The two scouts sprang off
just in time, steadying the machine.
"Drop it! Into the fields here!" cried Paul. "We can't run any
longer. We must try to elude them by tricking them. Come on!"
And so they were obliged to abandon the machine that had served them so
well, leaving it lying in the road. They ran across a ditch that
bordered the road, and into a field where they managed to conceal
themselves in a hedge. They could still see the white road, and the
collapsed motorcycle, but there was a chance, even if it was a slim
one, that they themselves would not be seen.
Arthur wanted to run across the field, but Paul stopped him.
"That's what they'll expect us to do, isn't it?" he said. "And,
besides, they could see us. There's no shelter for a long way. Here
they may overlook us, just because we're so close--and it's the only
chance we have, anyhow."
"Here they come!" cried Arthur, and crouched down, staring. For a
moment it seemed that the pursuers might ride straight by, and Paul
groaned suddenly.
"We ought to have dragged the machine in here with us!" he said. "Then
I don't believe they'd have known we had stopped for quite a distance!
I never thought of it, though, and now it's too late!"
It was too late, indeed, for the other machine stopped within a few
feet of the overturned cycle.
"Ha! Now we'll have them! They can't have gone far!" said one of the
Germans.
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