for objects big and little; that the
professor may find his girls and his inheritance and," and here Ned's
lips set a little grimly, "that we may help to bring back freedom to
the earth."

"There may be an attack all right, if Foch, Pershing and the other
generals think it's a good time for it," said Jerry. "But as for
having it postponed until our arrival, well, you boys have some ideas
of your ability."

"Oh, I didn't mean that!" cried Bob. "I meant that maybe we'd be in
the big battle."

"I hope we are," said Ned. "We want to do our share."

This opportunity soon came to the boys. As soon as they reached their
headquarters--a series of ruined buildings in which they had passed
the night--they were told to get ready to go up and take their places
in the trenches. But first they were given a little talk by one of the
officers, who explained the necessity of donning gas masks at the
first alarm. Other instructions were given, and then, when it was seen
that every man had everything he needed, from the first-aid kit to the
grotesque-looking gas mask, the trip to the first-line trenches was
begun.

So much has been written about the World War that it seems needless to
explain anything about the trenches. As all know, they were a series
of ditches, about six feet deep, dug along in front of similar ditches
constructed by the enemy. The distance between the two lines of
trenches varied from a few hundred feet to several thousand.

The ditches, or trenches, were not in straight rows. They zig-zagged
to make attacks on them more difficult. There were several rows of
trenches on both sides of No Man's Land. This was so that in the event
of an attack the men could fall back from one line of trenches to the
other, fighting meanwhile to drive off the enemy.

The trenches were narrow, about wide enough for one man, though two
might pass by squeezing. At intervals, however, were wider places
where food or wound-dressing emergency stations could be established.
At other places there were large excavations where dugouts were
constructed, and there relief parties rested and slept if they could
between periods of duty.

The bottoms of some of the trenches were covered with "duck boards,"
or short planks, with spaces between to let the water run out, and in
certain parts of France it seemed to some of the boys to rain about
three hundred out of the three hundred and sixty-five days of the
year.

The trenches were sometimes