shrinking between the doorposts like a
statue of the Virgin in its niche. I just threw myself forward, but
remembered to give my pals the sign to follow me. The house swallowed
the lot of us. Mariette laughed a little to see me, with a tear in her
eye. She waited till we were alone together and then laughed and cried
all at once. I told the boys to make themselves at home and sit down,
some on the chairs and the rest on the table.

"'Where are they going, ces messieurs?' asked Manette.

"'We are going to Vauvelles.'

"'Jesus!' she said, 'you'll never get there. You can't do those two
miles and more in the night, with the roads washed away, and swamps
everywhere. You mustn't even try to.'

"'Well, we'll go on to-morrow, then; only we must find somewhere to
pass the night.'

"'I'll go with you,' I said, 'as far as the Pendu farm--they're not
short of room in that shop. You'll snore in there all right, and you
can start at daybreak.'

"'Right! let's get a move on so far.'

"We went out again. What a downpour! We were wet past bearing. The
water poured into our socks through the boot-soles and by the trouser
bottoms, and they too were soaked through and through up to the knees.
Before we got to this Pendu, we meet a shadow in a big black cloak,
with a lantern. The lantern is raised, and we see a gold stripe on the
sleeve, and then an angry face.

"'What the hell are you doing there?' says the shadow, drawing back a
little and putting one fist on his hip, while the rain rattled like
hail on his hood.

"'They're men on leave for Vauvelles--they can't set off again
to-night--they would like to sleep in the Pendu farm.'

"'What do you say? Sleep here?--This is the police station--I am the
officer on guard and there are Boche prisoners in the buildings.' And
I'll tell you what he said as well--'I must see you hop it from here in
less than two seconds. Bonsoir.'

"So we right about face and started back again--stumbling as if we were
boozed, slipping, puffing, splashing and bespattering ourselves. One of
the boys cried to me through the wind and rain, 'We'll go back with you
as far as your home, all the same. If we haven't a house we've time
enough.'

"'Where will you sleep?'

"'Oh, we'll find somewhere, don't worry, for the little time we have to
kill here.'

"'Yes, we'll find somewhere, all right,' I said. 'Come in again for a
minute meanwhile--I won't take no--and Mariette sees us enter once more
in single