ur gun, and as the afternoon wore away--and the thick
smoke-like pall that hung over us made it impossible to recognize the
fellow standing next to you when he was half a dozen feet away--it was
decided that there was no use to wait till night, but that we could
shift the gun at once.

[Sidenote: A German aeroplane right overhead.]

All the crowd started to work, the new gun pit was ready, and the signal
station was all moved. It was just as we got the gun into the position
and were straightening it into position that a faint breeze came
stealing down from the mountains. In a minute the breeze was stronger,
and we could see a hundred yards away. In another minute we could see
three times that distance, and at the end of the third minute we could
see clear up into the heavens--and there was a German plane flying
straight for us.

Did you ever stand waiting for death? I suppose not--but that was what
happened to our gun crews. The plane swooped low and seemed to hang
right over us. We waited, hardly daring to breathe. I saw the
perspiration running from one fellow's face, and guess it was running
down mine. I know that I had a most pressing desire to run--anywhere, so
long as I was moving. As I was looking down I glanced at my wrist watch
about every thirty seconds and lived minutes between each glance. No one
spoke--it was as if we had suddenly been turned to wood. Then after
fifteen minutes of observation the Hun plane circled away from us--and
we had lived several lifetimes in that short time.

[Sidenote: Army trucks take us back to the village.]

It was the fog that got me--and sent me back to the United States. Two
years before, coming home from drill at the armory (I was then a member
of the National Guard) I fell asleep on the train and contracted a
severe cold. The cold never seemed to leave me, and now, after a week of
fog, after sleeping in a gun pit, I grew hoarse and developed a nasty
cough. I was not really sick when I left the firing line after my six
days and returned to the billet, but I felt pretty miserable. I can
remember being glad when, after a several miles' walk back of the lines,
we found the army trucks ready to carry us to the village where we were
quartered.

[Sidenote: A month at the base hospital.]

I spent four days in the billet receiving further instruction from my
French officer, and then after ten days I started back to the training
camp, where I was to help in the instruction of