[ Leon whirled swiftly in time to see a big-helmeted German
with the butt end of his rifle upraised preparing to strike ]
[ The air was filled with smoke and dust from the crumbling plaster ]
[ "Let 'em have it!" cried Leon and the three automatic guns
spoke almost as if they were one piece ]
FIGHTING IN FRANCE
CHAPTER I
A DUEL IN THE AIR
"Well, Leon, it looks as if there was going to be a fight around here pretty soon."
"Right you are, Earl. That suits me all right though and from the way the rest of the men are acting it seems to suit them too."
Earl and Leon Platt, two American boys in the army of the French Republic, were seated outside their quarters behind the fighting line. The scene was in Champagne, one of the provinces of France that already had witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the Big War.