s just enough to give them an idea," the
Colonel muttered.

The bad ground continued for about a mile, and then the advance
reached Headquarters, behind the eighth trench of the great
system of trenches. It was an old farmhouse which the Germans had
made over with reinforced concrete, lining it within and without,
until the walls were six feet thick and almost shell-proof, like
a pill-box. The Colonel sent his orderly to enquire about A
Company. A young Lieutenant came to the door of the farmhouse.

"A Company is ready to go into position, sir. I brought them
up."

"Where is Captain Brace, Lieutenant?"

"He and both our first lieutenants were killed, Colonel. Back in
that hole. A shell fell on them not five minutes after you were
talking to them."

"That's bad. Any other damage?"

"Yes, sir. There was a cook wagon struck at the same time; the
first one coming along Julius Caesar's new road. The driver was
killed, and we had to shoot the horses. Captain Owens, he near
got scalded with the stew."

The Colonel called in the officers one after another and
discussed their positions with them.

"Wheeler," he said when Claude's turn came, "you know your map?
You've noticed that sharp loop in the front trench, in H 2; the
Boar's Head, I believe they call it. It's a sort of spear point
that reaches out toward the enemy, and it will be a hot place to
hold. If I put your company in there, do you think you can do the
Battalion credit in case of a counter attack?"

Claude said he thought so.

"It's the nastiest bit of the line to hold, and you can tell your
men I pay them a compliment when I put them there."

"All right, sir. They'll appreciate it."

The Colonel bit off the end of a fresh cigar. "They'd better, by
thunder! If they give way and let the Hun bombers in, it will let
down the whole line. I'll give you two teams of Georgia machine
guns to put in that point they call the Boar's Snout. When the
Missourians come up tomorrow, they'll go in to support you, but
until then you'll have to take care of the loop yourselves. I've
got an awful lot of trench to hold, and I can't spare you any
more men."

The Texas men whom the Battalion came up to relieve had been
living for sixty hours on their iron rations, and on what they
could pick off the dead Huns. Their supplies had been shelled on
the way, and nothing had got through to them. When the Colonel
took Claude and Gerhardt forward to inspect the loop that B
Com