"Gone! Did you lose it?" asked Bob, with a reportorial instinct.
"No, but Maxwell is gone and the money's gone with him. He's missing," Jimmy hastened to explain. "Been missing since just before we went into action."
"Where was the sergeant stationed?" asked Roger.
"In that big concrete dugout we captured from the Germans in the scrap just before this," Jimmy explained. "He was in command of a hand grenade squad there, and just before the fight, or at least soon after the signal to advance was given, that was the last seen of Sergeant Maxwell and my money," added the owner of it ruefully.
His companions received the news in silence. Then Franz spoke up and asked:
"What's to be done? I don't so much mean about the money," he added quickly, as he saw the others look curiously at him. "That doesn't matter, though, of course, I'll be glad of my share, and it's mighty generous of you, Blazes, to offer to whack up. But I mean what's to be done about Sergeant Maxwell? Do you suppose he--"
He did not finish, but his meaning was obvious.
"If you mean, do I think he went away with it, I most certainly do _not_," declared Jimmy, positively. "A thousand dollars isn't enough to make a man skip out."
"A thousand dollars is a lot to some people--I know it is to _me_," said Bob. "I worked hard on the _Chronicle_, and it never brought me a thousand dollars--at least not all at once."
"Me either--when I was slaving in the munition plant, and running a chance of being blown up every minute," declared Roger. "But I think Schnitz is right--what's to be done! Maybe Maxwell was robbed, and he started after the thief and--"
"'Maybe' won't get us anywhere," said Jimmy. "Of course, I'd rather lose the five thousand francs ten times over than have anything happen to Maxwell. And I'd like to know where he is for his own sake. At the same time I'd like to get that money back, as much for my own sake as for you fellows," he added. "I can very nicely use a bit of spare cash."
"So can I," chimed in Franz. "Maybe we'll have a chance to hunt for the serg. after this place quiets down a bit."
"I hope so," sighed Jimmy. Really he was more affected than he liked to admit, and it was not altogether over the loss of the money, either. He had been firm friends with the missing man--not as close a chum as with his four Brothers, but enough so that there was a genuine loss in his disappearance.