ng to take
you to Armand as a souvenir. That's what he's always talking
about--souvenirs."

* * * * *

It did not occupy much space in the American newspapers for there were
more important things to relate. The English were circling around some
ridge or other; the French were straightening out a salient, and the
Germans had failed to surprise the Americans near Arracourt. The
American airmen got the credit for that.

So there was only a brief account. "Two American Ship's Boys Reach
France," heading said, and then followed this summary narrative as sent
out by the Associated Press:

"Two American boys are reported to have reached General Pershing's
forces in France, having escaped from a German prison camp and passed
the Swiss frontier at an unfrequented spot after picking their way
through the wilder section of the Black Forest in Baden. They subsisted
chiefly on roots and grapes. Both are said to have been in the U.S.
Transport Service. A despatch from Basel says that the Red Cross
authorities are caring for a French Alsatian girl whom the fugitives
rescued from German servitude by impersonating German military
authorities. The details of their exploit are not given in the
despatches.

"The American Y. M. C. A. at Nancy has no knowledge of such a girl being
brought across the border and doubts the truth of this story, saying
that such a rescue would be quite impossible. Another account says that
the two boys upon reaching the American troops, notified a brother of
the girl who was training with the expeditionary forces and that this
brother was given a furlough to visit Molin, just below the Swiss
frontier, where the girl was being cared for. This soldier's name is
given as Armand Leteur. He is reported to have found his sister in a
state of utter collapse from the treatment she had received while
toiling on the roads in Alsace. One report has it that her wrist had
been branded by a hot iron. The two youngsters are said to have chosen
an unfrequented spot where the frontier crosses the mountains and to
have manipulated the electrified barbed wire with a pair of rubber
gloves which they had found in the wreck of a fallen German airship. The
correspondent of the London _Times_ says that one of these gloves has
been sent to President Wilson by its proud possessor as a souvenir.

"Washington, Oct. 12.--Administration officials here have no knowledge
of any rubber glove being received