n!"

"We don't tell all we know," answered Wilson with a grin.

The prisoners were ferried across in groups of half a dozen at a time,
but not before Billy had had the satisfaction of gathering up the
insulting placards that had aroused his ire and tearing them up before
the Germans' faces.

"Feel better now?" laughed Frank.

"Lots," replied Billy. "I couldn't exactly make them swallow them, but
they must have felt almost as bad to see so much German Kultur going to
waste."

The party was greeted with exuberant delight on their return, and
received the special thanks of the captain.

"It was a big risk," he smiled, "but risks have a way of going through
when they are carried out by the boys I'm lucky enough to command."

"You forget, Captain," smiled the lieutenant who stood nearby, "that
there are no American soldiers in France."

"That's so," laughed the captain. "The U-boats stopped us from coming
over, didn't they?"

CHAPTER XII

THE DRUGGED DETACHMENT

A scouting party was being made up a few days later, and the Army Boys
were glad that they were included in it. In the region where they were
stationed the woods were thick, and there was a sort of "twilight zone"
that afforded excellent opportunities for individual fighting. The
lines were rather loosely kept, and it was no uncommon occurrence to
have raiding parties slip across, have a brush with their opponents,
and retire with what forage or prisoners they might be lucky enough to
take.

There had been a good deal of "sniping" that, while it only caused
occasional losses, was a source of harassment and irritation, and
Frank's squad had orders to "get" as many of these sharpshooters as
possible.

A little way from the camp there was a deep gorge. Along its top were
many huge trees whose branches reached far out over the precipice.
They drew so close together that their branches in many cases were
interwoven.

The squad was moving along without any attempt to keep formation in
such rough country, when there was the crack of a rifle and a bullet
zipped close by Frank's ear.

He started back.

"Did it get you, Frank?" called out Bart in alarm.

"No," replied Frank, "but it came closer than I care to think about."

At the corporal's command they took shelter behind trees, from which
they scanned the locality in the direction from which the shot had come.

There was no trace of any concealed marksman, search the coverts as
they wou