own was all
but deserted by its inhabitants, and we managed to provide every one with
some degree of cover. Getting back into billets is particularly welcome in
very cold or rainy weather, and we all were glad to be held over a day on
the wholly mythical plea of refitting. Although the time would not be
sufficient to make any appreciable effort in the way of cleaning harness
or _materiel_, the men could at any rate heat water to wash their clothes
and themselves.

The next day's march we regarded as our first in the advance into Germany
to which we had so long looked forward. We found the great Verdun highway
which had played such an important part in the defense that broke the back
of the Hun to be in excellent shape and a pleasant change from the
shell-pitted roads to which we had become accustomed. It was not without a
thrill that I rode, at the head of my battery, through the missive south
gate of Verdun, and followed the winding streets of the old city through
to the opposite portal. Before we had gone many miles the road crossed a
portion of the far-famed Hindenburg line which had here remained intact
until evacuated by the Boche a few days previously under the terms of the
armistice.

We made a short halt where a negro engineer regiment was at work making
the road passable. A most hospitable officer strolled up and asked if I
wanted anything to eat, which when you are in the army may be classified
with Goldberg's "foolish questions." A sturdy coal-black cook brought me
soup and roast beef and coffee, and never have I appreciated the culinary
arts of the finest French chef as I did that meal, for the food had been
cooked, not merely thrown into one of the tureens of a rolling kitchen,
which was as much as we had recently been able to hope for.

The negro cook looked as if he would have been able to emulate his French
confrere of whom Major de Caraman told me. The Frenchman was on his way to
an outpost with a steaming caldron of soup. He must have lost the way, for
he unexpectedly found himself confronted by a German who ordered him to
surrender. For reply the cook slammed the soup-dish over his adversary's
head and marched him back a prisoner. His prowess was rewarded with a
Croix de Guerre.

It was interesting to see the German system of defense when it was still
intact and had not been shattered by our artillery preparation as it was
when taken in an attack. The wire entanglements were miles in depth, and
th