ring in a sea of mud.

The men who had arrived with him had hurried off: Fandor was alone on
the outskirts of the silent town.

What to do? Which way to go?

Under the flame of a gas-jet struggling against the onslaughts of the
wind, Fandor caught sight of the honest face of a constable enveloped
in a thick hooded coat. He eyed Fandor.

"Excuse me," said Corporal Vinson-Fandor, rolling his r's, in
imitation of a rustic fresh from the country, "but could you tell me
where I shall find the 257th of the line?"

"What do you want with the 257th of the line?" queried the constable.

"It is like this, Monsieur: I was in the 214th, garrisoned at Chalons.
I have had eight days' leave, and they inform me I am attached to the
257th."

The constable nodded.

"And now you want to get to your new regiment?"

"Precisely."

"Well, the 257th is in three places: at bastion 14; at the Saint
Benoit barracks; and at Fort Vieux--which are you bound for,
Corporal?"

"I don't know--I've no preference," murmured Corporal Vinson-Fandor.

The two men stood staring at each other in the rain.

Despite the chill and melancholy dawn, with its darkly reddening
skies, Fandor felt he was on the very verge of bursting into wild
laughter.

"Let us see your route instructions," quoth the constable.

Corporal Vinson-Fandor showed his paper.

"That's it!" cried the constable triumphantly. "You are down to report
yourself at the Saint Benoit barracks. You're in luck, my lad! It's
only fifty yards or so from here!... Go down the road, and you will
see the barrack wall on the left. The entrance is in the middle."

Fandor saluted the friendly constable, hurried off, and reached the
Saint Benoit gate in a few minutes.

"The 257th?" he asked the sentry.

"Here!... You will find the sergeant in the guard-room."

Fandor entered a smoke-filled room; several soldiers were stretched at
full length on a bench, slumbering: a snoring non-commissioned officer
was lying on three straw bottomed chairs close to a stove.

At Fandor's entrance he was wide awake in a moment: he swore: it was
the sergeant.

"What do you want?" he demanded roughly.

Adopting a military manner, Fandor announced:

"Corporal Vinson, just arrived from Chalons, exchanged from the 214th,
sergeant!"

"Ah! Quite so. Wait! I will show you your company."

Stretching himself, the sergeant marched to the end of the room,
turned up a gas-jet, opened a book, looked through th