pecial pass was secured
from the commanding officer, allowing me to go over a dangerous road
exposed to the German guns. From the Y.M.C.A. Hut at Reherrey, I took
with me a new secretary, a Congregational minister from the Middle
West, to relieve McGuffy, the secretary at St. Pole, whom I was to
bring back to headquarters.

When we reached the hut at St. Pole, the secretaries, including
McGuffy, were out at the front with supplies for the boys. While
waiting for them to return we strolled about through the desolate
remnants of this old peasant village. My companion had not been under
fire before, so when the first shell from the Boche "heavies" came
whistling and whining toward us he hastened to the dugout saying,
"This is no place for me." He was ashamed of his own fear and proved
that he was a "regular guy" by joining in the laugh and jibes of the
fellows. Being reassured by the passing of several shells safely
overhead, he rejoined me in our tramp through the village. Every
portable thing of value had been carried off by the Huns and what was
left had been destroyed. Stoves had been broken down and beds and
furniture demolished.

When McGuffy got back we started for Baccarat. It was a stormy night,
black as ink, and we had to go over roads which the bombardment of the
early evening had torn up. It took two hours to go eight miles. When
we arrived we found an anxious group of "Y" workers discussing the
probability of our having been blown to pieces or captured by the
Boche, and they were just about to send out a searching party.

* * * * *

No soldiers ever had anything on the boys from the Buckeye State. They
had been sent to the Alsatian border to hold the line against a
threatening foe. Persistent rumors told of a German drive on this
sector. Nothing but our men and guns and a few hastily constructed
wire entanglements stood in their way. And the German army had a name
for sweeping right through such open country and taking what it
wanted. But many things caused Fritz to stop and think. The German
raiding parties were failures. Only two out of a score succeeded in
getting the Americans. That meant that the Yankee out-posts were not
only on the job but also that they were absolutely fearless and able
to capture single-handed superior numbers of the enemy.

Then, one night just as the Germans seemed to be concentrating on a
dangerous salient, eighty of our big guns in a couple of