And it was; though not strenuous in the way Hal had expected.




CHAPTER VI

A PERILOUS SITUATION


Hal and Chester held no conversation with Anthony Stubbs the following
day, and therefore were unable to learn more than they already knew of
the war correspondent's great "story."

Before they rose Stubbs was up and gone, and when he returned, several
hours later, Hal and Chester were receiving orders from General Petain.

The German advance had continued the day before in spite of the heroic
stand of the French troops. Successive charges by the Teuton hordes had
driven the defenders back along practically the entire front. Here, with
the coming of night, they had taken a brace with the arrival of
reinforcements and had stemmed the tide; but not a man failed to realize
that there would be more desperate work on the morrow.

The French lines now had been pushed back well to the west of the city
of Verdun itself and the civil population of the town had fled. The town
had been swept by the great German guns until hardly one stone remained
upon another. North of the city, the French had been bent back as the
Germans thrust a wedge into the defending lines almost to the foot of