*CHAPTER XXVIII*
*THE END DRAWS NEAR*
"WHEE-E-E-E-E-OU-O-O-O-O--BANG!"
Chester raised himself to a sitting position in his funk hole and lookedover at Hal.
"Gosh all fishhooks! Looks like this was all a fake about the war beingover at 11 o'clock this morning," he said. "Those shells don't soundlike the end of the war to me. Do they to you?"
Hal admitted that they did not. The burst had almost covered both ladswith earth and had been to close to allow either of them any peace ofmind. "Down!" shouted Chester and again Hal rolled himself into a knotand wished that his funk hole was as many inches deeper. He had seendays when such a funk hole would have been sufficiently deep, but onthat day of all days--half an hour before the end of the war--aforty-foot well wouldn't have been any too deep.
Hal's calculation was a bit off. The shell came whistling in, like theweird cry of a hungry beast, and exploded in the hollow below the funkholes in which Hal and Chester found themselves, throwing up a geyser ofearth and rocks that did no harm to anyone.
"That guy's as wild as a hawk," came a cry from a nearby hole. "I coulddo better than that myself, and I ain't no artilleryman, either."
"You talk like you wanted him to shoot closer," Hal called back. "Thatwas plenty close enough for me."
The next shell broke on the brow of the hill. Then came a whole showerof them, each one singing its own little tune that struck terror to thehearts of the bravest.
Chester squirmed down into his funk hole until he could see the dial ofhis wrist watch. It was 10.35. In twenty-five minutes more the warwould be over.
A moment later American batteries behind them began sending overreprisal fire. The 75's passing over their heads whined savagely, butnot so savagely as those boche shells coming in.
(It is a well-known fact that a shell going out has a different whinethan a shell coming in, also a different effect on one's nerves.)
Twenty-five minutes is a long time when a man is hiding from death. Toknow that in twenty-five minutes, providing you are alive at the end ofthat time, death's shadow will have ceased to follow in your footsteps,is a great inducement to live.
Hal and Chester found it so.
They were back with their own command again after the trying days theyhad spent with Marshal Foch and the German envoys whom they hadaccompanied to and from their own lines and back again.
After leaving Stubbs in Soissons, following the little man's triumph inflashing first word of the signing of the armistice to his paper inAmerica, they had reported to General Pershing in Rheims.
The American commander-in-chief had, of course, been informed some timebefore that the armistice had been signed. So, in fact, had all otherofficers in the allied armies. This had been necessary in order thatthere would be no doubt as to the hour upon which the armistice wouldbecome effective.
General Pershing expressed his pleasure at seeing the boys again, andhis gladness that they had been so fortunate as to be present at thesigning of the armistice.
"It is an honor that I would have been glad to have had myself," hedeclared.
After a brief interview with the commander-in-chief, the lads weredispatched by him with a message to General Rhodes, their old commander,with the Forty-second division, still quartered at the front, just tothe south and east of Sedan.
Following the capture of Sedan, the American lines had been pushedforward in the face of determined resistance. Though the fighting wassevere, the Germans did not have such a stiff front as they hadformerly. It apparently was a well-known fact all through the Germanarmy that armistice proceedings were in progress, and consequently itappeared that the German officers were not willing to sacrifice theirmen needlessly.
So the American positions had been advanced despite enemy efforts tohalt them.
After reporting to General Rhodes and delivering the communication theycarried from the commander-in-chief, the lads repaired to the quartersof Colonel O'Neil.
"By George!" exclaimed the colonel, "I certainly am glad to see youfellows again. You have been gone so long that I feared you had come togrief. Where have you been?"
"Well, Colonel," said Hal briefly, "we saw the armistice signed."
"You don't mean it," was the colonel's ejaculation. "You were certainlyconfounded lucky. It's an event I would like to have seen myself. Youmust feel pretty important, eh?"
"Not so important that we cannot do a little more before the war ends,"Chester said quietly.
"There is still work to be done," returned Colonel O'Neil quietly."Hear the firing?"
The lads did not need to strain their ears to hear the distant rumble ofbig guns and the sharp crack of infantry firing, nearer at hand.
"Still at it, eh?" murmured Chester. "You would think that with the endof the war so close at hand, officers and men alike would be content tosit quiet."
"On the contrary, though," laughed Colonel O'Neil, "it would appear thateach side is determined to wreak what death and destruction it canbefore a few written words shall stop this business of wholesale killingand ruin."
"So it would seem," Hal agreed. "But in the meantime, Colonel, is therenothing we can do? We would like to be in this war right up to thefinish, you know, sir."
The colonel considered briefly.
"Well, yes, there is a little work you may do," he said. He turned tohis desk and scribbled briefly. Turning again, he passed a paper toChester.
"Major Lawrence," he said, "has not yet been informed at what hour thearmistice becomes effective. This message will enlighten him. Will youdeliver it for me?"
"Yes, sir," said Chester briefly.
"And me, Colonel, what am I to do?" demanded Hal.
"Oh, you, Major," laughed the colonel, "you accompany Major Crawford andsee that my instructions are carried out."
"It shall be done, sir," said Hal.
The two lads left their colonel and hurried towards Major Lawrence'sdetachment, at the extreme front.
"Well," said Chester as they hurried along, "looks like our fightingdays are over."
"It certainly does," Hal agreed, "but you never can tell, you know."
"True enough. It's as likely as not that one of us may fall yet beforethe war ends."
"I guess not," Hal said. "We've gone through four years of it now.I've begun to believe we bear charmed lives."
"It does seem so, but it only takes one bullet, in the proper place, tosettle that argument."
"That's right enough," Hal admitted, "but I've a feeling that we shallboth live to spend many pleasant days in the United States."
"Oh, I'm not thinking of getting killed," Chester declared. "I'm justremarking on what is possible."
"Anything is possible at this age of the world," said Hal sententiously.
The lads now had come within sight of Major Lawrence's detachment.Bullets were flying thick and fast among the American troops, who hadsought the shelter of long lines of funk holes, until recently inpossession of the enemy. Chester delivered his message at once.
"Well," said Major Lawrence, "I guess we'll be about here when the warends. Believe me, I am not going to order an advance when I know thewar's about over, and I don't think the enemy will."
"They seem bent on doing all the mischief they can while they have achance, Major," said Hal.
"So it seems; but I've decided to squat here in these holes and let themfight to their heart's content. Of course, should they rush us, we'llgive them more than they bargained for; but I'm not going to attackmyself."
"I don't blame you, Major," declared Chester. "But now I've a favor toask."
"Consider it granted, sir," replied Major Lawrence.
"We have been assigned to no particular duty," Chester continued, "andwe should be glad if you would allow us to pass the remaining hours ofthe war with you, sir."
"I shall be glad to have you with me," was the reply.
This is
the reason, then, that Hal and Chester found themselves again inthe front lines, a scant hour before the armistice ending the greatestwar of history went into effect.