s much a trench at that spot as any bog-hole. Its only virtue lay
in the fact that if we crouched low enough into the water and mud we
could escape the watchful eye of the enemy. We stumbled along through
the inky blackness toward our gun positions, shrinking our anatomy to
its smallest dimensions each time a flare shot up, and I was commencing
to congratulate myself that we would reach our destination without any
further hurt than the elimination of the thirteenth man;--I took a sort
of sad comfort in the superstitious thought;--but we had still another
target to pass. The Germans had made an observation point of a part of
our ditch just a little bit farther along, and when we got to the spot
we received a blast of shell fire that knocked us out of even our power
to swear; we hadn't the strength; as a matter of fact, we were suffering
with a slight shell shock. The dose consisted of about 200 shells,
administered in quantities, first, of six at a time, then ten, then
twenty-five.

One of the fellows nearest me again ventured the remark that he thought
our number was up, and I just had enough vocal power left to curse him
roundly for a damn fool. "You know what happened Lawrence, don't you?
Cheer up, you mutt! They will never get my number."

Throughout my three years' campaigning I persisted in repeating that
"they would never get my number," until it almost became second nature
with me, and the hairbreadth escapes I have had almost convinced me
"there is something in it." Be that as it may, hundreds of men all
around have "gone West" while I have been permitted to go through three
years of it comparatively unscathed.

We finally got past the observed spot. The trench now commenced to run
into a valley, and although there was water in it to a depth of fully
two and a half feet, through which we had to wade, we were glad we were
alive to paddle through it. But there was more trouble ahead. Fritz was
turning gas into the valley, and I, being in front, got the first
whiff.

"Masks, on with your masks," I roared, jamming on my own at the same
moment. In addition to the gas, our friends had succeeded in shooting up
a large ammunition dump, four hundred yards farther on, and the smoke
and fumes from the exploding bombs, shells and other ammunition, to say
nothing of the ear-splitting din, got me speculating as to whether our
13-squad was to go the way of so many reported thirteens. But my native
optimism came to the resc