dful of the "Here-We-Comes" go
forth into No Man's Land, on the first favorable night, and try to pick
up a boche prisoner or two for questioning-purposes. A scouring of the
doubly wired area between the hostile lines might readily harvest some
solitary sentinel or some other man on special duty, or even the
occupants of a listening-post. And the division commander earnestly
desired to question such prisoner or prisoners. The fog furnished an
ideal night for such an expedition.

Thus it was that a very young lieutenant and Sergeant Mahan and ten
privates--the lanky Missourian among them--were detailed for the
prisoner-seeking job. At eleven o'clock, they crept over the top,
single file.

It was a night wherein a hundred searchlights and a million star-flares
would not have made more impression on the density of the fog than
would the striking of a safety match. Yet the twelve reconnoiterers
were instructed to proceed in the cautious manner customary to such
nocturnal expeditions into No Man's Land. They moved forward at the
lieutenant's order, tiptoeing abreast, some twenty feet apart from one
another, and advancing in three-foot strides. At every thirty steps the
entire line was required to halt and to reestablish contact--in other
words, to "dress" on the lieutenant, who was at the extreme right.

This maneuver was more time-wasting and less simple than its recital
would imply. For in the dark, unaccustomed legs are liable to
miscalculation in the matter of length of stride, even when shell-holes
and other inequalities of ground do not complicate the calculations
still further. And it is hard to maintain a perfectly straight line
when moving forward through choking fog and over scores of obstacles.

The halts for realignment consumed much time and caused no little
confusion. Nervousness began to encompass the Missouri recruit. He was
as brave as the next man. But there is something creepy about walking
with measured tread through an invisible space, with no sound but the
stealthy pad-pad-pad of equally hesitant footsteps twenty feet away on
either side. The Missourian was grateful for the intervals that brought
the men into mutual contact, as the eerie march continued.

The first line of barbed wire was cut and passed. Then followed an
endless groping progress across No Man's Land, and several delays, as
one man or another had trouble in finding contact with his neighbor.

At last the party came to the German wi