those who like it,"
Hanky Panky was saying as they prepared to cross the ford again, this
time on the ambulance that would take Andre, as well as several other
wounded men, to the hospitals of Paris, "but I'm not much of a hand at
that game. Baseball and football are the limit of my scrapping
abilities. This thing of standing up before a quick-firing battery, and
getting punched all full of holes, doesn't appeal to me at all, though
Josh here seems to never get enough of watching men shoot each other
down."

"Oh! say, don't make me out to be a regular _savage_," remonstrated
Josh, in turn; "I feel just as bad as the next one to see a man get
hurt; but my folks came of a line of soldiers, I guess, because some of
'em fought in the Revolutionary War; so it must be in my blood to want
to see stirring sights all the time. Now, I wouldn't be caught attending
a bull fight, or even watching two roosters scrap, because that makes me
sick; but when men are standing up and sacrificing their lives for love
of their country it somehow just thrills me to the marrow, and I never
can drag myself away. But all the same I confess I'll be glad to get
back home again. There are plenty of ways to get excitement without
being on the battle line."

They took a last look around them, wishing to carry away a full
remembrance of the scene at the captured ford. How often would every
item of that never-to-be-forgotten engagement come back to haunt them in
memory, as time passed, and they found themselves amidst other
surroundings. In the bellowing of the thunder they might start up in bed
to again fancy themselves listening to the roar of the guns on both
sides of the Marne; in imagination to see the valiant French as they
splashed through the breast-high waters, seeking to reach the bank where
the grim Germans held the fort, and poured such a merciless fire upon
them.

So they crossed the river again, dryshod, and hastened to where they had
secreted their precious motorcycles. According to Rod they would
possibly be able to make the French capital before night had fully set
in; but even though delayed on the road this could easily be
accomplished on the morrow.

Then, after getting a little rest, they would strike out for Havre or
Boulogne, and take passage across on the first boat that could give them
any sort of accommodations; for in the rush of American tourists to get
home people were even willing to sleep in the steerage in order to