stence
anymore."

"I see," said Earl simply.

As these eight soldiers sat in the pit and waited, their spirits began
to rise and they seemed to forget the horrors they had been through and
their present danger. They even began to make jokes and laugh over
certain incidents of the fight. The thing that amused them most was
the recollection of the German prisoners shuffling off with their hands
in their pockets to keep up their trousers. One of the men had even
had time to pick one German's pocket of a package of cigarettes.

He passed them around with great glee and soon every one was smoking
except Earl, Leon and Jacques. They had never acquired the habit and
knowing that they were better off without it had no desire to start.
Their main desire was to keep themselves in perfect physical trim.

As they sat there talking the shells flew over their heads in a steady
stream. In the great crater, however, they were comparatively safe
unless some stray shell should chance to land directly in the hollow
where they were seated.

"And if one ever does," exclaimed Jacques, "it's good-by to us."

"Why so?" demanded Earl. "In a hole as large as this we might get
nothing worse than a spattering of dirt."

"Yes," said Jacques, "but don't you know that there are probably
several thousand rounds of ammunition buried under here? If there
should happen to be an explosion, what do you think would happen to us?"

"Well there wouldn't be enough to make much of a fuss over, I guess,"
remarked Leon with a grim smile.

A man suddenly appeared on the rim of the pit and slid over the edge.

"Ho, Coudert," one of the soldiers greeted him.

"Got orders?" asked another.

"Yes," said Coudert who acted as order-bearer in the battalion.

The men crowded about him, eager to learn what their next move was to
be. Coudert spoke rapidly in French and Jacques translated his message
to Earl and Leon. The two young Americans spoke that language fairly
well but when it came to a question of orders they always had Jacques
interpret them if possible, so that there should be no mistake.

"We are to leave here," said Jacques, "and go on down to the bottom of
the hill where we are to dig shelters for ourselves. We cannot go
forward until our artillery has had a chance to do a little more
execution."

"Then we'll probably have to stay out all night," remarked Leon.

"I should not be surprised," said Jacques simply.

"That'll be nice,"