“Is that so?” said Hal, somewhat nettled.  “Perhaps you can see through it?”

“Of course,” said Chester.  “General Gallieni simply sent this squad after us.  He didn’t explain the situation to the officer.”

“By Jove!” said Hal.  “Now, why didn’t I think of that?  It’s plain enough, now that you speak of it.”

They marched along in silence, and soon were ushered into the presence of General Gallieni.  The latter dismissed the other officers with a wave of his hand and turned to the lads.

“Well, I see you escaped,” he said, with a semblance of a smile on his grim features.

“Yes, sir; thanks to you, sir,” said Hal, also smiling.

“Thank yourselves,” said the general.  “It took some resourcefulness to think of such a plan.  It proves to me that you can use your heads.  I am, therefore, more confident that you may be successful in your desperate work.”

Hal and Chester were greatly flattered by this high praise, but they simply saluted and said: 

“Thank you, sir.”

“Now,” said the general, “you may as well go about the work at once.  Further delay is useless.  But you cannot go in those uniforms.  Didn’t you lay in some other clothes, as you suggested?”

“We did, sir,” replied Hal, “but the officer who conducted us here wouldn’t let us go after them.”

“True,” said the general.  “I didn’t explain the situation to him, because I feared that he might possibly give the coup away.  Perhaps I can fix you up here, however.”

He struck a little bell on his desk a sharp tap.  Immediately an orderly entered and to him the general spoke briefly.  The orderly saluted and departed, returning a few moments later with a bundle of ragged clothing.

“You may go into the next room and change,” said the general, and the lads hastened to obey.

Ten minutes later, dirty, ragged and unkempt, they once more stood before General Gallieni.  The latter surveyed them critically.

“You’ll do,” he said at last, with an approving nod.  “Now—­are you armed?”

“Two automatics each, sir, and a good supply of cartridges,” said Hal.

“Bien!  Here,” the general handed each a little silver whistle, “should you ever be in a tight place and in need of assistance, blow these, and, if help is near, you will get it.”

The lads shoved the whistles out of sight in the clothes.

“I guess that is about all,” said the general.  “Remember, the main thing I want is Duval.  Establish his true identity and learn where he can be found and you will have done enough.  The rest of the work will be for other hands.  By the way, if I were you, I would go first to the Quartier Latin, and loiter about there.  You know where it is?”

“No, sir,” said Hal.

The general gave them the necessary directions and then rose.

“That is all,” he said, and the lads, realizing that their interview was at an end, saluted and took their departure.