an trench. One on each side, Leon and Earl
accompanied him.

These two boys were typical twins in every respect. Strangers could
hardly ever tell them apart and even their intimate friends became
confused at times. They looked alike, their voices were alike, and
they even seemed to think alike. The only distinguishing mark was a
small mole under Earl's right eye.

"Don't let any German clip that mole off, Earl," warned Dubois. "If
that should happen I don't know how we could ever tell which was which."

"It's impossible to see anything to-night anyway," said Leon. "I have
never seen such blackness."

Crawling three abreast they proceeded across the shell-swept
battlefield. The cannonade made an infernal noise now and it seemed as
if bedlam had been let loose. Closer and closer they came to their
goal. Indistinctly outlined against the night they could see the pile
of earth thrown up in front of the German trench.

A few moments later they came to it. Dubois did not try to enter here
however but, still followed by Earl and Leon, he crawled around the end
of it. Then he continued until he came to the center of the trench so
that it was between them and the French lines.

Suddenly a wild yell split the darkness.

"_Die Franzosen_! _Die Franzosen_!" (The French! The French!)

It was impossible to distinguish one object from another. There might
have been a regiment of Germans in the trench for all that Dubois and
his two comrades could tell. For that matter the Germans might easily
have imagined they were beset by a regiment of French. The night was
inky black.

It was a great surprise to the three adventurers to hear this yell of
fear coming out of a trench they had supposed to be vacant, but they
were undaunted. Dubois immediately jumped down into the trench,
closely followed by Leon and Earl.

"_Haende hoch_!" (Hands up) shrieked Dubois, calling upon the small
amount of German with which he was familiar.

"_Haende hoch_!" he shouted again and Leon and Earl added their voices.

It was a tense moment. Probably they were far outnumbered by the
Germans and should this fact be discovered it would go hard with them.
It was a strange sensation for two American boys to experience. There
they were standing in a deep trench somewhere in France, in the middle
of the night, with they did not know how many Germans who would have
liked nothing better than to kill them then and there.

"_Haende hoch_