← catalogue

Army Boys on the Firing Line; or, Holding Back the German Drive

by Homer Randall · English · Gutenberg #21671 · 266,950 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Army Boys on the Firing Line; or, Holding Back the German Drive
    
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: Army Boys on the Firing Line; or, Holding Back the German Drive

Author: Homer Randall


        
Release date: June 3, 2007 [eBook #21671]
                Most recently updated: January 2, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21671

Credits: E-text prepared by Al Haines


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ARMY BOYS ON THE FIRING LINE; OR, HOLDING BACK THE GERMAN DRIVE ***


E-text prepared by Al Haines



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustration.
      See 21671-h.htm or 21671-h.zip:
      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/6/7/21671/21671-h/21671-h.htm)
      or
      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/6/7/21671/21671-h.zip)





ARMY BOYS ON THE FIRING LINE

Or

Holding Back the German Drive

by

HOMER RANDALL

Author of "Army Boys in France," "Army Boys in the French Trenches,"
etc.







[Frontispiece: "America!" answered Frank, and hurled his revolver full
in the sentry's face.]



The World Syndicate Publishing Co.
Cleveland, O. ------ New York, N. Y.

Copyright, 1919, by
George Sully & Company




ARMY BOYS ON THE FIRING LINE


CONTENTS

CHAPTER

     I  FIGHTING AGAINST ODDS
    II  A PERILOUS JOURNEY
   III  AMONG THE MISSING
    IV  CAPTURED OR DEAD?
     V  NICK RABIG TURNS UP
    VI  THE COMING DRIVE
   VII  IN THE HANDS OF THE HUNS
  VIII  FRYING-PAN TO FIRE
    IX  THE CONFESSION
     X  A MIDNIGHT SWIM
    XI  GALLANT WORK
   XII  THE DRUGGED DETACHMENT
  XIII  A DEEPENING MYSTERY
   XIV  THE STORM OF WAR
    XV  FURRY RESCUERS
   XVI  CLOSING THE GAP
  XVII  THE MINED BRIDGE
 XVIII  A DESPERATE VENTURE
   XIX  THE JAWS OF DEATH
    XX  A TRAITOR UNMASKED
   XXI  CROSSING THE LINE
  XXII  A JOYOUS REUNION
 XXIII  CUTTING THEIR WAY OUT
  XXIV  WOUNDS AND TORTURE
   XXV  DRIVEN BACK




ARMY BOYS ON THE FIRING LINE


CHAPTER I

FIGHTING AGAINST ODDS

"The Huns are coming!" exclaimed Frank Sheldon, as from the American
front line his keen, gray eyes searched a broad belt of woodland three
hundred yards away.

"Bad habit they have," drawled his special chum and comrade, Bart
Raymond, running his finger along the edge of his bayonet.  "We'll have
to try to cure them of it."

"I think they're getting over it to some extent," remarked Tom
Bradford, who stood at Frank's left.  "The last time they tried to rush
us they went back in a bigger hurry than they came.  What we did to
them was a shame!"

"They certainly left a lot of dead men hanging on our wires," put in
Billy Waldon.  "But there are plenty of them ready to take their
places, and the Kaiser's willing to fight to the last man, though you
notice he keeps his own precious skin out of the line of fire."

"I think Frank's getting us on a string," chaffed Tom, when some
minutes had passed in grim waiting.  "I don't see any Heinies.  Trot
out your Huns, Frank, and let's have a look at them."

"You'll see them soon enough," retorted Frank.  "I saw the flash of
bayonets in that fringe of woods and I'm sure they're massing."

"Do you remember that little thrilly feeling that used to go up and
down our spines when we were green at the war game?" grinned Bart.  "I
feel it now to some extent, but nothing to what I did at first."

"That's because we've tackled the boches and taken their measure,"
commented Frank.  "We know now that man for man when conditions are
equal we can lick them.  The world had been so fed up with stories
about Prussian discipline that it seemed as though the Germans must be
supermen.  But a bullet or a bayonet can get them just like any one
else, and when it comes to close quarters, the American eagle can pick
the pin feathers out of any Prussian bird."

"It isn't but what they're brave enough," remarked Bart.  "When they're
fighting in heavy masses they're a tough proposition.  But they've got
to feel somebody else's shoulder against theirs to be at their best.
Turn a hundred of them loose in a ten-acre lot against the same number
of Americans, where each man had to pick out his own opponent, and see
what would happen to them."

"They wouldn't be in it," agreed Tom with conviction.  "Put a Heinie in
a strange position where he has to think quickly without an officer to
help him, and he's up in the air.  Take his map away from him and he's
lost."

"Even when you talk of his mass fighting being so good, perhaps you're
giving him too much credit," said Billy grudgingly.  "He goes into
battle with his officer's revolver trained on him, and he knows that if
he flinches he'll be shot.  He's got a chance if he goes ahead and no
chance at all if he doesn't.  And you remember at the battle of the
Somme how the gun crews were chained to their cannon so that they
couldn't run away.  You'll notice that we don't use chains or revolvers
for that purpose in the American army."

"I heard Captain Baker tell the colonel the other day that what he
needed was a brake instead of a spur in handling his bunch of
doughboys," chuckled Tom.

"Quit your chinning," commanded Frank suddenly.  "Here they come!  Now
will you boobs tell me that my eyesight's no good?"

"You win," agreed Bart, as a sharp word of command came down the line.
"They're coming for fair!"

From the thick woods beyond, a huge force of enemy troops were coming,
marching shoulder to shoulder as stiffly and precisely as though they
were on parade or were passing in review before the Kaiser himself.

Their artillery, which had been keeping up a steady fire, now redoubled
in volume, and a protecting barrage was laid down, in the shelter of
which they steadily advanced.

But now the American guns opened up with a roar that shook the ground.
The guns were served with the precision that has made American gunnery
the envy of the world, and great gaps were torn in the dense masses of
the enemy troops.  But the lanes filled up instantly, and with hardly a
moment of faltering the advance continued.

As the troops drew nearer, it could be seen that all the men were clad
in brand-new uniforms as though for a festive occasion.

"Getting ready to celebrate in advance," murmured Bart.  "They must
feel pretty sure of themselves."

"Just Prussian bluff," growled Tom.  "They think it will brace up
Fritz, and that we'll think it's all over but the shouting and lighting
out for home."

"They'll have to take those uniforms to the tailors when we get through
with them," muttered Billy, as he took a tighter grasp on the stock of
his rifle.

"They'll do well enough for shrouds," added Frank grimly.

The advancing troops were now not more than a hundred yards away, and
though their losses had been severe there were so many left that it was
evident it would come to a hand-to-hand fight.  The enemy cannon had
torn big rents in the barbed wire entanglements that stretched before
the American position so that it would be possible to get through.

Now the American machine guns began sputtering, and their shrill treble
blended with the deep bass of the heavier field guns.  A moment more,
and from the rifles of the American infantry a withering blast of flame
sprang out and the enemy went down in heaps.

There were signs of confusion in the German ranks and the American
commander gave the signal to charge.

Out from their shallow trenches leaped the Army Boys, the light of
battle in their eyes, and fell like an avalanche upon the advancing
hosts.

In an instant there was a welter of fearful fighting.  The force of the
enemy had been largely spent by their march over that field of death,
while the Americans were fresh and their vigor unimpaired.

For a brief space the Germans were pressed back, but they had
concentrated their forces on that section of the line so that they
outnumbered the Americans by two or three to one, and little by little,
by sheer weight, they pressed their opponents back.  And behind those
immediately engaged, fresh forces could be seen emerging from the woods
and coming to the help of their comrades.

But Americans never show to such advantage as when they are fighting
against odds, and the battle line swayed back and forth, first one and
then the other side seeming to have a temporary advantage.

Frank and his comrades were in the very thick of the fight, shooting,
stabbing, using now the bayonet and again the butts of their rifles as
the occasion demanded.  There was a red mist before their eyes and
their blood was pounding in their veins and drumming in their ears from
their tremendous exertions.

Slowly but surely, the fierce determination of the Americans began to
tell.  The solid enemy front was broken up into groups, and the gaps
grew wider and wider as their men were pushed back further and further
over the ground that lay between the lines.  In the center the
Americans were winning.

But suddenly a new danger threatened.  A fresh body of German troops
had worked its way to a position where it could attack the American
right flank, which was but thinly held because for the time being the
bulk of the forces were engaged in pressing the advantage gained at the
center.  If the enemy could turn that flank and throw it back in
confusion on the main body, it might lead to serious disaster.

At the point where Frank and his comrades were fighting, there was a
nest of machine guns that commanded the space over which the new enemy
forces were bearing down on the threatened flank.  Several of the gun
crews had fallen, and the guns were temporarily unserved.

There was no time to wait for orders.  Another minute and the guns
would be in the enemy's hands.

"Quick, Bart!  Come along, Billy and Tom!" shouted Frank, as he rushed
toward the guns.

His chums were on his heels in an instant.  Quick as a flash, the guns
were aimed, and streams of bullets cut the front ranks of the attacking
force to ribbons.  Volley after volley followed, until the guns were so
hot that the hands of the young soldiers were blistered.

But the hardest part of their work was done, for now fresh guns had
been brought into position and the flank was strengthened beyond the
power of the enemy to break.  Frank's quick thought and instant action
had averted what might have been a calamity that would have decided the
fortune of the day.

"Good work, old man!" panted Bart, when in a momentary lull he could
gain breath enough to speak.

"Yours as well as mine!" gasped Frank, as he dashed the perspiration
from his forehead.  "If you fellows hadn't been right on the job, I
couldn't have done anything worth while."

Regular crews had now been assigned to take their places, and resuming
their positions in the ranks the young soldiers plunged once more into
the hand-to-hand work at which they were masters.

The issue was no longer in doubt.  The scale had turned against the
Germans and they were retreating.  But they went back stubbornly,
giving ground only inch by inch, and in certain scattered groups the
fighting was as furious as ever.

As far as might be, they kept together, but as the swirl of the battle
tore them apart, Tom and Billy were lost sight of by Bart and Frank,
who were laying about them right and left among the enemy.

A sharp exclamation from Bart caused Frank to turn his eyes toward him
for a second.

"Hurt, Bart?" he queried anxiously.

"Bullet ridged my shoulder," responded Bart.  "Doesn't amount to
anything, though.  Look out, Frank!" he yelled, his voice rising almost
to a scream.  Frank turned to see two burly Germans bearing down upon
him with fixed bayonets.

Bart sought to engage one of them, but was caught up in a mass of
combatants and Frank was left to meet the onset alone.

Quick as a cat, he sidestepped one of them, and putting out his foot
tripped him as he plunged past.  He went down with a crash, and his
rifle flew from his hands.

The remaining German made a savage lunge, but Frank deftly caught the
blade upon his own, and the next instant they were engaged in a deadly
bayonet duel.

It was fierce but also brief.  A thrust, a parry, and Frank drove his
weapon through the shoulder of his opponent.  The latter reeled and
fell.  Frank strove to pull out his weapon, but it stuck fast, and just
then a pair of sinewy hands fastened on his throat and he looked into
the reddened eyes of the antagonist whom he had tripped.

With a quick wrench Frank tore himself away, and the next instant he
had grappled with his opponent and they swayed back and forth, each
putting forth every ounce of his strength in the effort to master the
other.

Panting, straining, gasping, neither one of them saw that the struggle
had brought them to the edge of a deep shell crater.  A moment more and
they fell with a crash to the bottom of the hole.




CHAPTER II

A PERILOUS JOURNEY

The shock was a heavy one.  For an instant both combatants were
stunned.  The flying arms and legs straightened out and lay quiet.
Then Frank staggered painfully up to his hands and knees.

Luckily he had fallen on top, and the breath had been knocked out of
his opponent's body.  But even as Frank looked down upon him, his foe
showed signs of reviving.  His eyes opened, and a glare of rage came in
them as they rested on Frank.

He put his hand to his belt, but Frank was the quicker and in an
instant his knife was out and pointed at the German's throat.

"Say 'Kamerad,'" he commanded.

The German hesitated, but a tiny prick of the knife decided him.

"Kamerad," he growled sullenly.

"That's right," said Frank, "but just to make sure that you won't stick
your knife into me when I'm not looking, I guess I'll take care of it.
No, you needn't take the trouble of handing it to me," he continued, as
he saw a vicious expression in his captive's eyes.  "You just keep your
hands stretched above your head and I'll find your knife myself.  And
don't let those hands come down until I tell you, or something awkward
is likely to happen."

If the prisoner did not understand all that was said to him, there was
enough in Frank's gestures to indicate his meaning, and the hands went
up and stayed up, while Frank searched his prisoner and removed his
knife, which he put in his own belt.  Then he bound the fellow's hands.

The attack had been made late in the afternoon, and dusk had fallen
while the fight was still going on.  Now it was quite dark, and Frank
rose to his feet, intending to clamber out of the shell hole, taking
his prisoner with him.

But what was his consternation, on lifting his head to the level rim of
the crater, to hear about him commands shouted in hoarse guttural
accents.  The sounds of battle had died down and it was evident that
the fight for that day was over.  And that part of the field had been
left in German hands!

Reinforcements coming up in the nick of time had halted a retreat that
was threatening to become a rout.  The battle would probably be resumed
on the morrow, but for the present both forces were resting on their
arms.

The tables were turned with a vengeance.  A moment before he had been
holding a prisoner and getting ready to take him into the American
lines.  Now he was himself in the enemy lines, liable at any moment to
be discovered and dragged out roughly, to be questioned by German
captors.

All this passed through Frank's mind in a twinkling.  But then another
thought came to him.  He must silence his prisoner.

The thought came not a moment too soon, for as Frank dropped down
beside him a shout arose from the German's lips.  He too had heard and
understood the sounds about him.

In an instant Frank had thrust his handkerchief into the prisoner's
mouth.  The man squirmed and struggled, but his bound hands made him
powerless, and Frank soon made a gag that, while allowing the man a
chance to breathe comfortably, would keep him silent.

Then he settled back and tried to think.  And his thoughts were not
pleasant ones.

He had had a brief taste of German imprisonment, and he was not anxious
to repeat the experience.  Yet nothing seemed more probable.  Little
short of a miracle would prevent his capture if he stayed there much
longer.  In the morning, discovery would be certain.  He must escape
that night, if at all.  But how could he make his way through that
swarm of enemies?

And while he is cudgeling his brain to find an answer to the question,
it may be well, for the sake of those who have not read the preceding
volumes of this series, to tell briefly who Frank and his chums were
and what they had done up to the time this story opens.

Frank Sheldon had been born and brought up in the town of Camport, a
thriving American city of about twenty-five thousand people.  His
father was American but his mother was French.  Mr. Sheldon had met and
married his wife in her native province of Auvergne, where her parents
owned considerable property.  They had died since their daughter's
marriage, and in the natural course of things she would have inherited
the estate.  But legal difficulties had developed in regard to the
will, and Frank's parents were contemplating a trip to France to
straighten matters out, when the war broke out and made it impossible.
Mr. Sheldon had died shortly afterward, leaving but a slender income
for his widow.  Frank had become her chief support.  She was a
charming, lovable woman, and she and her son were very fond of each
other.

Frank had secured a good position with the firm of Moore & Thomas, a
prosperous hardware house in Camport, and his prospects for the future
were bright when the war broke out.  But he was intensely patriotic,
and wanted to volunteer as soon as it became certain that America would
enter the conflict.  For a time he held back on account of his mother,
but an insult to the flag by a German, whom Frank promptly knocked down
and compelled to apologize, decided his mother to put no obstacles in
the way of his enlisting.

But Frank was not the only ardent patriot in the employ of Moore &
Thomas.  Almost all of the force wanted to go, including even Reddy the
office boy, who although too young, was full of ardor for Uncle Sam.
Chief among the volunteers were Bart Raymond, Frank's special chum and
a fine type of young American, and Tom Bradford, loyal to the core.
Poor Tom, however, was rejected on account of his teeth, but was
afterward accepted in the draft, and by a stroke of luck rejoined Frank
and Bart at Camp Boone, where they had been sent for training.  Another
friend of all three was Billy Waldon, who had been a member of the
Thirty-seventh regiment before the boys had joined it.  The four were
the closest kind of friends and stuck by each other through thick and
thin.

There had been one notable exception to the loyalty of the office
force.  This was Nick Rabig, a surly, bullying sort of fellow, who had
been foreman of the shipping department.  He was a special enemy of
Frank, whom he cordially hated, and the two had been more than once at
the point of blows.  Rabig was of German descent, although born in this
country, and before the war began he had been loud in his praise of
Germany and in "knocks" at America.  His chagrin may be imagined when
he found himself caught in the draft net and sent to Camp Boone with
the rest of the Camport contingent.

How the Army Boys were trained to be soldiers both at home and later in
France; their adventures with submarines on the way over; how Rabig got
what he deserved at the hands of Frank; what adventures they met with
and how they showed the stuff they were made of when they came in
conflict with the Huns--all this and more is told in the first volume
of this series, entitled: "Army Boys in France; Or, From Training Camp
to Trenches."

From the time they reached the trenches the Army Boys were in hourly
peril of their lives.  They took part in many night raids in No Man's
Land and brought back prisoners.  Frank met a Colonel Pavet whose life
he saved under heavy fire and learned from the French officer
encouraging news about his mother's property.  The four friends had a
thrilling experience when they were chased by Uhlan cavalry, plunged
into a river from a broken bridge only to find when they reached the
other side that the bank was held by German troops.  How an airplane
rescued them from German captivity is only one of stirring incidents
narrated in the second volume of the series, entitled: "Army Boys at
the Front; Or, Hand-to-Hand Fights with the Enemy."

Frank had been in many tight places since he had been in France.  In
fact, danger had been so constant that he had come to expect it.  To
have a feeling of perfect comfort and security would hardly have seemed
natural.  But now he freely owned to himself as he sat crouching low in
the shell hole that his liberty if not his life was scarcely worth a
moment's purchase.

Something of what was passing in his mind must have been evident to the
German who shared the hole with him.  Frank could not see his face
clearly but he could hear the man shaking as if with inward laughter.

"Laugh ahead, Heinie," remarked Frank, though he knew the man could
probably not understand him.  "I'd do the same if the tables were
turned.  It'll be a mighty good joke to tell your cronies at mess
tomorrow how the Yankee _schweinhund_ thought he had you and then got
nabbed himself.  But they haven't got me yet.  Those laugh best who
laugh last, and perhaps I've got a laugh coming to me."

But just then the laugh seemed a good ways off.  At any instant some
one of the many passing to and fro might stumble into the hole and the
game would be up.  Or a flare from a star-shell might reveal him
crouching beside his prisoner.  His prisoner!  What irony there was in
the word under those circumstances.

Yet not all irony, for at the moment the thought passed through his
mind, another thought told him how he might exercise the power that the
fortune of war had given him over the German and by so doing effect his
escape.

It was certain that in his American uniform he could not get through
the Germans who surrounded him.  His only chance would be to make a
dash, and although he was a swift runner the bullets that would be sent
after him would be swifter.

_But in a German uniform_--

And here was one in the hole right beside him!

The plan came to him like a flash of light and he started at once to
put it into execution.  But just then a sober second thought made him
pause.

If he were captured wearing his own uniform it would be just as an
ordinary prisoner, entitled to be treated as such by the laws of war.

But if they took him wearing a German uniform he would be regarded as a
spy and would be shot or hanged offhand, perhaps even without the form
of a court-martial.

He weighed the question carefully, for he knew that life or death might
result from the way he answered it.

To help him decide, he raised his head with infinite caution to the rim
of the shell hole and looked about him.  In the faint light that came
from lanterns disposed at various places he could see men moving here
and there and catch the murmur of conversation where some of them were
sitting in groups.

Occasionally a man would rise from one of these gatherings and move
away, apparently without attracting notice or arousing question.  Why
could he not do the same?

Of course there was the chance of a word being addressed to him and he
could not answer without revealing his ignorance of German.  But
perhaps he could pretend not to hear or respond with a grunt that would
pass muster.

One thing was certain.  If it were done at all it must be done at once
while there were many about.  If he waited until things were quiet his
solitary figure would be sure to attract attention.

His choice was made.  Between the certainty of capture and the chance
of being shot he would take the chance.  If worse came to worst he had
his knife and his revolver and he would sell his life dearly.

He knelt down close by his captive and began to strip off his clothes.
The man was inclined to resist, but a sharp prick of Frank's knife told
him that his captor was in no mind to stand any nonsense and he lay
quiet.  It was hard work because the man was heavy and the quarters
were cramped.  The coat had to be cut off in places because Frank did
not dare to untie his prisoner's hands.  But at last the clothes were
off, and Frank slipped them on over his own.

It was with a shudder of repulsion that he saw himself clad in the
detested uniform that stood for all that was hateful and brutal in
warfare.  It made him feel soiled.  But he comforted himself with the
thought that the clothes were only external and that good United States
khaki lay between that abhorred uniform and his skin.

He saw that the gag was still securely in position and that his
captive's bonds had not relaxed.  Then as a last reminder he laid the
back of his knife on the prisoner's neck and felt him shiver beneath
the cold steel.

"I guess he'll make no attempt to give me away," he said to himself.
"He knows that he'll be all right in the morning anyway."

Slowly and with the infinite precaution that had been taught him in his
scout training, Frank lifted himself out of the hole and lay flat on
the ground near the edge.  There he waited until he was sure that he
had attracted no attention.

Then having carefully taken his bearings and fixed upon the direction
of the American lines, he yawned, stretched and rising slowly to his
feet strolled carelessly toward the outskirts of the camp.




CHAPTER III

AMONG THE MISSING

Frank's heart was beating like a triphammer and his nerves were at a
fearful tension.  The next five minutes would probably determine
whether he was to live or die.

But he kept himself well in hand and to all appearances he was only a
tired German soldier going to his bunk.

As far as he could without attracting attention, he kept carefully away
from the low fires around which some of the Germans were sitting.  But
at one point he was forced to pass within the zone of light, and one of
a group threw a laughing remark at him, occasioned probably by the cuts
in his coat which he had been compelled to make when he had stripped
his prisoner.

"_Asel!_" Frank flung back at him and passed on, thankful that he at
least knew the German term for jackass.

Nearer and nearer he drew to the confines of the camp.  Here the great
danger lay, for he knew that it would be closely guarded after the
day's fighting.

If he were challenged what should he say?  To the sentinel's "_Wer
da?_" he could answer "_Freund_."  But when he was told to advance and
give the countersign what would be his answer?

He had it ready.  But it would not suit the Germans.

At the point that he had selected for his attempt, there was an opening
in the wire that had been hastily strung to guard against a possible
night attack by the American forces.

Up and down in front of this a stalwart sentry was pacing.  He stopped
and looked sharply at Frank, as the latter approached.  When he was ten
feet distant the sentry presented his bayonet and called:

"_Halt_!  _Wer da_?"

"_Ein freund_," responded Frank.

"_Losung_," demanded the sentinel, asking for the countersign.

"America!" answered Frank, and hurled his revolver full in the sentry's
face.

The heavy butt of the weapon landed plumb in the middle of the German's
forehead.  He had opened his mouth to shout, but no sound came forth.
The rifle fell from his hands and he went down like a log.

With a leap Frank got through the gap in the wire and started running
like a deer toward the American lines.

There were startled shouts behind him, hoarse commands, a rushing of
feet and a crackling volley of shots.  The bullets whizzed and zipped
close to him and he felt a sharp sting as one of them grazed the lower
part of his left arm.  Once he stumbled and fell headlong, but he
scrambled hastily to his feet and ran on.

But now a new peril was added.  Behind him a star-shell shot up,
followed by another and another, together with strings of "blazing
onions," until the broken field over which he was making his way became
almost as bright as day.  In that greenish radiance his flying figure
stood out sharply, and the firing which had been wild now became more
accurate.  At the same time, a look behind him showed that a troop of
men had been hastily organized and was rushing after him.

This, however, gave him little concern.  A bullet might catch him, but
these heavy Germans, never!

But just as he was comforting himself with this thought he tripped and
went down with a shock that jarred every bit of breath out of his body.

He struggled to get up but could not move.  His lungs labored as though
they would burst.  His legs refused to obey his will.  He felt as if he
were in the clutches of a nightmare.

And all the time he could hear the pounding of his pursuers' feet
drawing closer and closer.  Would he never be able to breathe again?

Little by little, during seconds that seemed ages, his breath came back
to him, in short gasps at first but gradually becoming longer, until at
last he rose weakly to his feet.

He started out again, slowly at first, but, as his wind came back to
him, gathering speed at every stride.  But now his pursuers were
perilously near.  Those precious seconds lost perhaps had been fatal.

His fingers gripped the handle of his knife.  He would not be taken.
Capture in that uniform meant certain death.  No German should gloat
over his execution.  If brought to bay he would die fighting then and
there, using his knife so savagely that his enemies would have to shoot
him to save themselves.

Commands to halt came from behind him accompanied by bullets, but he
only ran the swifter.

But just then a tumult rose from another quarter.  The lines in front
of him seemed to awake.  Lights flashed here and there, a mass of
figures detached themselves from the gloom, and in the light of a
star-shell Frank saw a detachment of American troops coming on the run!

His pursuers saw them too and the chase slackened.  There was a hurried
gathering for consultation, a volley of shots, and then the Germans
beat a hasty retreat, hotly pursued by a band of the Americans while
another group of them rushed up and surrounded Frank.

"Why, it's a Hun!" exclaimed one of them disgustedly, as his eyes fell
on the uniform.  "Only a deserter, and we thought they were chasing one
of our own men."

"That's one on us," remarked another.  "The rest of the boys will have
the laugh on us for sure."

"Do I look like a Heinie?" demanded Frank with a grin.  "I can lick the
fellow that calls me one."

A shout of amazement rose from the crowd as they gathered close to him.

"Sheldon!  Sheldon!  Old scout!  Bully boy!"

They mauled and pounded him until he was sore, for he was the idol of
the regiment.  There was a rush, and Bart and Billy had their arms
around him and fairly hugged the breath out of him.

"Frank!  Frank!" they exclaimed delightedly.  "We thought you were
gone.  The last we saw of you, you were fighting like a tiger, but then
the enemy reinforcements came and we were swept away from you.  We
didn't know whether you were dead or a prisoner.  Thank God you're
neither one nor the other."

"Pretty close squeak," smiled Frank happily.  "But a bit of luck, and
these two legs of mine carried me through, and I'm worth a dozen dead
men yet.  But I'm hungry as a wolf, and if you fellows don't feed me up
you'll have me dead on your hands."

"Trust us," laughed Bart.  "You can have the whole shooting match.  The
whole mess will go hungry if necessary to fill you up.  Come along now
and tell us the story."

It was a happy crowd that bore Frank back in triumph to his old
quarters.  There the rest of the boys flocked about him in welcome and
jubilee.

"Not a word, fellows," protested Frank laughingly, "until I get these
rags off of me.  It's the first time I ever wore a German uniform and I
hope it will be the last.  I feel as if I needed to be fumigated before
I'm fit to talk to decent fellows again."

It was a long time before the hubbub quieted down, and he had to tell
his story again and again before the other soldiers left him alone with
his own particular chums.

"Where's Tom?" asked Frank.  "Our bunch doesn't seem complete without
him.  On special duty somewhere, I suppose?"

Bart and Billy looked at each other with misery in their eyes.

"What's the matter?" asked Frank in quick alarm, as he intercepted the
glance.  "Great Scott!" he added, springing to his feet.  "You don't
mean to say that anything's happened to him?"

Bart shook his head soberly.

"We don't know," he answered.  "The last any of the boys saw of him he
was hacking right and left in a crowd of the boches.  But he didn't
come back with the rest of us."

"You don't mean to say he's dead?" cried Frank.  "You're not stalling
to let me down easy?"

"Not that," protested Billy quickly.  "Honor bright, Frank.  The burial
parties haven't come across him at last reports, and he hasn't been
picked up as wounded.  That's all we know.  The chances are that he's
been taken prisoner."

"Prisoner!" repeated Frank in blank despair.  "Tom a prisoner of the
Huns!  Heaven help him!"




CHAPTER IV

CAPTURED OR DEAD?

There was very little sleep for the three Army Boys that night, in
spite of the exhausting labors of the day.  They rolled and tossed
restlessly in their bunks, tortured by conjectures as to the fate of
their missing comrade.

Good old Tom!  He had been so close to all of them, loyal to his
heart's core, brave as a lion, ready to stand by them to his last
breath.  He had been beside them in many a tight scrape and had always
held up his end.  It seemed as though part of themselves had been torn
from them.

Still, while there was life there was hope, and they drew some comfort
from the fact that he had not yet been found among the dead.  If he
were a prisoner he might escape.  They had all been in a German prison
camp before and had gotten away.  Perhaps Tom might have the same luck
again.

They fell asleep at last, but the thought clung to them and assumed all
sorts of fantastic attitudes in their dreams so that they awoke tired
and depressed.

But there was little time on that morning to indulge in private griefs.
The fight was on, and shortly after dawn the battle was resumed.

All the forenoon it raged with great ferocity.  But American grit and
steadfastness never wavered and the enemy was forced to retire with
heavy loss.  Not only had they failed to drive the Americans from their
positions, but they had been driven back and forced to surrender a
large portion of their own, including the place where Frank had
crouched in the shell hole the night before.

Shortly after noon there came a lull while the Americans reorganized
the captured positions.  Infantry actions ceased, though the big guns,
like belligerent mastiffs, still kept up their growling at each other.

"Hot work," remarked Frank, as, after their work was done, the three
friends found themselves together in the shade of a great tree.

"A corking scrap," agreed Bart, as he sprawled at his ease with his
hands under his head.

"The Heinies certainly put up a stiff fight," observed Billy, as he
tied up his little finger from which blood was trickling.

"They felt so sure that they were going to make mincemeat out of us
that it was hard to wake out of their dream," chuckled Frank.  "I
wonder if they're still kidding themselves in Berlin that the Yankees
can't fight."

"In Berlin perhaps but not here," returned Bart.  "They've had too much
evidence to the contrary."

"I wonder if this is really the beginning of the big drive that the
Huns have been boasting about?" hazarded Billy.

"I hardly think so," replied Frank.  "There's no doubt that that's
coming before long, but the fighting yesterday and today was probably
to pinch us out of the salient we're holding.  That would straighten
out their line and then they'd be all ready for the big push.  When
that comes there will be some doings."

"The longer they wait the harder the job will be," said Billy.  "They
say that our boys are coming over so fast that they're fairly blocking
the roads."

"They can't come too many or too fast," replied Bart.  "And they'll
sure be some busy bees after they get here."

"Well, we're not worrying," observed Billy.  "We're getting along
pretty well, thank you.  By the way, Frank," he went on with a grin,
"are you feeling any different on this ground today than you felt last
night?"

"Bet your life," laughed Frank.  "It's just about here that I was
calling a Heinie a jackass.  And at that same minute I was thinking
that my life wasn't worth a plugged nickel."

"Wonder how the fellow made out that you left in the shell hole,"
chuckled Billy.

"Oh, he was all right," replied Frank.  "I shouldn't wonder if he was
rather chilly during the night, but no doubt they hauled him out in the
morning."

"He got off lucky, though," put in Bart.  "It's the sentry who got the
hot end of the poker.  I wonder what he thought when he heard that
watchword."

"He didn't have much time to think," guessed Billy, "and to tell the
truth, I don't think he's done much thinking since.  That revolver must
have hit him a fearful crack."

"It's safe to say that it gave him a headache anyway," remarked Bart
drily.

"Speaking of the revolver," said Frank, rising to his feet, "I'm going
to take a look for it.  It was just over near that tree that I plugged
the sentry and it's probably there yet."

He searched industriously among the welter of debris and after a few
minutes arose with a shout.

"Here's it is," he said, as he held up his recovered treasure, which
had his initials scratched upon the butt.  "Same old trusty and as good
as ever.  It's saved my life many a time through the muzzle, but last
night was the first time it saved it through the butt."

He fondled the weapon lovingly for a moment, carefully cleaned and
reloaded it, and thrust it in his belt.

Just then a French colonel passed by, accompanied by two orderlies.
The French had been holding a section of the line at the right of the
Americans and their uniform was a familiar sight, so that the boys only
gave the group a passing glance.  But Frank's eyes lighted with
pleasure when the colonel detached himself from the others and came
over with extended hand.

Frank wrung the hand heartily.

"Why, Colonel Pavet!" he exclaimed.  "This is a great pleasure!  I
didn't know that you were in this locality."

"My regiment is only two miles from here," replied the colonel, his
face beaming.  "I need not say how glad I always am to see the brave
young soldier who saved my life."

"What I did any one else would have done," responded Frank lightly.

"But no one else did," laughed the colonel.  "And from what I hear from
your commander you've been doing similar things ever since.  I just
heard of your daring escape last night.  It was gallantly done, _mon
ami_."

"Luck was with me," replied Frank.

"It usually is in such exploits," was the visitor's reply.  "You know
the old saying that 'fortune favors the brave.'  But I'll spare your
blushes and come down to something that will probably interest you
more.  Did you get that letter from Andre, my brother, about your
mother's property?"

"Why, no, I didn't," answered Frank.  "When was it written?"

"That's strange," said the colonel, a puzzled look coming over his
face.  "I received a letter from Andre day before yesterday and he said
that he had written to you by the same mail."

"Well, you know the mail is rather irregular just now," replied Frank.
"No doubt it will get to me before long.  Perhaps your brother told you
something of what was in the letter he wrote to me."

"Not in detail.  He just mentioned that he was very anxious to get hold
of a former butler in your grandfather's family who is now in the
ranks.  They had his testimony in part before he was called into
service, but he had not been cross-examined.  Andre seems to feel sure
that he can extract information from him that will aid your mother to
come into possession of the estate.  Andre's judgment is good, and as
you know, he is one of the leading lawyers of Paris."

"He is too good, and you also, to take all this trouble in our behalf,"
said Frank warmly.  "My mother and I can never thank you enough."

"The debt will be always on our side," responded the colonel with a
wave of the hand.  "By the way, how is your mother?  I hope she is
well."

"She was well when I last heard from her," replied Frank, "and
happy--that is as happy as she can be while we are separated from each
other."

"She is a true daughter of France," said the colonel, "and she should
be happy to have so brave a son.  Please remember me to her when you
write.  _Au revoir_," and with a friendly smile he passed on.

"Still hobnobbing with the swells, I see," remarked Billy, as Frank
rejoined his chums.

"He was telling me of a letter that his brother had written me about my
mother's property," explained Frank.  "Queer that it hasn't reached me.
Did any of you fellows get any mail yesterday?"

"I got a couple of letters," replied Billy.  "Tom handed them to me
just before we went into action yesterday morning."

"Come to think of it, Tom was asking for you at the same time," said
Bart.  "He'd brought down the mail for the bunch.  He said he had a
letter for you.  But you weren't around at the time and he stuck it
into his pocket.  Then the boches came swinging at us, and in the
excitement I suppose he forgot all about it.  Likely enough he has it
with him now--that is if the Huns have let him keep it."

"That must be the explanation," said Frank.  "Well, all I can do is
write to the colonel's brother and ask him to send me a duplicate of
the letter.  Poor Tom!  I'd give all the letters in the world to have
him safe with us just now."

"Same here," said Billy and Bart in chorus.

"I guess the Huns have got him," said Frank gloomily.  "He isn't among
the dead or wounded as far as we've been able to find.  But I'll bet
they thought they had hold of a wildcat when they nabbed him."

"Trust Tom for that," said Bart.  "He was a terror when he had his
blood up.  He must have got knocked on the head, or they wouldn't have
taken him alive."

"Perhaps he'd have been luckier if he had been killed," said Billy
sadly.  "From all I hear there are plenty of prisoners in German camps
who would welcome death."

"It makes me grit my teeth to think of the humane way we treat the men
we capture, and then compare it with the way the Huns treat our
soldiers," said Frank bitterly.  "Look at the German prisoners we saw
working on the roads that time we went away on furlough.  Plenty of
food, kind treatment, good beds.  Why, lots of those fellows are living
better than they ever did in their own country.  They're getting fat
with good living."

"Nothing like that in German prison camps," growled Bart.  "Horrible
food, mouldy crusts, rotten meat, and not enough of that to keep body
and soul together.  In a few months the men are little more than
skeletons.  They work them sixteen or eighteen hours a day in all kinds
of weather.  They set dogs on them and prod them with bayonets.  Did
you read of the forty they tortured to death by swinging them by their
bound arms for hours at a time in freezing weather?"

"It's no mistake to call the Germans Huns," snapped Billy, clenching
his fists.

"No," agreed Frank, "but it's rough on the Huns."




CHAPTER V

NICK RABIG TURNS UP

"Guess who's here," said Billy a few mornings later, as he came up to
Bart and Frank.  "Give you three guesses."

"That's generous," remarked Frank.  "Well, I'll bite.  Who is it?  The
Kaiser?"

"Come off."

"The Crown Prince?"

"Quit your kidding."

"I know," said Bart.  "Hindenburg."

"Blathering boobs, both of you," pronounced Billy.  "But with your
limited intellects one ought to be patient.  I'll give you one more
chance.  Think of the fellow you like the least in all the world."

"Nick Rabig!" the others exclaimed in one breath.

"Right," grinned Billy.  "I knew that would get you.  Nick seems to be
as popular with you as poison ivy at a church picnic."

"What cat dragged it in?" groaned Bart.

"Our unlucky day," growled Frank.  "I knew something would happen when
I picked up the wrong shoe this morning."

"But how did he get back?" asked Bart, his curiosity overcoming his
repugnance.

"Came in on his own feet," replied Billy.  "Escaped, so he says, after
performing prodigies of valor.  To hear Nick talk you'd think he'd
wiped out half the German army."

His comrades laughed.

"I suppose we ought to kill the fatted calf," said Frank sarcastically.

"Where's the calf?" asked Bart.  "Unless we take Billy here," he added
as an afterthought.

He dodged the pass that Billy made at him, and just then Fred Anderson,
another young soldier, strolled up.

"Heard the news?" he inquired.

"About Nick Rabig?  Yes," replied Frank.  "Billy's just been telling us
about it."

"Bad news travels fast," growled Bart.

"Nick doesn't seem to cut much ice with you fellows," commented Fred.
"I never thought much of him myself, but you seem to have it in for him
especially.  I suppose it's because he tried to play that dirty trick
on Frank in the boxing bout."

"No, it isn't that," replied Frank.  "I got satisfaction for that then
and there, and I don't hold grudges.  It's something altogether outside
of personal matters.  Have you heard any details about how Nick made
his escape?"

"Only a bit here and there," answered Fred.  "I suppose it will all
come out later on.  But it seems that he has a lot of information about
the German plans and he's now at headquarters being questioned by the
officers."

Frank turned the conversation into other channels, because although he
had the gravest reasons for believing Rabig to be a traitor, he did not
want to do the fellow an injustice or voice his suspicions until he was
able to confirm them by absolute proof.

Fred passed on after a few minutes and the boys looked at each other.

"Did you hear what Fred said about Nick's 'important information'?"
asked Frank.

"Important misinformation," growled Bart.

"Bunk," declared Billy.

"Of course, Nick has an advantage in understanding German," said Frank
cautiously, "and a loyal fellow in his situation might have picked up
something that would be of advantage to our people, though it isn't
likely, for the Germans guard their secrets pretty well."

"What's the use of talking?" burst out Bart.  "We fellows are all onto
Rabig.  We know at this minute that he'd like nothing better than to
see the United States licked by Germany.  Don't we know that he let
that German prisoner escape?  Don't you know that he was talking in the
woods at night with that German spy that you shot?  I tell you
straight, Frank, that if Rabig escaped it was because the Germans let
him escape.  If he has information, it is because the Germans filled
him up with just the kind of information they wanted our officers to
believe."

"I think Bart's right," remarked Billy.  "It'll be the best day this
regiment ever saw when Rabig's stood up before a firing squad."

"In my heart I believe the same," assented Frank.  "But the tantalizing
thing is that we haven't a bit of legal proof.  Rabig had that cut on
his hand to explain the escape of the prisoner.  He seemed to be
sleeping in his bunk that night I got back from the woods.  So far he
has an alibi for everything.  We can't prove that he let himself be
captured.  We can't prove that the Germans let him escape.  As for the
information he claims to have, our suspicions are based only on what we
know of the man's character."

"That legal stuff doesn't make a hit with me," growled Bart.  "Some day
I'll break loose and take it out of him myself.  My fingers itch every
time I see him.  I'd hoped I'd never have to see him again."

"You're doomed to be disappointed, then," grinned Billy, "for here he
comes now."

They looked in the direction he indicated and saw Rabig coming along
the company street.

His step was swaggering and he looked immensely satisfied with himself.

Bart's fist clenched.

"Nothing doing, Bart," Frank counseled in a low tone.  "Hold your
horses.  I know just how you feel.  I had to lick him once and maybe
you'll have your turn.  But not now.  I want to find out whether he
knows anything about Tom."

"All right," said Bart, "but it comes hard."

Nick saw them standing there, and for a fraction of a second seemed to
be of two minds about keeping on.  He hated them all cordially and he
had no doubt of the feeling with which they regarded him.  But his
hesitation was only momentary, and he came on with just a little
additional swagger in his gait.

He would have passed without stopping but Frank spoke to him pleasantly
enough.

"Hello, Nick!" he said.  "See you've got back."

"That's plain enough to see," responded Nick surlily.

"Papa's little sunshine," murmured Billy under his breath.

"Huns seem to have fed you pretty well," remarked Frank.

Rabig only grunted and looked at Frank suspiciously.

"Did you see anything of Tom Bradford over there?" asked Frank.

A look of surprise came into Rabig's little eyes.

"No," he answered.  "Was he captured?"

"We're afraid so," answered Frank.

"I didn't see him," declared Rabig.  "Perhaps he's killed," he added,
almost smacking his lips with satisfaction.

They longed to kick him, but restrained themselves, and Rabig passed on.

"Isn't he a sweet specimen?" asked Bart in disgust, as he looked at
Rabig's receding figure.

"Did you see how his eyes lighted up when he heard that Tom was gone?"
put in Billy.  "The only thing that would give him more satisfaction
would be to have the same thing happen to Frank."

"I guess he hates us all alike," said Frank.  "Down in his heart he
knows that we believe him to be a traitor.  His only comfort is that we
haven't been able to catch him with the goods.  But that will come in
time.  A little more rope and he can be depended on to hang himself.
But that can wait.  What I'm more interested in is that he didn't have
any news of Tom."

"Perhaps he was lying," suggested Bart.  "He may have seen Tom over
there, but wouldn't give us the satisfaction of telling us."

"No, I don't think it was that," commented Billy.  "I was watching him
closely while Frank was talking to him, and I could see that he was
really surprised as well as pleased to learn that Tom was gone."

"But even if he didn't see him, that doesn't prove that Tom isn't
there," suggested Bart.  "He may have been captured by some other
division.  Besides, to tell the truth, I don't believe that Rabig was
in a prison camp at all.  Did you notice how fat and well fed he
looked?  I'll bet that he's been living high on the best the Huns could
give him."

"He didn't look like most escaped prisoners for a fact," assented
Frank.  "We'll let his failure to see Tom go for what it's worth.  But
there's one thing that's been growing in my mind right along.  We're
sure that Tom isn't dead, for the burial parties cleared up the field
and didn't find him.  We know too that he isn't on the hospital list.
I got a squint at that no later than yesterday, and Tom's name isn't
there.  That seems to cut out everything except capture by the Huns,
doesn't it?"

"What else is there?" asked Bart gloomily.

"Just one thing," replied Frank, "and that is that Tom has got away
from the Huns but hasn't yet got back to us.  I know what that boy is.
He isn't the kind to settle down and tell himself that he's a prisoner
and that's all there is to it.  There isn't a bone in his head, and
he's been busy every minute thinking up some plan to get away.  You
know what the boches are doing now.  They're getting so short of men
that they're using prisoners right behind the lines in cutting brush
and hauling guns and that sort of thing.  Of course it's dead against
all the rules of war, but a little thing like that doesn't bother the
Germans.  Now if that's going on there are lots of chances to escape
that the prisoners wouldn't have if they were all huddled together in a
prison camp under the rifles of their guards.  Get me?  Picture Tom out
in the thick woods going meekly ahead doing as he is told without
making a break for freedom.  Not on your life!  Some way or other he'll
slip off, and some fine day you'll see the old scout come walking in
and asking us if breakfast's ready."

"It sounds good," said Bart unconvinced, "but I'm afraid it's a dream."

"All guess work," chimed in Billy.  "We don't know anything."

"No," admitted Frank, "but we know Tom."




CHAPTER VI

THE COMING DRIVE

"That big German drive seems to have slipped a cog somewhere," Bart
remarked to his comrades, a few days later, as they were resting after
a hard morning's work at organizing the position that their division
was holding.

"I suppose the Crown Prince is making up a new time-table," grinned
Billy.  "He seems to have a passion for that.  He ought to have been a
railroad man."

"The trouble is that they always go wrong," laughed Frank.  "I'll bet
he's cross-eyed."

"Yet the Heinies fall for them every time," said Billy.  "I suppose
they figure that just by the law of chance one of them will have to be
right some time."

"I thought that the drive had started the other morning, when the
Germans came down like wolves on a fold," said Bart.  "But it seems
that things were quiet on other parts of the line, so that this must
have been just a local operation."

"Local operation!" snorted Billy.  "In other days it would have been
counted a big battle.  Why, if Waterloo were pulled off now do you know
how the papers would describe it?  They'd say that there was
'considerable activity on a section of the line over near Hougomont
Farm yesterday, where certain units under Napoleon and Wellington came
in contact.  The artillery fire was fairly strong, and there were
clashes between a few infantry regiments and the French were repulsed.
Apart from this there is nothing to report.'"

The boys laughed.

"Everything's topsy-turvy nowadays," said Frank.  "It used to be armies
that did the fighting.  Now it's whole nations.  But look at that scrap
going on overhead.  Its a dandy."

They looked in the direction he indicated and their pulses quickened,
for they themselves had once been engaged in a battle in the sky, and
an aerial combat had a personal interest to them.

Far up in the sky, which just then was as clear as crystal, a duel was
in progress between two planes.  It was evident at a glance that both
of the rival aviators were masters of their profession.  They circled
deftly about each other like giant falcons, jockeying for position,
each trying to get the weather gauge on the other where he could rake
his opponent with his machine gun without exposing himself to his
enemy's fire in return.

Swooping, climbing, diving, the planes pursued their deadly purpose,
while exclamations of admiration came from the lips of the fascinated
onlookers as some specially daring manoeuvre promised to give the
advantage first to one and then to the other of the antagonists.

"Classy work!" exclaimed Frank.

"They're both dandies," declared Billy.  "It's a toss up as to which
will win."

"They're so far up that it's hard to tell which is which," said Bart,
"but I've got a nickel that says the Hun will be downed."

"Great Scott," cried Frank.  "One of them was hit that time.  See it
swerve."

"And look at the smoke!" Billy shouted.  "It's on fire!  A bullet must
have hit the petrol tank."

A burst of smoke and flame shot out from the doomed plane, and it began
to fall, fire streaming out in its wake like the tail of a meteor.
Down it came like a plummet.

"It's coming right in our lines!" exclaimed Bart.  "Scatter, fellows,
or it will be right on top of us!"

The wrecked plane had fallen about two hundred feet, when a figure shot
from the burning mass, whirling over and over as it descended.  The
aviator, knowing that his only choice lay between being burned or
crushed, had chosen the less painful form of death.

The body fell some distance off, but the plane itself came down within
a few rods of the boys.  It was blazing so fiercely that they could not
approach very close to it, but they could easily detect the marking
which indicated that it was a French plane.

The Army Boys looked at each other regretfully.

"Score one for the Huns," remarked Frank.  "You'd have lost your
nickel, Bart."

"It's too bad," said Billy, as he straightened up and shook, his fist
at the victorious plane.

But to the boys' amazement, the conqueror, instead of flying off toward
his own lines, was coming down toward them in long sweeping spirals.

"Why, it looks as if he were going to land here!" exclaimed Billy in
wonder.

"If he does, we'll have the satisfaction of taking him prisoner
anyway," observed Bart.

"It must be that his own plane is injured and he has to descend,"
suggested Frank.

But there was no sign of injury to the descending plane and it seemed
to be in perfect control.  Swiftly and steadily it came down, and a cry
of astonishment broke from the boys as they saw that it bore American
markings.

"How's that?" exclaimed Frank.  "There's been a fearful mistake
somewhere.  This fellow has downed a French plane thinking that it was
German."

"He'll be court-martialed for that or I miss my guess," said Bart with
a frown.

"It's bad enough to have the Huns after us without trying to kill our
own people," growled Billy.

There was a level place nearby that made an ideal place for a landing,
and the American machine came down there with scarcely a jar.

The boys rushed toward it with reproaches on their lips, but their
wrath was lost in astonishment when they recognized, in the aviator who
stepped forth, Dick Lever, one of the most daring of the American
"aces" and a warm personal friend of theirs.

The reproaches died when they saw him, for only a little while before
he had saved them from a German prison by swooping down with his
machine and carrying them off from their captors.  It was with mixed
feelings that they greeted him, as he came gaily forward, a smile upon
his handsome bronzed face.  But Dick seemed to feel a certain stiffness
in their welcome that was unusual.

"Hello, fellows," he greeted.  "What's the grouch?"

"No grouch at all, Dick," answered Frank.  "We owe you too much for
that.  We're only sorry that you happened to make a mistake and down a
French plane thinking it was German."

Dick's eyes twinkled.

"Come out of your trance," he chuckled.  "I don't make that kind of
mistakes."

For answer Frank led the way to the wrecked and partly burned plane and
pointed out the markings.

But despite the evidence, Dick still seemed unabashed and his chuckle
broke into a laugh.

"That's one on you fellows," he snorted.  "Those markings are pure
camouflage.  Just another cute little German trick that went wrong.
That fellow set out to take photographs over our lines and he didn't
want to be disturbed, so he painted out his own markings, and put the
French in their place.  If you'll come a little closer you can see the
Hun marks under their coat of white."

The boys did so and, now that their attention had been called to it,
they could readily see the tracings that had been almost obliterated.

"That's evidence enough," remarked Dick, "but to make assurance doubly
sure we'll go over to where the aviator fell and you'll see that he was
a German all right."

The body had been decently covered up before the boys reached there,
but the clothing and the effects found proved beyond a doubt that the
aviator had been one of their foes.

"Take it all back, Dick," said Frank.  "You knew what you were about.
And I'm glad that you came out of the scrap safe and sound.  But it
certainly was some scrap while it lasted."

"It sure was," replied Dick.  "That fellow was as skilful and plucky as
they make them.  He kept my hands full, and there was one time when he
came within an ace of raking me.  But luck was with me.  Poor fellow!
I'm sorry for him, but I'd have been still more sorry if it had been
myself."

"What beats me is the way you tumbled to him," puzzled Billy.  "You
surely couldn't have read the German markings under their coat of
paint.  How did you know he was a German?"

Dick smiled.

"Simple enough," he answered.  "We Allied aviators have a secret system
of signals, something like Freemasonry.  When we come near another
plane that seems to be one of our own, we make a certain dip of our
plane.  That's like asking for the countersign.  If the other fellow's
all right he makes a certain signal in return.  If he doesn't do it the
first time, we try again, because there's always a chance that he
hasn't noticed our signal, or is too busy in handling his plane to give
the reply.  But if after two or three times we don't get the
countersign, we know the fellow's a Hun and we open up on him."

"Good stuff!" approved Billy.

"That's what happened this morning," continued Dick.  "This fellow came
sailing along as calm and cheeky as you please, and was having a bully
time taking pictures of our positions.  At least I suppose that is what
he was doing, as he evidently wasn't out looking for fight.  I thought
it wouldn't do any harm to take a look at him, although I saw the
machine had French markings.  I gave the signal, but of course he
couldn't give the countersign.  I repeated it three times without
getting an answer, and then I pitched into him.  That makes the
thirteenth that I've brought down."

"Thirteen was an unlucky number for him, all right," remarked Billy.

"How are you fellows getting along?" asked Dick, stretching himself out
on the ground for a brief resting spell.  "I notice that you've been
right up to your neck in fighting lately."

"Its been pretty hot along this sector," Frank admitted, "though I
suppose it's nothing to what it will be after the big German drive gets
started.  That is if it ever does start.  I sometimes think they've
given up the idea."

"Don't kid yourself," replied the aviator grimly.  "It's coming, all
right.  If you fellows had been up in the air with me you wouldn't have
any doubt about it.  The roads back of the German lines are just black
with troops.  It's like an endless swarm of ants.  The trains move
along in endless procession and they're packed.  Big guns, too, till
you can't count them.  It seems as if all Germany was on the move.
It's the old invasion of the Huns over again."

"Where do they get them all, I wonder," remarked Billy.

"That's easy," replied Frank bitterly.  "They're coming from the
Russian front.  The breakdown of Russia means a cool million at the
very least added to the German troops on the western front."

"That accounts for most of them," agreed Dick.  "Then in addition
Germany's combing out her empire to put every available man into
service.  She's enslaving the Belgians to work in her factories so that
German workmen can be sent into the ranks.  She's calling up mere boys
who ought to be at their schoolbooks.  I tell you, boys, Germany's
desperate.  She's beginning to realize what a fool she was to bring
America into the war, and she's going to try to get a decision before
we get a big army over here."

"She'll have to get busy mighty soon, then," said Bart, "for Uncle
Sam's boys are coming into France by the hundreds of thousands.  And
those hundreds of thousands will be millions before long."

"Right you are," agreed Dick.  "The jig's up with Germany and she's the
only one that doesn't see it.  It's fun to see the way she tries to
belittle America to her own people.  Almost every week she has to
change the story.  At first she said that America wouldn't fight at
all.  We were a nation of money grabbers.  Then even if we wanted to
fight the U-boats would keep us from getting over; Then even if we got
over, our troops would be green and run like hares as soon as they
caught sight of the veteran Prussian regiments."

The boys looked at each other with a grin.

"We've run, all right," chuckled Billy, "but we've run toward them
instead of away from them."

"They thought our marines would run too," laughed Frank, "but do you
see what they're calling them now?  _Teufelhunden_.  They're
devil-hounds, all right, and the dachshund yelps when he sees them
coming."

"What do you think the Germans will aim for when they do begin their
drive?" queried Bart.

"The Allied commanders would give a good deal to know that," smiled
Dick.  "Of course the thing the Huns want to do above everything else
is to separate and crush the Allied armies.  Everything would be easy
after that.  But if they can't do that, they'll probably make a break
for Paris.  They figure that if they once got that in their hands the
French would be ready to sue for peace.  Or they may try to take the
Channel Ports, where they'd be in good position to take a hack at
England.  The only thing that's certain is that the drive is coming and
when it does come it's going to be the biggest fight in the history of
the world."

"Let Heinie do his worst," said Bart.

"Yes," agreed Frank.  "And no matter what he does, he'll have to reckon
with Uncle Sam."




CHAPTER VII

IN THE HANDS OF THE HUNS

The last thing that Tom Bradford remembered in the fight that separated
him from his comrades was the sight of Frank in a bayonet duel with two
Germans.  He was trying desperately to get to his friend's side and
help him in the unequal combat, when a great blackness seemed to sweep
down upon him and he knew nothing more.

When he came to consciousness, he felt himself dragged roughly to his
feet and thrust into a group of other prisoners who were being sent to
the rear under guard of a squad of German soldiers.  He reeled and
would have fallen had he not been supported by some of his other
companions in misfortune.  Then the line was set in motion and he
stumbled along dazedly, abused verbally by his guards and prodded with
bayonets if he lagged or faltered.

Gradually his head stopped whirling and his brain grew clearer.  His
face felt wet and sticky, and putting his hand to it he drew his
fingers away covered with blood.

He felt his head and found a ragged gash running almost the length of
the scalp.  It must have bled freely, judging from the weakness he felt
and the way his hair was matted and his face smeared.  But the blood
had congealed now and stopped flowing.  He figured from the character
of the wound that it had been made by a glancing blow from a rifle.

It was fully dark when the gloomy procession halted at a big barn where
the prisoners were counted and passed in to stay for the night.

A little later some food was passed in to the prisoners, but Tom had no
appetite and even if he had been hungry it would have been hard to
stomach the piece of dry bread and watery soup that was given him as
his portion.  So he gave it to others, and sat over in a corner
immersed in the gloomy thoughts that came trooping in upon him.

He was a prisoner.  And what he had heard of Hun methods, to say
nothing of a former brief experience, had left him under no delusion as
to what that meant.

What were his comrades Frank, Bart and Billy doing now?  Had they come
safely through the fight?  He was glad at any rate that they were not
with him now.  Better dead on the field of battle, he thought bitterly,
than to be in the hands of the Huns.

But Tom was too young and his vitality too great to give himself up
long to despair.  He was a prisoner, but what of it?  He had been a
prisoner before and escaped.  To be sure, it was too much to expect to
escape by way of the sky as he had before.  Lightning seldom strikes
twice in the same place.  But there might be other ways--there should
be other ways.  While breath remained in his body he would never cease
his efforts to escape.  And sustained and inspired by this resolve, he
at last fell asleep.

When he awoke in the morning, his strength had in large measure
returned to him.  His head was still a little giddy but his appetite
was returning.  Still he looked askance at the meagre and unpalatable
breakfast brought in by the guards.

"Don't be too squeamish, kid," a fellow prisoner advised him, as he saw
the look on the young soldier's face.  "Take what's given you, even if
it isn't fit for Christians.  You'll get weak soon enough.  Keep strong
as long as you can."

There was sound sense in this even with the woeful prophecy and Tom,
though with many inward protests, followed the well-meant advice.

Bad as it was, the food did him good, and he was feeling in fairly good
condition when, a little later, he was summoned before a German
lieutenant to be examined.

That worthy was seated before a table spread with papers, and as Tom
entered or rather was pushed into his presence he compressed his
beetling black brows and turned upon the prisoner with the face of a
thundercloud.

But if he expected Tom to wilt before his frowning glance he was
disappointed.  There was no trace of swagger or bravado when Tom faced
his inquisitor.  But there was self-respect and quiet resolution that
refused to quail before anyone to whom fate for the moment had given
the upper hand.

The officer spoke English in a stiff and precise way so that an
interpreter was dispensed with, and the examination proceeded.

"What is your name?" the lieutenant asked.

Tom told him.

"Your nationality?"

"American."

The officer snorted.

"There is no such thing as American," he said contemptuously.  "You are
just a jumble of different races."

Tom said nothing.

"What is your regiment?" the officer continued.

There was no answer.

"Did you hear me?" repeated the lieutenant impatiently.  "What is your
regiment?"

"I cannot tell," answered Tom.

"You mean you will not?"

"I refuse to tell."

"Refuse," exclaimed the officer, growing red in the face.  "That is not
a safe word to say to me."

Tom kept quiet.

The officer after a moment of inward debate shifted to another line.

"What are your commanders' plans, as far as you know?"

"To beat the Germans," returned Tom promptly.

The officer's face became apoplectic.

"Yankee pig!" he roared.  "You know that is not what I meant.  Tell me
if you know anything of their tactics, whether they intend to attack or
stand on the defensive."

"I don't know," replied Tom truthfully.

"Have you plenty of ammunition?"

"More than we can use," replied Tom promptly, glad to tell what could
do no harm and would only increase the chagrin of his enemy.

"How many troops have the Americans got in France?"

"A good many hundreds of thousands," answered Tom, "and they're coming
over at the rate of two hundred thousand a month."

"Yankee lies," sneered the officer.  "You are very ready to give me
more information than I ask for when it will suit your purpose."

Tom kept discreetly silent, but he chuckled inwardly at the discomfort
shown by his enemy.

The officer pondered a moment, and evidently decided that there was not
much to be got out of this young American who faced him so undauntedly.
Perhaps other prisoners would prove more amenable.  But his dignity had
been too much ruffled to let Tom get off without punishment.

"You think that you have baffled me," he said, "but you will find that
it is not wise to try to thwart the will of a German officer.  We have
ways to break such spirits as yours."

He called to the guard, who had been standing stolidly at the door.

"Take him out in the woods and put him to work where the enemy's shell
fire is heaviest," he commanded.  "It doesn't matter what happens to
him.  If his own people kill him so much the better.  It will only be
one less Yankee pig for us to feed."

The guard seized Tom and thrust him roughly out of the door.  Then he
took him back to the barn and a whispered conversation ensued, with
many black glances shot at Tom.

A short time afterward he was placed with some others in the custody of
a squad of soldiers, and taken into the woods close behind the German
lines.  Of course this was a flagrant breach of all the laws of war.
But there was no use in protesting.  That would only arouse the
amusement of the German guards.

As a matter of fact, when Tom came to think it over, he did not want to
protest.  His captors could have taken no course that would have suited
him better.  At first his heart had sunk, for he realized that the
officer's purpose was to sign his death warrant.  The chances of being
killed by the American shells was very great.  And then the significant
word of the lieutenant that it didn't matter what happened to him, was
a hint to the guards that they could murder him if they liked, and
there would be no questions asked.

But after all, to be in the open was infinitely better than to be
eating his heart out in a squalid prison camp.  His health stood less
chance of being undermined.  As to the shells, he had grown so used to
that form of danger that it hardly disturbed him at all.

But the one thing that stood out above all others was that in the woods
he would have a chance of escape, while in the camp he would have
practically none at all.  His limbs would have to be free in order to
do the work demanded of him.  And he was willing to match his keen
American wits against the heavy and slow-thinking guards who might
stand watch over him.

He soon reached the section where he was to work, and was set to
felling trees to make corduroy roads over which guns and supplies could
be brought up from the enemy's rear to the advanced lines.

He had never done that kind of work, and at first the tremendous
efforts demanded of him amounted to sheer physical torture.  He was
hounded on unceasingly under the jibes and threats of his brutal
guards.  Not half enough food was supplied, and he was forced to work
for sixteen and eighteen hours on a stretch.

But he had great reserves of youth and vitality to draw on, and he kept
on doggedly, his brain alert, his eyes wide open, his heart courageous,
looking for his opportunity.

On the third night his opportunity came.




CHAPTER VIII

FRYING-PAN TO FIRE

The third day of Tom's captivity had been more trying than the two that
preceded it.

A new piece of woodland had been ordered to be cleared and, as there
was a scarcity of labor, Tom had been taxed to even a greater degree
than usual.  By the time night came, he was feeling utterly exhausted
and ready to drop.

But dusk brought him little relief, for he was told that he must keep
on by lantern light until ten o'clock, before he would be permitted to
stop.

His troubles were aggravated by the fact that this afternoon a change
of guards had brought him under the control of an especially brutal one
who made his life a burden by abuse.

His guard had ordered him into a thick part of the woods where the high
underbrush cut them off from the sight of other working parties a
hundred yards away.  Here the German had seated himself comfortably on
a fallen tree while he watched his prisoner toil, occasionally hurling
a threat or epithet at him.

The guard's watch was out of order, and he had borrowed a small clock
from the mess room in order to know when the time came to report with
his prisoner at quarters.  He had placed the clock in the light of the
lantern and kept looking at it frequently and yawning.  It was plain
that he would welcome the hour that released him from his monotonous
duty.

The night was warm and the guard's gun was heavy.  He stood it against
the tree, but within instant reach, and unbuckled his belt.

In working around the tree, Tom's foot as though by accident knocked
against the clock and it fell over on its face.  The guard thundered a
curse against his awkwardness, and stooped down to pick it up.

Quick as thought Tom picked up the heavy lantern and brought it
crashing down on the German's head.  The next instant his hands were on
the German's throat.

The struggle was brief, for the German at his best would have been no
match for the young American.  Tom had soon choked him into
unconsciousness, and when he felt the man become limp beneath him he
relaxed his hold.

He tied the German's hands with his belt and gagged him securely.  The
lantern had gone out with the blow and he did not dare to relight it.
Darkness was now his best friend.

His eyes fell on the clock.  It had done him good service, but now was
of no further use to him.  But a second thought made him pick it up and
put it in his blouse.

He had no compass, but the clock would do in a pinch.  His woodcraft
had taught him how the hands of a clock could find for him the cardinal
points.  More than once his watch in more peaceful times had done him a
similar service.

The first thing necessary was to put as wide a distance as possible
between himself and the place where he now was.  Afterwards he could
figure out how to regain his own lines.  By ten o'clock at latest his
attack on the guard would be discovered.  He must be miles away before
then, or his life would not be worth a cent.

His impulse was to take the German's gun, but he discarded the thought
at once.  His only salvation lay in hiding.  The gun would count for
nothing among the innumerable foes that surrounded him.  It was heavy
and cumbrous, and would only retard his progress through the woods.  He
must travel light if he would travel fast.

He gathered up some fragments of food left from the lunch that the
guard had been munching and tucked them in his pocket.  Then like a
shadow he slipped away through the woods.

From what he had seen and bits of information that he had picked up
from other prisoners, some of whom were Frenchmen and knew the country
well, Tom had a pretty good idea of the lay of the land.  He knew that
the country was rolling, with here and there a range of hills that rose
almost to the dignity of mountains.  Here there ought to be plenty of
hiding places where he could stay while he planned a way to get across
the lines.

Of course his route would be within the German lines for miles.  But
the inhabitants were in sympathy with the Allied cause, prisoners in
almost as great a degree as he himself had been, and he might find
among them aid and comfort, though such assistance if discovered would
be sure to be visited with hard punishment by the German oppressors.

The way was full of difficulties and almost every step would be
attended by danger.  But for the present at least he was free.  Free!
The word had never appealed to him so strongly before.  He drew in
great draughts of the mountain air.  They seemed in a way to cleanse
his lungs from the prison taint.

For what seemed to him hours he never slackened his pace.  Many times
he stumbled in the darkness and his body was full of bruises, but in
the joy of his recovered freedom, he scarcely felt the pain.  On he
went and on until he felt certain he had placed a safe distance between
himself and the scene of his recent captivity.

To be sure, the German command had other things to rely on than mere
physical pursuit.  There were the long arms of the telegraph and
telephone, through which every division on the sector might be warned
to be on the lookout for him.  But it was wholly unlikely that this
would be done.  On the eve of the great drive, the authorities were too
busy to expend their energies on the recapture of an escaped prisoner.
Even if he should fall into the hands of another body of his enemies,
it was unlikely that they would know anything of his recent exploit.

So with body tired after his strenuous exertions, but with his mind as
much at rest as it could be under the circumstances, Tom threw himself
down at last to take a brief rest under the shadow of a giant beech.

The sun streaming through the branches woke him a little later.  For a
moment he did not know where he was and lay trying to get his thoughts
in order.  Then it all came back to him with a rush and he sprang to
his feet and looked about him.

There was nothing in sight to alarm him.  The place seemed to be wild
and unvisited.  A squirrel sat in the boughs over his head chattering
his surprise and perhaps his displeasure at the sight of the intruder.
A chipmunk slipped along a grassy ridge and vanished in the
undergrowth.  Birds sang their welcome to a new day.  Everything about
him spoke of peace and serenity.  It seemed as though there were no
such thing as war in the world.

Yet even while this thought lingered with him there came a discordant
note in the booming of a distant gun.  But it seemed far off and though
other guns soon swelled the menacing chorus there seemed to be no
immediate cause for alarm.

A little way off from where he had slept, a small brook wound its way
through the sedge grass.  Tom welcomed it with a grin, for he had not
had a bath since he had been captured.

In a moment he had undressed and plunged into the brook.  The water was
scarcely deeper than his waist, but its coolness was like balm to Tom's
bruised and heated body.  When he resumed his clothing he felt
infinitely strengthened and refreshed.

The young soldier worked his way into a dense thicket as a measure of
precaution, before he ate the remnants of food that he had carried away
with him the night before.  It was a meager breakfast and he could have
eaten four times as much if he had had it.  But even crumbs were
grateful to him in his famished condition.

He had just finished when an ominous sound fell on his ears.  Voices
mingled with the tread of feet and the clank of weapons.  He looked
through the bushes and saw a squad of soldiers wearing helmets coming
over a little rise of ground beyond where he lay concealed.

He counted them as they came into view.  There were at least forty
Germans going along in loose marching order.  They might have been a
patrol out for scout duty or, what was more likely, a foraging party.

He had scarcely established their numbers when on the other side of the
thicket and not more than fifty feet away another squad of Germans came
into view.  They apparently belonged to the same party, but had
separated somewhat from the others, probably for more ease in marching.

They seemed to have come from some distance for they were warm and
perspiring.  The sight of the brook was refreshing, and after a brief
conference between the lieutenant in command and a sergeant, the order
was given to break ranks, and the men threw themselves down in
sprawling attitudes for a rest under the trees.

Tom's heart was in his mouth.  What kind of a trick was fate playing on
him?  Was this to be the end of his heartbreaking struggle, his wild
flight through the woods?  Was he to get just a tantalizing glimpse of
liberty to have it immediately snatched from him?  At that moment he
tasted the bitterness of death.

How lucky it was, though, that he had sought refuge in that thicket
before he commenced his breakfast.  There was still a chance.  The men
were tired and would not be likely to wander about.  They were only too
glad of a chance to rest.

He burrowed deeper and deeper into the recesses of the thicket.  He lay
as close to the ground as possible.  What would he have given for the
friendly shelter of a trench!

The men conversed lazily together while the officer sat some distance
apart.  At times the Germans' eyes rested carelessly on Tom's shelter,
but without any sign of suspicion.

At last the order came to resume the march, and Tom drew an immense
sigh of relief.  A few minutes more and they would be gone.

The men had formed in loose marching order and the lieutenant lifted
his hand to give the signal.

Suddenly a loud ringing came from the center of the thicket, whirring,
rattling, clanging.

_The time-piece Tom was carrying was an alarm clock!_




CHAPTER IX

THE CONFESSION

To poor Tom that ringing was the crack of doom.

The world seemed to end for him then and there.  The first surprise had
paralyzed him.  Then he rolled upon the betraying clock, tried to crush
it, strangle it, press it into the earth.  But it kept on remorselessly
until the alarm ran down.

The Germans had been almost as startled at first as Tom himself.  But
they hesitated only for a moment.  There could be no mistaking where
that insistent buzzing was coming from.  There was a rush for the
thicket, and the next moment Tom was hauled out and stood upon his feet
among his captors.

It took only a glance to tell them that Tom was an American.  His face
as well as his uniform betrayed that fact.  Amid a hubbub of excited
exclamations he was taken before their leader.

But this time the officer was not able to talk English and there was no
interpreter at hand, so that Tom for the present was spared the ordeal
of questioning.

The fateful clock was passed around among the men with jest and
laughter.  It was a good joke to them, but Tom was in no mood to see
the humor of the situation.  To him it meant that all his strivings had
come to naught.

Why had he not noticed that the clock was of the alarm variety and that
the alarm had been set?  He promised that he would never forgive
himself for that.

A number of men were counted off to take Tom to the local prison camp,
while the rest of the party went on with their expedition.

The journey was long, but it was not attended by the rough treatment
that would ordinarily have been meted out to the prisoner.  The men
were glad, for one thing, that they were relieved from going on the
special duty for which the party had been formed.  Then, too, Tom's
misadventure had given them a hearty laugh, and laughs were something
to be prized in their arduous life.

After reaching the camp, Tom was taken before an officer for
examination.  But the officer was busy and preoccupied, and the
questioning was largely a matter of form.  Tom was vague or dense as
the case demanded, and the impatient officer curtly ordered him to be
thrust in with the other prisoners and promptly proceeded to forget him.

Tom passed through several stages of emotion when he was left to
himself.  First he moped, and then he raged.  Then, as the comical side
of the situation forced itself even upon his misery, he laughed.

A proverb says that "the man is not wholly lost who can laugh at his
own misfortunes."  Tom laughed and immediately felt better.  His
natural buoyancy reasserted itself.  But he had imbibed a prejudice
against alarm clocks that promised to last for the rest of his life.

The sector was a quiet one and Tom was not sent out to work under shell
fire.  For a few days he was left unmolested to the tedium of prison
life, and he began with renewed zest to formulate plans for his escape.

He had a chance also to become more or less acquainted with his
fellow-prisoners.  There were not many and Tom reflected with
satisfaction that the Americans held more German prisoners than the
Huns had captured of his own countrymen.

There was a sprinkling of nationalities.  There were a few American and
British, but the majority were French and Belgians.

About the only French prisoner that Tom grew to know intimately was one
who could speak English fairly well.  This he explained was due to the
fact that the man in whose employ he had been as a butler had a
daughter who had married an American, and English had been much spoken
in the household.

"What part of France do you come from?" asked Tom one day, when they
were chatting together.

"From Auvergne," answered the Frenchman, whose name was Martel.  "Ah,"
he continued wistfully, "what would I not give to see the gardens and
vineyards of Auvergne again!  But I never will."

"Sure you will," said Tom cheerily.  "Brace up, Martel.  You won't stay
in this old hole forever."

Martel shook his head.

"I'm doomed," he said.  "I was in the first stage of consumption when I
came here, and the disease is gripping me more tightly every day.
Perhaps it's a judgment on me."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Tom, but Martel did not reply except
by a shrug of the shoulders.

"Speaking of Auvergne," remarked Tom after a pause, "reminds me that I
have a special chum whose mother came from that province.  She married
an American, too."

"_Vrai_?" exclaimed Martel with quickened interest.  "What was her
name, _mon ami_?"

"Blest if I remember," answered Tom.  "I've heard it, too, but I don't
recall it.  But I'll tell you how I can find out," he went on,
rummaging in his pockets.  "I've got a letter somewhere that was sent
to my chum.  I got it from the headquarters post-office the day I was
captured and forgot to give it to him.  The Huns tore the envelope off
when they saw me, but when they saw that it was of no importance to
them they tossed it back.  I've kept it carefully ever since because
it's from some lawyer fellow in Paris telling him about his mother's
property, and I hope some time to be able to hand it to him.  It's
simply a business letter with nothing private or personal in it.  Here
it is," and Tom produced from his pocket a crumpled letter without an
envelope.  "Let's see, the name of Frank's mother is Delatour--why,
what's the matter, Martel?" he added anxiously, as he saw the Frenchman
turn white and start back at the mention of the name.

"Nothing," answered Martel, controlling himself with difficulty.  "A
little weakness--I'm not very strong, you know."

The conversation turned then in other channels, and Tom soon forgot it
in his absorption of his one idea of escape.

A week had passed when a sudden hemorrhage that attacked Martel brought
the prison doctor to his side.  He shook his head after an examination.
There was no hope.  It was a matter of days only, perhaps of hours.  He
was heartless and perfunctory.  What did it matter?  The sufferer was
only a prisoner.

A little while after, Martel called Tom to him.

"I told you, _mon ami_, that it would not be long," he said with the
ghost of a smile.  "And I also told you that perhaps it was a judgment
on me.  Do you remember?"

"Why, yes," answered Tom reluctantly.  "But perhaps you'd better not
excite yourself talking about it.  I guess we've all done things we're
sorry for afterwards."

"But I committed a crime," said Martel.  "I perjured myself.  And I did
it for gain."

"There, there," soothed Tom, but Martel continued:

"No, I must speak.  _Le bon Dieu_ has sent you to me.  Listen, _mon
brave_, I was in the household of Monsieur Delatour.  I had seen
Mademoiselle Lucie grow up from childhood.  She was charming.  But she
married and passed largely out of our life.  Monsieur Delatour grew
old.  He had made his will leaving the property chiefly to his
daughter.  But there was a nephew, a spendthrift--what you call in
English the black sheep--and after Monsieur Delatour died this _mauvais
sujet_ offered me money to swear that there was a later will.  The
object?  To tie up the estate, to delay the settlement, to force a
compromise with the daughter.  I took the money.  I perjured myself.
There was no later will.  The property belongs to Mademoiselle
Lucie--pardon, Madame Sheldon."

He fell back exhausted on his pillow.  Tom was shocked, but he was also
greatly excited at the prospect of the wrong that had been done to
Frank's mother being righted.  At Martel's request the confession was
reduced to writing with many details added, and then a number of the
prisoners signed their names as witnesses.

Tom was not sure how far the confession would stand in law, but he felt
reasonably certain that it would be regarded as good evidence and he
was jubilant at the chance that had made him of such great service to
his chum, Frank.

The confession was made none too soon, for that same night Martel died.

"Well, Frank, old scout," said Tom to himself the next day, as he
carefully read and re-read the important document, "that alarm clock
played me a lowdown trick, but it's sure been a good friend of yours,
all provided I can get this confession to you!"




CHAPTER X

A MIDNIGHT SWIM

"A pretty tight place we're in," remarked Bart to Frank as the Army
Boys stood side by side behind a barricade of logs where they had just
repelled a German attack that had surged up close before it fell back
in confusion.

"Tight is right," grunted Bart, as he reloaded his rifle which was
getting hot from firing.

"We ought to be used to tight places by this time," put in Billy,
stopping long enough to wipe the perspiration from his face.  "It seems
that when our division has a specially tough job to do they always call
upon the old Thirty-seventh to do it."

There was no exaggeration in describing the position the soldiers were
holding as a tight place.  While the great drive had not yet begun, the
enemy was carrying on a nibbling process in the attempt to improve his
position before the start of the big offensive.

There was a piece of woodland surmounting a broad plateau that had
considerable strategic importance.  Its possession would enable the
Germans to straighten their lines and permit their guns to dominate the
valley beyond.  They had made several attacks previously which had been
driven back; but on the morning in question the assaults had been
particularly ferocious and determined.  It was evident that the Germans
had received orders to carry it at all costs, and they had thrown their
forces ahead again and again regardless of their heavy losses in men.

Their attacks on the direct front had remained without result, but they
had been able to gain some advantages on the side that separated the
detachment in the woods from their main divisions.  It was necessary
that American reinforcements should be sent at once, for the
comparatively small force that held the position was rapidly thinning
out, owing to the terrific shell fire of the enemy's guns.

Several couriers had been sent to notify the main command of the
perilous position in which the defenders were placed, but these had
evidently been killed or captured, and at last Major Blake, the officer
in command, had to use his last resort.

There was a cage of carrier pigeons that the detachment had brought
with them, beautiful, soft-eyed creatures that had been thoroughly
trained.  It seemed a pity that things so gentle should have to serve
the harsh purposes of war.  But human lives were at stake, and one of
the birds was quickly selected, and a message tied on it securely.
Then it was thrown up in the air.  It circled about for a moment to get
its direction, and then straight as an arrow to its mark made for
division headquarters.

A cheer rose from the men as they watched the feathered messenger, but
this quickly changed to a groan when the bird was seen to falter and
then plunge downward.  An enemy shot had winged or killed it.

Two more were sent and met with the same fate.  The need was growing
fearfully urgent, for the enemy had been reinforced and the attacks
were growing in intensity.  Unless help came very soon the position
would be overwhelmed.

Frank and his comrades were fighting like tigers, their faces covered
with grime and sweat.  The last time the enemy came on they had reached
the breastworks and had been beaten back with savage bayonet fighting
and clubbed rifles.  But they still kept coming as though their numbers
were endless.

"The boys had better hurry up if they want to find any of us alive,"
muttered Billy.

"They'll probably find us dead," grunted Bart, "but they'll find, too,
that we've taken a lot of the Huns with us."

"There goes the fourth bird," said Frank.  "Perhaps he'll have better
luck."

Through the tempest of shot and shell the bird winged its way unhurt,
and with new hope the desperate defenders buckled down to their work.
They knew their comrades would not leave them in the lurch.

Two more attacks came on, but the gray-clad waves broke down before the
gallant defense.  And then, above the roar of battle, came a rousing
American cheer, and into the woods came plunging rank after rank of
fresh troops to relieve their hard-pressed comrades.

They rapidly fell into position, and the next time the Germans came for
what they believed would be their crowning success they had the
surprise of their lives.  A withering rifle fire ploughed their ranks,
and then the American boys leaped over the barricade and chased the
enemy back to his own lines.  The position was saved, and the hardy
fighters who had held it so gallantly looked at each other and wondered
that they were alive.

"The narrowest shave we ever had!" gasped Billy as, utterly exhausted,
he threw himself at full length on the ground.

"It was nip and tuck," panted Bart.  "I know now how the besieged
British at Lucknow felt when they heard the bagpipes playing: 'The
Campbells are coming.'"

"We pulled through all right," said Frank, "and don't forget, boys,
that we owe it to the birds."

Two days later the position of the divisions was shifted and the Army
Boys found themselves on the banks of a small river that forms the
dividing line between the hostile armies.

The squad to which Frank and his comrades were assigned under the
command of Corporal Wilson, who had now fully recovered from his
wounds, was stationed at a point where the river was about a hundred
and fifty yards wide.  Desultory firing was carried on, but the sector
at the time was comparatively quiet, as both armies were engrossed in
their preparations for the great battle that was impending.  It was the
lull before the storm, and the boys improved it to the utmost.  Their
duties were light compared to what they had been, and they rapidly
recuperated from the great strain under which they had been for some
weeks past.

"If only Tom were here now," remarked Frank for perhaps the hundredth
time, for their missing comrade was always in the thoughts of the other
Army Boys.

"Poor old scout!" mourned Bart.  "I wonder where he is now?"

"Working his heart out in some German camp, I suppose," said Billy
savagely.

"You see, Frank, your hunch hasn't worked out as you thought it would,"
said Bart.  "You felt sure that Tom would be with us again before this."

"I know," admitted Frank.  "My time-table has gone wrong, but I haven't
given up hope.  Tom is only human and he can't work miracles.  He may
have been so placed that it simply wasn't possible to make a break.
But one thing you can gamble on, and that is that he hasn't given up
trying.  And when a man has that spirit his chance is sure to come."

"I wish I had your optimism," said Bart gloomily.

"Look at those skunks on the other side of the river," interrupted
Billy.

He pointed to a group of German soldiers who were making insulting
gestures and holding up huge placards with coarse inscriptions on them.

"Cheap skates," replied Frank.  "You notice they're not quite so gay
when we get to close quarters with them."

"They get my goat," said Billy with irritation.  "I'd like to cram
those placards down their throats."

"Pretty big mouthful," laughed Frank.

"We'll get them yet," said Billy vengefully.

"What's the use of saying 'yet,'" suggested Frank.  "Why not say 'now'?"

They looked at him curiously.

"What do you mean?" queried Bart.

"Got anything up your sleeve?" asked Billy.

"An idea just came to me," replied Frank.  "I don't know whether it's
any good, but perhaps it's worth chewing over."

"Let's have it," demanded Billy eagerly.

"Well," said Frank slowly, "I figure that there must be about twenty
Germans in that detachment just opposite us.  What would be the matter
with a few of us going over there some dark night and cleaning up the
bunch?"

A delighted shout met the suggestion.

"Bully!" exclaimed Bart.

But though the approval was enthusiastic, practical difficulties soon
presented themselves.

"How are we to get across?" asked Bart dubiously.

"We haven't any boat on this side that's big enough," said Billy.  "In
fact, I don't think we have any at all."

"That's an easy one," answered Frank.  "Do you see that big lobster of
a boat on the other side?  That looks as though it would carry almost a
dozen anyway.  We won't need any more than that to nab the Huns,
because we'll have the advantage of the surprise if our plans go
through all right."

"But how are we going to get the boat?" asked Bart.

"Swim over for it," replied Frank.  "I'll attend to that.  Give me a
dark night and it's all I ask."

"Let's see what the corporal has to say about it," suggested Bart.

The corporal listened with interest.  It was a plan after his own heart.

"You young roosters are always looking for fight," he grinned.  "I'll
put it up to the captain and see what he says."

The assent of the captain was readily obtained as he knew the value of
such exploits in keeping the spirits of the men up to high fighting
pitch.

The night following there would be no moon until late, and it was fixed
on for carrying out the raid.  Frank was to swim across the river and
get the boat.  On the American side Wilson with eight men would be in
waiting.  They would embark and try to reach the other side without
detection.  Quick thinking and Yankee grit could be depended on to do
the rest.

The night came, black as pitch.  Frank slid into the water as
noiselessly as a fish and struck out for the other side.




CHAPTER XI

GALLANT WORK

The water had a chill in it that struck to Frank's marrow, but the
reaction soon came and he proceeded swiftly, making as little noise as
possible, and keeping body and head low in the water.  He was a
powerful swimmer, and the distance was as nothing to him.  But the
greatest caution had to be exercised lest he be discovered by a sentry
whose shot would alarm his comrades and put an end to the projected
raid.

But fortune favored him and he soon reached the boat, which seemed to
be large enough, with some crowding, to carry the American party.  It
swung with its stern toward the shore, to which it was held by a rope
that was passed about a cleat.

Frank clung for a moment to the bow and listened intently.  He could
hear no breathing nor any other sound that indicated that any one was
on board.  The Germans had evidently not dreamed of any such exploit as
that on which Frank was bent.

But that a watch was kept on the shore was evident, for Frank could
hear the measured step of a sentinel some distance away.  The steps
receded as he listened, and he gathered that the patrol was an extended
one.  Now was his time, while the sentry was at the further limit of
his beat.

Swiftly he climbed on board, slipped the rope from its cleat, and with
a push of an oar against the bank sent the boat some distance out into
the stream.  He did not dare to row for he feared that the oars grating
in the rowlocks might betray him.  But he made a paddle of one of the
oars, dipping it in alternately on opposite sides of the bow, paddle
fashion, and before long reached his party, by whom he was received
with intense though subdued jubilation.

In whispers Frank explained to Wilson what he had observed and action
was agreed on accordingly.  The party, ten in all, bestowed themselves
as best as they might in their narrow quarters and the boat started on
its perilous expedition.

A paddle was employed as before, and the journey was necessarily slow,
for the boat sank in the water almost to the gunwales.  But they
reached the other side at last, and Frank, slipping into the water,
waded to the bank, where he fastened the boat securely.

Whether they would ever step into that boat again was known to none of
the party that slipped like shadows up the grassy bank.  They were
outnumbered two to one, or more, and their success depended mainly on
surprise.  The slightest slip in their plans would bring the expedition
to grief.

They lay flat on the bank and listened.  There was no sound except the
tread of the sentry's feet coming nearer.  It was unlikely that the
absence of the boat had been discovered.  Still, it might have been,
and the dead silence might portend an ambush by the enemy.

This was a chance, however, that they had to take.  But the first thing
to do was to dispose of the sentry.

The path along which he seemed to be coming was bordered with a small
and uncared-for hedge.

In a hurried whisper Wilson gave his commands.

"You, Sheldon and Raymond, creep ahead and lie on opposite sides of the
ledge.  When the sentry comes along, close on him at the same time.
Keep him from making a noise if you can.  The one thing is to be quick."

Frank and Bart glided along and took up positions opposite each other.

"You grab his gun, Bart, and I'll make for his throat," whispered Frank.

The sentry came on unsuspectingly.  Lithe as panthers the boys leaped
upon him, Bart grasping the gun, while Frank's sinewy hands fastened on
his throat.

There was a muffled exclamation and a short sharp struggle.  Then the
sentry lay on the ground unconscious, while Frank and Bart hastily
improvised a gag, and bound the man's hands and feet.

"Good work," commended the corporal, as Frank and Bart rejoined their
comrades.  "That was the most ticklish part.  The rest ought to be
easy."

But he was mistaken, for just then the door of a dugout in a small
trench opened, and two men came out with lanterns.  It was evidently
the corporal of the guard who had come out with a private to relieve
the sentry.

There was an exclamation of surprise and alarm, and as the light of the
lanterns revealed the group of dark figures at the head of the trench,
the men started to leap back into the dugout.  But a rifle cracked and
one of them fell.  The other, however, got inside and slammed and
barred the door.

"Rush them, men!" shouted the corporal, and charged, at their head,
toward the dugout.

Two or three of them launched themselves against the door, but it held.

"Splinter it with your gun butts!" yelled the corporal, and a series of
heavy blows thundered against the barrier.

Some of the planks started to give, but before the door had completely
yielded, it was thrown open from within and the Germans rushed out,
firing as they came.

They were met by a return volley, and two of them fell.  But the others
charged fiercely, and in an instant the two forces were engaged in a
terrible hand-to-hand battle.

In the narrow confines of the trench there was no chance for shooting
after the first volley.  It was a matter of fists and knives and in
this the Germans proved, as they had many times before, that they were
no match for the sinewy young Americans who with a yell went at them
like wild-cats.

Sullenly they retreated and their leader held up his hands and shouted
"_Kamerad!_"

His followers did the same.  The fight was over.  None of the Americans
had been killed though one was slightly and another severely wounded.
Three of the Germans would never fight again and two others stood
supported by their comrades.

Two of the Americans stood at the door of the dugout and searched the
Germans for arms as they came through.  Others stood at the head of the
trench and herded the prisoners together for transportation to the
other side.

The German corporal looked about him as he and his men stood guarded by
Americans with loaded rifles, and his chagrin was evident as he
realized that he had been captured by so small a force.

"Are these all the men you have?" he asked in passable English of
Wilson.

"They were enough, weren't they?" answered Wilson with a grin that
reflected itself on the faces of his comrades.

"_Donnerwetter!_" growled the German.  "You would never have taken us
if we had known!"

"We don't tell all we know," answered Wilson with a grin.

The prisoners were ferried across in groups of half a dozen at a time,
but not before Billy had had the satisfaction of gathering up the
insulting placards that had aroused his ire and tearing them up before
the Germans' faces.

"Feel better now?" laughed Frank.

"Lots," replied Billy.  "I couldn't exactly make them swallow them, but
they must have felt almost as bad to see so much German Kultur going to
waste."

The party was greeted with exuberant delight on their return, and
received the special thanks of the captain.

"It was a big risk," he smiled, "but risks have a way of going through
when they are carried out by the boys I'm lucky enough to command."

"You forget, Captain," smiled the lieutenant who stood nearby, "that
there are no American soldiers in France."

"That's so," laughed the captain.  "The U-boats stopped us from coming
over, didn't they?"




CHAPTER XII

THE DRUGGED DETACHMENT

A scouting party was being made up a few days later, and the Army Boys
were glad that they were included in it.  In the region where they were
stationed the woods were thick, and there was a sort of "twilight zone"
that afforded excellent opportunities for individual fighting.  The
lines were rather loosely kept, and it was no uncommon occurrence to
have raiding parties slip across, have a brush with their opponents,
and retire with what forage or prisoners they might be lucky enough to
take.

There had been a good deal of "sniping" that, while it only caused
occasional losses, was a source of harassment and irritation, and
Frank's squad had orders to "get" as many of these sharpshooters as
possible.

A little way from the camp there was a deep gorge.  Along its top were
many huge trees whose branches reached far out over the precipice.
They drew so close together that their branches in many cases were
interwoven.

The squad was moving along without any attempt to keep formation in
such rough country, when there was the crack of a rifle and a bullet
zipped close by Frank's ear.

He started back.

"Did it get you, Frank?" called out Bart in alarm.

"No," replied Frank, "but it came closer than I care to think about."

At the corporal's command they took shelter behind trees, from which
they scanned the locality in the direction from which the shot had come.

There was no trace of any concealed marksman, search the coverts as
they would.  But that he was there, and that he was an enemy to be
dreaded, was shown a moment later when a bullet ridged the fingers of
the hand that Billy had incautiously exposed.

With an exclamation, Billy put his bleeding fingers to his mouth.  The
injury was slight and Bart bound his hand up for him, using extreme
care to keep behind the trees.

"We have to hand it to that fellow," remarked the corporal.  "He
certainly knows how to shoot."

"I'd hand him something if I only knew where he was," growled Billy.

"I know where he is," said Frank.

"Do you?" asked the corporal eagerly.

"Where?"

"In the tallest of that clump of trees on the edge of the gorge,"
replied Frank.  "I caught a glimpse of his rifle barrel the last time
he fired."

"We'll give him a volley," decided the corporal, and a moment later, at
his command, the rifles rang out.

Several times this was repeated in the hope that one of the bullets
would find its mark.  But the tree trunk was enormously thick and
bullets imbedded themselves in it without injury to the marksman,
snugly sheltered on the further side.

If they could have surrounded the tree and shot from different sides
there would have been no trouble in bagging their quarry.  But the tree
had been cunningly chosen for the reason that the further side hung
over the precipice and could only be attacked from the side where the
party now were.

Frank's keen eyes had been sizing up the situation and he now had a
proposal to make.

"I think I see a way to dislodge him if you'll let me try it,
Corporal," he said.

"What is it?" asked Wilson.

"You'll notice that the branches of those trees are mixed in with each
other," replied Frank.  "If you can keep him busy with your shooting,
so that he won't be thinking of anything else, I think I can make a
detour and climb up one of those other trees on the side away from him.
I could carry my rifle strapped on my back.  Then I might work my way
along the branches and perhaps catch sight of him."

"It's worth trying," decided the corporal.  "Go ahead, Sheldon, but be
mighty careful."

Frank slipped away in the shelter of the trees, described a
semi-circle, reached the third tree from the one where the German was
stationed, and commenced to climb.

It was hard work, for the tree was thick and he could not get a good
grip on it with his arms.  But he persisted until he reached the first
limb and drew himself up on it.  Then he examined his rifle carefully
and with the utmost caution began to work his way among the branches.

Some of these were so thick as to be themselves almost like tree
trunks, and he had no apprehension on the score of his weight.  He
passed to the next tree, and then to the next.  There he paused,
parting the branches carefully.

He knew that his comrades were keeping their part of the bargain, for
the thud of bullets against the tree that sheltered the enemy was
almost continuous.

For several minutes Frank looked for his enemy.  Then his search was
rewarded, and through an open space he found himself looking squarely
into the eyes of the man who, a few minutes before, had tried to send a
bullet through his brain.

The man saw him at the same instant.  Like a flash he leveled his rifle
and fired.

For such a hurried aim the shot was good.  Frank felt the whistle of
the bullet as it almost grazed him.  But it was not good enough.

The next instant Frank's rifle spoke.  The man flung out his arms,
toppled over and fell with a crash into the gorge that the tree
overhung.  The rifle clanged after him.  There would be no more sniping
by that particular marksman from that particular tree.

There was a shout from the squad who had witnessed the duel, and as
Frank slid down the tree he was greeted with acclamations.

"A nervy thing, Sheldon," commended Wilson.

"He almost got me, though," returned Frank.  "It was a case of touch
and go."

"He was a brave man," was the tribute of the corporal, "though that
particular kind of work has always seemed to me something like murder.
He shot his victims without giving them a chance.  His work on land was
that of the U-boats on the sea--a species of assassination."

The squad went on with special caution and with a close watch on the
trees.  But noon came without further adventure and they got out their
rations and prepared to enjoy them at the foot of a spreading maple.

They were perhaps half way through the meal, which they had seasoned
with jokes and laughter, when there was a rustling in the bushes near
at hand.  Instantly they leaped to their feet and reached for their
rifles.

"Who goes there?" demanded the corporal.

There was no answer.

"Answer or we shoot!" cried Wilson.

The bushes parted and a young peasant girl stepped forth.

She was a pretty girl of about eighteen.  Her face bore the marks of
tears, her hair was dishevelled, and she was in a state of extreme
agitation.  She began to talk feverishly and with many gestures.

"Here, Sheldon," said the corporal, "you speak French.  See if you can
understand what the girl is saying."

Frank stepped forward.

"_Que voulez-vous, Mademoiselle?_" he asked.

The relief of the girl when she heard her own language was evident.

"These are English soldiers, Monsieur?" she asked.

"No," said Frank, "they are Americans."

"Oh, _les braves Americains_!" she exclaimed.  "How glad I am!  I know
you will help me."

"Be sure of that," replied Frank.  "But tell me now just what has
happened."

"The boches," she answered.  "They are at our house."

"How many are there?" asked Frank with quickened interest.

"About thirty," she replied.  Then as she saw Frank glance at the ten
who made up his party, she went on: "But you can capture them, I am
sure.  They are drugged."

"Drugged?"

"Yes.  They came to our house early this morning.  They upset
everything.  They smashed the furniture.  They tied my father and
brother in chairs.  They said they were going to burn the house when
they got ready to go away."

"But how were they drugged?"

"They made me get them all the food and wine there was in the house.  I
did so.  I put some laudanum in the wine.  They ate and drank.  Then
they got sleepy.  They dropped off one by one.  Then I ran out to find
help.  I find you.  Heaven is good."

Frank consulted the corporal as the others crowded around in great
excitement.

The corporal meditated.

"It may be a trap," he said cautiously.

"I don't think so," replied Frank.  "Look at the girl.  She's no
actress.  I think she's telling the truth."

"But even if they were drugged, they may have recovered from the
effects by this time," pondered the corporal.

Then he made up his mind.

"We'll take a chance," he decided.  "Ask the girl how far the house is
from here."

"About a mile," the girl answered to Frank's query.  "And there is one
other thing," she added.  "They have a prisoner with them.  He is young
and he has a uniform like yours, only it is torn and soiled.  They
threw him on the floor in a room upstairs.  He was tied with ropes."

"What does he look like?" asked Frank.  "Tell me as well as you can."

She described the prisoner amid the growing excitement of the Army Boys.

"Tom, for a thousand dollars!" cried Frank.

"It must be!" echoed Bart.

"Sure as guns!" chimed in Billy.

"Do you know him, then?" asked the girl, who had been looking at them
wonderingly.  "Oh, then hurry!  For they are going to hang him.  They
put a rope over the tree near the well and said they would hang him
when they got through eating and drinking."

Hang Tom!  If there had been any hesitation before, there was none now.
The chums would have run every step of the way if the corporal had not
restrained them.  As it was they covered the mile in double-quick time.

As they came to where the farm bordered on the woods and caught sight
of the house, their eyes turned with dread toward the well.  An
exclamation of heartfelt relief broke from them.  The rope was there as
the girl had said, but no hideous burden dangled from it.

No one was in sight, and a death-like silence brooded over the place.
They waited in the shelter of the trees.  Perhaps the enemy had
recovered and was waiting for them with a force three times their own.

Five minutes passed.  Then the corporal gave an order.

"Fix bayonets!  We're going to rush the house."

There was a sharp click.

"Charge!"

With a cheer they rushed across the brief space that separated them
from the house and up to the open door.

The corporal looked in.

"Put up your guns, boys," he said quietly.  "We've got them."

The others crowded after him into the long low-ceiled room.  The enemy
had been delivered into their hands.  There, sprawled over the floor in
all sorts of ungainly attitudes among the smashed furniture, were the
invaders in various stages of stupor.  Some of them opened their eyes
at the sudden interruption and stared hard at the newcomers.  The
lieutenant himself sat at the table on which his head had fallen
forward.

But the Army Boys did not tarry long.  A word of permission from the
corporal and they bounded up the narrow stairs and burst into the room
where the girl had said Tom had been left.

The room was empty!

They searched and called frantically.

"Tom!  Tom!  Where are you?  Come out!  It's friends, Frank, Billy,
Bart!"

They looked in every cranny and corner of the house upstairs and then
down.  Then they rushed out to the barn.  Then with fear at their
hearts they sounded the well.

All was to no purpose.  Tom--if it had really been Tom--might have
vanished into thin air for any trace they found of him.

Where had he gone?  What had become of him?  Or, worst of all, what had
the enemy done to him?

There was no answer, and at last they rejoined their comrades in the
hope that questioning of the German lieutenant or some of his men might
tell them what they wanted to know.

The first precaution that the corporal had taken was to disarm and bind
his prisoners.  Then the farmer and his son were released.  They were
wild with rage at the treatment they had undergone and the wanton havoc
wrought in their home.  If the choice had been left to them they would
have killed every prisoner on the spot.

At the corporal's command water was brought from the well and buckets
of it were dashed over the Germans.  There was sputtering and yelling,
but the soldier boys enjoyed it hugely, and they worked with a hearty
good will.

It was a drastic remedy for sleepiness but it worked, and before long
the Germans, looking like so many drowned rats, had come out of their
stupor and began to realize their situation.  The privates were
sheepish, but the lieutenant went almost crazy with anger when he
realized how he had been trapped.  His eyes looked venom at the girl,
who laughed at him triumphantly.  His rage was increased by his
consciousness of the pitiable figure he presented.  His smart uniform
was dripping, his hair was matted over his face and even his ferocious
mustache had lost its Kaiser-like curl.  Even one of his own men
ventured to snicker at him, and the look the officer turned on him was
not good to see.

The corporal began to question him, but the lieutenant looked at him in
disdain.

"A German officer does not answer the questions of a corporal," he
sneered.

"Just as you like," retorted Wilson coolly.  "Perhaps you'd like to
have me leave you here with the owner of the house and his son.  I
think they'd like nothing better than to have five minutes alone with
you.  Perhaps even one minute would be enough."

The lieutenant took one glance at the glowering faces of the farmer and
his son and wilted instantly.

"I will answer your questions," he said, shortly.




CHAPTER XIII

A DEEPENING MYSTERY

"He came off his perch mighty quick," remarked Bart to Frank in a
whisper.

"I don't wonder," replied Frank.  "He'd be a pretty poor insurance risk
if these people could get a whack at him."

The corporal asked a few formal questions as to the lieutenant's
regiment and division, which were answered sullenly though promptly.
But these had little interest just then, and their asking was really a
matter for headquarters.  They were simply the prelude to other
questions in which the company were much more deeply concerned.

"You had a prisoner here?" asked the corporal.

"Yes."

"Where is he now?"

"He was placed upstairs."

"He is not there now.  What have you done with him?"

"Nothing."

"What were you going to do with him?"

The officer moved uneasily.

"Take him back to my quarters," he finally answered.

"Why did you have that rope put over the tree by the well?"

There was no answer, but the officer grew red in the face.

"Did you hear the question?"

"It was to frighten him," the lieutenant finally blurted out.  "Anyway
he was a spy and deserved to be hung.  He had come into our lines in
disguise."

The corporal motioned to Frank.

"Ask the girl again if she is sure the prisoner had on an American
uniform," he directed.

Frank did so.

"_Oui, oui,_" she affirmed emphatically.

To make sure, Frank repeated the question to the farmer and his son and
received the same answer.

He reported to the corporal.

"These people all say that the prisoner was not in disguise,
Lieutenant," said Wilson.  "Do you still wish to insist that he was?"

"Yes."

"That is enough," replied the corporal with quiet scorn.  "Line up the
prisoners, men," he commanded.

This was quickly done, and the homeward march commenced, but not until
another search had been made for the missing captive of the Germans.

It had the same result as the previous one and the boys were full of
questionings and forebodings as they marched back guarding their
prisoners.  But there were some elements of comfort in their perplexity.

In the first place, they had saved some American soldier, whether Tom
or another, from a horrible death.  Then, too, they had in their power
the brute who had planned that death.  It was not impossible, too,
that, under further questioning of the lieutenant and his men at
headquarters, more might be learned of what they wanted so badly to
know.

Another subject of congratulation also was that the prisoner, if he had
escaped, was not far from the American lines.  He might find his way in
at any time.

But there was one thing that bothered Frank considerably, and he
mentioned it that night when he found himself alone with Bart and Billy.

"Do you remember the minute at the edge of the wood when the corporal
gave the order to fix bayonets?" he asked.

"Sure thing," replied Bart.  "What about it?"

"Just this," replied Frank.  "At that minute I caught sight of a man
running away from the farmhouse into the woods on the other side.  I
got the picture of him in my mind, but I didn't have time to think
about it just then, for we were making a rush for the house.  Then
other things crowded it out of my mind altogether.  But it came back to
me on the way home this afternoon."

"What did the man look like and how was he dressed?" asked Billy
eagerly.

"He had on an American uniform," replied Frank slowly, as he tried to
make the picture clear in his own mind.

"Perhaps it was Tom!" cried Bart.

"No, it wasn't," said Frank positively.  "The uniform was smart and
newer than ours.  Tom's must be in tatters and you remember the girl
said it was.  Then, too, I'd know Tom's gait among a thousand just as
you would.  No, it wasn't Tom, worse luck."

"Who was it, then?"

"I think it was Nick Rabig," replied Frank.

"Nick Rabig!" the others cried together.

"Mind, I only say I think," repeated Frank, looking around to see that
no outsider was within hearing.  "I wouldn't be willing to swear to it.
But the motions were Nick's--you know he runs like a cart horse--and
you know that Nick has been togged out in a new uniform since he came
back from that queer captivity of his among the Huns."

"Nick Rabig there," mused Bart perplexedly, as he began to pace up and
down.  "What on earth could he have been doing there?"

"Say," put in Billy with agitation, "could he have done anything to
Tom?  Suppose he went there, no matter for what purpose; suppose he
found that German crowd dead to the world; suppose he found Tom
upstairs bound and helpless.  You know how Nick hated him."

"Keep cool, old man," counseled Frank, though there was a trace of
anxiety in his own voice.  "No, I don't think anything of that kind has
happened.  If it had we'd have found some traces of it.  I think we can
leave that out of our calculations."

"I'm only too glad to," said Billy.  "But what was Nick's reason for
being around that farmhouse anyway?"

"What have always been Nick's reasons for being where there are
Germans, or where he expects there will be Germans?" said Bart.
"Suppose--just suppose--that Nick knew--had a tip, let us say--that a
certain German lieutenant on a certain day would be in a certain place,
ready to receive and pay for any information about the American forces
that Nick had been able to gather.  Do you get me?"

"I get you, all right," answered Frank, "and from what we know of Nick
we've got a right to think so.  Well, he didn't sell anything today
anyway.  He didn't find the German lieutenant in any condition to talk
business."

The bugle blew for "taps" just then, and the conversation came to an
end.  And the two days that followed were so crowded with events that
their own personal interests were thrust into the background.

For the great drive was coming, the drive for which they had been
looking for months, looking not with fear but with eager anticipation,
their ardent young hearts aflame with the desire to fight to the death
the enemies of civilization.

The weather had favored the enemy in his preparations.  Usually at that
time of the year the ground was soft and not fit for military
operations on a grand scale.  But the ground this year had dried out
unusually early and was suitable for the bringing forward of men and
guns.

There were all sorts of rumors afloat as to what the enemy had in
store.  There were said to be monster guns that could throw shells more
than seventy miles.  There were new and diabolical inventions in the
way of gas that were to cause unspeakable agonies to their victims.
There was talk of gigantic mirrors that would act as burning-glasses
and blind the opposing troops.

Some of these things proved to be true.  Others were mere lies,
designed to sap the morale of the Allied armies and civil populations
before the fight began.

"Heinie's the biggest boob that ever happened," grinned Billy, when the
boys were discussing the coming conflict.  "He acts as if the Allies
were a lot of children.  He thinks that all he has to do is to dress up
a bugaboo and we'll all roll over and play dead."

"He'll get something into that thick head of his after a while,"
predicted Frank.  "It will have to be jabbed in, but there are a lot of
us ready to do the jabbing."

"Let him bring on his bag of tricks," scoffed Bart.  "When all's said
and done, it's going to be man-stuff that will decide this war.  And
there's where we've got him on the hip.  Man to man we're better stuff
than the Huns.  We know it and they know it.  They can't stand before
our bayonets."

"Right you are, old scout!" said Frank, enthusiastically, giving him a
resounding slap on the back.  "Let them bring on their old drive as
soon as they like.  They can begin the drive.  We'll end it.  And we'll
end it in the streets of Berlin!"




CHAPTER XIV

THE STORM OF WAR

"Listen to that music," said Frank to his comrades the next morning, as
a furious cannonade opened up that made the ground shake and filled the
air with flying missiles of death.

"Too many bass notes in it to be real good music," remarked Billy with
a grim.

"Maybe it's the overture just before the rising of the curtain,"
suggested Bart.

"Perhaps it is," agreed Frank.  "The Hun has got to start his drive
some time, and this would be just the kind of morning for it.  See how
heavy that mist lies on the ground?  We couldn't see the Germans at a
distance of fifty yards."

"It's mighty thick for a fact," observed Bart.  "But I guess our
advanced posts are on the job.  They'll give us warning in plenty of
time."

"Not that we need much warning as far as I can see," said Billy.
"We've been ready for a long time to fight at the drop of a hat.  I'll
bet the Hun doesn't carry a foot of our line."

"That's where you're wrong, Billy, old scout," warned Bart.  "It stands
to reason that he'll get away with something at first.  You take any
one man, no matter how strong he is, and if ten fellows rush him all at
once they're bound to drive him back at the start.  The Huns have got
the advantage of knowing where they're going to strike.  We don't know
and so we have to spread our forces out so as to be ready to meet him
at any point.  Then, too, the man who comes rushing in has the
advantage of the fellow who's standing still because he's got momentum.
That's why generals would rather fight on the offensive than on the
defensive.  They're able to pick the time and place and the other
fellow has to follow his lead."

"I don't see why the Allies can't take the offensive," grumbled Billy.
"It gets my goat to let the Huns hit first."

"It does mine too," admitted Frank, "and if it hadn't been for Russia
quitting, we'd be looking now at the coattails of the Kaiser's generals
as they scooted back to Berlin.  But that's a bit of hard luck that we
can't help.  Russia's back-down has taken ten million soldiers from the
Allies' strength.  But America will make that all up in time and then
you'll see us doing the chasing."

"It can't come too soon to suit me," said Billy.  "I only wish Uncle
Sam had started sooner to get ready."

"So do I," replied Frank.  "But there's no use crying over spilt milk.
We're getting ahead now with leaps and bounds.  I was talking to Will
Stone the other day, and he'd just got back from a flying trip to one
of the French seaports.  He says it simply knocked him stiff to see the
transports coming in loaded to the guards with American troops.  And he
says the roads are fairly choked with doughboys moving this way.
They're coming like a swarm of locusts.  And there's millions more
where they came from.  Oh, Uncle Sam is awake now, all right, and don't
you forget it!  And when he once gets started there's nothing on earth
can stop him."

"Right you are!" said Bart.

"We've won every war we've ever been in and it's got to be a habit,"
grinned Billy.

The old Thirty-seventh was stationed on the second line, or what is
called in military terms, "the line of resistance."  In modern
fighting, when a heavy attack is expected the defending army is usually
arranged in three lines.  The first is the advanced line, and this is
hardly expected to be held very long.  Its chief aim is to hold back
the enemy for a while and weaken him as far as possible.  Not many
troops are employed on this line nor many big guns.  The chief reliance
is on rifle fire and machine guns, which are so placed as to deliver a
withering cross-fire and cut up the enemy divisions.

By the time the first line is driven back the defending army knows
where the enemy has chosen to strike and is ready for him on the second
line or "line of resistance."  Here the battle is on in all its fury.
If here again the enemy advances, there is still a third line of
"battle positions."  This is practically the last entrenched position
that the defenders have.  If they are driven back from this into the
open country beyond, it becomes a serious thing for the retreating
army, as many of their big guns will have been lost, and their forces
are apt to be more or less disorganized, while the enemy is flushed
with the victory he has so far gained.

The cannonade kept on with increasing fury all through the early
morning.

"Heinie must have plenty of ammunition," remarked Frank.  "He's
spending it freely."

"It beats anything we've been up against since we came to the front,"
observed Billy.

"It seems to be coming nearer and nearer all the time," said Bart.  "I
guess this is going to be our busy day."

There was intense activity all through the lines.  Orderlies galloped
from place to place with orders.  Big motor cars rumbled up, loaded
with troops who were hastily placed in position.  The big guns of the
Allied forces had opened up and were sending back shell for shell over
the enemy lines.

For over two hours the artillery kept up the Titanic duel.  The fog was
lifting, though still heavy in some of the low-lying sections.  The
Thirty-seventh was resting easily on its arms, ready for whatever might
happen.

"We may not see so much fighting after all," remarked Billy, after a
while.  "The fellows in front seem to be holding pretty well.  Perhaps
they'll throw the Huns back right from the start."

"Don't kid yourself," replied Frank grimly.  "That first line is almost
sure to go.  It's expected to.  It's only a forlorn hope anyway.  We'll
get our stomachs full of fighting before the day is over."

Even while he spoke there were signs of confusion up in front.  Groups
of men came in sight evidently retreating.  Machine gun crews, bringing
their weapons with them, were hurriedly setting them up in new
positions.  There would be a few discharges and then they would be
forced to retreat still further.  They were fighting splendidly, and
putting up a dogged resistance, yielding ground only foot by foot, but
to the experienced eyes of the boys there was no mistaking the signs.
The enemy had broken through the first line positions.

"Well, it's nothing more than we knew would happen," remarked Frank, as
his frame tingled with the excitement of the coming fight which he knew
would soon be upon him.

"That's so," agreed Bart.  "But what gets me is that the line was
broken so quickly.  I thought it would be afternoon at least before the
Huns got as far as this."

The lines opened up to let the newcomers through so that they could go
to the rear and re-form.

"How about it?" Frank asked of a machine gunner whom he knew, as the
man limped by him, supported by a comrade.  "We didn't expect to see
you fellows so soon."

"It was the mist," was the reply.  "The Huns got within thirty yards
before we tumbled to it.  We did the best we could but they just
swamped our position before we could get our cross-fire going.  Even at
that we mowed them down in heaps with our rifle fire, but they kept on
coming.  For every dead man there were twenty live ones to take his
place.  We put up a stiff fight, but there were too many of them.  It
seemed like millions.  They're coming now like a house afire and you
boys want to brace."

"We're braced already,"  muttered Billy through his clenched teeth, as
he gripped his rifle until it seemed as though his fingers must leave
their imprint on the stock.

There was a short period of waiting, more trying by far than any actual
fighting.

Then the storm broke!

In front of them rank after rank of gray-clad troops came in sight,
stretching back as far as the eye could see.  The mist had wholly
vanished now and the boys could see their enemy.  It seemed as though
the machine gunner had not exaggerated when he said that there were
millions.  They were like the waves of the sea.

But the stout hearts of the American boys never quailed.  Time and
again they had met these men or their fellows and driven them back at
the point of the bayonet.  They had outfought and outgamed them.  They
had sent them flying before them.  They had seen their backs.

The blood of heroes and of patriots ran in the veins of the defenders.
Their ancestors had fought at Bunker Hill, at Palo Alto, at Gettysburg.
Above them floated the Stars and Stripes, an unstained flag, a glorious
flag, a flag that had never been smirched by defeat.

Their eyes blazed and their muscles stiffened.

Then like an avalanche the enemy struck!




CHAPTER XV

FURRY RESCUERS

The satisfaction that Tom felt at having in his pocket the confession
of Martel helped to make his imprisonment much more bearable in the
week that followed.  His heart warmed at the thought of the delight
Frank would feel in clearing up the matter that had long laid heavy
upon his mother's mind.

For the conviction never left him that some time he was going to put
that confession in his friend's hand.  He had escaped before from
German captivity, not once but twice.  What he had done then he would
do again.  And every minute of his waking hours found that active brain
of his working hard at the problem.

He confessed to himself that the solution would not be easy.  The
guards were many and were changed frequently.  The windows of the old
barracks where he slept were fortified with steel bars, and the open
camp where the prisoners were employed in outside work was surrounded
with wires through which a strong electric current ran.  To touch them
would mean instant death, and they were so close together that it would
be impossible to squeeze through without touching.

He fell to studying the routine of the various conveyances that were
constantly arriving and departing.  Some of them brought bales of
goods, others barrels.  The latter were especially common.  They were
in a part of the country that abounded in vineyards, and great
hogsheads of wine were being constantly brought in to supply the
demands of the division stationed there.

They did not stay full long.  The German officers were notoriously
heavy drinkers, and there were days when there were great drayloads of
empty hogsheads ready to be taken away to be refilled.

Tom developed a great interest in these hogsheads.  The work of loading
them on the drays was performed by prisoners, and he managed to be in
the vicinity as often as possible to help.  He was stronger than most
of the prisoners and he worked with such good will at loading the bulky
hogsheads that little by little it became a habit with the guards to
assign him to this work whenever it was to be done.

A day came when the rain poured down in torrents.  Tom had waited and
prayed for just such a day.  The air was full of fog and a cloud of
steam rose from the horses' backs.  Everything in the prison yard was
dim and gray and spectral.  The guards were enveloped in heavy
raincoats and the flaps of oilskin on their caps fell halfway over
their faces.

Tom had managed to get on one of the trucks and was tugging at one of
the hogsheads to make room for others further back.  Other prisoners
were lifting on the last hogsheads.  Tom leaned over one of the
hogsheads and suddenly let himself go into it headfirst.  It was all
over in a flash.

There was an awful moment of suspense.  Had anyone seen him?  He
listened intently.  No shout was raised.  Nothing happened out of the
usual.

The driver climbed up to his seat and the horses started.  There was a
momentary delay as the gates were opened to let him pass.  Then the
horses started on a jog trot and the truck was bumping its way over an
uneven country road.  A thrill of exultation shot through Tom,
crouching at the bottom of the hogshead.  He had made the first step on
the road to freedom.

He was still in the most imminent danger.  At any moment he might hear
the clattering of horsemen in pursuit.  And he knew the kind of
treatment he would get if he were recaptured.

How to get out of the hogshead without detection was another problem.
But this worried him least of all.  He felt sure that the driver would
stop at the first tavern he came across to refresh himself.  Then he
would make his break.

His faith was justified, for before long the truck came to a halt and
the driver got down.  The weather had driven all the tavern idlers
indoors and the streets of the little hamlet were deserted.  Like an
eel, Tom squirmed over the edge of the hogshead, dropped into the
roadway on the side of the truck away from the tavern, and, with
assumed carelessness, went on down the road.

A few rods brought him into the open country.  He had not the least
idea where he was.  In the gloom he could not tell which was north or
south or east or west.  But for the moment he was free.

He made his way across some fields in the direction of a dark fringe of
woods.  There he would find shelter for the present.  It would be a
poor kind of shelter, but just then Tom asked nothing better.  The day
would bring counsel.

For some days past he had been stowing away fragments from his scanty
meals in his pockets.  They were only dry and mouldy crusts, but they
would at least sustain life.

Up in the streaming woods he hollowed out a place under a fallen tree.
He was drenched to the skin, but he was so exhausted with the strain he
had undergone that no bodily discomfort could prevent his falling
asleep.

When he awoke the rain had ceased and the sun was striking through the
branches of the trees.  With the morning came new courage.  He would
yet win through.

He studied the sun and got a general idea of the direction in which he
must go.  He knew that the American lines lay to the south and west.
He could hear the distant thunder of the guns.

All that day he traveled in the friendly shadow of the woods.  He did
not dare to approach a cottage or go to any of the peasants he could
see working in the fields.  Some of them, he felt sure, would befriend
him, but at any moment he might come in contact with one of the
oppressors who held the land in their grip.  He would take no chances.

His food was almost gone now although he had husbanded it with the
greatest care.  But he tightened his belt and kept on.

On the morning of the second day he was crossing a small brook and was
just stepping up on the other side when a wet stone rolled beneath his
foot and threw him headlong.  His head struck a jagged stump and he lay
there stunned.

When he regained consciousness, he found himself looking into the face
of a German officer who was amusing himself by kicking the youth.

"Awake, are you, Yankee pig?" the officer greeted him.  "It's time.  I
had half a mind to give you a bayonet thrust and put you to sleep
forever.  You needn't tell me how you came here.  I know.  You're the
schweinhund that escaped two days ago.  Here," he called to some of his
men, "tie this fellow and throw him over a horse.  We'll settle his
case later on."

The command was promptly obeyed and poor Tom found himself once more in
the grasp of his foes.  And from this captivity there seemed little
promise of escape.  The deadly purpose of the brute who held him in his
power had been plainly written on his face.

After what seemed an endless journey, the party reached a farmhouse.
The detachment took possession of the place and an orgy of pillage and
destruction ensued.  Tom was taken to an upper room and thrown roughly
on the floor.  Here he lay bound hand and foot.  He could hear cries of
terror and smashing of furniture going on below.

He had no companion but his own thoughts, except when some of the
drunken roysterers invaded his room to remind him of the rope that hung
over the tree near the well and to drive home the information with
kicks of their heavy boots.

His thoughts were black and bitter.  This, then, was the end.  He was
to be hung to furnish an occasion of laughter to a horde of drunken
brutes.  Well, there would be no whine from him.  He would show them
how an American could die.

His attention was attracted by a pattering of tiny feet.  He looked in
the direction from which the sound came.

A rat had emerged from a hole in the corner and was busy nibbling a
lump of cheese that had been dropped by one of the soldiers who had
just left.  The nibbling ceased as Tom turned his head and the rat
scurried back to the corner.  There he stayed, his bright eyes looking
longingly at the cheese.

A thought shot through Tom's mind that set him tingling from head to
foot.  Was it possible?  Of course it was only a forlorn hope.  But he
would try it.  He would be no worse off if it failed.

He rolled himself over to the cheese and rubbed the rope that tied his
hand in the soft substance until it was thoroughly smeared with it.
Then he lay on his side with his hands outstretched and pretended to
sleep.

Through his nearly closed lids he watched the rat.  For some minutes it
stayed motionless.  Tom never moved a muscle.  Then the rat crept
stealthily forward, and, with many half retreats, at last started in to
nibble at the rope to get the cheese.  Soon another rat came and then
another.

Tom conquered the sense of repulsion that their close proximity
inspired in him.  His life depended on his self-control.  The least
movement might send them scurrying back to their holes.  And out in the
yard there was that rope that hung from the tree near the well!

So he nerved himself and his reward came at last.  He could feel the
tension of the rope yielding as one strand after another was torn by
the tiny teeth of his unknowing rescuers.

Finally they ceased and sat up on their haunches washing their faces,
and the need for inaction had passed.  With a mighty effort Tom
strained at the rope and it snapped.

He could have shouted with exultation.  He waved his arms in the air
and the frightened rats vanished.  He rubbed his hands and arms until
the circulation came back.  It was an easy matter then to untie the
rope that bound his feet.

The noise on the floor beneath had ceased, He stole to the window and
looked out.  No one was stirring in the space around the house.  He
shuddered as he saw the dangling rope on the tree near the well.

There was the sound of a stealthy step below.  Tom drew his head from
the window.  Standing in the shadow of the frame he could see a young
girl emerge and run swiftly away.

Where were the others?  Consulting perhaps as to how they could get the
most enjoyment from the spectacle of his hanging.

There was only one way of exit that promised safety.  He must escape by
the window.

He measured with his eye the distance from the ground.  It seemed to be
about eighteen feet.  He himself was six feet high.  That would leave a
clear drop of twelve feet.  He could probably make it without injury.
At any rate he had no choice.

He let himself down gently with his hands and dropped.  The shock
brought him to his knees, but he arose unhurt.

The next moment he was racing for the woods with the speed of the wind.




CHAPTER XVI

CLOSING THE GAP

A sheet of flames leaped from the American rifles.  A blasting torrent
of death poured from the machine guns.  The heavy field artillery, that
had the range to a dot, tore gaping holes in the serried German ranks.
Great lanes opened up in the advancing hosts.  The target was broad and
there was no need to take aim, for every bullet was bound to find a
mark.

The enemy ranks faltered before that terrific fire and fell back,
leaving hundreds of dead and wounded on the open space in front of the
lines, while hundreds more were strewn along the barbed wire
entanglements.

But the German commanders were prodigal of the lives of their men, and
after a brief time for re-forming, the divisions came on again, only to
be hurled back again with still more fearful losses.  A third attempt
met with a similar result.  The Americans were standing like a rock.

"Guess Fritz is getting more than he bargained for," grinned Billy, as
the Germans were forming for another attack.

"Yes," agreed Frank, "but he'll try again.  He'll stand a whole lot of
beating."

For several hours the fight continued with a bitterness that had not
been paralleled before in the whole course of the war.  Again and again
the enemy attacked, only to be beaten back before the stonewall defense.

But the Americans were not satisfied with merely defending their
position.  About two hours after noon they organized a counterattack.
With splendid vim and ardor, and in a dashing charge, they smashed the
division confronting them, driving them back in confusion and bringing
hundreds of prisoners back with them to the trenches.

"I guess that will hold them for a while," crowed Billy, as they rested
for a few minutes after their return.

"We certainly slashed them good and plenty," exulted Frank, as he
washed up a scratched shoulder that had been struck by a splinter of
shrapnel.

"If the rest of the line is holding as well as our fellows, the drive
will be ended almost as soon as it began," remarked Bart.

"And Heinie was going to walk all over us, was he?" grinned Billy.
"He's got another guess coming."

But their amazement was great a few minutes later when the order came
for the regiment to fall back.

"Fall back!" howled Billy when he heard the order.  "What is this, a
joke?"

"Why should we fall back, when we've just licked the tar out of the
Heinies?" growled Bart.

"Orders are orders," said Frank briefly.  "I suppose our commanders
know what they're doing.  But it certainly is tough luck."

Their officers no doubt felt an equal chagrin, but the need was
imperative.  The Germans had struck along a front of fifty miles.  At
many points they had encountered a resistance as fierce and determined
as that put up by the old Thirty-seventh and its companion regiments of
the same division.

But at others they had been more successful.  They had introduced a new
kind of tactics that had never been used before on the western front,
although it had been employed successfully in Russia.  These were the
so-called Von Hutier tactics whereby, when a division was used up,
instead of falling back it simply opened up and let a fresh division
pass through and take up the burden.

The old plan had been to clear up everything as one went along.  The
idea of the new tactics was to press swiftly ahead even if they left
behind them machine-gun nests and strong enemy positions.  These could
be cleaned up later one by one, while in front the swift advance was
intended to demoralize the opposing army and throw it out of formation
by the very speed of the progress.

The plan, like every other, had its weak points.  It involved a very
heavy loss of men because of the masses in which they moved forward,
and it also exposed its flank by penetrating too rapidly into the host
lines before the artillery could be brought up for support.  But if
successful, it was almost sure to break the enemy's line and throw it
into confusion.

Later on the Allies were to learn how they might most easily frustrate
these tactics.  But at the start of the great drive the plan met with
considerable success because of its novelty.

It was this that had brought the command to retreat.  The British
forces on the right wing of the Allied armies had been forced to give
way.  The line had not been broken, but it had been badly bent.  The
British retreated doggedly, fighting with the splendid heroism that was
in accordance with their traditions, and at no time did the retreat
become a rout.  But in order to keep the line straight the American
forces too were ordered to fall back, even though they had been
successful on their section of the line.

"It's a shame!" growled Billy, as the retirement began.  "It makes me
sore to have those Heinies think they've got us going."

"We'll come back," said Frank cheerfully.  "It's a good general that
knows when to retreat as well as to advance.  We're only going to get
space enough to crouch for a spring."

The division withdrew in good order, keeping up a rear-guard action
that kept the enemy at a respectful distance.  When night fell the
Americans had reached the position assigned to them, and the backward
movement was halted.  The troops entrenched, and with the Allied line
straightened out once more, faced the foe that it had decisively
defeated earlier in the day.

"Nothing to do till tomorrow," exclaimed Frank as he threw himself on
the ground.

"Don't fool yourself that way," said Corporal Wilson, who had just come
up and heard the remark.  "Unless I lose my guess you've got something
to do tonight.  Didn't you tell me the other day that you understood
how to handle a motorcycle?"

"Why, yes," said Frank.  "I've ridden one a good deal.  I won a race on
Camport Fair Grounds a couple of years ago."

"Then you're just the man the general wants to see," replied Wilson.
"He sent a message to the colonel asking for the services of a man who
was cool and plucky, and who could also ride a motorcycle.  I don't
know of any one else who can fill the bill better than you."

"I'll be glad to do whatever's wanted of me," replied Frank, and with a
word of farewell to his comrades he accompanied the corporal to
headquarters.

Here he was ushered into the presence of a group of officers who were
poring over a large map spread out upon a table.

"Is this the young man you were telling me about, Colonel?" asked the
general, a tall, powerfully built man, looking sharply at Frank from
beneath a pair of bushy eyebrows.

"Yes, General," replied the colonel.  "Captain Baker vouches for his
coolness and courage and his quick thinking in an emergency.  And I'm
told he understands all about motorcycles."

"Just the man," commented the general.  "I want you," he continued,
addressing Frank, "to carry a message for me to the British commander
on our right.  Our division has lost touch with him and the field
telephone is not working.  Probably it has been cut by the enemy.  The
message is most important and I want you to make all the speed you can.
Go and get ready now and report to your captain, who will hand you the
papers.  He will have a machine ready for you.  That is all."

Frank hurried back and made his preparations, which were brief.  While
he worked he told his eager companions of the errand with which he had
been entrusted.

"Wish I were going with you," remarked Bart.

"Same here," said Billy.

"That would be dandy," agreed Frank.

He shook hands with them and hurried away to the captain's quarters,
where he found that officer waiting for him with the papers.

"There's no answer," he said, as he handed them over.  "When you've
delivered the papers your work is done.  Good luck."

Frank thrust the papers in his pocket after receiving full directions
as to his route.  The motorcycle was standing at the door.  It was a
powerful machine of the latest make and everything about it suggested
strength and speed.  He noticed that there was a saddle in the rear and
a thought came to him.

"I see that this machine will carry double," he said.  "Would you mind
if I took a companion with me?  The machine will carry two as swiftly
as it will one.  Then, too, if one of us were hurt or shot the other
one could still go on with the message."

"An excellent idea," said the captain after pondering a moment.  "Get
him, but make haste."

Frank rushed back to his chums.

"Which one of you wants to go with me?" he asked breathlessly.

"I do," they yelled in chorus.

"Sorry," laughed Frank, "but there's only room for one.  Toss a coin."

The luck favored Bart, much to Billy's disappointment.  In a jiffy
Frank and Bart had bidden Billy good-by, jumped to their places, and
with a leap the powerful machine darted off.

The night was clear, and as soon as they were away from the camp Frank
had no trouble in finding the road that he had been ordered to take.
It was a good one in ordinary times, but now it had been torn by shells
from the German guns in many places and care had to be taken to avoid a
spill.  The shaded light threw its rays a considerable distance ahead,
but they were going at a speed that did not leave them much time to
avoid obstacles even after they were detected.

The road swung around in a wide semi-circle and led through a number of
French villages.  These the Army Boys found in great confusion.  The
approach of the Huns was a terrible threat to the towns that might fall
into German hands.  What the enemy had done in the occupied parts of
France and Belgium had given warning of what any other places they
might capture would have to expect.

Wagons were being hastily piled with household belongings, men were
shouting, children were crying, and the whole scene was desolate and
pitiful beyond description.

The roads were so congested at these places that rapid progress was
impossible.  They had to thread their way among the crowd of vehicles,
and in some cases were compelled to resort to the fields.  But they
made up for this on other stretches, and were congratulating themselves
that on the whole they were making pretty good time when suddenly they
were startled by a number of rifle shots and bullets whizzed by
uncomfortably close.

"It's the Huns!" cried Frank.

"I didn't know they'd got as close as this!" exclaimed Bart.  "More
gas, Frank!  Quick!"

There were hoarse commands to halt, and another volley followed the
first.  At the same time a number of dark figures threw themselves in
the road, shouting and waving their hands.

Frank leaned forward, threw on all speed, and the machine responded
with a leap that almost unseated the riders.  The crowd in front
scattered as the machine rushed at them, but one of them was not quick
enough and was hurled twenty feet away.

More shots followed the daring riders, but they were now beyond range.
For another mile they kept up the killing pace and then Frank slowed up
a little.

"Ran right into their arms that time," he ejaculated.

"We were mighty lucky to come through with a whole skin," replied Bart.

"More than the machine has done, I'm afraid," remarked Frank.  "I can
tell by the way she runs that there's something wrong with the tires."

He looked behind, and seeing no signs of pursuit, he stopped the
motorcycle and dismounted.

Something had indeed happened to the tires.  Both the front and rear
ones had been punctured by bullets.  The air had gone out of them.

"Hard luck," exclaimed Bart.

"Never mind," returned Frank.  "We'll ride her flat as long as we can
and if worse comes to worse we'll ride her on the rims.  We've got to
get that message to the general no matter what happens."

"We'll get it there if we have to travel on our hands and knees,"
affirmed Bart.

"It won't come to that, I hope," laughed his companion, as he bound the
flat tires fast with straps.  Then he settled himself again in his seat
and started the machine.

It went along more slowly now, and their troubles were increased by the
fact that their route had carried them into a main road that was filled
with motor lorries--huge trucks loaded with men and supplies that
rushed on with the speed almost of an express train.

The lorries had the right of way, and individual riders had to look out
for themselves.  Sometimes they came down two abreast, filling the
whole width of the road, and in such cases the boys had to dismount and
draw to the side of the road until they had passed.  If their machine
had been in condition, they might have kept ahead by sheer speed, but
in its present crippled state they would have been run down.  And to be
run down by one of those Juggernauts would have meant instant death.

On one such occasion they were hugging the fence, with their machine
standing between them and the road.  A lorry came thundering by, but
just as it was nearly opposite, it swerved and struck the machine.  It
was torn from Frank's hand and hurled in front of the lorry which ran
over and completely wrecked it.

The lorry tore on, leaving the two chums looking at each other in
consternation.

"That's worse by long odds than the German bullets," exclaimed Frank.
"I guess we'll have to do the hands and knees stunt you were talking
about a little while ago."

"We must be pretty near to the English general's headquarters now
anyway, aren't we?" asked Bart.

Frank consulted his route by the aid of a flashlight that he carried
with him.

"About two miles," he announced.  "Put on some speed now, Bart.  We'll
run most of the way and jog-trot the rest."

They let no grass grow under their feet, and fifteen minutes later they
had reached the general's headquarters and were ushered into his
presence.  He seemed to be greatly agitated and was talking with great
emphasis to a group of officers who surrounded him.

He took the papers that the boys had brought and read them over
hurriedly.

"Very good," he announced briefly.  "There is no answer.  Were your
orders to go back to your regiment to-night?"

"No, sir," replied Frank.

"In that case my orderly will find quarters for you," replied the
general, and he gave directions to an officer who took them in charge
and saw them safely bestowed for the night.

"That was some wild ride?" grinned Frank, as they were getting ready
for sleep.

"It sure was," laughed Bart, "especially that part where the German
bullets were zipping all around us.  Wait till we tell Billy about it.
He'll be green with envy."

"Well, we carried out our orders anyway," said Frank.  "I'm glad that
we'll be able to tell the captain so tomorrow morning."

But they did not report to their captain the next morning, nor for
several following mornings, for when they woke they found that a
condition had developed that was full of peril to the Allied cause.

The German plan had been to strike at the junction point of the Allied
armies.  If they could separate them there would be a chance to turn
upon one of them and crush it with overwhelming forces and then at
their leisure destroy the other.

In this they had come very near succeeding.  A threatening gap had
developed between two of the most important armies that were holding
that portion of the front.  The armies had lost touch with each other
and the gap had gradually widened until at one place the armies were
eight miles apart.

The only helpful thing about the situation was that the Germans
themselves did not know of the gap until it was too late to take
advantage of it.  The very speed with which they had pushed forward had
thrown their forces into confusion.  Brigades and regiments had become
badly mixed and it took some time to straighten matters out.

But if the Germans did not know how matters stood, the Allied
commanders knew it only too well.  It was this that explained the
agitation that the boys had noticed in the general the night before.
He had been called upon to close the gap.  Upon his shoulders rested
for the time the salvation of the Allied cause.

If he had had sufficient forces at his command, the problem would have
been comparatively simple, provided he had been given time to solve it.
But he had neither time nor men.  He had only fifty cavalrymen.  He
lacked guns and ammunition.  The hard-pressed armies at the right and
left were battling desperately against the on-rushing German hordes and
could spare him little.

"Looks as if he had to make bricks without straw," said Frank to Bart
the next morning, when the state of things had been explained by the
orderly who had taken them in charge.

"It's a case of must," said Bart, "and from the squint I had at the
general last night he's the one who can do the job if it can be done at
all."

"Will you stay and help?" asked the orderly.  "Every man will help.
The general's picked up three hundred American engineers working on a
road nearby.  Every one of them has thrown down his pick and shouldered
a rifle."

"Bully for the engineers!" cried Frank.

"Will you stay?" asked the orderly.  "Of course you can return to your
own command if you want to."

"Will we stay?" exclaimed Frank.  "Give me a gun.  I know my captain
would be willing."

"You can't drive us away," Bart almost shouted.

It was a scratch army that the general finally got together.  Some of
his men had never handled a gun before.  Some were drivers, some were
telegraph linemen, some were cooks.  But he made the most of what he
had.  He himself was here, there and everywhere, having trees felled to
obstruct the roads, planting machine guns in strategic places, digging
shallow trenches, resting neither by day or night.

Frank and Bart worked like beavers.  They were placed in charge of
machine-gun crews, and their deadly weapons kept spitting fire until
they were almost too hot to handle.  Again and again they beat back
German detachments.  They fought like fiends.  They never expected to
come out of that fight alive.  The odds seemed too tremendous.

"It's like Custer's last charge," panted Frank.  "There wasn't one of
his troopers left alive.  But I'll bet that not one of them was sorry
he was there."

"I'm glad that motorcycle carried double," replied Bart.  "I'd have
been cheated out of a lot of lovely fighting if it hadn't."

They fought desperately, savagely, their bodies tired to the breaking
point, but their courage never failing.  And at last they won out.  The
armies rejoined each other.  The gap was closed.  And Frank and Bart
rejoiced beyond measure that they had been able to do their part in the
closing.

"Some fellows have all the luck," remarked Billy, when they had
rejoined their regiment two days later, and were telling him all about
it.  "Now if that coin we flipped had only come down heads instead of
tails----"

"Stop your grouching," laughed Frank.  "You'll have all the fighting
that's good for you by the time we've driven the boches over the Rhine."




CHAPTER XVII

THE MINED BRIDGE

For several days the drive continued.  At first it had been quite as
successful for the Germans as they could have hoped.  Their initial
surprise had carried them a long way into French territory, and this
had involved the capture of a considerable number of men and guns.

But they had fallen far short of their ambitious aims.  They had not
rolled up the Allied armies.  They had not reached Paris.  They had not
captured the Channel ports.

The Allied armies had stretched like an elastic band, but had not
broken.  They knew now what the enemy's plans were and they were
rapidly taking measures to check them.

The Germans had had a great advantage in being under a single command.
There was no clash of plans and opinions.  If they wanted to transfer a
part of their forces from one point to another they could do so.

With the Allies it had been different.  There had been a French army, a
British army, an Italian army, a Belgian army, a Russian army and
latest of all an American army.  They had tried to work together in
harmony and in the main had done so.  But the British naturally wanted
above all to prevent the German armies from reaching the coast where
they could threaten England.  The French were especially anxious to
prevent Paris being captured.  Either side was reluctant to weaken its
own army by sending reinforcements to the other.

But the German success in the first days of the drive changed all this.
The Allies got together and appointed General Foch as the supreme
commander of all the Allied forces.  He had done brilliant work in
driving the Germans back from the Marne in the early days of the war,
when they had approached close to Paris.

"Have you heard the news?" asked Frank of his chums the day after the
appointment had been made.

"No," said Bart.

"What is it?" asked Billy.

"We've got just one man that's going to boss the job of driving back
the Huns," answered Frank.

Bart gave a whoop of delight and Billy threw his hat in the air.

"Best news I've heard yet," crowed Billy.

"That's as good as a battle lost for the Huns," exclaimed Bart.  "The
only wonder is that it wasn't done before.  Who's the man they've
chosen?"

"General Foch," was the answer.

"Better and better," pronounced Bart.  "That man's a born fighter.  He
licked the Germans at the Marne, and he can do it again."

"What I like about him," commented Billy, "is that he's a hard hitter.
He isn't satisfied to stand on the defensive.  He likes to hand the
other fellow a good one right at the start of the fight."

"That's what," agreed Frank.  "He hits out right from the shoulder.  Of
course he'll have to wait a little while yet until he sizes up his
forces and sees what he has to fight with.  But you can bet it won't be
long before he has the boches on the run."

In the days that followed, the advantage of the appointment became
clear.  The armies worked together as they never had before.  The khaki
of the British mingled with the cornflower blue of the French.
Reserves were sent where they were most needed, no matter what army
they were drawn from.  And, fighting side by side, each nation was
filled with a generous rivalry and sought bravely to outdo the other in
deeds of valor.

The old Thirty-seventh had been in the thick of the fighting and had
covered itself with glory.  It had taught the Germans that there were
Americans in France, and that they were fighters to be dreaded.

The course of the fighting had taken Frank and his comrades in the
vicinity of the farmhouse where they had rounded up the German
lieutenant and his squad.  But it was a very different place now from
what it had been when they had first seen it.  Shells had torn away
part of the roof, and the attic lay open to the sky.  But the farmer
and his family still stayed there although in daily peril of their
lives.  They lived and slept in the cellar, which was the only place
that afforded them a chance of safety.

One day when only an artillery duel was going on and the infantry was
getting a rest that it sorely needed, the Army Boys went over to the
house.  The girl saw them coming and recognized them at once.  She came
out to meet them with a smile on her face.

"_Les braves Americains!_" she exclaimed.  "You have not then been
killed by those dreadful Germans."

"Don't we look pretty lively for dead men?" asked Frank jokingly.

"And that lieutenant?" she inquired.  "Oh, I hope you have hanged him."

"No," said Frank, "but he's a prisoner."

"It is not enough," she said with a shudder of repulsion.

"Have you heard anything of the young soldier that the lieutenant was
going to hang?" asked Frank eagerly.

"No," she answered.  "But stay," she added, "I have something here that
you may want to see."

She darted back in the house and quickly returned with a very-much
crumpled card in her hand.

"It is a _carte postale_," she explained.  "We found it in the yard
some days after you had been here.  It had been trampled in the mud by
the horses' feet and the writing had been scraped or blotted out.
Perhaps it belonged to the young man.  It may have fallen from his
pocket.  I do not know."

Frank took it eagerly from her hand, while his comrades gathered around
him.

The card was almost illegible, but it could be seen that it was a
United States postal.  There was not a single word upon it that could
be made out in its entirety, but up in the corner where the postmark
had been they could see by straining their eyes the letters C and M.

"That's Camport, I'm willing to bet!" exclaimed Bart excitedly.

"And here's something else," put in Billy pointing to where the address
would naturally be looked for.  "See those letters d-f-o-r----"

"It's dollars to doughnuts that that stands for 'Bradford,'" Frank
shouted.  "A card from Camport to Tom Bradford.  Boys, we didn't guess
wrong that day.  That was Tom that that brute of a lieutenant was going
to hang!"

They were tingling with excitement and delight.  To be sure, they did
not know what had become of their friend.  But he had escaped from this
house.  He was perhaps within a few miles of them.  He was, at any
rate, not eating his heart out in a distant prison camp.

Then to Frank came the thought of Rabig.  Perhaps Tom hadn't escaped.
Perhaps Rabig had added murder to the crime of treason of which they
were sure he was guilty.

"Are you sure that you haven't found anything else that would help us
in finding our friend?" he asked of the girl, whose face was beaming at
the pleasure she had been able to give to her deliverers.

"No," she answered.  "There is nothing else.  I am sorry."

"Let's take a look around the house again, fellows," suggested Frank.
"We may have overlooked something the other day.  It's only a chance,
but let's take it."

They made a careful circuit of the house, but nothing rewarded the
search until Frank, with an exclamation, picked up some pieces of rope
that had been lying in the grass not far from the window from which the
prisoner had dropped.

"Are these yours?" he asked of the girl who had accompanied them and
had been as ardent in the search as themselves.

She examined them.

"I do not think so," she declared.  "I do not remember seeing any rope
like that around the house."

They scrutinized the pieces carefully.

"Look at these frayed edges," said Frank, laying them together.  "You
see that these two pieces were part of one rope."

"I'll tell you what that means," put in Billy.  "The girl says that Tom
was bound with ropes.  That cut or broken one was the one that was used
to tie his hands.  In some way he cut that.  He didn't have a knife or
the cut would be cleaner.  Perhaps he sawed the rope against a piece of
glass that he might have managed to get near."

"Good guess," commended Bart.  "And this long rope was the one that was
used to tie his feet.  Tom didn't need to cut that for his hands were
free then and he could untie it."

"Good old scout!" exclaimed Frank in tribute to his absent chum.
"Trust that stout heart of his to keep up the fight to the last minute.
Think of the old boy sawing away at the rope when he didn't know what
minute he'd be taken out and hanged."

"He's all wool and a yard wide," agreed Bart.

"The real goods," said Billy.  "But what were the ropes doing out here
in the grass?"

"Oh, I suppose he hated them so that he chucked them as far away as he
could," suggested Bart.

"No," said Frank, measuring the window with his eye.  "I'll tell you
how I think it was.  Tom knew, of course, that he couldn't get out of
the house by the downstairs way without being nabbed.  He didn't know,
of course, that the bunch of Huns weren't in condition to nab anybody.
So the window was the only way left to him.  He took the ropes to the
window with the idea of splicing them and climbing down by them.  But
that would have taken time, and when he saw that the window wasn't very
high up he made up his mind to drop.  The ropes were in his hand and he
simply threw them out of the window as the easiest way of getting rid
of them."

"That sounds reasonable," said Billy.  "But, oh boy! if poor Tom had
only known that all he had to do was to walk downstairs and bag the
whole blooming bunch!"

"I wish he had," said Frank mournfully.

"If he had, that lieutenant wouldn't have got off so easily as he did,"
declared Bart.  "Do you know what would have happened?  Of course the
first thing Tom would have done would have been to untie the farmer and
his son.  Can you picture, then, what would have happened to that
lieutenant and probably to his men, too?  The United States wouldn't
have been put to any expense for feeding them."

"That rope by the well would probably have been put to work," agreed
Frank.  "But poor Tom didn't know and there's no use of our
speculating."

Encouraged by the information they had gained, they looked still
further.  But nothing more was found, and they at last said good-by to
the girl and made their way back to their quarters with their hearts
lighter than they had been for days.  In a sense they had got in touch
with their missing comrade, had seemed near to him, and their hopes
were high that before long they would have him with them again.

"It's disposed of one thing that was worrying me anyway," remarked
Frank.  "We know that Rabig had nothing to do with making away with
Tom."

"Yes," said Bart, "that's one thing the fellow can't be charged with.
But I'm still mighty curious to know what he was hanging around that
farmhouse for."

"It sure was a mighty strange coincidence that he should be there at
the time the Germans were," declared Billy.  "But Rabig is the only one
who knows why and you can bet that he won't tell."

The comparative lull that had occurred in the fighting was only
temporary, and the next day the drive was resumed in all its fury.

This time the use of gas was greater than it had been at any previous
time in the battle.  And the Germans had made still greater strides in
this diabolical contrivance which they were the first to inflict upon
an outraged world.

At first the gas had been light and volatile.  It caused terrible
suffering to those caught by it, but it did not hover long over any
given place and a gust of wind was sufficient to drive it away.

But that was not vile enough to satisfy the infernal ingenuity of the
foes of humanity.  Now they were using gas that settled on the ground
so that nothing but a gale would drive it away, and that lasted for
hours and even for days.  And then there was mustard gas, that
penetrated everywhere through the clothing, through the skin, and that
burned and ate up the living tissues like so much vitriol.

But the Allies were on the alert and soon found a way to avert or
modify the worst consequences of the various kinds of gases.  And they
were forced to fight fire with fire simply in self-defence.  It was a
question of kill or be killed, and they were left no alternative.  They
asked nothing better than to fight as knightly and honorable nations
always have fought and always will fight when they are left free to
choose their weapons.

But whatever the methods used by the Germans, whether gas or guns or
men, they were finding increasing difficulty in keeping up the momentum
of their drive.  Sheer force of numbers had sufficed at first to carry
them forward, but now the Allies with American help coming over the sea
at the rate of two hundred thousand men a month--and the finest kind of
men at that--were gradually getting on even terms.

"I see the Germans had a good day yesterday," remarked Frank, as he and
his comrades were at mess.

"I didn't notice it," said Bart, looking at his friend in surprise.
"We drove them back and gained ground from them."

"Oh, I don't mean here," exclaimed Frank.  "I mean in Paris."

Billy almost choked in surprise and alarm.

"You don't mean to say they've got to Paris?" he sputtered.

"Not by a jugful," laughed Frank.  "But they're sending shells into it."

"Then they must be pretty close to it," said Bart in some apprehension.

"The gun they're shooting with is seventy miles away from the city,"
replied Frank.

"Quit your kidding," commanded Billy.

"Where do you get that stuff?" asked Bart incredulously.

"Cross my heart and hope to die," said Frank seriously.  "Honestly,
fellows, they've got a gun that shoots a shell seventy miles or more.
The shell weighs two hundred pounds.  It rises twenty miles in the air,
and it takes three minutes on the trip to Paris."

"Is that straight goods?" asked Billy suspiciously.

"It sure is," Frank assured him.  "I was reading about it in a Paris
paper I got hold of this morning."

"What was it you were saying about yesterday being a good day for the
Germans," asked Bart, when he had digested the facts.

"Oh, one of the shells hit a church where they were having a service
and killed seventy-five people, mostly women and children," answered
Frank.  "Don't you imagine the Germans call that a good day?  Can't you
see them grinning and rubbing their hands?  It's as good as bombing a
hospital or an orphan asylum.  The Kaiser felt so good about that he
sent a special message of congratulation to the manager of the Krupp
works, where the gun was made.  Oh, yes, it was a good day!"

"The swine!" exclaimed Bart furiously, while Billy's fist clinched.

"Let's get busy," cried Frank, springing to his feet.  "I can't wait to
get at those barbarians.  I hope there's lots of bayonet work today.  I
never felt in better trim for it."

They fought that day as they had never fought before, for they had
never felt so strongly that the world would never be a decent place to
live in until their barbarous enemies were humbled to the dust.

The next day the old Thirty-seventh was ordered to take up its position
at a bridgehead that it was of the utmost importance should be strongly
held.  The enemy attacks were converging there, and it was evident that
they were planning to cross the river in force.  The country behind the
American troops was flat and difficult to defend, and if the enemy
should make good his crossing the consequences to the Allied cause
might prove serious.

The enemy advance had reached the further side of the river, which at
that point was about two hundred yards in width.  A fierce artillery
duel was kept up between the hostile forces.  A wooden bridge with
stone arches afforded the only means of crossing, and this was swept by
such a fierce shell fire from the Allied guns that it did not seem as
though anything could live on it for a moment.

As an additional precaution the bridge had been secretly mined by the
Allied engineers.  Electric wires ran to the concealed charges.

A pressure of a button--and the bridge would be reduced to atoms.




CHAPTER XVIII

A DESPERATE VENTURE

"The Huns will get a surprise party if they try to cross that bridge,"
remarked Billy with a grin, as the boys were talking over the present
situation.

"I don't see why we don't blow it up right away," said Bart.  "Then the
Germans would have to rely on pontoons and what we would do to them
would be a crime."

"Our officers know what they're about," objected Frank.  "We might want
that bridge to go across on ourselves if things take the right turn.
So it's just as well to have it handy.  If there's any blowing up to
do, we can do it later just as well as now.  And it's just as well to
have it go skyward when it's crowded with Germans as when it's empty.
Get me?"

"I get you, all right," replied Bart.  "But suppose something should go
wrong when the time came to blow it up?"

"That would be something else again," laughed Frank.  "But I guess
there isn't much danger Of that.  Just one little pressure of a
button--and--zowie!"

Just then Frank caught sight of his friend, Colonel Pavet, coming
toward him and went forward to meet the French officer.

The colonel's greeting was a very cordial one.

"I'm glad to see that you've come safely so far through this fierce
fighting," he said.

"Fierce is the right word," answered Frank smilingly.

"I was at Verdun," went on the colonel, "and I thought at the time that
nothing could be more ferocious than the fighting there.  But this has
been much worse."

"We've got a pretty stiff proposition right now in holding this
bridge," observed Frank.

"Indeed you have," agreed the colonel, "and it is a compliment to the
American forces that the defense of such an important position has been
entrusted to them.  Oh, you Americans!  Where would we have been
without your aid?  And your fighting qualities!  You grow men on your
side of the ocean, Monsieur Sheldon."

"The superb fighting of the French has been an inspiration to us,"
replied Frank warmly.

"To come to personal matters," went on the colonel, "I have heard more
in detail from my brother Andre about your mother's property.  He has
traced the butler--Martel is his name--in the official records, and has
found that he was taken prisoner in an attack several months ago.  He
was very anxious to cross-examine him on some testimony he had given
previously.  It seems that Martel had testified that he had witnessed
the execution of a later will than that in which the property was left
to your mother.  You can easily see how unfortunate that might be if it
could be proved.  Andre has a suspicion that cross-examination might
show Martel's testimony to be false."

"It is too bad that the man is a prisoner," said Frank anxiously.

"There is more to be told," went on the colonel gravely.  "I myself
have put investigations on foot through the Swiss Red Cross.  They were
able to find out from German prison records that Martel died recently."

Frank started back visibly perturbed.

"Died!" he echoed.  "Then his statement about the will stands
uncontradicted."

"As far as he is concerned, yes," replied the colonel soberly.  "I am
bitterly disappointed, and I know that Andre will be, too, for he has
made a very strong point of disproving that special testimony.  But we
will not remit our efforts in the least, _mon ami_.  Be assured of
that.  I will let you know when I have any further news," and with a
friendly wave of the hand the colonel passed on.

"What's the matter, Frank?" asked Billy as he went slowly back to his
friends.  "You look as jolly as a crutch."

"I'm no hypocrite, then," answered Frank soberly, "for that's exactly
how I feel."

He told his chums of what the colonel had said, and they were sincere
in their expressions of sympathy.

"I don't care a button about it for myself," explained Frank, "but I
hate to have to tell my mother about it.  She has little enough to make
her happy nowadays, and I know how badly she will feel about this."

All that day the artillery kept up a ceaseless fire and the Germans did
not venture on the bridge.  But great activity was observed among them,
and Dick Lever, who was leader of the aviation detachment that was
operating in that sector, brought the news that evening that they were
preparing pontoons and other small boats with which they would probably
attempt a crossing at points that were not so well guarded.

"Your officers over here want to keep their eyes peeled," he remarked
to the Army Boys after he had just made his report at division
headquarters.  "Those Heinies have made up their minds to get across
this river by hook or crook.  They figure that with the open country
behind you they'll have a good chance to throw you back if they can
only get a footing on this side."

"Don't you worry about our officers," replied Frank with a conviction
that had been deepened by the skilful leadership the American troops
had had so far in the drive.  "It'll be as hard to find them napping as
it is to catch a weasel asleep."

"I know they're good stuff," agreed Dick, "but we're all human, you
know."

"All except the boches," grunted Billy.  "They're inhuman."

"We've had plenty of proofs of that," laughed Dick.  "They like to
think they're superhuman, but we're teaching them differently."

"Seen anything of Will Stone lately?" asked Frank.

"Ran across him about a week ago," replied Dick.  "He's fighting about
ten miles north of here, where the country's suitable for tank work.
He's doing some great fighting, too."

"I don't need to be told that," replied Frank.  "That fellow would
rather fight than eat."

"Well, so long, fellows," said Dick, as he rose to his feet.  "Keep a
sharp eye on those boches across the river."

"Trust us," replied Frank.  "They'll never get over here."

The aviator's warning had been heeded by the officers, and detachments
were stationed at places along the river above and below the main
bridge.

Suddenly one morning, a whole fleet of boats, large and small, shot out
at the same instant from the enemy side of the river.  They were loaded
with men and machine guns, and the evident plan was to get a footing on
the American side which could be held until reinforcements could be
hurried over and make the footing secure.

At the same time a tremendous gunfire strove to protect the crossing
and clear the banks at the points where the boats were planning to land.

Before the American guns could get the range on the rapidly moving
targets, the boats were halfway across the river, and the rowers were
pulling like mad.  One boat after another was struck and the occupants
thrown into the river.  But the Germans had allowed for the loss of
some of the boats, and were perfectly resigned to lose them, provided a
certain percentage of all could effect a crossing.

"Let them get here," muttered Frank, who, with Bart and Billy, was
among the force which had been assigned to that point where the passage
was being attempted.  "They'll never get back again."

The surviving boats drew closer to the shore.  The men on the boats
were using their machine guns, and the banks were swept by a rain of
bullets.  More of the boats went down under the return fire, but a full
dozen of them finally struck the shore.  The crews jumped out in the
shallow water and commenced to wade ashore.

But they were doomed men.  With a yell the American boys swept down
upon them.  Frank and his comrades rushed into the water, and there was
a battle that must have resembled those of the old Vikings.  Back and
forth the combatants struggled, shooting, hacking, swinging their gun
butts.  Some of them, locked in a death grip, went down together in the
water that was taking on a reddish tinge.  Others floated away on the
stream.  Others of the enemy, seeing that the fight was going against
them, leaped back into the boats and strove desperately to push out
into the river.  But Frank leaped at the bow of one boat and held it,
while Bart and Billy with their comrades did the same to others.

In a few minutes the fight was over.  It had been a hot one while it
lasted.  Several of the Americans had been killed and quite a number
wounded, but their loss had been largely exceeded by that of the enemy.
Not a boat got back, and all who had not been killed remained as
prisoners in American hands.

While the action was in progress, another fleet of equal size had
started out.  This had been designed to reinforce the first party if it
had succeeded in gaining a footing.  But the utter collapse of the
first effort had taught the enemy that the bank was too strongly held
and they stopped in midstream and rowed back.

"Even a Heinie can see through a milestone when there's a hole in it,"
commented Billy, as he watched the enemy retreating.

"It's a pity they don't keep on," said Bart.  "I'm just getting my
blood up."

"First bit of marine fighting we've done yet," laughed Frank.  "We can
say now that we belong to both branches of the service."

"All we need now is a fight in the air to make the thing complete,"
said Bart, "and we came pretty near to that, too, when we were with
Dick that time in his bombing machine."

With their boat plan thwarted, the German commanders now centered all
their attention on the bridge.  One or two surprise attacks at night
were detected and driven back, but the enemy did not give up.

At dusk on the day following the fight in the stream they made the
great attack.  True to their tactics, they apparently took no account
of the lives of their men.  The taking of the bridge was bound to
result in tremendous slaughter.  Every foot of it was swept by the
American guns.  But the enemy leaders had determined that the bridge
must be taken, no matter how high a price they paid for the taking.  It
was easier for the leaders to reach this conclusion since it was the
men who would pay the price rather than themselves.

A tremendous artillery fire paved the way for the operation.  Then,
just as twilight was gathering, a strong body of enemy troops, marching
in heavy columns, attempted to storm the bridge.

Beyond the first ranks could be seen other columns standing in reserve.
The great climax was approaching.  The German command at that point had
determined to stake everything on one throw.

On they came to the death awaiting them.  The American artillery and
machine guns swept the bridge with a withering fire.  The front ranks
melted away like mist.

But their places were filled with others and still others, despite the
frightful slaughter.  The American machine guns got too hot to handle
from their unceasing fire.

And still the German horde kept crowding forward as though their
reserves were inexhaustible.  It was known that they had been heavily
reinforced of late and that they largely outnumbered the American
troops opposed to them.  Over the dead bodies of their comrades which
strewed the bridge they were creeping nearer, urged by the irresistible
pressure from behind.  Considering the disparity of forces, it was
sound tactics to destroy the bridge before the foremost ranks could get
a footing on the side where their overwhelming numbers would begin to
tell.

The American commander gave the order to blow up the bridge.  But when
the button was pressed that should have sent the electric current into
the powder mine there was no response.

Several times the pressure was repeated and still no explosion
followed.  A hasty consultation ensued between the leaders who were
standing close by the place where the Army Boys were fighting.

"The electric wires must have been cut by the enemy's fire," Frank
heard one of them say.

Cut!  Then all the elaborate plans for blowing up the bridge had come
to naught.  And that apparently inexhaustible gray force was getting
nearer and nearer!




CHAPTER XIX

THE JAWS OF DEATH

"There's just one possible chance," said Frank's colonel.

"What is that?" asked the general in command.

"An explosive bullet sent into the mine might explode it," replied the
colonel.  "But it would have to be fired from a boat.  We can't do it
from here."

"It would be certain death to whoever tried it," replied the general,
looking at the shell-swept stream.

"Not certain, perhaps, but probable," said the colonel.  "It's the only
chance, though, to explode the mine.  It can only be reached from
underneath."

"We'll try it," said the general with decision.  "But I won't assign
any one to it.  It's a matter for volunteers."

When the call came for volunteers, Frank sprang forward and saluted.
Bart and Billy followed close behind him.

The officer's eye swept the three and rested on Frank.

"You volunteer?" he asked.  "You know the danger?"

"Yes, sir," they responded.

A gleam of pride and admiration came in the general's eyes.

"Very well," he said.  "I'm proud to be your commander."

Orders were hurriedly given, explosive bullets were furnished; and a
few minutes later a small boat carrying the three Army Boys shot out
from the shore.

The dusk had thickened now, and Bart and Billy, who were rowing, hugged
the bridge as closely as they could, so as to profit by its shadow.

None of this bombardment had been directed at them as yet, because
their little boat had not been seen.  But when they were forced to move
a little way from the shadow of the bridge, so that Frank could get the
proper angle from which to fire, they were detected, and a perfect
tempest of fire opened up not only from the batteries on the further
shore, but from the soldiers who were on the bridge.

Frank knew exactly where the powder charges had been located.  His
rifle was loaded and he had sufficient confidence in his marksmanship
to believe that only one shot would be needed.

All he dreaded was that a bullet might strike him before he had done
his work.  After that it did not so much matter.  He knew that he had
taken his life in his hand and he had already counted it as lost.

Bart and Billy were rowing like fiends.  At last they reached the point
that Frank had indicated.  He peered through the dusk and could see the
outlines of the mine.

The bridge now was black with Germans.  They had covered two-thirds of
the distance over it, and they were packed so closely, crowding on each
other's heels, that the rails of the bridge bulged outward with the
pressure.

Frank raised his rifle to his shoulder, took steady aim and fired.

There was a hideous roar, and then the shattered timbers of the bridge
went hurtling toward the sky.  Hundreds of bodies were mingled with the
debris, and the water surged up in great waves as the mass fell back
into the river.

Where the bridge had been there was a yawning gap of two hundred feet.
At either end there was a remnant of the bridge still standing, and on
these the survivors were rushing frenziedly toward the land before the
remaining timbers should give way.

Those Germans who were left on the American side, severed from the help
of their comrades, were surrounded and disarmed as soon as they reached
the shore.  The attempt at capture had ended in a terrible disaster to
the German forces.

The instant Frank fired.  Billy and Bart plunged their oars in the
water and started rowing with all their might away from the bridge.

But despite their efforts they could not get out of the danger zone in
time.  A heavy piece of timber struck the side of the boat, crushing it
in and throwing the occupants into the water.

Frank and Billy came to the surface a moment later and shook the water
from their eyes.  They looked about for Bart, but he was not to be seen.

Instantly Frank dived, searching frantically for his chum.  His arm
came in contact with someone's hair.  He grasped it and drew the body
to the surface.

It was Bart, but he was unconscious.  The timber that had smashed the
boat had caught him a glancing blow on the head and stunned him.

Frank held his comrade's face above the water and shouted to Billy, who
also had been searching and had just come up.  He swam to Frank's side
and helped him in bearing up Bart.

They found a floating plank, over which they placed Bart's arms and
then with Frank holding on to Bart's body and Billy guiding the plank
they struck out for the nearer shore.

They had been nearer the American than the German side when the
explosion took place.  But the current was bearing strongly toward the
German side and they had been carried some distance by it while they
were taking care of Bart.  The consequence was that, while they thought
that the nearer bank was that held by their own troops, it was the
German side towards which they were moving with their unconscious
burden.

They were within a few feet of the shore at some distance below where
the bridge had stood, when Frank's quick ear heard the sound of voices
speaking in German.  At first he thought it was probably some of the
prisoners whom the American troops had captured.  But a moment later he
recognized a dilapidated fishing pier 

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/21671