and not hearing from him had instructed Earl to find
his missing brother at all hazards. This Earl had endeavored to do and
after many kinds of adventures had finally been successful. The lure
of further adventure however had attracted him and he too had enlisted.
Now all three boys were in the same company of the same regiment.

"Yes, sir," exclaimed Jacques, who spoke English with only the
slightest suspicion of an accent, "there will certainly be some real
fighting soon. It will seem good after all these months of quiet."

"I shouldn't describe them as especially quiet," laughed Earl grimly.

"I mean," explained Jacques, "that we have been in the trenches all the
time. Now we will have a chance to get out of them; perhaps for good."

"If we can break the German lines," suggested Leon.

"We will give them an awful bump anyway," laughed Jacques.

"And we'll lose half our men," added Leon soberly.

"We do not think of that," exclaimed Jacques proudly. "We are assigned
to the front line, the post of honor. We will lead the charge and I
think we are very lucky."

"The other regiments are jealous of us anyway," said Earl. "When does
the attack start?"

"To-morrow morning at nine-fifteen sharp."

"And we'll move into the first line trenches tonight I suppose."

"Exactly."

"That's it," exclaimed Leon. "Pierre Garemont told me not thirty
minutes ago that he had just been talking with Captain Le Blanc and
that was the information he received."

"I suppose everything is arranged," said Earl.

"You may be sure of that," said Jacques heartily. "Our officers are
not the kind to send us into a battle without doing everything that is
possible."

"Think of the artillery support we'll have," cried Leon
enthusiastically. "I don't see how they can stop us."

"How much will we have?" demanded Earl.

"Our guns will drop four shells every minute in every yard of German
trenches. Think of that."

"You mean," exclaimed Earl, "that in every space three feet long a
shell will explode every fifteen seconds?"

"I certainly do."

"It seems incredible," muttered Earl. "Why, there'll be nothing left
of them."

"That is just what we want," cried Jacques. "When we smash their
trenches to pieces then we can drive them out of our country and France
will be free once more."

"I suppose our batteries will all have the exact range," said Earl.

"You need not worry about that," smiled Jacques. "The exact location