th:

"Well, if that isn't just like him--the dirty sneak!"

CHAPTER XIV

A DESPERATE CHANCE

Disappointment rendered the three chums incapable of action for the
moment. They just stood and looked at the place where their little
store of wood had been hidden. Now it was gone, and with it the hope
of a hot supper from that particular source.

"What are we going to do?" asked Bob blankly.

"We ought to go down to the post where that sneak is and get the wood
back," declared Ned. "And tell his chums what sort of fellow they have
bunking with 'em!"

"No, don't do that," advised Jerry, who had cooled down after his
first passionate outburst. "That will make trouble. Noddy would only
laugh at us, and some of the others might. It isn't the first time
wood has been taken."

"I was just hungry for something hot," sighed Bob, as he thought of
the cold rations.

"So was I," added Ned. "Isn't there anything we can do?" he went on.

Jerry looked about. Here and there about the dugout their comrades
were eating as best they could, no one, it appeared, having anything
hot. It was at a critical period during the fighting, and the
commissary and transportation departments were suffering from a
temporary breakdown. Still the men had enough to eat, such as it was.

"Well, we might as well have grub now--even if it is cold," said
Jerry, after considering matters. "No telling when we'll have to stand
off a Hun raid or go into one ourselves, and then we won't have time
to eat."

"That's so!" agreed Bob, more cheerfully. "It would be fierce if we
didn't have anything to chew on at all. But when I catch that Noddy
Nixon--well, he'd better watch his step, that's all."

"He's a coward, and lazy!" declared Ned. "Else he'd rustle his own
wood. I had hard work to get that bunch. There was a German sniper who
had a pretty fine bead on the place where I saw the sticks, but I went
down the trench a way, and began firing at him from there."

"Did you hit him?" asked Bob eagerly.

"No, I didn't expect to. But I drew his attention to that particular
spot. He thought a sharpshooter was there, and he laid his plans to
get him. That took his attention off the pile of wood, and I sneaked
out and got it. Now Noddy Nixon has it!"

"I hope he burns his tongue on the hot soup or coffee or whatever he
heats with it," was the most charitable thing Jerry said. And the
others echoed this. Their nerves were on edge from the constant
fight