"WHEE-E-E-E-E-OU-O-O-O-O—BANG!"
Chester raised himself to a sitting position in his funk hole and looked over at Hal.
"Gosh all fishhooks! Looks like this was all a fake about the war being over at 11 o'clock this morning," he said. "Those shells don't sound like the end of the war to me. Do they to you?"
Hal admitted that they did not. The burst had almost covered both lads with earth and had been to close to allow either of them any peace of mind. "Down!" shouted Chester and again Hal rolled himself into a knot and wished that his funk hole was as many inches deeper. He had seen days when such a funk hole would have been sufficiently deep, but on that day of all days—half an hour before the end of the war—a forty-foot well wouldn't have been any too deep.
Hal's calculation was a bit off. The shell came whistling in, like the weird cry of a hungry beast, and exploded in the hollow below the funk holes in which Hal and Chester found themselves, throwing up a geyser of earth and rocks that did no harm to anyone.
"That guy's as wild as a hawk," came a cry from a nearby hole. "I could do better than that myself, and I ain't no artilleryman, either."
"You talk like you wanted him to shoot closer," Hal called back. "That was plenty close enough for me."
The next shell broke on the brow of the hill. Then came a whole shower of them, each one singing its own little tune that struck terror to the hearts of the bravest.
Chester squirmed down into his funk hole until he could see the dial of his wrist watch. It was 10.35. In twenty-five minutes more the war would be over.
A moment later American batteries behind them began sending over reprisal fire. The 75's passing over their heads whined savagely, but not so savagely as those boche shells coming in.
(It is a well-known fact that a shell going out has a different whine than a shell coming in, also a different effect on one's nerves.)
Twenty-five minutes is a long time when a man is hiding from death. To know that in twenty-five minutes, providing you are alive at the end of that time, death's shadow will have ceased to follow in your footsteps, is a great inducement to live.
Hal and Chester found it so.
They were back with their own command again after the trying days they had spent with Marshal Foch and the German envoys whom they had accompanied to and from their own lines and back again.
After leaving Stubbs in Soissons, following the little man's triumph in flashing first word of the signing of the armistice to his paper in America, they had reported to General Pershing in Rheims.
The American commander-in-chief had, of course, been informed some time before that the armistice had been signed. So, in fact, had all other officers in the allied armies. This had been necessary in order that there would be no doubt as to the hour upon which the armistice would become effective.
General Pershing expressed his pleasure at seeing the boys again, and his gladness that they had been so fortunate as to be present at the signing of the armistice.
"It is an honor that I would have been glad to have had myself," he declared.
After a brief interview with the commander-in-chief, the lads were dispatched by him with a message to General Rhodes, their old commander, with the Forty-second division, still quartered at the front, just to the south and east of Sedan.
Following the capture of Sedan, the American lines had been pushed forward in the face of determined resistance. Though the fighting was severe, the Germans did not have such a stiff front as they had formerly. It apparently was a well-known fact all through the German army that armistice proceedings were in progress, and consequently it appeared that the German officers were not willing to sacrifice their men needlessly.
So the American positions had been advanced despite enemy efforts to halt them.
After reporting to General Rhodes and delivering the communication they carried from the commander-in-chief, the lads repaired to the quarters of Colonel O'Neil.
"By George!" exclaimed the colonel, "I certainly am glad to see you fellows again. You have been gone so long that I feared you had come to grief. Where have you been?"
"Well, Colonel," said Hal briefly, "we saw the armistice signed."
"You don't mean it," was the colonel's ejaculation. "You were certainly confounded lucky. It's an event I would like to have seen myself. You must feel pretty important, eh?"
"Not so important that we cannot do a little more before the war ends," Chester said quietly.
"There is still work to be done," returned Colonel O'Neil quietly. "Hear the firing?"
The lads did not need to strain their ears to hear the distant rumble of big guns and the sharp crack of infantry firing, nearer at hand.
"Still at it, eh?" murmured Chester. "You would think that with the end of the war so close at hand, officers and men alike would be content to sit quiet."
"On the contrary, though," laughed Colonel O'Neil, "it would appear that each side is determined to wreak what death and destruction it can before a few written words shall stop this business of wholesale killing and ruin."
"So it would seem," Hal agreed. "But in the meantime, Colonel, is there nothing we can do? We would like to be in this war right up to the finish, you know, sir."
The colonel considered briefly.
"Well, yes, there is a little work you may do," he said. He turned to his desk and scribbled briefly. Turning again, he passed a paper to Chester.
"Major Lawrence," he said, "has not yet been informed at what hour the armistice becomes effective. This message will enlighten him. Will you deliver it for me?"
"Yes, sir," said Chester briefly.
"And me, Colonel, what am I to do?" demanded Hal.
"Oh, you, Major," laughed the colonel, "you accompany Major Crawford and see that my instructions are carried out."
"It shall be done, sir," said Hal.
The two lads left their colonel and hurried towards Major Lawrence's detachment, at the extreme front.
"Well," said Chester as they hurried along, "looks like our fighting days are over."
"It certainly does," Hal agreed, "but you never can tell, you know."
"True enough. It's as likely as not that one of us may fall yet before the war ends."
"I guess not," Hal said. "We've gone through four years of it now. I've begun to believe we bear charmed lives."
"It does seem so, but it only takes one bullet, in the proper place, to settle that argument."
"That's right enough," Hal admitted, "but I've a feeling that we shall both live to spend many pleasant days in the United States."
"Oh, I'm not thinking of getting killed," Chester declared. "I'm just remarking on what is possible."
"Anything is possible at this age of the world," said Hal sententiously.
The lads now had come within sight of Major Lawrence's detachment. Bullets were flying thick and fast among the American troops, who had sought the shelter of long lines of funk holes, until recently in possession of the enemy. Chester delivered his message at once.
"Well," said Major Lawrence, "I guess we'll be about here when the war ends. Believe me, I am not going to order an advance when I know the war's about over, and I don't think the enemy will."
"They seem bent on doing all the mischief they can while they have a chance, Major," said Hal.
"So it seems; but I've decided to squat here in these holes and let them fight to their heart's content. Of course, should they rush us, we'll give them more than they bargained for; but I'm not going to attack myself."
"I don't blame you, Major," declared Chester. "But now I've a favor to ask."
"Consider it granted, sir," replied Major Lawrence.
"We have been assigned to no particular duty," Chester continued, "and we should be glad if you would allow us to pass the remaining hours of the war with you, sir."
"I shall be glad to have you with me," was the reply.
This is the reason, then, that Hal and Chester found themselves again in the front lines, a scant hour before the armistice ending the greatest war of history went into effect.