houted for the countersign. I
was waiting for the occupants of the car to give it, intending to explain
to them that they would have to stop until I called some one to help me
remove the telegraph poles, when there was a sudden grinding of gears and
the car shot ahead, full speed. I yelled a warning about the poles but the
words left my lips at about the moment when the car bounced over them.

Until that time I had no suspicion that the occupants of the car were not
what they seemed. Even then, the manner in which they "rushed" my post
seemed to me only due to some inexplicable misunderstanding. But I had
marched, and fought, and gone sleepless and hungry until I was little more
than a mechanical soldier. I was able to realize only that somebody, for
some reason, had ignored my challenge and rushed a sentry post. I swung my
rifle in the direction of the car, aimed accurately (in an automatic way),
and pulled the trigger. The noise of an exploding tire followed the crack
of my weapon. The car skidded, twisted for a moment, and then went
on--faster than ever.

My shot aroused our outpost. The alarm was given to the first of the
connecting sentries and passed along quickly until it reached our company
headquarters, on the roadside opposite to a chateau in which Brigade
Staff headquarters had been established. Men half awake, tumbled into the
roadway preparing to fire on something or somebody--they didn't know what.
It was useless for the car to attempt to rush the crowd. Again the
chauffeur checked it, this time bringing it to a full stop. One of the
occupants (who, it will be remembered, were in staff uniform) demanded
sharply of the sentry in front of the chateau:

"What is the meaning of this? Are there nothing but blockheads about here?
We have been fired on while looking for Brigade headquarters. Somebody
should be court-martialled for this."

The sentry saluted them and admitted them to the grounds of the chateau.

Their car had disappeared within the gates when I came running down the
road and informed my company commander what had happened. He instantly
ordered our men to surround the chateau and rushed in himself, following
the car up the avenue leading through the grounds. The "staff officers"
had abandoned their car in the shadow of a clump of trees and were
seeking to escape over the garden wall when our men captured them. One of
them, speaking English without a trace of accent, still tried to "bluff"
our m