"Him it is!" cried Iggy. "I was such a lonesomeness, but now I am of a gladness. Only if we could find Bob and Franz!"
"It would be great!" sighed Jimmy. "Well, we'll keep on hoping."
They spent the rest of that day exchanging experiences—Roger, Jimmy and Iggy. Toward the close of the afternoon the three Brothers were ordered to the front lines. It was rumored that a big attack impended, though whether it would be made by the Americans or the Germans was not certain.
And shortly after Roger, Jimmy, and Iggy had taken their places in the traverse, with No Man's Land in front of them, the whole section of the line near them was thrown into a panic by the discharge of a rifle. It was but a single shot, and so quickly was a whistle command shrilled forth that there was to be no more firing, that there was no general fusillade, such as often follows a case of this kind. Even the Germans did not fire in a panic, as sometimes happened. Perhaps the reason for that was because of the distance of the two lines of trenches at this point, the wire entanglements being half a mile apart.
"Wonder what that means?" asked Roger, as he and his two chums got down off the firing step, it being evident that there was to be no engagement for the present.
"A couple of Germans caught out in No Man's Land," was the answer of a messenger who came through the trench just then. "Guess they'll wish they'd stayed at home."
"Germans!" exclaimed Jimmy. "They truly had nerve to come out in the open."
He and his chums were discussing the strange incident when a messenger hurried up.
"Sergeants Blaise and Barlow and Corporal Pulinski ordered to report to the captain," was the crisp message.
In surprise Roger, Jimmy, and Iggy looked at one another.