th their valuable reels of film in
a bomb-proof structure.

"Is he badly hurt?" asked Blake anxiously of the surgeon.

"I hope not. In fact, I think not," was the reassuring answer of the
American army surgeon. "He has been shocked, and there is a bad bruise
on one side, where he seems to have been struck by a stone thrown by the
exploding shell. But a few days' rest will bring him around all right.
Pretty close call, was it?"

"Oh, it might have been worse," answered Drew, whose wound had also been
attended to. "It was just a chance shot."

"Well, I don't know that it makes an awful lot of difference whether
it's a chance shot or one that is aimed at you, as long as it hits,"
said the surgeon. "However, you are luckily out of it. How does it seem,
to be under fire?" he asked Blake.

"Well, I can't say I fancy it as a steady diet, and yet it wasn't quite
as bad as I expected. And we got the pictures all right."

"That's good!" the surgeon said. "Well, your friend will be all right.
He's coming around nicely now," for Joe was coming out of the stupor
caused by the blow on the head from a clod of earth.

At first he was a bit confused--"groggy," Private Drew called it--but he
soon came around, and though he could not walk because of the injury to
his side, he was soon made comparatively comfortable and taken to a
hospital just behind the lines.

As this was near the house where Charlie and Blake were quartered, they
could easily visit their chum each day, which they did for the week that
he was kept in bed.

As Charles had surmised, the films in the cameras were not damaged, and
were removed to be sent back for development. The broken tripod was
repaired sufficiently to be usable again, and then the boys began to
prepare for their next experience.

The engagement in which Joe had been hurt was a comparatively small one,
but it netted a slight advance for the French and American troops, and
enabled a little straightening of their trench line to be made, a number
of German dug-outs having been demolished and their machine guns
captured. This, for a time at least, removed a serious annoyance to
those who had to occupy the front line trenches.

Though Joe improved rapidly in the hospital, for some time his side was
very sore. He had to turn his camera over to Charlie, and it was
fortunate the lanky helper had been brought along, for the work would
have proved too much for Blake alone.

Following that memorable,