“I’ll tell you what to do,” counseled the sentry:  “I’m going to be on duty here until late this afternoon.  I’ll keep my eyes peeled for anything that may happen down there where that dugout used to be, and I’ll let you know.

“Meanwhile, you can be getting ready to take a little excursion there after dark.  You’d better take your gas masks with you, and also your automatics, for you may run into a party of Fritzes out to get the night air.”

“That’s what we’ll do,” decided Blake, and his chums agreed with him.  And then they began to make their preparations for the perilous trip across No Man’s Land that night.

They were not asked to make any pictures that day, for which they were thankful, as they still felt some of the effects of the gas, though they were rapidly improving.

Following the fight in which the boys so nearly lost their lives and in which there were severe losses on both sides, though with a net gain of territory in favor of the Allies, there was a period of comparative calm in the American ranks.  The soldiers took advantage of this to rest and repair their damaged uniforms, arms and equipment.  And it was on one of these days, when discipline was somewhat relaxed, that the moving picture boys made their preparations.

As they were left pretty much to themselves when they were not called on to be making pictures, it was rather easy for them, without exciting any comment, to get ready.  This consisted in seeing that their automatic pistols were in good working order.  They also applied for new gas masks, with a fresh impregnation of chemicals.  When they received these, and with a supply of lampblack, they were ready, waiting only for the fall of darkness.

The lampblack was to be put on their hands and faces so that their whiteness would not be revealed in case the Germans played their searchlights on the ground the boys hoped to cover, or sent up star clusters to give light for raiding parties sent out to kill the French and American wounded, such being one of the pleasant ways in which Fritz makes war.

Late in the afternoon they paid a visit to their friend the sentry, asking if he had seen anything of the two men that they suspected might have the films—­Secor and Labenstein.

“I wouldn’t know ’em by those names even if I saw ’em,” said the soldier, “and, as a matter of fact, I didn’t see the same two chaps I saw before.  But I have seen figures moving about down in that hollow, where we wiped out the machine gun squad, and I wouldn’t be surprised but what there was something doing there.”

“I only hope our films are there,” said Joe.

“Don’t build too much on it, Buddy,” advised the sentry.  “As I say, I saw some figures I took to be Germans down in that valley, but they may be getting ready for a raid on our lines, and may have nothing to do with your pictures.”

“Well, we’ll take a chance,” decided Blake.