Frank was unspeakably shocked by the news. Bart had become to him little less than a brother and the various experiences they had been through together since they had been in the army had strengthened and deepened this feeling.
“But what could have happened to him?” he asked desperately. “What will become of him? It’s horrible to think of his wandering around in this forsaken stretch of country. He may wander into the German lines and be shot or taken prisoner.”
“I don’t think that,” said Billy soothingly. “The chances are all against it. He’d have to pass through our lines to do it and it’s dollars to doughnuts that he couldn’t do it without being seen. At any minute we may hear that he’s been found and taken back to the hospital. At any rate, we know that the wound he got didn’t kill him and while there’s life there’s hope.”
“Yes,” said Tom, who for once felt that it was up to him to look on the bright side of things in view of his friend’s evident distress, “Bart’s worth a dozen dead men yet. Think how many things he’s been through and yet turned up as right as a trivet. Keep up your spirits and hope for the best.”
They spoke with a confidence that they were far from feeling, for they knew what they refrained from telling Frank that a most careful search had already been made without disclosing the slightest trace of Bart’s whereabouts.
Frank was badly shaken by the news he had heard and it was fortunate for him that the work that yet lay before the army was such as to engross his mind and keep him from brooding.
For the Allied commanders were taking no chances. They knew too much of German duplicity to rely on their good faith in any matter. The nation that regarded solemn treaties as “scraps of paper” was not to be trusted in the slightest particular. Only when the mad dog of Europe should be finally tied and muzzled could the Allies afford to relax their efforts in any degree.
So the word had gone forth that for the next three days the fighting should be pushed as sternly and unrelentingly as ever.
The Germans on their side had an especial reason to make as good a showing as possible while the terms were being debated. If they could show that they were further from collapse than the Allies had supposed, the latter might be willing to moderate their demands.
So for three days more the fighting continued with unabated bitterness. And the Allies were not to be denied. In every part of the wide-flung battle line they kept on winning. And in the Argonne and on the Meuse, where the Americans were winding up their task, those days marked a succession of victories. The war was ending in a blaze of glory for the forces of civilization.