ntly drawing near
the outer edge, I was in full view of St. Quentin.

The Cathedral loomed up with great prominence--and shrapnel was
exploding near the tower.

"That's to keep the Hun observers down," he said. "We are not, of
course, shelling the place to damage it at all. Those fires you can see
there are of Bosche making; he is systematically burning the place as a
prelude to retreat. My Intelligence officer says that the Palace of
Justice and the theatre are well alight, and airmen declare the town
quite empty; they flew over it yesterday only about two hundred feet
above the house-tops and they were not fired at once. Seems to me
they've evacuated the populace entirely."

"Jove," I said, "the French are letting them have it over there,"
pointing in the distance.

"That is, of course, south of the town, very nearly running due east and
west--it's an excellent barrage--and all H.E., too."

I soon got my camera into action and, carefully concealing the tripod
behind a tree trunk or rather a little to one side, I began exposing.

The firing was very heavy. I continued exposing on various sections
which gave me the most comprehensive idea of barrage fire.

"The French are bang up against the 'Hindenburg' line there, and it's
pretty deep in wire--as you know," said my guide, "but I think they will
manage it all right; it's only a matter of time. Hullo! they are
'strafing' their confounded guns again with H.E. Look out! keep down!"
And keep down we did. "Those 5.9 of brother Fritz's are not very kind to
one; we had better stay for a few minutes; he may catch us crossing the
field."

Ten minutes went by; things were a bit quieter, so, hastily packing up,
we doubled back to the road.

"I never did like getting near forward gun position," I said, "but,
curiously enough, my best view-points compel me on many occasions to fix
up in their vicinity."

We got on to the road without casualties and in time to see the H.L.I.
forming up to leave at dusk for the front line, or the series of strong
points which comprised it in this section.

They were having the operation orders read out to them by their officer
in charge. The scenes made very interesting ones for me--the men, alert
and keen to the last degree, stood there in line, listening intently to
the words until the end.

The next morning I had a wire from H.Q. asking me to take charge of two
French journalists for a day or two; they were most anxious to see the