"What was that?" Don exclaimed.

"What was what?" demanded the other.

"Didn't you hear a noise?"

"No."

"Where?" asked Chase, interestedly.

"Down below—in the château itself."

"In the château itself!" repeated Manning. A suspicious note crept into his voice. "You're joking, son!"

"No sir, I'm not," asserted Don, emphatically. "It was very faint, but distinct, and sounded exactly like something falling."

"It's a case of nerves," declared Chase, a little disagreeably. "Forget it."

Don Hale, however, couldn't be convinced that he was mistaken, though perceiving how skeptical the others were he wisely made no attempt to argue about the matter.

Chase took an observation through the field-glass, so did Dunstan, and each was as interested as Don Hale in seeing "No Man's Land" seemingly brought so close to their eyes.

"Now I'm through with the Château de Morancourt," declared Chase, finally. "What's the use of tempting fate any longer? There wouldn't be very much glory in letting a marmite get us while we're engaged in sightseeing, eh?"

"I've decided objections to it," chuckled Don.

"There has been a wonderful change in the splendor of warfare," said Dunstan, who appeared not to have heard these observations. "No longer the dashing cavalry charges led by officers with waving swords; no longer troops, victorious and triumphant, surging in irresistible masses across the smoke-filled battle-field in hot pursuit of their routed enemy, but foes invisible to one another plugging away, using scientific calculations to attain their ends!"

"But the picturesque is now more extraordinary than ever, mon ami," put in Chase. "Think of the firework displays! See!—there is a trifling manifestation of their possibilities before us!"

A red signal rocket had suddenly shot up, illuminating the 

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