“A handsome body of men,” said Stubbs.  “I have never seen better.”

“And the size of them,” exclaimed Chester.  “Must all be over six feet.”

It did seem so.  Great, big, husky-looking fellows they were, strong as gorillas—­heavily bearded, most of them, and warmly and snugly dressed.

“They’ll make these Austrians move around some, with an even break,” declared Chester.

And still the troops passed, seemingly without end.

“Must be an attack in some force,” said Chester.

“Or reinforcements to check an enemy’s advance,” declared Stubbs.

“Well,” said Chester, “if there is going to be a battle, we ought to try and see something of it.”

“They’ll arrest us if we go fooling around here,” declared Stubbs.

Chester thought quickly.

“I’ll tell you,” he said at length, “you saw the orderly stationed outside our tent?”

Stubbs nodded.

“We’ll go back and get him.  Also we’ll take Hal and Colonel Anderson.  They wouldn’t want to miss this.”

“Don’t forget my old friend Nikol,” said Stubbs.  “Remember he is something of a fighter, too.  He’ll want to have a look.”

They made their way back to the tent quickly and aroused the others.  The orderly placed at their disposal, once their wants were made known, volunteered to conduct them to the front.

“I’ll get an automobile,” he said, and departed.

Five minutes later he was back with a big car and all climbed aboard.  A moment later they were being driven rapidly toward the extreme front.  There, just behind the first line troops, Hal and Chester made out that the movement was in reality a defensive one.  Apparently the men rushed forward so early in the morning were reinforcements.

The troops had entrenched themselves hurriedly and were preparing to resist an attack, which, the orderly informed his charges, was expected momentarily.  It appeared that the Austrians had made some slight gains the day before and the Montenegrin general staff had reason to believe the offensive would be continued to-day.  Accordingly, steps had been taken to resist the invader.

As the orderly explained the situation, the battle would probably be fought along a twenty-five-mile front; and he announced that at this particular moment the party was somewhere between the center and the left wing of the Montenegrin army.

“Well, we can’t see much from here,” said Chester.

He gazed across the hills.  Then he pointed to his right, toward a not far distant elevation, somewhat higher than the others nearby, and also somewhat closer to the Montenegrin center.

“Now, if we were up there,” he said, “we might be able to see something.”

The orderly seemed nonplussed.

“It is from that eminence that the king and the general staff will witness the struggle,” he said, “I do not know—­”