Part 30 (1/2)

”Good water! Good water!” was all the reply that came from poor Maxwell.

”He's out of his head,” said Bob.

”We'd better send a doctor if we can find one, or get him to a hospital,” suggested Roger.

”You go see if you can find any stretcher bearers, or a doctor or anyone like that,” suggested Jimmy to Franz and Iggy. ”We'll stay with him. Or Bob and I will. You'd better go report to the captain where we are, Roger. He might think we've deserted.”

Bob and Jimmy, left with Maxwell, made him as comfortable as they could, was.h.i.+ng his face and giving him more water to drink. But he answered none of their questions, murmuring only about the cool water.

He was in a delirium of fever.

Of course Jimmy did not ask about the missing money. It would have been useless at this time. But, naturally, he wondered if the sergeant knew where it was.

Franz and Iggy came back with a doctor who, after a brief examination, said the sergeant was suffering from bad treatment and lack of food and water more than anything else. He did not seem to be wounded, but, of course, there might be some internal hurt which did not show at the first examination.

”Hospital's the place for him,” decided the doctor. ”Ill have him sent back with the first batch of wounded.”

And so poor Maxwell was rescued from the oblivion of ”missing,” and again put on his company's rolls. But the mystery about him was not solved, and over it Jimmy and his chums wondered much.

”Well, things have certainly turned out queerly!” remarked Jimmy, when he and his chums were back once more in their ”holes,” eating their emergency rations, and wondering when the real ”chow” would come up.

”To thing of finding Max like that!”

”That place was held by the Germans before we rushed them back,”

declared Bob. ”They might have kept him a prisoner.”

”That's very possible,” admitted Jimmy. ”I'd like to know the whole story, but we'll have to wait.”

”And a long time, I'm afraid,” added Roger.

”Why, do you think Max will die?” asked Franz.

”No, but this fight has only just started. We've got to go forward, and land knows when we'll ever get back where we can see Max again.”

”Oh, well, it isn't as hopeless as it was at first,” remarked Jimmy.

”I'm not worrying about the thousand dollars--only I'd like to know what he did with it.”

As Roger had said, the fighting was not over. Before an order came to turn the ”holes” into trenches, another advance was ordered, so that the Germans might be driven, if possible, from the vicinity of the hills dominating the valley in which was located the hut where Maxwell had been found.

”Forward!” came the battle cry again, and once more our heroes joined the advance.

This time, however, the fighting was not quite so fierce. The Germans had had a taste of the kind of medicine dealt out by the Americans, and the Huns had no liking for it.

True, they did not give up without a struggle, and many a poor lad went to his death, or came back from the front with a leg or arm missing, as a result of the renewal of hostilities. But it had to be.

It would not have been safe to allow the Germans to have a chance to get back the dominating hills won at such cost.

And there the storm of blood and steel was renewed with fiercer energy, until at last, just as night was settling down, the German flank was turned, and they began to retreat in what ultimately was a rout.

”A glorious victory! A glorious victory!” was shouted from all sides in the American ranks.

It was not the end of the war, by any means, but a dangerous salient had been wiped out, and the American line was straightened, so that now the fighting could go along on more even terms.