d to the firing line!" was the answer.

And then came cheers! Cheers that showed of what stuff America's
fighters were made.

The news proved true. That evening, under the cover of darkness, so
that no lurking Hun planes might detect the movement, a considerable
body of troops from the training camp was sent up toward the front, to
relieve some battle-scarred units.

At first, as the three chums and their comrades marched along, there
was joking and laughing. Then this died away. The seriousness of the
situation began to be comprehended. It was not that any one was
afraid. The boys were realizing the gravity of the occasion, that was
all.

"Hark! what's that?" asked Bob, as he marched along with Ned, Jerry,
as corporal, being file leader. "Is it thunder?"

They stepped lightly so as to listen more intently.

"The guns!" explained a lieutenant hurrying past. "Those are the guns
on the firing line you hear. There must be a night attack."

The guns of the front! Fighting was actually very near, for, though
the boys in camp had often heard a distant rumble when there was a big
bombardment on, this was the first time they had heard so plainly the
hostile guns. It gave them a thrill, even as they felt the ground
tremble beneath them.

And so, in the darkness, they moved up to their new camp--a camp on
the very edge of the fighting; and from where they came to a halt, to
wait for morning before being assigned to the trenches, they could see
the lurid fires that flared across No Man's Land.

Tired and weary, but with an eagerness nothing could subdue, the chums
and their comrades awoke the next morning as the bugle called them. At
first they could not realize where they were, and then with a rush it
came to them.

"On the firing line!" cried Jerry. "Just where we wanted to be! Now
for some action!"

Hardly had he spoken when there sounded a terrific explosion, and the
boys were fairly blown off their feet, toppling to the ground.

There was action for them!

CHAPTER X

IN THE TRENCHES

Stunned and bruised, the three chums and several of their comrades
around them were incapable of action for a little while. Then, as
Jerry raised himself from the ground, he heard Bob ask:

"What hit us, anyway? Are the Germans attacking?"

"Gee!" was Bob's muttered protest.

"Get up!" some one cried. "You're all right. It was a bomb from a Hun
plane, but it missed its mark."

"Seems to have hit me all right," ob