“Why, just as I was coming on duty here I saw two fellows, one dressed as a German soldier and the other in a blue uniform, walking around here.  I thought they were up to no good, so I took a couple of shots at ’em.  I don’t believe I hit either of ’em, but I came so near that I made ’em jump.  And then, just before they ran away, across No Man’s Land, I saw them stoop down and pick up something that looked like boxes.  I thought they might be something they had lost in the fight the other day, for the scrap went back and forth over this section.  But now, come to think of it, they might have been boxes of your films.”

“I believe they were!” cried Blake.

“What two fellows were they you saw?” asked Joe.

The soldier explained, giving as many details as he could remember, and Charlie cried: 

“Lieutenant Secor for one—­the chap in the blue.  A French traitor!”

“He did have a uniform something like the French,” admitted the private.  “The other was a Fritz, though.”

“Labenstein!” murmured Joe.  “I wonder if it is possible that they are with the Hun army and have learned through spies that we are on this front.  If they have, they would know at once that those were boxes of films, and that’s why they stole them!  Do you think it possible, Blake?”

CHAPTER XXI

ACROSS NO MAN’S LAND

Blake Stewart did not answer at once.  He appeared to be considering what the soldier had told him.  And then Blake looked across No Man’s Land—­that debatable ground between the two hostile forces—­as though to pierce what lay beyond, back of the trenches which were held by the Germans, though, at this point, the enemy was not in sight.

“Could it, by any chance, have been Secor and Labenstein who got our films?” asked Joe.

“Very possible,” agreed Blake.  “Labenstein, of course, would be with the German forces, and since Secor is a traitor he would be there also.  Of course it may not have been those fellows, but some other two men who had learned through their spies that we were here taking pictures and wanted them for their own purposes.”

“The question is, can we get them back?” put in Charlie, scowling in the direction of the Germans.

“That’s only one of the questions,” observed Blake.  “The main one is, where are the films now, and where did those fellows go with them?”

“Maybe I can help you out there,” put in the soldier.  “I saw those two fellows heading that way, down in that depression, and they certainly carried some sort of flat, square boxes under their arms.”

“What’s down in there?” asked Joe eagerly.

“Well, it was a machine-gun station, and old Fritz certainly played hob on our boys with it,” answered the sentry.  “But we wiped that out the other day, though I guess the dugout is there yet, or whatever is left of what they used to house their barker in.  The two fellows I saw were heading for that spot.”