long
line of drays and motor trucks that bumped all night into a vast
cavern lit by electricity, where crates and barrels and
merchandise of all kinds were piled, marked American
Expeditionary Forces; cases of electrical machinery from some
factory in Ohio, parts of automobiles, gun-carriages, bath-tubs,
hospital supplies, bales of cotton, cases of canned food, grey
metal tanks full of chemical fluids. Claude went back to the
waiting room, lay down and fell asleep with the glare of an
arc-light shining full in his face.

He was called at four in the morning and told where to report to
headquarters. Captain Maxey, stationed at a desk on one of the
landings, explained to his lieutenants that their company was to
sail at eight o'clock on the Anchises. It was an English boat, an
old liner pulled off the Australian trade, that could carry only
twenty-five hundred men. The crew was English, but part of the
stores,--the meat and fresh fruit and vegetables,--were furnished
by the United States Government. The Captain had been over the
boat during the night, and didn't like it very well. He had
expected to be scheduled for one of the fine big Hamburg-American
liners, with dining-rooms finished in rosewood, and ventilation
plants and cooling plants, and elevators running from top to
bottom like a New York office building. "However," he said,
"we'll have to make the best of it. They're using everything
that's got a bottom now."

The company formed for roll-call at one end of the shed, with
their packs and rifles. Breakfast was served to them while they
waited. After an hour's standing on the concrete, they saw
encouraging signs. Two gangplanks were lowered from the vessel at
the end of the slip, and up each of them began to stream a close
brown line of men in smart service caps. They recognized a
company of Kansas Infantry, and began to grumble because their
own service caps hadn't yet been given to them; they would have
to sail in their old Stetsons. Soon they were drawn into one of
the brown lines that went continuously up the gangways, like
belting running over machinery. On the deck one steward directed
the men down to the hold, and another conducted the officers to
their cabins. Claude was shown to a four-berth state-room. One of
his cabin mates, Lieutenant Fanning, of his own company, was
already there, putting his slender luggage in order. The steward
told them the officers were breakfasting in the dining saloon.

By