The Boy Allies On The Firing Line

CHAPTER I.

TERRIBLE ODDS.


"Feels pretty good to be back in harness, doesn't it, Hal?" asked
Chester, as, accompanied by a small body of men, they rode slowly
along.

"Great!" replied his friend enthusiastically. "And it looks as if we
were to see action soon."

"Yes, it does look that way."

The little body of British troopers, only forty-eight of them all
told, with Hal Paine and Chester Crawford as their guides, were
reconnoitering ten miles in advance of the main army along the river
Marne in the great war between Germany and the allied armies. For
several hours they had been riding slowly without encountering the
enemy, when, suddenly, as the little squad topped a small hill and the
two boys gained an unobstructed view of the little plain below, Hal
pulled up his horse with an exclamation.

Quickly he threw up his right hand and the little troop came to an
abrupt halt.

"Germans!" he said laconically.

"And thousands of 'em," said Chester. "They haven't seen us yet. What
is best to be done?"

The answer to this question came from the enemy. Several flashes of
fire broke out along the German front, and the boys involuntarily
ducked their heads as bullets sped whizzing past them.

"Well, they have seen us now," said Hal; then turning to the men: "To
the woods," pointing with his sword to a dense forest on his right.

Rapidly the little body of men disappeared among the trees.

"Up in the trees," ordered Hal, "and pick them off as they come!"

Swiftly the troopers leaped from their horses and climbed up among the
branches. Here all could easily command a view of the oncoming German
horde.