"Do you mean to say, youngster, that you would risk it?" the officer
asked in surprise.

"Oh, wouldn't I, sir," the lad replied with flushed face. "Say the
word, sir, please."

The lieutenant nodded, saying, "It's worth it. But be cautious."

The soldiers looked on while the boy carried out his freak, for such
they judged his bit of reconnoitring to be. Cautiously George crept
towards the mill, the sloping roof of which came almost down to the
very hill side. Tying a wisp of long grass and weeds round each boot,
he crawled noiselessly up till within a foot or two of the ridge. He
paused a moment to gaze down the dingle. There, well seen from his
vantage point, a couple of miles away, ran a far larger valley, which
was filled with tents. "The enemy's main body!" he thought. He waved
his arm in the direction of the camp, but his comrades did not
understand the action, as they stood peering down upon the lad from
among the trees higher up the slope.

Now flat on his face the boy ventured to peep over the roof ridge down
into the village street at no great distance below. Not an eye was
directed upwards, so far as he could see, the men laughing and
chattering gaily as they drank. Then the temptation seized him, and in
a moment he had lifted the flag from the old chimney in which the
staff was loosely set. "I'm in for it now!" he cried to himself, as he
slid like an avalanche down the roof, leapt to the ground, and made
off up the steep slope towards his comrades, the flag triumphantly in
his hand.