s it you want most?"

"Well, Blazes, if you excuse me--but you did say you would the reward
moany crack among us. No, it was not crack; he was a word--"

"Split!" suggested Bob.

"Yas. Him it was. You say you split him--that moany, Jimmy, and if I
could to my mothar send what you say you give me--maybe she of need
have for him now."

Jimmy looked queerly at his chums. Truth to tell he had scarcely
any cash at present, and to give Iggy his share of the five thousand
francs--about two hundred dollars--was out of the question.

Bob took the financial bull by the horns.

"Look here, Iggy," he said. "Jimmy has played hard luck. He had that
money but--"

"Doan't tell me he is loss!" cried Iggy. "Oh, doan't tell me he is
loss! I so much think of that two hundred dollars--mine fader or mine
mothar never so much have at once see in all their lives. Two hundred
dollar--Oh if he is loss--"

"It's only lost for a while--temporarily," said Jimmy. "I wasn't going
to tell you, but Bob spilled the beans, I left the cash with Sergeant
Maxwell to keep for me, and the sergeant is missing with the dough.
But as soon as I get my money from home you'll get your share--the two
hundred bucks, Iggy, and so will the others."

"Nonsense! Forget it!" cried Roger. "Do you think--"

But he had a chance for no more, for at that moment came the signal
that the Huns had launched a gas attack. Instantly the five Brothers,
and all up and down the line the other Americans, donned their gas
masks. This was but the preliminary to what turned out to be some
of the fiercest fighting of that particular series of battles. The
Germans followed up the gas attack with a fierce deluge of shells and
shrapnel, and half an hour later our heroes were under heavy fire.

"It's an attack in force!" cried a lieutenant as he hurried along the
trench where the Khaki Boys were stationed. "And the word is, stand
where you are! Don't give back an inch!"

His words were drowned in the roar of big guns.

CHAPTER VIII

THE OLD MILL

Silently the five Brothers, again united and ready to fight to the
death, gazed at one another as they lined up in the trench. That is
they were silent as regards conversation, for they could not talk
with their gas masks on, and the warning given by the lieutenant--the
warning and the admonition to stand fast--had been the last words he
uttered before he, too, donned the protecting device. And no sooner
had the five Brother