xt one fell.

Rev. Mr. Muggins, Y. M. C. A. secretary, a very estimable and highly
respected man, shook his head.

"Chaplain, you can hardly make it."

"How about it, Corporal?" I said to Plummer.

"Sure, we can make it," he replied.

"Let's go," I said, and quickly slid into the side-car.

We let a shell come over, saw where it burst, then dashed up the street.
Skillfully avoiding heaps of brick and mortar scattered along the way,
quicker than it takes to tell, we traversed two blocks and reached a
point just opposite the ruined church. Here we rushed full into an ugly
crater, our machine fouled and our way was blocked!

We knew a German gun across those fields was even then trained on this
spot and would pay its respects in about one minute. Plummer tried to
kick and shake life into the machine; I did the praying. Just before lay
ruins of the old church. I thought of the countless times Holy Mass had
been offered there, and humbly I asked God to spare me and my boy, to
turn aside from us the stroke of death--but,

"Not my will but Thine be done."

"Boom!" Across the fields came the sickening report! Ordering Plummer to
throw himself to the ground, I was in the act of alighting, and was
partly free of the machine, when the shell burst, about one hundred feet
away. My right arm seemed to burn; but I was alive, and flat on the
ground. Breathlessly we waited, like a boxer in his corner, until the
next shell came over. This struck about a block away. At once we sprang
to our feet and rushed into the shelter of Death Valley. Plummer was
unhurt; but I was slightly bleeding from right arm and left leg. They
were but scratches; and most humbly I thanked God for sparing us.

"Well, Chaplain, they winged you this time," said good Captain Cash,
Abilene, Texas, Medical Corps, when I reported. My right forearm was
broken, but nothing serious enough to make me an ambulance case.

CHAPTER VII

THE GREATER LOVE

I never recall those really worth while times without being reminded of
a certain Lieutenant whose name I do not feel at present free to reveal.
The attending circumstances were so deeply pathetic, and his confidence
in me of a nature so sacred, I will but narrate the details without
divulging his identity.

Handsome, generous, brave, highly competent in military art, he was as
skillful in getting action from his giant gun as he was masterful in
evoking music from his violin! If there was anything his