" he
added softly, "we are needing many nurses, and have lost fearfully in
men and orderlies."

The sun set clear that evening, putting a sparkle in the air which
touched one's nerves like wine. Shortly before twilight Jeb was drawn to
the entrance of his dug-out by the tramping and sloshing of many feet.
He walked the length of the quadrangle to where it joined a
communicating trench and for half an hour--even after the night had
grown too dark to see distinctly--watched an incessant line of soldiery
moving forward to positions. Tramp, tramp, they went, under orders of
silence, because something big was on the boards for tomorrow. But 'twas
not the quiet of glumness that enveloped them, for they showed in every
step an elasticity of spirits, as of muscles. He might have called it a
fluid line, so lithely did it flow by; he might have called it a line of
gods, so proudly did each man hold his steel-capped head!

The firing trench lay about six hundred yards from the German first
line; six hundred yards of No Man's Land waiting passively for the
shambles! Jeb wrung his hands and leaned against the earthen wall. With
that stark struggle for existence but a few hours off, how was it
possible for men to step out happily! What would he be doing, were he
amongst them!

The line was still passing, coming out of the impenetrable and
marching--who knew where! when he stumbled through the dark entrance of
the dug-out.

"What's going on out there?" a comrade asked.

"Ghosts," he answered, feeling for his bunk and throwing himself face
down on it.

He was tired to exhaustion, his nerves were starved for rest. The
dug-out was chilly after sundown and he reached fumblingly for his
blanket, found himself lying upon it and awkwardly wriggled under.

The warmth was good. In a little while the steady tramp of men going to
kill or die--for 'tis thus the gods play with us!--became a soothing
lullaby, and lured him into sleep.

CHAPTER X

From this deep slumber Jeb was aroused by the very incarnation of
doomsday noises that sent him bounding to the floor with nerves aquiver.
The blanket dragging after him hung from his shoulders, even as
bewilderment and sleep clung to his mind. His senses knew that it was
night, although details about him were brought into sharp relief by a
thousand flashes spasmodically flooding the dug-out with fiendish
brilliancy; and he knew that his body was cold, although the walls and
timbers se