The Boy Allies with Haig in Flanders | Page 2

"I've the same feeling myself. It forebodes, trouble, this silence, to my way of thinking. The Huns are probably hatching up some devilment."
"Well, we may be able to get the drift of it, with that thing you have under your arm," was the other's reply.
"Sh-h!" was Chester's reply, and he added: "We're getting pretty close."
They continued their way without further words.
Hal, slightly in advance, suddenly uttered a stifled exclamation. Instantly Chester touched his arm.
"What's the matter?" he asked in a whisper.
"Matter is," Hal whispered back, "that we have come to a barbed-wire entanglement. I had forgotten about those things."
"Well, that's why you brought your 'nippers' along," said Chester. "Cut the wire."
Hal produced his "nippers." It was but the work of a moment to nip the wires, and again the lads advanced cautiously.
A moment later there loomed up before them the German trenches. Hal stood back a few feet while Chester advanced and placed the little hardwood box upon the top of the trench, and scraped over it several handfuls of earth. The lad now took the coil of wire in his hand, and stepped down and back. The lads retraced their steps toward their own lines, Chester the while unrolling the coil of wire.
The return was made without incident. Before their own trenches the boys were challenged by a sentinel.
"Halt!" came the command. "Who goes there?"
"Friends," returned Hal.
The sentinel recognized the lad's voice.
"Advance," he said with a breath of relief.
A moment later the boys were safe back among their own men.
"If the Germans had been as watchful as our own sentries, we would have had more trouble," said Hal.
"Oh, I don't know," was Chester's reply. "I saw a German sentinel, but he didn't see me in the darkness."
"It was his business to see, however," declared Hal.
"Well, that's true. But now let's listen and seen if we can overhear anything of importance."
Chester clapped the little receiver to his ear. Hal became silent.
Ten minutes later Chester removed the receiver from his ear.
"Nothing doing," he said. "I can hear some of the men talking, but they are evidently playing cards."
"Let me listen a while," said Hal.
Chester passed the receiver to his chum, and the latter listened intently. For some moments he heard nothing save the jabbering jargon of German troopers apparently interested in a card game. He was about to take the receiver from his ear, however, when another voice caught his attention
He held up a hand, which told Chester that something of importance was going on.
"All right, general," said a voice in the German trenches, which was carried plainly to Hal's ear by the Dictaphone.
"Stay!" came another voice. "You will also order Colonel Blucher to open with all his guns at the moment that General Schmidt's men advance to the attack."
"At midnight, sir," was the reply.
"That is all."
The voices became silent.
Quickly Hal reported to Chester what he had overheard.
"It's up to us to arouse Captain O'Neill," said Chester. He hurried off.
Hal glanced at his watch.
It was 10 o'clock.
"Two hours," the lad muttered. "Well, I guess we'll be ready for them."
A few moments later Captain O'Neill appeared. He was in command of the Americans in the first line trenches. These troops were in their present positions for "seasoning" purposes. They had been the first to be given this post of honor. They had held it for several days, and then had been relieved only to be returned to the front within ten days.
At command from Captain O'Neill, Hal made his way to the, south along the line of trenches, and approached the quarters of General Dupres. To an, orderly he announced that he bore a communication from Captain O'Neill.
"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed the French commander, when Hal had delivered his message. "So they will attack us in the night, eh? Well, we shall receive them right warmly."
He thought a moment. Then he said:
"You will tell Captain O'Neill to move from the trenches with his entire strength. He will advance ten yards and then move one hundred yards north. You may tell him that I will post a force of equal strength to the south. He will not fire until my French troops open on the enemy."
Hal returned and reported to Captain O'Neill.
It was plain that the American officer didn't understand the situation fully. However, he simply shrugged his shoulders.
"General Dupres is in command," he said. "I guess he knows what he's doing or he wouldn't be here."
Captain O'Neill gave the necessary commands. The American troops moved from the trenches in silence. There was a suppressed air of excitement, however, for each man was eager for the coming of he knew not what.
CHAPTER II
THE AMBUSH
At the point decided upon for the American troops to take their stand was a collection of shell holes. In order that the attack upon the Germans might have all the