"All shaded by hand!—the date of the date!" scoffed Bodkins. "Take my advice, 'Peewee'—never speak unless you're spoken to; then the extent of your dreadful ignorance won't be so noticeable."

Dunstan joined in the merry laughter at the expense of the grinning "Peewee" which followed, then, seizing Don by the arm, he exclaimed:

"Come, boy, you look quite serious—upon what, may I ask, are your thoughts fixed so intently?"

"Upon the Château de Morancourt," laughed Don. "That's quite a story, Dunstan."

 CHAPTER III

ON DUTY

Early on the following morning, while the light of the coming day was slowly spreading throughout the heavens and by degrees bringing into view the landscape which for long hours the deep shades of night had gathered to themselves, Don Hale and Dunstan Farrington clambered into ambulance number eight and took their places on the driver's seat.

"Another forty-eight hours of duty at the outpost ahead of us!" exclaimed Don.

"Yes; and I hope there won't be too much excitement!" said Dunstan. "I reckon Chase Manning would agree to that sentiment."

"There's a chap whose acquaintance I am certainly going to cultivate," laughed the aviator's son.

The boy waved his hand to a couple of mechanicians tinkering over an ambulance near by, threw in the clutch, and number eight, the center of a very strong smell of gasoline, slowly trundled over the cobbled paving, passed beneath the arching gateway and entered the street.

Even at that early hour soldiers billeted in the village were to be seen on every hand, and as the Red Cross car swung along in an easterly direction over the wide highway an occasional "Vive l'Amerique!" rose clearly above the hum of smoothly-working pistons and rumble of wheels.

Traveling at a rapid rate of speed, the ambulance soon reached a bend, and just beyond the road passed under the arch of an ancient porte, or gateway, which marked the limits of the town. Very picturesque and typical of other centuries it looked, looming up against the slowly-lightening sky.

Beyond the porte the ambulance passed a succession of hills and meadows. Everywhere the earth had been pitted, scarred and plowed up by 

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