For an instant Roger, Jimmy, and Iggy stood with dropped jaws and widely opened eyes. And then, simultaneously, there burst from the trio the shout:
"Bob! Franz!"
A moment later the five reunited Brothers were clasped in each others' arms—yes, they fairly hugged one another, straining breast to breast, and they were not ashamed of the tears in their eyes.
"Do you recognize the prisoners?" asked the captain, with a laugh.
"Do we! Say, Captain, how soon before we're going to fight?" cried Jimmy.
"Oh, I guess I can let you have a few hours off to celebrate," came the answer. "Is that what you wanted me to say?"
"That's it, sir!" answered Jimmy with a snappy salute, in which the other Khaki Boys joined.
"And now for a talk!" cried Bob, as they marched back to a dugout behind the front lines.
As the readers are well acquainted with all that happened to Roger and Jimmy, details of the story they told to Bob and Franz need not be gone into. Similarly, they are acquainted with what happened to Franz and Bob up to the point when they, with their comrades in the liberation plot, escaped from the German prison camp, wearing Hun uniforms.
"And we have had one whale of a time since then!" said Bob, in telling the story of their journey back to the American lines.