“The night was as dark as the inside of a whale, but the glare of light from the guns on our side gave me direction. The rest was comparatively easy.”
“Easy!” Cowan exclaimed. “How in the world did you get across the line?”
262“Major, the confusion was so great, due to that barrage, that I could have led an elephant up to the line with no one taking the time to challenge me. You forget that my German is quite good. On a dark night, well covered by a German officer’s coat, which I borrowed from a chap who won’t ever need it again, it was not a difficult feat. Believe me, my biggest worry was that I would get sent west by one of our own shells. When I reached the front line I crawled in a funk hole and waited for dawning and for our own troops to come along. And when they started, man! how they came! The enemy is completely disorganized, Major, and victory will be ours within a month or six weeks. Maybe sooner. The Germans know it. Montfaucon will fall to-morrow. This is the last of the big shows.”
He paused, and his eyes, which McGee had always thought so cold, twinkled with merriment.
“By the way,” he said, “at Division Headquarters of the 79th, where I made a report and was given transportation back here, the Intelligence Officer told me a spy was nabbed last night–a chap by the name of von Herzmann. Plane forced down, the officer told me. I wonder if it could be possible that he ran out of gas?”
“Yes,” Cowan replied, catching the spirit of the banter, “he ran out of gas.”
“Tut! tut!” Siddons mockingly reproved. “Wasn’t that a careless thing for a great ace to do?”
THE END
GLOSSARY