As the
boys learned later the shell had landed in the midst of a concealed
battery--a stroke of luck, and not due to any good aiming on the
part of the American gunner--and the supply of ammunition had gone
up.
There was great commotion behind the German lines, and two or three
of Tom's and Jack's captors were thrown down by the concussion. The
air service boys themselves were stunned.
And then there suddenly sounded a ringing American cheer, while a
voice, coming from a group of soldiers that confronted the German
patrol, cried:
"Halt! Who's there? Are there any of Uncle Sam's boys?"
"Yes! Yes!" eagerly cried Tom and Jack. "Come on! We're captured
by the Germans!"
There was another cheer, followed by a roar of rage, and then came a
rush of feet. Gleaming bayonets glistened in the light of star
shells and many guns, and the members of the German patrol, finding
themselves surrounded, threw down their arms and cried:
"Kamerad!"
The fortunes of war had unexpectedly turned, and Tom and Jack had
been rescued and saved by a party of Pershing's gallant boys.
CHAPTER XXII
NELLIE'S RESOLVE
"What happened?"
"How'd they get you?"
"Are you hurt?"
These were a few of the questions put to Tom and Jack as they were
surrounded by the rescuing party of their friends, led, it afterward
developed, by the very lieutenant with whom the two air service boys
had started in the patrol across No Man's Land.
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