Hal, slightly in advance, suddenly uttered a stifled exclamation.
Instantly Chester touched his arm.

"What's the matter?" he asked in a whisper.

"Matter is," Hal whispered back, "that we have come to a barbed-wire
entanglement. I had forgotten about those things."

"Well, that's why you brought your 'nippers' along," said Chester. "Cut
the wire."

Hal produced his "nippers." It was but the work of a moment to nip the
wires, and again the lads advanced cautiously.

A moment later there loomed up before them the German trenches. Hal
stood back a few feet while Chester advanced and placed the little
hardwood box upon the top of the trench, and scraped over it several
handfuls of earth. The lad now took the coil of wire in his hand, and
stepped down and back. The lads retraced their steps toward their own
lines, Chester the while unrolling the coil of wire.

The return was made without incident. Before their own trenches the
boys were challenged by a sentinel.

"Halt!" came the command. "Who goes there?"

"Friends," returned Hal.

The sentinel recognized the lad's voice.