"No, I didn't," said Jimmy quietly. Then he whistled. "What's the matter?" asked Blake. "If Maxwell is missing then it's a double loss," was the answer. "A double loss? What do you mean?" "I mean my five thousand francs are gone, too. Whew! Well, it can't be helped, I suppose. I'll go tell the boys!" CHAPTER V WHAT'S TO BE DONE? "What's the matter. Blazes?" cried Bob, as he saw his friend coming back. "You look as if we'd lost the war!" "Well, I've lost part of something I won in it, anyhow," declared Jimmy. "Is Iggy dead?" Franz wanted to know. "Did you hear any word from him?" "No, but we must make some inquiries. This is about something else. Fellows, I guess I'll have to wait until I get a remittance from home before I give you your shares of the thousand dollars reward." "Wait for a remittance!" exclaimed Roger. "Not that I'm altogether sure I'm going to take what you call my 'share' of that; but why do you have to wait?" "Because the money's gone," said Jimmy, tragically. In France, three thousand miles away from home, with their army pay uncertain, ready cash meant much to our doughboys. "Gone! Did you lose it?" asked Bob, with a reportorial instinct. "No, but Maxwell is gone and the money's gone with him. He's missing," Jimmy hastened to explain. "Been missing since just before we went into action." "Where was the sergeant stationed?" asked Roger. "In that big concrete dugout we captured from the Germans in the scrap just before this," Jimmy explained. "He was in command of a hand grenade squad there, and just before the fight, or at least soon after the signal to advance was given, that was the last seen of Sergeant Maxwell and my money," added the owner of it ruefully. His companions received the news in silence. Then Franz spoke up and asked: "What's to be done? I don't so much mean about the money," he added quickly, as he saw the others look curiously at him. "That doesn't matter, though, of course, I'll be glad of my share, and it's mighty generous of you, Blazes, to offer to whack up. But I mean what's to be done about Sergeant Maxwell? Do you suppose he--" He did not finish, but his meaning was obvious. "If you mean, do I think he went away with it, I most certainly do _not_," declared Jimmy, positively. "A thousand dollars isn't enough to make a man skip out." "A thousand dollars is a lot to some people--I know it is to _me_," said Bob. "I worked hard on the _Chronicle_, and it never brought me a thousand dollars--at least not all at once." "Me either--when I was slaving in the munition plant, and running a chance of being blown up every minute," declared Roger. "But I think Schnitz is right--what's to be done! Maybe Maxwell was robbed, and he started after the thief and--"