ed him smilingly: "You are like all soldiers have faced
death," she said. "You are not communicative."

At that he reddened. "Well, everybody else was facing it, too, you
know. We all had the same experience."

"Not all," she said, watching him. "Some died."

"Oh, of course."

The girl's face flushed and she nodded emphatically: "Of course! And
_that_ is our Yankee secret;--embodied in those two words--'of
course.' That is exactly why the boche runs away from our men. The
boche doesn't know why he runs, but it is because you all say, 'of
course!--of course we're here to kill and get killed. What of it? It's
in the rules of the game, isn't it? Very well; we're playing the
game!'

"But the rules of the hun game are different. According to their
rules, machine guns are not charged on. That is not according to plan.
Oh, no! But it is in your rules of the game. So after the boche has
killed a number of you, and you say, 'of course,' and you keep coming
on, it first bewilders the boche, then terrifies him. And the next
time he sees you coming he takes to his heels."

Shotwell, amused, fascinated, and entirely surprised, began to laugh.

"You seem to know the game pretty well yourself," he said. "You are
quite right. That is the idea."

"It's a wonderful game," she mused. "I can understand why you are not
pleased at being ordered home."

"It's rather rotten luck when the outfit had just been cited," he
explained.

"Oh. I should think you _would_ hate to come back!" exclaimed the
girl, with frank sympathy.

"Well, I was glad at first, but I'm sorry now. I'm missing a lot, you
see."

"Why did they send you back?"

"To instruct rookies!" he said with a grimace. "Rather inglorious,
isn't it? But I'm hoping I'll have time to weather this detail and get
back again before we reach the Rhine."

"I want to get back again, too," she reflected aloud, biting her lip
and letting her dark eyes rest on the foggy statue of Liberty,
towering up ahead.

"What was your branch?" he inquired.

"Oh, I didn't do anything," she exclaimed, flushing. "I've been in
Russia. And now I must find out at once what I can do to be sent to
France."

"The war caught you over there, I suppose," he hazarded.

"Yes.... I've been there since I was twenty. I'm twenty-four. I had a
year's travel and study and then I became the American companion of
the little Russian Grand Duchess Marie."

"They all were murdered, weren't they?" he asked, mu