This made Amos smile broadly. After all he had undergone, victory seemed only the sweeter to the boy. He introduced Jack to his brother, who, it seemed, remembered the cousin. Then, later on, the three sought a secure nook where the story could be told.
Frank listened with amazement when he heard the many adventures that had befallen the two brave American boys during their long continued search for him. Many times did he stop the narrator to ask questions. He even viewed the wonderful paper signed by K. of K. with due reverence; for like most of the soldiers fighting for King George and the cause of the Allies, he had come to believe Kitchener the mainstay of the whole war, and the one whose tactics would eventually win out.
At last there was really nothing else to say, and Amos waited to hear Frank’s final decision. The other thrust out his hand to his younger brother.
“After the wonderful way you’ve followed me over the most of Europe, Amos, my dear brother, it would be a crime for me to refuse your request. Yes, I’ll start back home with you as soon as we can get away. Perhaps they may show me some few favors in return for what I’ve done, and the road will be made easier. But remember, I must come back again when I’ve seen my father. There is yet work for me here, and my heart is in it!”
Upon hearing these words, Amos, boy fashion, jumped up and threw his hat into the air. From that moment, the future looked rosy. Little did our heroes guess, when last on Gallipoli, that the daring enterprise would be frustrated—long before this reaches the eye of the reader—by the steady current which swiftly flowed from the Sea of Marmora toward the Mediterranean. It was this current that enabled the shrewd German engineers to float innumerable mines which wrecked or destroyed many a battleship attempting to force the narrow passage.
Jack, Amos and Frank left for England, having been accorded a passage on a returning collier, thanks to the influence of some of Frank’s admirers. As has been said, no one then dreamed of failure; indeed, the American aviator was entreated to hasten back to his field of duty unless he wanted to arrive too late and find everything carried in a glorious rush.
In this happy condition we will say good-bye to the American boys whose fortunes we have followed through the battlefields of war-stricken Europe. It may be our good fortune to meet them again in the pages of some future volume; but for the present we must be patient and wait.
THE END.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] See “Two American Boys with the Allied Armies,” and “Two American Boys in the French War Trenches.”