whispered to her fiercely, "if all the boys back
home could see the things you've shown me, they'd break their necks
getting over here to smash that upstart German power!"

For a moment he bowed his head, as though in prayer. The far-off
rumbling of cannon, sublimely rising from the distant horizon, might
have been a deep-toned organ sending its hymn of victory through the
vaulted space; and, while he listened, the little hand was raised again
to touch his cheek, as the weak voice murmured:

"Monsieur, I feel better since you came."

"I must get you away," he kissed her quickly. "Now listen well, and
answer well, for everything depends on what you know!"

The indomitable spirit of France which kept these people alive through
hardships and outrages that will never be written, bounded through her
veins and warmed them. He felt her body snuggle more confidingly, as if
to assure him that he would not be disappointed in her share of this new
partnership.

After careful questioning he learned enough to open his eyes. The French
lines had indeed passed northward, leaving this ruined hamlet in its
wake. But for several months prior to yesterday's engagement the Germans
had been working on gigantic subterranean operations, beginning at the
levels of the cellar floors and penetrating downward until the entire
village sub-area had been converted into a kind of catacomb. Here a
great number of machine-guns were stored with quantities of ammunition,
and a garrison put in charge which numbered upwards of two thousand men.
A machine-gun regiment, he mentally noted. These had fought when the
French came but, instead of retreating, ducked into the sub-cellars and
closed the openings which had been artfully contrived to escape notice.
When the French passed, thinking the enemy had been driven before them,
the Boche quietly emerged after nightfall and slipped away in several
directions, taking many guns and spades and boxes of ammunition.

Jeb felt that he now understood the mystery of that digging party back
on the plain, as also the nearer sounds. They were units of this
garrison--and there must be many others like them scattered
about--fortifying for a particular counter attack tomorrow when, with a
line of machine-gun sections operating in the Allied rear, defeat might
be turned to victory. It was an audacious scheme, thus to burrow while a
victorious army passed over them, and then come up out of the ground and
strike again!