“All right,” whispered the colonel hoarsely.  “Rip off your clothes while I get him out of this uniform.”

Chester flung off his clothes hurriedly, and stepped quickly into the uniform Colonel Anderson gave him.  Then he deprived the man of his gun and revolvers.

“All ready for the next one,” he said.  He moved toward the door.

“Hold on there,” called the colonel.  “You can’t go in that uniform.”

“By George! you’re right,” declared Chester.  “What now?”

“You’ll have to wield the chair,” was the reply.  “There is no time to change again.”

He walked out of the tent and Chester picked up the chair and stepped into position.

This time, therefore, it was Colonel Anderson who engaged in a heated altercation with a second Austrian soldier.  The plan worked as well as before and the man pushed the colonel back into the tent.  The latter dragged the man in after him and stepped hurriedly aside, just as Chester brought the chair down upon the Austrian’s defenseless head with all his power.  The man dropped like a log.

Hurriedly Colonel Anderson stripped off his outer garments and climbed into the Austrian’s uniform.  Then he seized the man’s gun and revolvers and led the way from the tent.

“If you see another of them, keep your back toward him if possible,” whispered the colonel.

And just as Chester emerged from the tent a third guard stepped around the side.  Chester turned his back, as did Colonel Anderson, and the man paid no heed to them.  The fugitives walked away quickly.

Out of sight of the tent they slowed down and breathed with relief.

“Which way now?” asked Chester.

“As straight toward the front as we can go,” was the reply.  “We’ll have to trust to luck to get through.”

They made off with all speed.

And suddenly, from the direction in which they had come, there came a loud cry, followed by several pistol shots and the sound of footsteps running after them.

“They have discovered our escape!” shouted Colonel Anderson.  “Run.”

He suited the action to the word and Chester ran after him.

“We’d better double back and try to throw them off our track,” called the colonel over his shoulder.

He swerved to the right, ran a few rods, and turned to the right again.

And then, abruptly, he came to a pause.  Chester, a step behind, crashed into him.  He stumbled, and uttered an exclamation of dismay, as he heard Colonel Anderson say: 

“We surrender!”

CHAPTER XXX.

Safe.

As Hal and Anthony Stubbs approached the tent in which Chester and Colonel Anderson had been so recently confined, they discussed their plan of action; and after several plans had been advanced and rejected, Hal decided that caution must be thrown to the winds.