him up at the post, running
out at both ends like he'd die. Well ... I yelled and shouted like hell
in my bad French and blew my whistle and sweated, and the damned wounded
inside moaned and groaned. And the shells were coming in so thick I
thought my number'd turn up any time. An' I couldn't get anybody. So I
just climbed up in the second camion and backed it off into the
bushes.... God, I bet it'll take a wrecking crew to get it out...."

"That was one good job.

"But there I was with another square in the road and no chance to pass
that I could see in that darkness. Then what I was going to tell you
about happened. I saw a little bit of light in a ditch beside a big car
that seemed to be laying on its side, and I went down to it and there
was a bunch of camion drivers, sitting round a lantern drinking.

"'Hello, have a drink!' they called out to me, and one of them got up,
waving his arms, ravin' drunk, and threw his arms around me and kissed
me on the mouth. His hair and beard were full of wet mud.... Then he
dragged me into the crowd.

"'Ha, here's a copain come to die with us,' he cried.

"I gave him a shove and he fell down. But another one got up and handed
me a tin cup full of that God-damned gniolle, that I drank not to make
'em sore. Then they all shouted, and stood about me, sayin', 'American's
goin' to die with us. He's goin' to drink with us. He's goin' to die
with us.' And the shells comin' in all the while. God, I was scared.

"'I want to get a camion moved to the side of the road.... Good-bye,' I
said. There didn't seem any use talkin' to them.

"'But you've come to stay with us,' they said, and made me drink some
more booze. 'You've come to die with us. Remember you said so.'

"The sweat was running into my eyes so's I could hardly see. I told 'em
I'd be right back and slipped away into the dark. Then I thought I'd
never get the second camion cranked. At last I managed it and put it so
I could squeeze past, but they saw me and jumped up on the running-board
of the ambulance, tried to stop the car, all yellin' at once, 'It's no
use, the road's blocked both ways. You can't pass. You'd better stay and
die with us. Caput.'

"Well, I put my foot on the accelerator and hit one of them so hard with
the mudguard he fell into the lantern and put it out. Then I got away.
An' how I got past the stuff in that road afterwards was just luck. I
couldn't see a God-damn thing; it was so black and I was so nerv