her to signal the discovery of an especially well-laden bush.
Until the officers sternly warned them of the peril they invited by such
noise and incaution, you would have thought they were schoolboys on a
lark.

I was one of the scouts sent up the ridge to try to locate the position
and number of the enemy and report at once. Wriggling along on my belly
like a snake, I made my way foot by foot. I could hear our fellows
shouting, and it rather disconcerted me as I felt they would attract the
enemy's attention, but I continued on my way nevertheless.

I never knew that so many sharp stones could be scattered in so short a
distance. It seemed as though some of them were forcing themselves clean
in between my ribs.

Presently I came to a hastily constructed barbed-wire entanglement at the
edge of a thicket. Ahead of me was a clear rising space of about fifty
yards which did not show from below. Beyond this was a plateau. Before
advancing farther I peered through the thicket and scanned the crest.

Suddenly I heard a familiar, unmistakable rattling. It was the opening and
closing of rifle bolts. My skin prickled all over. I knew that it meant
troops getting ready to fire and I had no doubt the Germans had discovered
me and were preparing to shoot. I wriggled backward a few feet into the
thicket, expecting every second to hear the crash of a volley and to pass
into oblivion. But the crash did not come. Evidently they had not seen me.

Under cover of the underbrush I crept forward again until I could see the
helmets of German troops in the woods atop of the ridge. They outnumbered
our troops. I crawled to the left until I came to a point where I could
command a view of the crest, where they were in waiting, but apparently
unaware of our near approach. I crawled back until I was out of sight.
Then I leaped to my feet and ran as if I were once more on a cinder track
in the old barrack days. Brambles tore my hands and face and lacerated my
bare knees, but I did not heed them.

I had seen enough, and the sooner we could make the attack the better.
Besides, they might even yet see me, and I preferred the scratching of
brambles to the bite of a steel bullet.

In safety I got back to our lines. The boys could see from my excitement
that something was up.

"Did you find them, Joe?" they shouted.

"Where is the adjutant?" I demanded. Somebody told me, and I hurried to
him.

"How many of them are there?" he asked when I told