Produced by Ralph Zimmerman, Charles Franks
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
Army Boys on German Soil
[Illustration: "One move and I'll blow your brains out," hesnapped.]
Our Doughboys Quelling the Mobs
"I tell you, Bart, I don't like the looks of things," remarkedFrank Sheldon to his chum, Bart Raymond, as the two stood on acorner in the German city of Coblenz on the Rhine.
"What's on your mind?" inquired Bart, as he drew the collar of hisraincoat more snugly around his neck and turned his back to thesleet-laden wind that was fairly blowing a gale. "I don't seeanything to get stirred up about except this abominable weather.It's all I can do to keep my feet."
"It is a pretty tough night to be out on patrol duty," agreedFrank. "But it wasn't that I was thinking about. It's the waythese Huns have been acting lately."
"Are you thinking of that sergeant of ours that was found stabbedto death the other night?" asked Bart, with quickened interest.
"Not so much that," replied Frank, "although that's one of thethings that shows the way the wind is blowing. But it's the surlyway the whole population is acting. Haven't you noticed it?"
"There certainly is a difference," admitted Bart. "Everything waspeaches and cream when we first came. The people fairly fell overthemselves in trying to tell us how glad they were to have theAmericans here instead of the French and English. Now they'regetting chesty again. A couple of fellows passed me a little whileago who looked at me as if they'd like to slip a knife into me ifthey dared."
"They hate us all right," declared Frank. "It makes them sore asthe mischief to have Americans keeping the watch on the Rhine.They're mad enough to bite nails every time they're reminded ofit."
"And that's pretty often," laughed Bart, "for they can'