at one end of it and a stall in the other. Barney sat down upon the

straw to wait developments. Tired nature would be denied no longer.

His eyes closed, his head drooped upon his breast. In three minutes

from the time he entered the shed he was stretched full length upon

the straw, fast asleep.

The chugging of a motor awakened him. It was broad daylight. Many

sounds came from the courtyard without. It did not take Barney long

to gather his scattered wits--in an instant he was wide awake. He

glanced about. He was the only occupant of the shed. Rising, he

approached a small window that looked out upon the court. All was

life and movement. A dozen military cars either stood about or moved

in and out of the wide gates at the opposite end of the enclosure.

Officers and soldiers moved briskly through a doorway that led into

a large building that flanked the court upon one side. While Barney

slept the headquarters of an Austrian army corps had moved in and

taken possession of the building, the back of which abutted upon the

court where lay his modest little shed.

Barney took it all in at a single glance, but his eyes hung long and

greedily upon the great, high-powered machines that chugged or

purred about him.

Gad! If he could but be behind the wheel of such a car for an hour!

The frontier could not be over fifty miles to the south, of that he

was quite positive; and what would fifty miles be to one of those

machines?

Barney sighed as a great, gray-painted car whizzed into the

courtyard and pulled up before the doorway. Two officers jumped out

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