made their way over the shell-torn and uncertain ground in the
darkness. They went down between their own lines of barbed wire to
where an opening had been made opposite what was considered a quiet
spot in the Hun defenses, and then they started across "No Man's
Land."
It was not without mingled feelings that Tom and Jack advanced, and,
doubtless, their feelings were common to all. There was great
uncertainty as to the outcome.
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