"I sent for you to see if you could identify these two prisoners caught wearing German uniforms between our lines and the enemy's just now," said the captain. "They claim to know you."
He indicated two ragged, dirty youths in the characteristic uniform of the Kaiser's soldiers. They stood with their backs to Roger, Jimmy, and Iggy.
"Claim to know us!" exclaimed Jimmy. "I don't see how that can be."
"You don't!" cried one of the "Germans," as he wheeled about.
"Going back on us, are you?" yelled the other.
For an instant Roger, Jimmy, and Iggy stood with dropped jaws and widely opened eyes. And then, simultaneously, there burst from the trio the shout:
A moment later the five reunited Brothers were clasped in each others' arms--yes, they fairly hugged one another, straining breast to breast, and they were not ashamed of the tears in their eyes.
"Do you recognize the prisoners?" asked the captain, with a laugh.
"Do we! Say, Captain, how soon before we're going to fight?" cried Jimmy.
"Oh, I guess I can let you have a few hours off to celebrate," came the answer. "Is that what you wanted me to say?"
"That's it, sir!" answered Jimmy with a snappy salute, in which the other Khaki Boys joined.
"And now for a talk!" cried Bob, as they marched back to a dugout behind the front lines.
As the readers are well acquainted with all that happened to Roger and Jimmy, details of the story they told to Bob and Franz need not be gone into. Similarly, they are acquainted with what happened to Franz and Bob up to the point when they, with their comrades in the liberation plot, escaped from the German prison camp, wearing Hun uniforms.
"And we have had one whale of a time since then!" said Bob, in telling the story of their journey back to the American lines.
He and Franz had suffered unimaginable hardships. They separated from the others, as it seemed safest not to travel in a large party. What happened to their fellow prisoners Bob and Franz did not hear until long afterward. Some reached safety, but many were recaptured or were killed.
Bob and Franz traveled mostly at night, and the knowledge Schnitzel had of German saved them more than once. Eventually, when almost ready to give up, they reached a place where the 509th and brigaded regiments opposed a strong German division.