Frank, Bart, Billy and Tom were lucky enough to stumble on a meal that had already been started for some German officers, and they were surprised to find it so good and abundant. "The Germans may be starving, but there's no sign of it here," remarked Frank, as he threw himself down on the ground with a sigh of relief. "Trust the Huns to look after their soldiers, even if the civilians starve," replied Bart. "The people don't count in Germany. Only the military are taken seriously. They take the middle of the sidewalk and others are crowded to the wall." "Well, I'm not quarreling with them just now on that account," grinned Billy. "I'm just glad there's plenty of grub here this morning." "I'm not very partial to German cooking as a rule," chuckled Tom, "but this stew certainly smells good. How the Boche officers would grit their teeth if they saw us wading into this." But his rejoicing was premature, for just at this moment a cannon shot from the German lines tore its way through the kettle and the scalding broth was spattered all over the group that were lying about. Luckily it did no other damage, but the chagrin of the boys was comical to see. "I'd like to have hold of the gunner that fired that shot," sputtered Tom wrathfully, as he wiped from his face some of the stew that had fallen to his share. "You ought to have knocked wood when you talked of the German officers seeing us wading into their chow," growled Bart. "There's a perfectly good stew gone to the dogs." "Nothing personal in that, I hope," laughed Frank, "because most of it came to us." "I like mine inside," put in Billy, as he gingerly removed a piece of meat from his ear. "As an outside decoration I'm dead against stew." "Well, cheer up, fellows," remarked Frank. "The stew's past praying for, but there's a lot of other things. And anyway we ought to be mighty thankful that the shot didn't remove some of us from the landscape as well as the kettle." "What's the big noise about?" asked a cheery voice, and they looked up to see Will Stone regarding them with a quizzical grin. CHAPTER XIV IN CLOSE QUARTERS The four Camport boys greeted Stone joyfully and gladly made room for him. "It's another German atrocity," grinned Billy. "They were sore at us for swiping their grub and they sent our kettle to smithereens." "I'm glad they don't know about it anyway," said Tom. "I don't want any Boche to have the laugh on me." "I guess they're not doing much laughing this morning," remarked Will Stone, as he dropped down on the ground beside them. "Or if they are, it's on the wrong side of their mouths." "We've certainly waxed them good and plenty," said Bart enthusiastically. "Jumbo was all to the good this morning," exulted Frank. "It did my heart good to see the way he ploughed along. There was nothing to it after he got started." "He certainly scattered the Huns good and plenty," chortled Billy. "They ran like hares."