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     [Illustration: SAMMY MACHINE GUNS AND RIFLES MOWED THEM DOWN.
              _The Khaki Boys at the Front._ _Page 127_]




                            THE KHAKI BOYS
                             AT THE FRONT
                                  OR
                _Shoulder to Shoulder in the Trenches_


                                  By

                          CAPT. GORDON BATES

              Author of "The Khaki Boys at Camp Sterling"
                   "The Khaki Boys on the Way," etc.



                             _ILLUSTRATED_



                               NEW YORK

                        CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY




                          COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY
                        CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

       *       *       *       *       *

                      THE KHAKI BOYS AT THE FRONT




CONTENTS


          CHAPTER                      PAGE

     I A JOYFUL REUNION                 1

    II MEETING COUSIN EMILE            10

   III TRAILED                         20

    IV AN UNSEEN FOE                   27

     V A WILD GOOSE CHASE              32

    VI THE UNFORESEEN                  38

   VII "AT HOME"                       45

  VIII A BOCHE TESTIMONIAL             51

    IX ON THE MARCH                    59

     X THE LAST LAP                    68

    XI IN THE FIRE TRENCH              75

   XII GETTING USED TO IT              85

  XIII UNDER FIRE                      94

   XIV DETAILED TO SCOUTING DUTY      104

    XV OUT IN NO MAN'S LAND           114

   XVI FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED        122

   XVII MISSING: A BROTHER            128

  XVIII "IT'S A GREAT LIFE"           139

    XIX OUT OF THE AIR                144

     XX THE RETURN OF COUSIN EMILE    155

    XXI UP ABOVE THE CLOUDS           167

   XXII THE UNSPEAKABLE CRIME         178

  XXIII LOYAL UNTO DEATH              188

   XXIV WAITING FOR ZERO HOUR         197

       *       *       *       *       *




THE KHAKI BOYS AT THE FRONT




CHAPTER I

A JOYFUL REUNION


"I suppose we might as well be hiking along," announced Roger Barlow
regretfully, as he consulted his watch. "We've lots of time yet, but
we'd better be early than late back to camp. We are strangers in a
strange land and we've quite a long way to go."

"I'm satisfied to go. I came up here to see Paris and I've seen it.
That is, a scrap of it. I guess it would take a long while to get
really wise to it. I sure would like to use up a little time poking
around _la belle_ Paree. My, but this hash house is a dead place,
though! Nobody alive here but us."

Bob Dalton glanced disapprovingly about the unassuming little cafe
in which he and his four Brothers had elected to dine. Its hushed
atmosphere oppressed him.

"Oh, Paris is altogether different from what it used to be," informed
Sergeant Jimmy Blaise. "It's lost a lot of pep since this war began.
Can you wonder?"

"It's lost more than pep," cut in Franz Schnitzel. "It's lost a whole
lot of its best citizens. Almost every woman one sees is dressed in
black. That tells its own story."

"So think I no many Franche solder more," sighed Ignace Pulinski. "Mos'
is died."

"Oh, there are probably a dozen or two left," was Bob's cheering
reassurance. "I guess they need the Khaki Boys over here all right
enough, though."

"I wish we'd get orders to move on," grumbled Jimmy. "I'm dying to take
a ride in one of those 'Eight Horses' affairs--not."

"We've been in training here longer than I expected." This from Roger.
"I guess we needed it. When the war began, before the U. S. got into
it, they used to rush the Tommies to the front pretty fast. They got
about ten days' or two weeks' training and that was all."

"The war game's been systematized a lot since then," commented Bob. "We
have fared better than those fellows did. They had to put up with most
any old thing. So far we've led a peaceful, happy life over here."

Several weeks had passed since those of the Khaki Boys who had come
safely through the disastrous sinking of the _Columbia_ had been landed
"somewhere in France."

Readers who have followed the fortunes of the quintet of Khaki Boys,
known among themselves as the five Brothers, will at once remember them
as old friends. What happened to these young soldiers during the period
in which they were in training at an American cantonment has already
been set down in "THE KHAKI BOYS AT CAMP STERLING."

It was while on the way to Camp Sterling that Jimmy Blaise, Roger
Barlow, Bob Dalton and Ignace Pulinski met and instantly became
friendly. From being merely friendly they soon grew to be bunkies,
loyal to one another through thick and thin.

Later they took into their little circle a young German-American, Franz
Schnitzel, who had had the misfortune to be entirely misunderstood by
his comrades. Suspected of being in sympathy with Germany, Schnitzel
was accused of poisoning a number of men in his own barracks.

Due to the untiring efforts of the four Brothers, his innocence was
proven, and his good name restored. Afterward Schnitzel himself was
responsible for bringing the real poisoner, a German spy, Johann
Freidrich, to justice.

Their fortunes firmly linked to Schnitzel's by trouble, he had become
a real brother to the four Khaki Boys, who decided that thereafter they
would call themselves the five Brothers.

After an exhaustive course of training at Camp Sterling, the five
Brothers had been sent with a large detachment of their comrades to
Camp Marvin, a southern cantonment. While at this camp they met with at
least one exciting adventure, which was the forerunner of a series of
amazing events.

In "THE KHAKI BOYS ON THE WAY" will be found the details of
that adventure, which had to do with an attempt made by an unknown man
to blow up a bridge near the camp. Readers of this story will recall
Jimmy Blaise's fight with the miscreant under the bridge, and his
narrow escape from death.

This narrative also contains a full account of the Khaki Boys' journey
to the seacoast, where they boarded a transport for France, and of the
hazardous voyage over, which ended in the torpedoing, by a U-boat, of
their transport the _Columbia_.

Though many of their comrades perished at sea, the five Brothers were
spared. Briefly separated by the catastrophe, they were re-united in
Ireland. From there they had gone on to a rest camp in England, from
which, re-uniformed and re-equipped, they had at last set sail across
the channel for France.

Landed in France, they had gone directly to a training camp, there to
receive the final necessary instruction which would fully prepare them
for the strenuous life of the trenches.

Since arriving in the French town where a concentration camp had been
established, they had been kept constantly busy learning new things
about trench warfare.

At Camp Sterling and Camp Marvin they had undergone considerable
instruction along this line. Compared to the experience they were daily
gaining, their past training seemed a trifle rudimentary to the Khaki
Boys.

Under the competent direction of French officers who had seen service
at the front, the Khaki Boys were rapidly acquiring fresh knowledge
concerning bomb-throwing, reconnoitering, listening posts, methods in
attack and defense, wiring parties, mass formation, and the proper
procedure for poison gas attacks.

They had learned to construct and repair barbed wire entanglements.
They had now become familiar with the intricate inner construction of
the trenches. They knew how best to shelter themselves when in these
trenches. They had learned trench