"Say, I'm about all in!" exclaimed Bob, as he sank down on the grass.

"Same here," agreed Jimmy, staggering to a seat.

"Take it easy, boys, take it easy," counseled their rescuer. "And
better come a bit farther away from the fire. The whole place is
going, and the wind's blowing strongly this way. We're too much in
line with it."

He spoke the truth. The boys were enveloped, part of the time, in a
haze of smoke and a swirl of burning brands. Tired, and physically
and mentally exhausted as they were, they scrambled to their feet--for
they had all stretched out on the grass--and made their way to a spot
where they could breathe with freedom. The mill ruins were now burning
fiercely.

"Any more left in there!" asked the officer, pointing with his axe
towards the fiery structure.

"None alive," answered Jimmy, as he thought of their brave comrades
in arms who had perished in wiping out the German machine-gun nest. It
was, perhaps, a fitting funeral pyre for them.

"Stay here and I'll get you some water," offered the blue-shirted
officer. "That will fetch you around quicker than anything else. I can
get you a little food, too, I think--emergency rations, if you need
them."

"We aren't exactly hungry, sir," said Jimmy, tacking on the "sir" in
an almost certain opinion that the man was an officer. "We had some