Where they were going they
could not see, but they knew what had happened.
They had been captured by the Germans!
CHAPTER XXI
THE CLEW
For one wild instant Tom and Jack, as they admitted to one another
afterward, felt an insane desire to attempt to break away from their
captors, to rush at them, to attack if need be with their bare
hands, and so invite death in its quickest form. They even hoped
that they might escape this way rather than live to be taken behind
the German lines.
It was not only the disgrace of being captured--which really was no
disgrace considering the overwhelming numbers that attacked them--t
it was the fear of what they might have to suffer as prisoners.
Tom and Jack, as well as the others, might well regard with horror
the fate that lay before them. But to escape by even a desperate
struggle was out of the question. They were surrounded by a ring of
Germans, several files deep, and each was heavily armed. Then, too,
their captors were fairly rushing them along over the uneven ground
as though fearful of pursuit. The air service boys had no chance,
nor did any of their comrades of the patrol who might be left alive.
How many these were, Tom and Jack had no means of knowing. They did
not see any of their comrades near them. There were only the Huns
who were bubbling over with coarse joy in the delight of having
captured two "American pigs," as they brutally boasted.
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