he number of shells they
have fired at the place, that there were thousands of Frenchmen
sheltering there whom they hoped to destroy completely. And so they
have dropped shells on the place, big shells--Mon Dieu! as big as I
am--middle-sized ones, and small ones--in fact, grandfathers, fathers,
and children--till the place has been pounded to atoms.

"And so you have come at last, you fellows," he went on when the three
had watched, for a while, more shells hurtling into the ruins of
Douaumont fort. "Well, you are wanted, wanted badly, for we've fought
our way back from Ornes and Bezonvaux, and there are precious few of us
left to do more fighting. You are fresh at the game--eh? my comrades."

"Fresh!" ejaculated Jules, looking quite indignant.

"Bien! But I hardly meant that," the _poilu_ told them. "In
appearance you are not fresh. No, certainly not; far from it. But
then, who of us can turn out nicely under such circumstances? Look at
me, I ask you; a mere mud-heap. And so I have been since the battle
commenced. And you?"

"And we," laughed Henri, "we are in a similar sort of position. But
what would you?" he declared, shrugging his shoulders in truly French
fashion. "For listen, mon ami! Like you, we have fought our way back
from Brabant, from the lines stretching along past Herbebois and Ornes.
We have been in the thick of the fighting, hiding in caves deep down in
the earth, in dug-outs which shook as the enemy shells burst above
them, crawling from shot-hole to shell-crater, living in earth battered
and shaken all day and all night, and thankful to get an hour's sleep
at any time, and a bite and a drink to keep us going. 'Fresh,' did you
say? Certainly, mon ami, we are fresh, if by fresh you mean we are
willing and ready for more fighting."

"Bravo!"

The _poilu_, his mouth wide open in a huge grin, gripped Henri's hand
and shook it heartily.

"Mais! Mon Dieu! That is your sort! That is our sort! That is the
French sort!" he cried loudly. "It's that kind of spirit which will
carry us on, and which will help us to beat these fellows. Then I was
right, you are 'fresh' men who have come to reinforce us, and badly do
we need your assistance."

Pulling their coats about them, turning up their collars so as to keep
out the whirling flakes of snow, beating their arms about their bodies
and stumbling up and down the trenches, the troops watching on the
heights above Douaumont, dodging the G