wing beneath the crown of the cap was rather long and
straight, but betrayed traces of having been recently close cropped. For
all her masculine appearance, she was French and the young road marker
was lavishing upon her everything he had gleaned in a Freshman year of
French in a Spokane high school.

I offered my cigarette case and was surprised when the girl refrained.
That surprise increased when I saw her extract from a leather case of
her own a full fledged black cigar which she proceeded to light and
smoke with gusto. When I expressed my greater surprise, she increased it
by shrugging her shoulders prettily, plunging one gauntleted hand into a
side pocket and producing a pipe with a pouch of tobacco.

There was nothing dainty about that pipe. It had no delicate amber stem
nor circlet of filigree gold. There was no meerschaum ornamentation. It
was just a good old Jimmy pipe with a full-grown cake in the black burnt
bowl, and a well bitten, hard rubber mouth piece. It looked like one of
those that father used to consent to have boiled once a year, after
mother had charged it with rotting the lace curtains. If war makes men
of peace-time citizens, then----

[Illustration: FIRST OF THE GREAT FRANCO-AMERICAN COUNTER-OFFENSIVE AT
CHATEAU-THIERRY. THE FRENCH BABY TANKS, KNOWN AS "CHARS D'ASSAUTS,"
ENTERING THE WOOD OF VILLERS-COTTERETS, SOUTHWEST OF SOISSONS]

[Illustration: YANKS AND POILUS VIEWING THE CITY OF CHATEAU-THIERRY,
WHERE, IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY, THE YANKS TURNED THE TIDE OF BATTLE
AGAINST THE HUNS]

But she was a girl and her name was Yvonne. The red-winged letter on her
coat lapel placed her in the automobile service and the motor ambulance
stationed at the road side explained her special branch of work. She
inquired the meaning of my correspondent's insignia and then
explained that she had drawn pastelles for a Paris publication before
the war, but had been transporting _blesses_ since. The French lesson
proceeded and Spokane Steve and I learned from her that the longest word
in the French language is spelled "Anticonstitutionellement." I
expressed the hope that some day both of us would be able to pronounce
it.

On the girl's right wrist was a silver chain bracelet with
identification disk. In response to our interested gaze, she exhibited
it to us, and upon her own volition, informed us that she was a
descendant of the same family as Jeanne d'Arc. Steve heard and winked to
me with a remark that the