The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front Or, The Hunt for the Stolen Army Films   By: Victor Appleton

OR

The Hunt for the Stolen Army Films

BY VICTOR APPLETON

AUTHOR OF "THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS," "THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA," "TOM SWIFT AND HIS MOTOR CYCLE," "TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS

Copyright, 1918, by GROSSET & DUNLAP

The Moving Picture Boys on the War Front

[Illustration: IT TOOK ALL THE NERVE OF THE THREE LADS TO STAND AT THEIR POSTS AND SEE MEN KILLED.]

=CONTENTS=

CHAPTER PAGE

I A CALL TO BATTLE 1

II THE ACCIDENT 11

III MONSIEUR SECOR 20

IV ALL ABOARD 29

V ANXIOUS DAYS 39

VI A QUEER CONFERENCE 47

VII "PERISCOPE AHOY!" 56

VIII BEATEN OFF 65

IX SUSPICIONS 72

X THE FLASHLIGHT 80

XI THE DEPTH CHARGE 88

XII IN ENGLAND 97

XIII UNDER SUSPICION 105

XIV IN CUSTODY 114

XV THE FRONT AT LAST 121

XVI THE FIRING LINE 130

XVII BOWLED OVER 138

XVIII TRENCH LIFE 145

XIX GASSED 153

XX "GONE!" 161

XXI ACROSS NO MAN'S LAND 170

XXII CAPTURED 179

XXIII THE AIRSHIP RAID 189

XXIV BURIED ALIVE 199

XXV THE END OF LABENSTEIN 206

=THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE WAR FRONT=

CHAPTER I

A CALL TO BATTLE

"Come on now, ready with those smoke bombs! Where's the Confederate army, anyhow? And you Unionists, don't look as though you were going to rob an apple orchard! Suffering snakes, you're going into battle and you're going to lick the boots off the Johnnie Rebs! Look the part! Look the part! Now, then, what about the cannon? Got plenty of powder in 'em so there'll be lots of smoke?"

A stout man, with perspiration running down his face, one drop trickling from his nose, was hurrying up and down the field.

On one side of him was a small army composed of what seemed to be Civil War Union soldiers. A little farther back was a motley array of Confederates. Farther off was an apple orchard, and close beside that stood a ramshackle farmhouse which was soon to be the center of a desperate moving picture battle in the course of which the house would be the refuge of the Confederates.

"The old man is sort of on his ear this morning, isn't he, Blake?" asked Joe Duncan of his chum and camera partner, Blake Stewart. "I haven't heard him rage like this since the time C. C. dodged the custard pie he was supposed to take broadside on."

"Yes, he's a bit nervous, Joe; but "

"Nervous isn't the word for it, Blake. He's boiling over! What's it all about, anyhow? Is he mad because I was a bit late getting here with the extra reels of film?"

"No, he didn't say a word about that. It's just that he can't get this battle scene to suit him. We've rehearsed it and rehearsed it again and again, but each time it seems to go worse. The extras don't seem to know how to fight."

"That's queer, considering all the war preparations that have been going on here since we got in the game against Germany," observed Joe Duncan, as he made some adjustments to his camera, one of several which he and Blake would use in filming part of a big serial, a number of scenes of which were to center around the battle in the apple orchard. "With all the volunteering and drafting that's been going on, soldiers quartered all over and as thick as bees around the cities, you'd think these extra fellows would know something about the game, wouldn't you?"

"You'd think so; but they seem to be afraid of the guns, even though they are loaded with blanks. Here comes Mr. Hadley again, and he's got fire in his eyes!"