te, till another iridescence pierced
the smoke. He then peeped out. To his surprise there was but one man in
sight; a solitary sentinel standing above an excavation--Jeb could not
tell how deep.

When darkness again fell he was more than ever confused. Whether these
men were inside their own lines laying mines for an expected advance, or
by some cunning had got behind the Allies for a devilish purpose, taxed
his ingenuity to decide. At any rate, this was no place for him; no
ingenuity was required to determine that. He felt that somewhere to the
right the French must be, but it was a guess based largely upon hope.
Right or wrong, an effort must be made at once to report this digging
party, and slowly he crept off; prone at first, then arising to his
hands and knees.

In this way he must have gone a thousand yards when the terrain began
sharply to ascend, and more than ever puzzled he stopped again,
listening. Only the far off, spasmodic growling of the "heavies" told
that fifteen miles away someone was being unmercifully plastered; but
the nearer artillery slept. With eyes and ears straining to their
utmost, with muscles held ready to relax and let him flatten out at the
first sign of enemies, he continued up this new and very dangerous
slope, possessing no idea where it would lead, knowing only that he must
reach his own lines before dawn. And now he realized that the air was
becoming more pure.

Frequently after sundown in this part of France a light mist rises in
the lowlands. To-night there had been no mist, but the terrain had lent
itself to cup the hovering battle smoke, holding it in depressions as
lakes of vapor, while the higher points stood clear. Jeb was now
creeping up one of these higher points; and within half an hour his eyes
looked at the stars, his grateful nostrils breathed a pure, untainted
atmosphere. Like a snake he slid head-first into the nearest shell hole,
climbed warily back to its edge, and watched.

The sky was so bejewelled, the Milky Way so white, that a luminosity
bathed the earth about him which, in contrast to the smoky lowland,
seemed almost bright. Before him lay what had once been the little
hamlet on the scarp--he recognized it, remembering how the French
_barrage_ had in mercy been lifted over it. But it had not escaped a
severe pounding. A few sections of torn walls, a few chimneys, here and
there a gable still supporting one end of a caved-in roof, made a
skyline that was sag