As the boat heeled over, Chester hurled himself upon the German, who had succeeded in clutching Hal by the throat and was slowly strangling him.  He seized the German by both shoulders, and, putting his knee in his back, pulled with all his strength.

The pain was unbearable, and the man was forced to loosen his grip on Hal’s throat.  But so fierce had been the pressure of his fingers, that for a moment Hal was unable to go to Chester’s assistance, and lay panting and gasping for air.

The German, who was much larger and more powerfully built than Chester, turned upon his second opponent.  By a quick shift of position, he grasped the lad’s throat with his left hand and with his right aimed a hard blow at his face.  This the lad struck up with his left arm, and before the German could repeat the blow, let drive with his right.

There was a loud smack, as his right first crashed into his opponent’s face, and a stream of blood poured from the German’s nose.  Hal now had regained his wind, and jumped to aid his chum.

All this time the battle between the two skirmish lines of the armies continued.  Both sides had perceived the struggle in the boat, but both were fearful to fire for fear of wounding friend as well as foe—­for the very fact of the struggle proved that there were men of both armies in the boat.  Gradually the fire of both sides slackened, as the troops peered intently toward the fighting figures in midstream.

The lads’ prisoner, raising his left arm to ward off a blow delivered by Chester, accidentally caught the lad under the chin with his fist.  The blow was a hard one, and, before the lad could recover his balance, the prisoner had delivered another resounding smack, which caused Chester to stagger back.

At that moment Hal leaped upon the German from behind.  His right fist struck the man a stunning blow on the back of the neck.  The German wheeled and clinched with his opponent, and for a moment they stood, arms locked about each other, swaying upright in the boat.

Then Hal, putting forth every ounce of his strength, succeeded in breaking his opponent’s hold, and gave him a violent push.  The German staggered and tottered; but, in the very act of falling overboard, his outstretched hand grasped Hal by the collar and both tumbled into the river together.

Chester scrambled to his feet as the two pitched into the river.  As they went over the side, violently tipping the boat, it suddenly turned turtle.  Chester went flying through the air and disappeared beneath the water with a loud splash.

Still locked in each other’s embrace Hal and his opponent rose to the surface.  Both had one arm free and struck out blindly at the other’s face.  Hal landed two short-arm blows, and the German sent one home.  Neither had an advantage, however, and they sank again.

At almost the same instant Chester’s head appeared above the water.  He cast a quick look around, but could see no sign of the other two occupants of the boat.  Treading water, he remained close to the spot where the water bubbled up.  Two or three seconds later the heads of the struggling pair again appeared above the water.