arters fixed the communicating lines and I made my report of the
loss of three men. Help was immediately dispatched to me, but,
because we were heavily shelled again that night by the Huns, it was
impossible for aid to reach me. It was not until 4 o'clock the next
morning that a detachment reached the post and I was relieved.

A detachment was also sent from headquarters for the purpose of
removing the bodies of my three dead companions. They were taken back
of the lines to a beautiful spot in the woods, and there they were
buried. Because of the fondness of the men of our detachment for these
and for the further reason that fighting had slackened up some, we
were able to give these men a little better burial than is accorded
most soldiers who fall on the field of battle. In most cases a grave
is dug, the body wrapped in a blanket and deposited without a casket
and without ceremony. But for these boys, some of the men in our
detachment made boxes to serve as coffins out of material that we had
captured from an engineering dump. One big grave was dug and the
bodies were laid in it side by side. One of the boys said a prayer and
the graves of these brave lads, way out there in the woods in France,
were covered over. This is one of the incidents of the war that will
never leave my mind, as two of the boys were among my dearest friends.

I realize that my escape from death while at that post was by a narrow
margin. It seemed to be the beginning of a number of miraculous
escapes, such as many soldiers experience. Mine came in such rapid
succession that I began to have a feeling that Fritz would get me yet.
About 11 o'clock at night on the 30th of September I was aroused from
my bed in a dugout to repair the communication lines, it being part of
the duty of our detachment to keep the lines in working order when not
observing. It wasn't very pleasant, of course, to get out of bed in
the middle of the night, but this was the luckiest call that I had
ever had. I had not been out more than five minutes when Fritz scored
a direct hit with a big shell upon that billet, destroying everything
it in. If I had not been called out, I would have been killed.
Fortunately for our post, all the other members were on duty at the
time, so we all escaped. But while I escaped with my life, the shell
destroyed all of my personal belongings. This resulted in my
discomfiture for many days, as I will relate. I had previously
captured a pair of Ger