nney's, Brompton, and V. C.

I had a good deal of apprehension as the brigade marched in,
remembering the reception our reconnoitring party had received. If
"Fritz" had spotted a score of us he could not well avoid noticing a
thousand, though we were broken into little parties of six, that moved
along the gutter in single file. But he must have been asleep this
day, for the "change over" was completed with little attention from him
in the way of shells.

Leading up to "Pinney's Ave.," there was a short length of
communication-trench very appropriately called "Impertinence Sap," for
it was merely a ditch, three feet deep, floored with "duck boards." I
could never get the reason why this trench was built. It only afforded
protection for one's legs, which is the part of the body one would
rather be hit in if one must be hit at all. The goose-flesh always
crept around my head when I walked along this sap, for, strange to say,
my head seemed to be the most valuable part of me, and at night the
machine-gun bullets used to whistle through the low hedge that ran
alongside it and frequently struck sparks from the flints on the old
road just a yard or two away. I suppose I used that sap two hundred
times, always with misgivings, for I have seen more than a score of men
punctured along its length.

[Illustration: "Us--Going In".]

All these parts were unhealthy. The _Rue de Bois_, the street that ran
parallel to the firing-trench, about a thousand yards behind the front
line, was always under indirect machine-gun fire, yet was,
nevertheless, used regularly every night by our transports. It was
surprising how few mules were killed. Many times have I skipped, as
the bullets struck sparks around my feet.

After a while we got to know that "Fritz" had a regular cut-and-dried
system in the shelling of these trenches. He always took Mine Ave.,
Brompton Ave., and Pinney's Ave. alternately, and we later on saved a
number of lives by having a sentry at the entrance to these
communication-trenches to give warning to use the other trench while
this one was being shelled. Weeks later I worked out the enemy's
bombardment system more thoroughly, and had such notices as this
posted: "Pinney's Ave. dangerous on Mondays, 2 to 6 P. M.," "V. C.
unhealthy Tuesday afternoons," and so on. I know I saved my own life
several times by watching "Fritz's" _times and seasons_. I am quite
sure that each battery "over yonder" had a book that