And they did not. Just as they seemed on the point of success, having
reached a French village at a place opposite the Allied line, they
were halted as they were about to cross in a secluded spot, and during
a lull in the fighting.

In his innocence the professor made no effort to conceal his purpose,
and he and the young ladies were turned back, while a German officer,
smiling in contempt, said:

"You will do for hostages if the Americans come too close!"

"Oh, are they that near?" cried Dorothy.

"Too near--the pigs!" muttered the officer.

"Oh, I'm so glad!" cried Gladys. "Maybe they'll save us after all!"

But, in spite of her brave words, she looked worried as she and her
cousin were led back. As for Professor Snodgrass, he bowed his head.
He had failed. Oh, if only the boys had come!

CHAPTER XXX

RECAPTURED

Once more the desperate fighting was resumed. Ned, Bob, and Jerry,
after a brief rest, were again thrown into the conflict after their
rescue from the dense Forest of Argonne. That wood had not yet all
been won, but it was in the way of being. The Germans were fighting
their last desperate battles, and full well they knew it. Only a
miracle could save them now, and there was no miracle for them.

Not that they did not fight, for they did. The resistance to the
American and Allied advance was stiff and formidable, but it was
overcome, and immense losses inflicted on the Huns as they made
counter-attack after counter-attack.

It was one day, after some of the most severe fighting of the war that
they had ever seen, that the battalion, in which Ned, Bob, and Jerry
then were, crossed a little stream, driving the desperately defending
Germans beyond it, and entered a small French village. When the echo
of the shots had died away, and it was seen that the Huns were in
full retreat, the three chums and their comrades, at the head of a
victorious force, marched down the main street of the quaint and
ancient little town.

Forth from their hiding places came the French population, weary and
scarred from four years of enemy occupation. Here and there the
tricolor, so long hidden, waved in the wind. The hated and dastardly
Germans had departed, never, please God, to come again!

Forward, into the recaptured town, marched Ned, Bob, Jerry, and their
comrades in arms. With tears in their eyes the French people watched
the Americans come. It was the day so long prayed for.

Near one of the half-ru