avel-worn granite boulders
underfoot. In addition to being rounded and unevenly laid, the stones
were now coated with a layer of slimy mud. It was a hard job to stay
upright on them.

I don't think I shall ever forget that march. I know I shall never
forget that smell, or the sound of all our feet clumping over those
slick cobbles. Nor shall I forget, either, the appealing calls of
Gerbeaux' black chauffeur, who was being left behind in the now empty
guardhouse, and who, to judge from his tones, did not expect ever to see
any of us again. As a matter of fact, I ran across him two weeks later
in Liege. He had just been released and was trying to make his way back
to Brussels.

The way ahead of us was inky black. The outlines of the tall Belgian
houses on either side of the narrow street were barely visible, for
there were no lights in the windows at all and only dim candles or oil
lamps in the lower floors. No natives showed themselves. I do not
recollect that in all that mile-long tramp I saw a single Belgian
civilian--only soldiers, shoving forward curiously as we passed and
pressing the files closer in together.

Through one street we went and into another which if anything was even
narrower and blacker than the first, and presently we could tell by the
feel of things under our feet that we had quit the paved road and were
traversing soft earth. We entered railway sidings, stumbling over the
tracks, and at the far end of the yard emerged into a sudden glare of
brightness and drew up alongside a string of cars.

After the darkness the flaring brilliancy made us blink and then it made
us wonder there should be any lights at all, seeing that the French
troops, in retiring from Beaumont four days before, had done their
hurried best to cripple the transportation facilities and had certainly
put the local gas plant out of commission. Yet here was illumination in
plenty and to spare. At once the phenomenon stood explained. Two days
after securing this end of the line the German engineers had repaired
the torn-up right-of-way and installed a complete acetylene outfit, and
already they were dispatching trains of troops and munitions clear
across southeastern Belgium to and from the German frontier. When we
heard this we quit marveling. We had by now ceased to wonder at the
lightning rapidity and un-human efficiency of the German military system
in the field.

Under the sizzling acetylene torches we had our