oll a cord is stretched from stake to stake," he said, explaining the
reason for what was to be done, as was his custom. "The engineers placed
it there after dusk and the frontier was closed, so that you would know
just where to use your spades in the dark. Quietly as possible! No
talking!" he kept cautioning as the men turned the soft earth, "and not
higher than the cord, and lay the stubble side of the sods on the
reverse so as to cover the fresh earth on the sky-line."

When the work was done all returned behind the knoll except the sentries
posted at intervals on the crest to watch. With the aid of a small
electric flash, screened by his hands, Dellarme again examined a section
of the staff map that outlined the contour of the knoll in relation to
the other positions. After this he wrote in his diary the simple facts
of the day's events, concluding with a sentiment of gratitude for the
honor shown to his company and a prayer that he might keep a clear head
and do his duty if war came on the morrow.

"Now, every one get all the sleep he can!" he advised the men.

Stransky slept, with his head on his arm, as soundly as Eugene Aronson,
his antithesis in character; the others slept no better than the men of
the 128th. The night passed without any alarm except that of their own
thoughts, and they welcomed dawn as a relief from suspense. There was no
hot coffee this morning, and they washed down their rations with water
from their canteens. The old sergeant was lying beside Captain Dellarme
on the crest, the sunrise in their faces. As the mist cleared from the
plain it revealed the white dots of the frontier posts in the meadow and
behind them many gray figures in skirmish order, scarcely visible
except through the glasses.

"It looks like business!" declared the old sergeant.

"Yes, it begins the minute they cross the line!" said Dellarme.

His glance sweeping to the rear to scan the landscape under the light of
day, he recognized, with a sense of pride and awe, the tactical
importance of his company's position in relation to that of the other
companies. Easily he made out the regimental line by streaks of
concealed trenches and groups of brown uniforms; and here and there were
the oblong, cloth stretches of waiting hospital litters. On the reverse
slope of another knoll was the farmhouse, marked X on his map as the
regimental headquarters, where he was to watch for the signal to fall
back from his first stand in de