ing day the men in our detachment were assigned to various
kinds of work at Langres. I was given a motor truck to drive. It was
in very poor condition and my first duty was to get it in working
order. I spent three days overhauling it and had it in fair
serviceable shape. But after putting all this work on it, I had the
pleasure of running it only about three days, for I received orders,
along with 208 others, to pack and get ready for a special course in a
military school. I had only half an hour's time to get ready, but at
the appointed time I was prepared to go, and with the boys chosen for
the schooling, was loaded onto a motor truck and taken to Fort St.
Menge, one of the numerous protecting forts around Langres. This was
an old fort, apparently built many years ago. It was situated on the
summit of a mountain and was surrounded by a moat, which, however, was
dry. It was substantially built and exceedingly interesting. The
barracks were built underground and of stone. They were sealed and
were water-tight. Soil from ten to fifteen feet in depth covered these
stone compartments and they were proof from the bombs of other days,
but would have but feebly resisted the modern high explosives. There
were also several tunnels leading from various parts of the interior
to the outer walls, so that men could be taken to any part of the fort
that might be attacked without being exposed to the enemy's fire.
About a thousand men could be billeted there.

Water for this fort was supplied from two deep wells and raised by a
peculiar lift pump, different from any that I ever saw before. It was
a sort of combination of a lift and pressure pump and was of European
design and manufacture. The wells were deep and the water good, for
France.

On the day after our arrival there we commenced our work. We were
given a stiff drilling for three weeks, with scarcely a minute's rest.
We often worked until two or three o'clock in the morning. Our daily
routine was as follows: Arise at 5 o'clock; breakfast at 6;
calisthenics and manual of arms drill from 6:30 to 7:30; instruction
from 8 to 12; lunch from 12 to 1; instruction from 1 to 5; evening
instruction from 7 to 10, and often until 1, 2 or 3 o'clock the next
morning. It was here that we received advanced learning in
intelligence lines for our work in the war.

We studied with French and American instruments such as were then
being used by the Allied armies on the western front. I cannot