As he
lay on his stomach, a flare lit up the ruined well of the farm of La
Folette. And the well and his nose and his heels were in a bee-line.
The realization of the fact was the inception of a fascinating idea.
He remembered that quite clearly. Of course his discovery, two days
before, of the spot where Jeanne's fortune lay hidden, when Captain
Willoughby, with map and periscope, had called him into consultation,
had set his heart beating and his imagination working. But not till
that moment of stark opportunity had he dreamed of the mad adventure
which he undertook. There in front of him, at the very farthest three
hundred yards away, in bee-line with nose and heels--that was the
peculiar and particular arresting fact--lay Jeanne's fortune. In
thinking of it he lost count of shots and star-shells, and heard no
orders and saw no dim forms creeping back to the safety of the trench.
And then all was darkness and silence.

Doggie lay on his back and stared at the English sky and wondered how
he did it. His attitude was that of a man who cannot reconcile his
sober self with the idiot hero of a drunken freak. And yet, at the
time, the journey to the ruined well seemed the simplest thing in the
world. The thought of Jeanne's delight shone uppermost in his mind....
Oh! he was forgetting the star, which hung low beneath a canopy of
cloud, the extreme point of the famous feet, nose and well bee-line.
He made for it, now and then walking low, now and then crawling. He
did not mind his clothes and hands being torn by the unseen refuse of
No Man's Land. His chief sensation was one of utter loneliness,
mingled with exultance at freedom. He did not remember feeling afraid:
which was odd, because when the star-shells had gone up and the German
trenches had opened fire on the wiring party, his blood had turned to
water and his heart had sunk into his boots and he had been deucedly
frightened.

Heaven must have guided him straight to the well. He had known all
along that he merely would have to stick his hand down to find the
rope ... and he felt no surprise when the rope actually came in
contact with his groping fingers; no surprise when he pulled and
pulled and fished up the packet. It had all been preordained. That was
the funny part of the business which Doggie now could not understand.
But he remembered that when he had buttoned his tunic over the
precious packet, he had been possessed of an insane desire to sing and
dance. He