All along the battle line the great field and siege guns of the Americans, French, Belgian and British played havoc in the enemy ranks. The German artillery replied, but it lacked the volume and the fierce challenge of old. Then, too, the Germans had lost thousands and thousands of their guns, field pieces and machine guns. Factories behind the German frontier had been depleted of workers to fill the gaps in the fighting front, with the result that guns and ammunitions were not being produced so fast as they had been the year before. This meant that the Germans were compelled to conserve their ammunition. The high command had also found it necessary to be more sparing of its man-power and less prodigal with its food supplies. No longer could the enemy sacrifice a few thousand men and thousands and thousands of rounds of ammunition to gain a few feet of ground. On the other hand, due to the activity of American factories, the allies were supplied with more ammunition, guns and food than ever before since the war began. Also, numerically, were superior to the foe. With these facts in mind, Field Marshal Foch ordered the advance all along the front that was to prove the end of Germany as a military power; that was to result in the abdication of the German emperor and the crown prince; and that was to mean revolution throughout the German empire until such time as a stable government could raise its head and the common people could come into their own. And so it was a great day for the German people when Marshal Foch gave the word that set his millions of men in motion from the North Sea hundreds of miles south to the frontier of Switzerland. It was a move that meant that the German people would do away with masters and would set up a government of their own—a government which was to be patterned after that of the United States of America—a "government of the people, for the people and by the people." In this last great mission, Hal and Chester were to perform their full duties, and they were to have greater fortune than ever before, for they were to be "in at the death," as Hal put it, with Marshal Foch when the great French military leader gave to the enemy terms that resulted in the ending of the war. In the meantime, all unconscious of what was in store for them, the two lads, after returning from their mission within the German lines, were taking a well deserved rest in their temporary quarters in the French city of Rheims. *CHAPTER VIII* *TOWARD SEDAN*