"I wonder what they are going to do with us," said Joe, in a low voice, to Blake.
"Hard to tell," was the quiet answer. "They're marching us toward their lines, though."
This was indeed true, the advance being toward a section of the field beyond the German trenches whence, not long before, had come the searchlights and the hail of shrapnel.
"Well, things didn't exactly turn out the way we expected," said Charlie. "I guess we'll have to make a re-take in getting back our films," he added, with grim humor. "How do you figure it out, Blake?"
The talk of the boys was not rebuked by their German captors, and indeed the captain seemed to be deep in some conversation with Secor and Labenstein.
"I don't know how it happened," Blake answered, "unless they saw us go into that hut and crept up on us."
"They crept up, all right," muttered Joe. "I never heard a sound until they called on us to surrender," he added.
"Maybe Secor and Labenstein saw us and never let on, and then sent a signal telling the others to come and get us," suggested Charlie.
"I hardly think that," replied Blake. "The Frenchman and his fellow German plotter seemed to be as much surprised as we were. You could see that."
"I guess you're right," admitted Joe. "But what does it all mean, anyhow?"
"Well, as nearly as I can figure it out," responded Blake, as he and his chums marched onward in the darkness, "Secor and Labenstein must have hidden the films in the hut after they stole them from the place where we went down under the gas attack. For some reason they did not at once turn them over to the German command."
"Maybe they wanted to hold them out and get the best offer they could for our property," suggested Charlie.
"Maybe," assented Blake. "Whatever their game was," and he spoke in a low tone which could not carry to the two plotters who were walking ahead with the German captain, "they went to the hut to get the films they had left there. And as luck would have it, we came on the scene at the same time."
"I wish we'd been a little ahead of time," complained Macaroni. "Then we might have gotten back with our films."
"No use crying over a broken milk bottle," remarked Joe.
"That's right," Blake said. "Anyhow, there we were and there Secor and his German friend were when the others came and----"