The Austrian signified his readiness and they moved off; and as they went along Uncle John, glaring after them, shook a finger violently, and shouted time after time: 

“You young rascals.  You’ll be sorry for this.”

He was still raging when the others disappeared from sight among the tents.

“I wonder why?” he asked himself repeatedly, when he was back in his prison tent.  And then suddenly it dawned upon him.  “What a fool I was,” he muttered.  “Of course they are here to get me out of this and I came almost spoiling the whole thing, if I have not done so.  I ought to be licked.”

Meanwhile, the three friends followed the Austrian officer back to their quarters, where he left them.

“By Jove! that was a pretty close shave,” remarked Hal, after the officer had taken his leave.

“Rather,” replied Chester dryly.  “You would think a man of Uncle John’s age would have more sense.  I’ll tell him about it good and strong when I see him again.”

“But great Scott! wasn’t he mad,” said Hal with a laugh.  “Did you see how he glared at us?  Wonder what he thinks of us, anyhow?”

“Maybe he thinks he has made a mistake,” put in the colonel.

“No, he doesn’t,” declared Chester.  “He knows us when he sees us, all right, and I’ll bet he is doing some tall thinking about now.”

“Well,” said the colonel, “we have done about enough for to-day.  I vote we accept the officer’s invitation to have dinner with him.”

“Same here,” agreed the others.

The evening and night passed quickly, as did another day, and with the coming of darkness on the second day, the friends began to think of a method of making their way back to their own lines.

“We’ll have to make an effort to take Uncle John with us,” said Chester.

“Sure,” agreed Hal and the colonel, and the latter added:  “I guess we will manage it some way.  Now, as to the matter of getting by the outposts.”

“I can’t see as there will be any difficulty about that,” said Chester.  “Fortunately we are known to most of the officers around here by sight.  They will think nothing strange of the fact that we are making a tour of the outposts.  Then, if we can manage to catch a sentinel off guard, we can nab him and run.”

“Sounds all right,” remarked Hal.  “We’ll try it.  But first we must get Uncle John.”

“Of course,” said the colonel.  “We’ll get him, all right.  In an hour, then, we shall move.”

The hour passed slowly, and it seemed to all that the time for action would never come.  But at last Colonel Anderson, after a glance at his watch, rose to his feet.

“Let’s go,” he said briefly.

The others followed him from the tent and he led the way quickly to where Uncle John was confined.  In the distance they saw that a sentinel stood on guard and that to enter by that way would arouse suspicion.