ce turned into a counter-attack and again rushing on to
capture some little wooded knoll or hold some group of trees after the
Hun machine gunners had been killed.

That was the worst of the fighting--against the machine guns. They
were almost as thick as leaves in this Argonne Forest and the woods
offered excellent protection to the enemy.

But it was fight, if not exactly in the open, more nearly so than
battles of the trenches, which the Americans hated. It was like being
on their own ground, for, though the forest was in France, the trees
and bushes were like those in any dense American woods.

"It's like being with the professor on some bug-hunting trip!" yelled
Bob, as he and his chums rushed on, firing as they went.

"Except it isn't so healthy," added Jerry. "Look out!" he shouted, and
he pulled Bob down into the underbrush beside him only just in time,
for there came a burst of bullets from a machine gun, concealed in a
clump of trees, and but for Jerry's timely act when he saw it, Bob
might have been killed.

Then, with a yell, a company of Americans, with Ned, Bob, and Jerry
aiding them, rushed on the Hun nest and wiped it out, turning the
machine gun on the gray troops about them.

So the fighting went on, bitterly and terribly, as it had been going
on for over a month, for this was now the beginning of October.

There came a lull in the conflict in the immediate neighborhood of the
Motor Boys. They sank down exhausted on the ground under the trees,
waiting for further commands, for an officer had ordered a halt.

As the captain of the company to which Ned, Bob, and Jerry had been
assigned was approaching to gather his men together, a runner came
along a scarcely defined path.

He saluted the captain, and talked to him for a moment. Jerry, who was
nearest his commander, saw a queer look on the latter's face. Then, as
the runner, with his message disappeared into the depths of the
forest, the captain turned to his lieutenant, and our heroes heard him
say:

"We're cut off!"

"Cut off?"

"Yes, our battalion and another is surrounded here in the Argonne
Forest. There are Germans all around us. We're cut off. A runner has
just gone to see if he can get through and summon help."

"Surrounded!" was the thought that came to all who heard. "Surrounded
by the Germans! Cut off!"

And then, almost as soon as that thought formed came another.

"We'll hold out until help comes or fight our way through!"