“No,” said the Austrian with a smile, “but it is necessary to take Gorizia to hold Trieste.  The mountains that overhang the city are fortified with our great guns, which could rain shells upon the city without danger of a successful reply.  The Italians know this, which is the reason they have not struck at Trieste before.  The same goes for Trent, the other point coveted by the enemy.”

The party had stopped during this discussion, but now moved on again.  In this part of the camp the tents were laid out in little streets and avenues, and down these they walked slowly.

And suddenly the three friends were treated to a disagreeable shock.

Closely followed by a guard, Uncle John suddenly stepped from a tent and stood directly in their path.  He seemed stricken dumb with amazement for a moment and then hurried up to them with a glad cry.

“Chester!  Hal!” he exclaimed in English.

For a moment the two lads were dumbfounded.  Then, realizing their perilous situation, Hal pushed Uncle John away and frowned at him.  He whirled upon the Austrian officer.

“What is the meaning of this?” he demanded sternly.  “I did not know you had lunatics here.”

Now Uncle John knew something of German himself, and he caught this remark.  He glared angrily at Hal and then spoke to Chester.

“What’s the meaning of this, Chester?” he asked.

Chester did not reply, pretending that he did not understand English.  Uncle John grew more angry.

“You young scalawags,” he shouted, “what are you trying to do?  Have some fun with me?  I want to tell you this is no place nor time for fun.  I want to get out of here.”

Hal and Chester each was afraid to give Uncle John a signal for fear it might be seen and Colonel Anderson made no move to interfere.  The Austrian officer turned a suspicious gaze upon the three friends.

“Do you know this man?” he asked.

Hal shook his head.

“He evidently has mistaken us for some one else,” he said.  “Do you understand what he says?  It sounds like it was English he spoke.”

“So it is,” replied the Austrian.  “He called you Hal and Chester and also scalawags, whatever that means.”

Chester shrugged his shoulders.

“I don’t know him,” he said.

“Nor I,” said Hal.

“I’ve never seen him before, to my knowledge,” declared Colonel Anderson.

The Austrian officer glared down at Uncle John.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded in broken English.  “Why do you accost these gentlemen?”

“Why?” exclaimed Uncle John, dancing up and down in his rage, “why?  Because one of them is my nephew.  What does he want to deny he knows me for?”

“He says one of you is his nephew,” said the Austrian turning to the others.

“Well, he’s wrong,” declared Chester.  “I’m sure none of us ever saw him before.  Let us go.”