g "Wake me, Weber," until he had put a hand on my arm.

"It's real," he said then. "It's a real arm. Therefore it is, it must
be. And yet----"

"Stop driveling," Tish said sharply, "and tie up this general or
whatever he is. I don't trust him. He's got a mean eye."

It has been the opinion of military experts that the reason the enemy
had apparently lost its morale and failed to make a counter-attack at
once was the early loss of this officer. In fact, a prisoner taken later
I believe told the story that V---- had been attacked and captured by an
entire division, without artillery preparation, and that he himself had
seen the commanding officer killed by a shell. But the truth was that
Tish, having fallen into an empty trench a moment or so before I missed
her, had after recovering from the shock and surprise followed the
trench for some distance, finding that she could advance more rapidly
than by crawling on the surface.

She had in this manner happened on a dugout where a German officer was
sitting at a table with a lighted candle marking the corners of certain
playing cards with the point of a pin. He seemed to be in a very bad
humor, and was muttering to himself. She waited in the darkness until he
had finished, and had shoved the cards into his pocket. When he had
extinguished the candle he started back along the trench toward the
village, and Tish merely put her two revolvers to his back and captured
him.

I pass over the touching reunion between Tish and her beloved nephew.
He seemed profoundly affected, and moving out of the candlelight gave
way to emotion that fairly shook him. It was when he returned wiping his
eyes that he recognized the German officer. He became exceedingly grave
at once.

"I trust you understand," he said to him, "that this--er--surprise party
is no reflection on your hospitality. And I am glad to point out also
that the pinochle game is not necessarily broken up. It can continue
until you are moved back behind the Allied lines. I may not," he added,
"be able to offer you a church, because if I do say it you people have
been wasteful as to churches. But almost any place in our trenches is
entirely safe."

He then looked round the group again and said: "Don't tell me Aunt Aggie
has missed this! I couldn't bear it."

"Aggie!" I cried. "Where is Aggie?"

It was then that the painful truth dawned on us. Aggie had not entered
the church. She was still outside, perhaps wandering alone