ute to
stooping officers in the smoky twilight, was like a vision in a dark,
convex mirror.

As we wound our way past the screen at the far end of the cellar
dining-room, my lieutenant explained the method in placing each
_pare-eclat_, as he called the screen. "You see, Mademoiselle, if a bomb
happened to break through and kill us, the screen would save the men
beyond," he said; then, remembering with a start that he was talking to
a woman, he hurried to add: "Oh, but we shall not be killed. Have no
fear. There's nothing of that sort on our programme to-day--at least,
not where we shall take _you_."

"Do I look as if I were afraid?" I asked.

"No, you look very brave, Mademoiselle," he flattered me. "I'm sure it
is more than the helmet which gives you that look. I believe, if you
were allowed you would go on past the safety zone."

"Where does the safety zone end?" I curiously questioned.

"It is different on different days. If you had come yesterday, you could
have had a good long promenade. Indeed that was what we hoped, when we
arranged to entertain your party. But unfortunately the gentlemen in
the opposing trenches discovered that _Les Sammies_ had arrived on our
_secteur_. They wanted to give them a reception, and so--your walk has
to be shortened, Mademoiselle."

Suddenly I felt sick. I had the sensation Soeur Julie described
herself as feeling when she met the giant German officers. But it was
not fear. "Do you mean--while we're here, safe--like tourists on a
pleasure jaunt," I stammered, "that American soldiers are being
_killed_--in the trenches close by? It's horrible! I can't----"

"_Il ne faut pas se faire de la bile_, as our _poilus_ say, when they
mean 'Don't worry,' Mademoiselle," the lieutenant soothed me. "If there
were any killing along this _secteur_ you would hear the guns boom,
_n'est-ce-pas_? You had not stopped to think of that. There was a little
affair at dawn, I don't conceal it from you. A surprise--a _coup de
main_ against the Americans the Boches intended. They thought, as all
has been quiet on our Front for so long, we should expect nothing. But
the surprise didn't work. They got as good as they sent, and no one on
our side was killed. That I swear to you, Mademoiselle! There were a few
wounded, yes, but no fatalities. The trouble is that now things have
begun to move, they may not sit still for long, and we cannot take risks
with our visitors. The mountain must come to Mahomet. Th