hoot, boys! I'm Schnitz!"

Bob said, afterward, that the reaction was so great that he actually
had a fit of nervous shivering, and Jimmy admitted the same. They
fully expected a rush of the Huns, but they had made up their minds
that first they would "get" the advance guard in the shape of the
man who had sneezed. And then to hear the unmistakable voice of their
comrade in arms!

It was almost unbelievable, and, for a moment, both listening lads had
a doubt. This might be some trick of the Germans, and "Schnitz" was a
sufficiently common Teutonic name, shortened as it was. But a moment
later the voice from the darkness went on in the same cautious
whisper:

"Don't fire, Bob--Jimmy! If you do, you'll spoil a little
surprise-party."

"Say, what does this mean!" asked Jimmy, a bit sternly, for he was
suffering from a reaction.

"You're supposed to be in the dugout, or somewhere back there," said
Bob, when Franz had crawled to them and had arisen to stand beside
them. "What brought you out? Were you sent?"

"I sent myself," was the laconic answer. "I couldn't stand it being
cooped up back there. My ankle felt a lot better, and I took French
leave, as it were. I sneaked out and I crawled over toward the Hun
trenches. And say, I've got some information that the K.O. will give
his eye teeth to have. They're raising a little party to come over and
try to get back some of the land we took from 'em this morning. The
Huns are going to raid our position in half an hour."

"Are you sure?" demanded Bob, and yet he knew that Franz would not say
it if it were not so.

"Well, I'm as sure as one can be of anything in this war," was the
answer in a whisper, all the talk being of that calibre. "I crawled
over until I could hear the sentries talking. Then I located a dugout.
The door was open and more talk floated out. I heard enough to tell
me that the raid is going to be made just before daylight and on this
position."

"You mean where we are?" asked Bob.

"As nearly as I can tell," answered Franz, whose knowledge of the
German language had again done him and his friends such good service.

"Whew!" softly whistled Jimmy. "We'd better get word to the K.O. in
a jiffy. You'll get blue streaks, though, Schnitz, for disobeying
orders."

"Oh, I guess not," was the easy answer. "It'll all be forgotten in
the excitement. I just had to go out. I heard where you fellows were
stationed on listening post and I started out with the i