a glance to show that the
speaker was Noddy Nixon.

"He's here--worse luck!" murmured Ned.

"No Y. M. C. A. for mine!" sneered Noddy.

"Boor!" muttered Bob, in protest.

"There is a Knights of Columbus station next to ours, and a Salvation
Army hut, as well as a Jewish Community station, here in camp," was
the gentle answer of the secretary. "If you prefer one of those you
will be very welcome, I know. We are all working together for you
boys."

"None for mine!" sneered Noddy. "I want some cigarettes!"

"I can let you have some at my _foyer_," said the secretary, with a
smile. "I don't smoke myself, but I like the smell of it mighty well.
Come along."

But Noddy laughed sneeringly, and would not go. However, Ned, Bob and
Jerry accompanied the Y. M. C. A. man, and very glad they were to buy,
at a modest price, some cups of chocolate, and also some cakes of it
to put in their pockets.

"These Y. M. C. A. and K. C. places are all to the merry!" voted Ned.
"They were great back at Camp Dixton, but they're twice as good
here!"

"And we'll look after you, as well as we can, when you get on the
firing line," said their new friend. "You'll have to depend on the
Salvation Army lassies for doughnuts, but we can give you smokes and
chocolate almost any time. Have some more!"

He made the boys and their comrades so welcome that they hated to
leave to go to roll call. But this must be done, and soon they were
assigned to barracks, much the same as in Camp Dixton.

CHAPTER IX

ON THE FIRING LINE

The training Ned, Bob and Jerry went through in the French camp,
though on a more intense scale and with greater attention to detail,
was much like that which they had obtained at Camp Dixton, and that
has been related at length in the volume preceding this.

There were the same drills to go through, only they were harder, and
in charge were men who had seen terrible fighting. Some of them were
American army officers, sent back from the front to instruct the new
recruits, and others were French and British officers, detailed to
teach the raw troops who, at first, were brigaded with the veterans.

It was rise early in the morning, drill hard all day, attend some
school of instruction in the evening, and then, after a brief visit
perhaps to the Y. M. C. A. hut or one of the other rest tents, go to
bed, to get up and do it all over again the next day.

But the boys never felt it monotonous, nor did they complain o