DRIVEN BACK
Two weeks later and Frank had left the hospital and was back again with
the Army Boys. The injury to his head was found to be not serious, and
the leg although badly wrenched and strained had no bone broken. It
yielded rapidly to treatment, and Frank's splendid strength and
vitality aided greatly in his cure.
There was immense jubilation among the Army Boys when their idolized
comrade resumed his place in the ranks.
"You can't keep a squirrel on the ground," exulted Tom, as he gave his
friend a tremendous thump on the back.
"Or Frank Sheldon away from the firing line," grinned Bart, looking at
his friend admiringly.
"You didn't think I was going to stay in that dinky hospital when there
was so much doing, did you?" laughed Frank. "Say, fellows, if my leg
had been broken instead of just sprained, I'd have died of a broken
heart. I've got to get busy now and get even with the boches for that
crack on the head they gave me. It's a good thing it's solid ivory, or
it would have been split for fair."
"You don't need to worry about paying the Germans back," chuckled
Billy. "You paid them in advance. You don't owe them a thing. Say,
what George Washington did to the cherry tree with his little hatchet
wasn't a circumstance to what you did to the Huns with that axe of
yours. The axe is your weapon, Frank. A rifle doesn't run one, two,
three, compared with it."
"I'll admit that the axe work was good as a curtain raiser," remarked
Tom. "But the real show was when those machine guns and their crews
were blown to pieces. That made the work of the regiment easy."
"It was classy work," agreed Will Stone, who came along just then and
heard what they were talking about.
"How are the tanks?" asked Frank of the newcomer. "I suppose old Jumbo
is just spoiling for a fight."
"I guess he is," replied Stone, with a touch of affection in his voice
for the monster tank that he commanded, "and from all I hear he's going
to get lots of it."
"I guess we all are," said Bart.
"All little pals together," hummed Billy.
"And it's going to be a different kind of fighting," went on Stone.
"The tide is turning at last. The Hun has been doing the driving. Now
he's going to be driven."
"Glory hallelujah!" cried Billy.
"Do you think that General Foch is going to take the offensive?" asked
Bart eagerly.
"It looks that way," replied Stone. "Of course, I'm not in the secrets
of the High Command, and only General Foch himself knows when and where
he's going to strike. But by the way they're massing tanks here I
think it will be soon. They're gathering them by the hundreds in the
woods, so that the movement can't be seen by enemy aviators. When the
blow comes it will be a heavy one. And do you notice the way the
American divisions are being brought together here? That means that
they'll take a big part in the offensive. Foch has been watching what
our boys have been doing, and he's going to put us in the front ranks."
"Better and better," chortled Billy. "That boy's got good judgment.
He's a born fighter himself and he knows fighters when he sees them."
"Well, you boys keep right on your toes," said Stone, as he prepared to
leave them, "and I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut that within three days
you'll see the Heinies on the run."
Two days passed and nothing special happened. Then at dawn on the
third day, Foch struck like a thunderbolt!
He had gathered his forces. He had chosen the place. He had bided his
time.
The German forces were taken utterly by surprise. Their General Staff
was caught napping. They had underestimated their enemy's daring and
resources. Their flank was exposed, and it crumpled up under the
terrific and unexpected blow.
Thousands of prisoners and hundreds of guns were taken on the first
day, and the success was continued for many days thereafter. The
Allies were elated and the Germans correspondingly depressed. Their
boasted drive had been held back, and now they themselves were the
pursued, with the Allies, flushed with victory, close upon their heels.
The Army Boys were in their element, and they fought with a dash and
spirit that they had never surpassed. Other volumes of this series
will tell of the thrilling exploits, with the tanks and otherwise, by
which they upheld the honor and glory of the Stars and Stripes.
"Well," said Frank one evening, after a day crowded with splendid
fighting, "we've put a dent in the Kaiser's helmet."
"Yes," grinned Bart, as he wiped his glowing face. "Considering that
we're green troops that were going to run like sheep before the
Prussian Guards, we haven't done so badly."
"I guess the folks at home aren't kicking," remarked Tom. "They told
us to come over here and clean up, and so far we've been obeying
orders."
"We've held back the German drive," put in Billy, "but that's just the
beginning. Now we've got to tackle another job. We've got to drive
the Hun out of France----"
"And out of Belgium," added Tom.
"And back to the Rhine," chimed in Bart.
"Get it right, you boobs," laughed Frank. "Straight back to Berlin!"