And a moment later there came into the dim light of the flashlights the stout chum himself, escorted by three soldiers. He seemed to be all right, and he carried something that was not a grenade, in one hand.

"Where have you been, Chunky?" demanded Jerry. "We've been looking everywhere for you."

"Yes," added the lieutenant, "will you please explain why you did not report back with the rest of us?"

Bob seemed a trifle surprised at the rather stern order, but he smiled and answered:

"Why, I thought, as long as we got back all right, I was relieved from duty, so I went to get something to eat.""Something to eat!" exclaimed the lieutenant.  
"Something to eat," calmly repeated Bob. "You see it was this way. I was terribly hungry----"  
"Nothing unusual," murmured Jerry, but the stout lad, paying no attention to the interruption, went on:  
"So when I got back with the rest, after we captured the Huns, I smelled something cooking farther up in our trenches. I knew some of the fellows on duty there, and I felt sure they'd give me something to eat. It was liberty links they were cooking, sir, and----"  
"Liberty links!" interrupted the lieutenant. "What are those?"  
"They used to be called Frankfurters," explained Bob with a grin; "but since the war that's too German. So I went to get some liberty links, and I got 'em!" he added with a sigh of satisfaction.  
"Well! Well!" exclaimed the lieutenant. And then, as he thought of what Bob and the others had gone through with that night, he had not the heart to add more.  
"I only meant to run up in a hurry to where they were cooking 'em," explained Bob, "and come back with some for my bunkies. But I got to talking and eating----"  
"Mostly eating," murmured Jerry.  
"And then I forgot to come back," finished Bob.  
"We told him he'd better report, Sir," said one of the escorting party. "He was with our bunch all right, and when he told us he'd been out with the night raiders and had slipped off before reporting back, we told him he'd better report. So we showed him the way, as the trenches are sort of mixed up around here."  
"Very well," said the lieutenant, trying not to smile. "You may go back to your posts. Everything is explained."  
And so Bob was restored to his company again, and in view of the successful raid no reprimand was given him. The capture of the German prisoners proved important, as information was obtained that proved of the greatest value afterward.  
Ned's wound turned out to be only a flesh one, but it was painful enough, and kept him in the hospital a week. He would have fretted over thus being 

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