in place, and the crisscross structure had collapsed, allowing the
boys to escape.

"Come on! Come on!" cried Jimmy. "Everybody out!"

And they leaped out only just in time, for as Bob, the last to make
his way to safety, cleared the jagged barrier, a burst of flames and
smoke swept into what had been the boys' prison.

Now they stood on the green grass, in the open, with the burning ruins
of the mill at their backs. And confronting them, still holding the
axe, and panting from his terrific exertions, was the strange officer.

And as the young soldiers looked at him they wondered, more than ever,
who he was.




CHAPTER XIII

A PERILOUS JOURNEY


Almost at once there set in a reaction, as was natural under the
circumstances. The Khaki Boys had been keyed up to such a high pitch
through the battle, the attack on the hill, the subsequent shelling
of it, and their own dangerous position after the collapse of the
building, that now their rescue hardly seemed real.