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."

Fra