“Well, he didn’t put it over, and a miss is as good as a mile,” remarked Tom.
“Did you see the look he shot at you as he went past?” said Billy. “If looks could kill you’d have died on the spot.”
“There go the guns,” interrupted Frank, as the enemy artillery opened up in chorus with a roar that shook the ground, and a storm of shells came shrieking toward them. “They’re getting ready to charge and the guns are laying down a barrage. We’ll have another hack at them soon.”
They crouched lower and clutched their rifles tightly. And while these fearless young Americans are waiting for the onset, it may be well, for the sake of those who have not read the preceding books in this series, to tell who Frank and his comrades were and what they had been doing up to the time our story opens.
Frank Sheldon was a stalwart young American who had been born and reared in Camport, a prosperous city of about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. He was a bright, likable fellow, a leader in athletic sports and a general favorite. Above all he was a hundred per cent. American. His father had died some years before our story opens, and Frank was the only son and support of his mother to whom he was devotedly attached. She was a French woman whom Mr. Sheldon had married while on a business visit to France. She was the heiress to a considerable estate left by her father, but on account of the war had not been able to go to France to claim the property, the settlement of which had been held up by some legal complications.
Frank had secured a good position with the firm of Moore and Thomas, and had excellent prospects for the future when the war broke out. His blood was on fire at once and he was eager to enlist, although for a time he was held back because of his mother’s dependence on him. An insult to the flag, however, which Frank promptly avenged by knocking down the guilty German, decided him, and he joined the old Thirty-seventh, the local regiment that had already seen service in other wars. With him enlisted his special chum, Bart Raymond, who was as ardent a patriot as Frank himself. Billy Waldon, another close friend, was already a member. Tom Bradford wanted to join, but was rejected on account of his teeth, though afterward he was accepted in the draft, and the four friends to their great delight found themselves together.
The only discordant element was Nick Rabig, born in America but of German parents, who had been with them in the same firm in Camport, and had made himself thoroughly disliked because of his bullying disposition and pro-German sentiments. He and Frank had been more than once on the point of blows, and finally, after Rabig had been caught in the draft and placed in the Thirty-seventh, Frank gave him the thrashing that he richly deserved.
How the Army Boys went through their period of training; how they sailed for Europe and narrowly escaped being torpedoed by a submarine, what exciting adventures they met with in their first contact with the enemy—these things are told in the first volume of this series, entitled: “Army Boys in France; Or, From Training Camp to Trenches.”
Once in the battle zone, thrilling experiences came thick and fast. The boys were not confined in their activities to the trenches, for the operations soon developed into open fighting. They were caught in a swirl of the fighting, pursued by Uhlan cavalry, compelled to leap from a broken bridge and finally captured by the Germans. From this captivity they were rescued by their aviator friend, Dick Lever, and carried back to their lines in his aeroplane. Frank had some encouraging news about his mother’s property from a Colonel Pavet whose life he had saved on the battlefield. How rapidly the boys developed into veteran soldiers is told in the second volume of the series, entitled: “Army Boys in the French Trenches; Or, Hand to Hand Fights with the Enemy.”
The great German drive was now preparing and the enemy in his first successes drove the Allies back and threatened to seize Paris and the Channel Ports. The old Thirty-seventh was thrown into the breach with the other American forces and did valiant work in holding the Germans back. Tom was captured and had a series of stirring adventures before he rejoined his comrades. Nick Rabig, who had been under suspicion, from the start, was unmasked as a traitor. The boys had many hairbreadth escapes in desperate fighting, as will be seen from the third volume of the series, entitled: “Army Boys on the Firing Line; Or, Holding Back the German Drive.”