se that if some indiscreet individual asks over
the 'phone whether, for instance, a new telephone line has been laid to
a certain map point it is advisable to reply, 'No, he's dining out
to-night.'"

"Why not try a whistling code?" put in our adjutant. "Suppose you
whistled the first line of 'Where my Caravan has rested,' that could
mean 'At the waggon line.'"

"And 'Tell me the old, old Story' would be 'Send in your ammunition
returns at once,'" laughed Wilde, our signalling officer, who had been
angered many times because his line to Divisional Artillery had been
held up for that purpose.

"And 'It's a long way to Tipperary' could be taken as 'Lengthen your
Range,'" said one of the Australian officers in his soft drawl; while
the exuberance reached its climax when some one suggested that "Waiting
for the Robert E. Lee" might be whistled to indicate that the
Divisional Commander was expected at any moment.

"You've had some of the Americans with you, haven't you?" asked our
colonel of the Australian colonel. "How do you find them? We heard a
humorous report that some of the Australian infantry were rather
startled by their bloodthirstiness and the vigour of their language."

The Australian colonel--one of those big, ugly, good-tempered men who
attract friendship--laughed and replied, "I did hear one good story. A
slightly wounded Boche was being carried on a stretcher to the dressing
station by an American and one of our men. The Boche spoke a bit of
English, and was talkative. 'English no good,' he said. 'French no
good, Americans no good.' The stretcher-bearers walked on without
answering. The Boche began again. 'The English think they're going to
win the war,--they're wrong. You Americans think you've come to
win,--you're wrong.'

"Then the American spoke for the first and last time. 'You think you're
going to be carried to hospital,--you're wrong. Put him down, Digger!'
And that ended that.

"Speaking seriously, though," he went on, "the Americans who have been
attached to us are good stuff--keen to learn, and the right age and
stamp. When they pick up more old-soldier cunning, they'll be mighty
good."

"From all we hear, you fellows will teach them that," answered our
colonel. "I'm told that your infantry do practically what they like
with the Boche on their sector over the river. What was that story a
Corps officer told me the other day? Oh, I know! They say your infantry
send out patrols each day to f