and then he led the way toward the distant tents.

Fifteen minutes later the four friends were sleeping soundly, with never
a care in the world, for it had been long since they had closed their
eyes and they were completely worn out.

Darkness shrouded the small tent when Hal opened his eyes. It was several
moments before the lad could gain his bearings, but when at last he
realized just where he was he bethought himself of the others.

"Still sleeping, I guess," he said.

He arose, moved to the door of the tent and passed out. A steady rumbling
sound fell upon his ears and Hal, momentarily, was unable to account for
it. But the solution soon came to him.

"Troops moving," he told himself.

He was right. Walking some distance from the tent, he made out, probably
half a mile away, the dark forms of many men as they marched swiftly on
in the darkness, their figures lighted up ever and anon by the gleam of a
flashlight. But the camp in which the lad stood was perfectly quiet.

"Now I wonder--" he muttered--gazed silently ahead a moment and then
turned back toward the tent, saying to himself: "Guess I'll wake the
others up."

Chester and Colonel Anderson were aroused without much trouble. Not
so Stubbs.