Producing a pocket map, he showed his companions the location of the structure.

"Hello! It isn't very far from the Chemin de Mort," exclaimed Don, in surprise.

"Quite correct, my boy," said Dunstan.

"I'd much rather it were in some other direction," muttered Chase.

"Come on, Dunstan, let's get through our work," cried Don, rising from his seat and making a break for the courtyard door. "Old number eight has to be freshened up a bit and overhauled."

This task kept the boys busily occupied until lunch time, but immediately after the meal, accompanied by Chase, they left the hotel and headed toward the east.

The dusty village street was full of reservists; poilus were eating, poilus were lounging about or strolling here and there, all ready at any moment, however, to march to the first-line trenches and face the invisible foe and death.

Now and then, in the midst of all this environment of war, peasants trudged along, sometimes accompanied by children, several so young that they could have known nothing else during their brief existence on earth but the horror, the noise and turmoil of war.

Presently a military car having two stars painted on the right hand corner of the windshield, the insignia of a general, shot past the Americans, and closely following, in the wake of dust which trailed behind, came a motor cyclist with a large wicker basket strapped to his shoulders. Through openings in the receptacle the boys caught a fleeting glimpse of a number of birds.

"A despatch bearer carrying pigeons to the front," declared Dunstan. "I understand they have performed most valuable service in delivering messages, and are seldom killed. Thus does man make use of even the birds of the air to further his ends."

"He'd make use of cats if he could," growled Chase.

Passing the ancient porte, where a sentry gravely saluted them, Don, Dunstan and Chase branched off into a road leading in a northeasterly direction toward the rolling hills and battle-front beyond.

The village fell further and further behind, and finally a rise in the ground hid it from view. At length the three stopped on a hilltop to take a survey of a broad and impressive view of the surrounding country. The surface of the 

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