“Oui. Even the dead don’t get no rest in this guerre,” declared Jimmy.
The whine of an incoming shell caused them both to fall flat on their bellies. An explosion followed. Dirt and stones covered them from head to foot.
“Beat it toot sweet. This joint ain’t no place for a live man, O. D.,” and Jimmy started for the wall at double-time. They caught up with the battery a few minutes before the order to halt came.
“We’re goin’ to use an old German position here,” said Neil, coming up to Jimmy. “You never saw such stuff in your life. The Boches have got dug-outs fifty feet deep. Regular places, beds, sofas, everything. You’d think they had bought the place for a resort.
“That’s nothin’,” broke in Pop Rigney. “Down at the foot of the hill in Hattonville they’ve got regular theaters built up. Boche cafés. They say Boche women used to live here with the officers. Joyce found some silk stockings and a woman’s hat in one dug-out.”
Jimmy and O. D. went on an exploration tour immediately. They found that the dug-outs were all built of cement and stone and must have necessitated months in construction. A piano, all smashed up, was found in one. There were various kinds of mysterious cords and wires in most of the abris. O. D. said that he thought they must be attached to bells, but Jimmy warned him that the Boches had most likely left them tied to some kind of death-dealing engine and to keep his hands off. That same day a member of the outfit tampered with a string and had his left hand mangled by a hand grenade which fell to the stone floor as a result and exploded on contact.
The Germans had fled so precipitately from their positions that they even left all the guns behind them. The men found souvenirs galore, but threw most of them away, as they had no means of carting around extra stuff.
“I’m off the souvenir stuff. I’ll be good enough souvenir if I get myself back,” said Jimmy as he discarded some German belts that he had picked up.
“Guess we’ll get back and monjay. ’Ain’t had any breakfast yet, you know,” suggested Neil.
In the mess-line the talk was running fast. Samson and Johnson, who had been up in the O. P.’s with the doughboys and had just returned to the outfit, told about the capture of St. Mihiel and the speed with which the Boches were evacuating the salient.