dst of all this ghastly business of tragic warfare.

There Tom found Jack and Harry when he turned up rather late that night.
He, too, had had a heavy and exciting though successful day's work in
the air, as had Jack. Nevertheless, on his return he had asked and
received permission to absent himself from quarters for a time.

Of course there was need of consultation with the accommodating hospital
nurse concerning the disposition of little Jeanne, the ward of the trio,
Jack, Tom, and Nellie, and Tom did not wish to neglect his duty--nor his
opportunity.

Late though it was, there still lingered a goodly crowd in the old
dugout once occupied by a number of German officers, but now taken
possession of by the girls and men who wore the uniforms of Y. M. C. A.
workers, when Tom reached it.

An old piano had somehow been brought along, and this was in almost
constant use, for numbers of the boys could play; and as for singing
there was an almost continuous chorus bawling out favorite songs, such
as "Over There," "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag," "When You
Come Back," and the like.

When some daring man ventured to play "Home, Sweet Home," however, not a
sound was heard; and apparently many of the loudest talkers found
something wonderfully important in the magazines they chanced to have
before them, to judge from the way they bent persistently over while
reading. But then no soldier wants his comrades to see that his eyes are
swimming in tears, as pictures of those at home dawn upon his vision.

Tom quickly found his two comrades, to be instantly met with a rush of
remarks that, however, fell from him as water would from a duck's back.

"You seem pretty happy, I must say!" observed Harry, grinning, for he
understood what an attraction that pretty sister of his was to Tom.

"Oh, everything looks lovely, and the goose hangs high, whenever Tom has
spent an hour in Nellie's company," Jack remarked, going on with the
teasing.

"Seems to me, Jack," said the object of this joking, "that you're in
something of the same box yourself. What important news did Bessie have
in that letter you got this evening, and which you thought I didn't see
you smuggle into your pocket on the sly?"

"Oh, I don't mind telling you," Jack announced smiling. "Meant to later
on anyway. Why, do you know, Bessie has become a Red Triangle worker
now, as she and her mother had been transferred to that service. She
said there was some talk