ll my life up to
now. It makes me afraid--it is so completely wiped out."

"Come; your wife's in good health, you know; your little girl, too."

He looks at me comically: "My wife--I'll tell you something; my wife--"

"Well?"

"Well, old chap, I've seen her again."

"You've seen her? I thought she was in the occupied country?"

"Yes, she's at Lens, with my relations. Well, I've seen her--ah, and
then, after all, zut!--I'll tell you all about it. Well, I was at Lens,
three weeks ago. It was the eleventh; that's twenty days since."

I look at him, astounded. But he looks like one who is speaking the
truth. He talks in sputters at my side, as we walk in the increasing
light--

"They told us--you remember, perhaps--but you weren't there, I
believe--they told us the wire had got to be strengthened in front of
the Billard Trench. You know what that means, eh? They hadn't been able
to do it till then. As soon as one gets out of the trench he's on a
downward slope, that's got a funny name."

"The Toboggan."

"Yes, that's it; and the place is as bad by night or in fog as in broad
daylight, because of the rifles trained on it before hand on trestles,
and the machine-guns that they point during the day. When they can't
see any more, the Boches sprinkle the lot.

"They took the pioneers of the C.H.R., but there were some missing, and
they replaced 'em with a few poilus. I was one of 'em. Good. We climb
out. Not a single rifle-shot! 'What does it mean?' we says, and behold,
we see a Boche, two Boches, three Boches, coming out of the ground--the
gray devils!--and they make signs to us and shout 'Kamarad!' 'We're
Alsatians,' they says, coming more and more out of their communication
trench--the International. 'They won't fire on you, up there,' they
says; 'don't be afraid, friends. Just let us bury our dead.' And behold
us working aside of each other, and even talking together since they
were from Alsace. And to tell the truth, they groused about the war and
about their officers. Our sergeant knew all right that it was forbidden
to talk with the enemy, and they'd even read it out to us that we were
only to talk to them with our rifles. But the sergeant he says to
himself that this is God's own chance to strengthen the wire, and as
long as they were letting us work against them, we'd just got to take
advantage of it.

"Then behold one of the Boches that says, 'There isn't perhaps one of
you that comes from the invaded co