Army Boys on the Firing Line | Page 5

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