r, if we're alive, we can look for the girls," suggested
Bob.

"Pretty slim chance of finding 'em," murmured Ned.

"It wouldn't do much good, anyway, if we can't find the professor. The
money was not left to us to divide," was Jerry's comment.

Jerry had spoken truly when he said that all leave had been stopped,
for now were beginning the final great assaults of the American and
Allied armies that were, if not actually to overwhelm the Huns, at
least to approach so nearly that state that there was a distinction
without a difference.

And it was well that Ned, Bob, and Jerry returned to their station
when they did, for not ten minutes later the general order to move
forward was given up and down the long line.

"Forward!" was the battle cry--the watchword that was to guide them
all. "Forward!"

Forward they went, against Germany's best troops. Forward against a
relentless and almost impregnable foe. Forward in the name of
Humanity, Freedom, and Right. Forward all!

And as Ned, Bob, and Jerry marched with their comrades up to the
firing lines there began that great movement of American troops which
took part in the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient--the wiping out
of the great wedge the Germans had driven into France. And with the
wiping out of this there began the final battle--the cleaning of the
Argonne Forest which brought an end to the war.

For some time General Pershing and his general staff had looked
forward to the reduction of the St. Mihiel salient. With that out of
the way it meant the concentration of the American divisions in their
own zone.

Late in August the line, beginning at Port sur Seille, east of the
Moselle, and extending to the west through St. Mihiel, thence north to
a point opposite Verdun, was placed under the supervision of the
American commander. Later the American sector was extended across the
Meuse to the western edge of the Argonne Forest, and included the
Second Colonial French, which held the point of the salient and the
Seventeenth French Corps, which occupied the heights above Verdun.

As Ned, Bob, and Jerry marched on with their comrades they saw, or
became aware of, the immensity of the preparations needed to make this
movement a success. For they had to move against a German position
second to none in strength. To quote General Pershing:

"The preparation for a complicated operation against the formidable
defenses in front of us included the assembling of divisions a