ve to is a funny
card," the Major replied, "and it looks as if I have a pack of them
to-night. Fritz gets quite a few things that go over our wires and we
get lots of his. All are tapped by induction.

"Sometimes the stuff we get is important and sometimes it isn't. Our
wire tapping report last night carried a passage something like
this:--The German operator at one post speaking to the operator at
another said:

"'Hello, Herman, where did that last shell drop?'

"Second operator replied, 'It killed two men in a ration party in a
communicating trench and spilt all the soup. No hot food for you
to-night, Rudolph.'

"Herman replying: 'That's all right. We have got some beer here.'

"Then there was a confusion of sounds and a German was heard talking to
some one in his dugout. He said:

"'Hurry, here comes the lieutenant! Hide the can!'

"That's the way it goes," added the Major, "but if we heard that the
society editor of the _Fliegende Blaetter_ and half a dozen pencil
strafers were touring the German front line, we'd send 'em over
something that would start 'em humming a hymn of hate. If they knew I
was joy riding a party of correspondents around the diggin's to-night,
they might give you something to write about and cost me a platoon or
two. You're not worth it. Come on."

Our party now numbered nine and we pushed off, stumbling through uneven
lanes in the centre of dimly lit ruins. According to orders, we carried
gas masks in a handy position.

This sector had a nasty reputation when it comes to that sample of
Teutonic culture. Fritz's poison shells dropped almost noiselessly and,
without a report, broke open, liberating to enormous expansion the
inclosed gases. These spread in all directions, and, owing to the
lowness and dampness of the terrain, the poison clouds were
imperceptible both to sight or smell. They clung close to the ground to
claim unsuspecting victims.

"How are we to know if we are breathing gas or not?" asked the
Philadelphia correspondent, Mr. Henri Bazin.

"That's just what you DON'T know," replied the Major.

"Then when will we know it is time to adjust our masks?" Bazin
persisted.

"When you see some one fall who has breathed it," the Major said.

"But suppose we breathe it first?"

"Then you won't need a mask," the Major replied, "You see, it's quite
simple."

"Halt!" The sharp command, coming sternly but not too loud from
somewhere in the adjacent mist, brought the party t