"Well, so long, fellows," said Will, when at last he climbed into the tank and set its unwieldy bulk in motion. "Here's hoping that we meet again soon." "In Berlin, if not sooner!" Frank shouted after him. A few days later one of the French colonels visited the camp. After his formal reception by the American officers he made a tour of inspection, going among the men, looking over the barracks and asking innumerable questions. There was an absence of pomp and ceremony about him that was characteristic of the French officers who, perhaps more than those of any other nation, live on terms of simple comradeship with their men, and the boys, to use Billy's phrase, "cottoned to him" at once. Unfortunately he knew little English and as the boys knew still less French, conversation was halting and difficult. The officer's delight then, can be imagined when, on addressing a question to Frank, the latter responded in French as pure as his own. "Why, my boy," said Colonel Pavet, "you speak as though you were a son of France." "A stepson, perhaps," replied Frank, smilingly. "For my mother is a daughter of France!" CHAPTER XXII A PROMISE OF HELP There was a gratified exclamation from Colonel Pavet, and a new light came into his eyes. The magic name of France had abolished for the moment all distinctions of rank. The officer reached out his hand and took Frank's in a hearty grasp. "Then you are fighting for two countries," he ejaculated. "Yes," laughed Frank. "I'm luckier than most of the fellows." "In what part of the country was your mother born?" asked the colonel with interest. "In Auvergne," Frank replied. "In Auvergne," repeated the officer, with vivacity. "Why I come from that part of the country myself. What was your mother's family name?" "De Latour," said Frank. "There is another coincidence," cried the colonel. "I know the family well. Their estate was only a few miles south of ours. Her father was an old comrade in arms and served in the same regiment with me when we were stationed in Algiers. "Many's the time we've ridden and messed and fought together against the Bedouins. He's dead now," he continued, a slight shade crossing his face. "How proud he would have been were he alive to know that his grandson was fighting for France. "Let me see," he went on. "I've been a long time away from Auvergne but it seems to me that when I was last there, I heard some talk of trouble in settling his estate--some lawsuit or other, that tied the property up. Do you know anything about it?" "Yes," replied Frank. "My mother has been worrying over it for some time past. She was just about to sail for France to see about it when the war broke out." He rapidly sketched the details of the legal trouble with which his mother had made him familiar. The officer listened attentively and with marked sympathy.