direction of
the trenches. "One thing is sure and certain--I'm not going back until
I've found out whether Charlie Sands is still in that town over there or
whether he has been taken away so we'll have to get at him from
Switzerland."

Aggie gave a low moan at this, and Tish eyed her witheringly.

"Don't be an idiot, Aggie!" she observed. "I haven't asked you to go--or
Lizzie either. I'd be likely," she added, "to get through our lines
unseen and into the very midst of the German Army--with one of you
sneezing with hay fever and the other one panting like a locomotive
from, too much flesh."

"Tish----" I began firmly. But she waved her hand in silence and
demanded Aggie's flashlight. She then led the way behind the ruins of a
wall and took a bundle of papers from under her jacket.

"If the Army won't help us we have a right to help ourselves," she
observed. And I perceived with a certain trepidation that the papers
were some that had been lying on the table at headquarters.

"'Memorandum,'" Tish read the top one. "'Write home. Order boots. Send
to British Commissary for Scotch whisky. Insect powder!' Wouldn't you
know," she said bitterly, "that that general would have to make a
memorandum about writing home?"

Underneath, however, there was an aeroplane picture of the Front and
V----, and also a map. Both of these she studied carefully until several
bullets found their way to our vicinity, and a sentry ran up and was
very rude about the light. On receiving a box of cigarettes, however, he
became quite friendly.

"Haven't had a pill for a week," he said. "Got to a point now where we
steal the hay from the battery horses and roll it up in leaves from my
Bible. But it isn't really satisfying."

Tish gave him a brief lecture on thus mutilating his best friend, but he
said that he only used the unimportant pages. "You know," he
explained--"somebody begat somebody else, and that sort of thing. You
haven't any more fags about you, have you?" he asked wistfully. "I'll be
sandbagged and robbed if I go back without any for the other fellows."

"We can bring some," Tish suggested, "and you might show us to the
trenches. I particularly wish to give some to the men in the most
advanced positions."

"You're on," he said cheerfully. "Bring the life savers, and we'll see
that you get forward all right."

Tish reflected.

"Suppose," she said at last--"suppose that we wish to be able on
returning to our native land to st