You know what that means, eh? They hadn't
been able to do it till then. As soon as one gets out of the trench
he's on a downward slope, that's got a funny name."
"The Toboggan."
"Yes, that's it; and the place is as bad by night or in fog as in
broad daylight, because of the rifles trained on it before hand on
trestles, and the machine-guns that they point during the day. When
they can't see any more, the Boches sprinkle the lot.
"They took the pioneers of the C.H.R., hut there were some missing,
and they replaced 'em with a few poilus. I was one of 'em. Good. We
climb out. Not a single rifle-shot! 'What does it mean?' we says,
and behold. we see a Boche, two Boches, three Boches, coming out of
the ground--the gray devils!--and they make signs to us and shout
'Kamarad!' 'We're Alsatians,' they says. coming more and more out of
their communication trench--the International. 'They won't fire on
you, up there,' they says; 'don't be afraid, friends. Just let us
bury our dead.' And behold us working aside of each other, and even
talking together since they were from Alsace. And to tell the truth,
they groused about the war and about their officers. Our sergeant
knew all right that it was forbidden to talk with the enemy, and
they'd even read it out to us that we were only to talk to them with
our rifles. But the sergeant he says to himself that this is God's
own chance to strengthen the wire, and as long as they were letting
us work against them, we'd just got to take advantage of it,
"Then behold one of the Boches that says, 'There isn't perhaps one
of you that comes from the invaded country and would like news of
his family?'
"Old chap, that was a bit too much for me.
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