“They didn’t look as though they enjoyed it much,” returned Frank. “In fact, they looked very much like men who were going to be stood up before a firing squad. One of them reached out his hand to Colonel Pavet, but the colonel was looking over his head just at that moment and somehow failed to see it. He was very polite though. You know the Frenchmen are great sticklers when it comes to matters of etiquette and form.”
“How long have the Heinies got to decide whether they’ll sign the armistice or not?” asked Tom.
“The colonel told me that they’d have three days,” answered Frank. “Let’s see, yesterday was the seventh of November. Today’s the eighth. They’ll get there some time this morning. That will give them till the eleventh to sign, next Monday morning.”
“Suppose they don’t sign it?” suggested Tom gloomily.
“So much the worse for them then,” answered Frank. “Instead of losing their boots and shirts they’ll lose their hides as well. But they’ll sign all right, never fear. The colonel says that they’re running around in Berlin like wild men. Ludendorff has resigned and the Kaiser has left Berlin to go to the army headquarters at Spa for protection. The Crown Prince is afraid to be seen in the streets. You see the Heinies have been fed up on lies so long that now they’re learning they’re licked they’re going crazy. And naturally they’re turning on the men who have been lying to them. Oh, it’s quite a different Berlin now from the one that hung out the flags and rang the bells when they heard that the Lusitania had been sunk and a lot of women and babies drowned.”
“Well now we’ve got some news,” said Tom with a sober face, “and it isn’t very good news either.”
“What is it?” asked Frank in quick alarm as his thoughts turned instantly to his absent chum. “Don’t tell me that anything has happened to Bart.”
“He isn’t dead,” Billy hastened to explain. “But he’s disappeared from the hospital.”
“Disappeared?” replied Frank in dismay. “What do you mean by that?”
“Why,” said Billy, “it seems that he has been out of his head. You know he was delirious the last time we saw him. Well, one of the fellows who was in the hospital with him came back to duty last night and told us that about three days ago when the nurse’s back was turned, Bart slipped out of a door or a window, and when the nurse came back he wasn’t there. Nobody saw him go and nobody has the least idea what has become of him.”