Page:Ambulance 464 by Julien Bryan.djvu/249

 August 4th, 1917. I thought my game was up for sure when the captain came back yesterday. He had almost decided to take me when suddenly it entered his mind that the colonel of the Base wouldn't approve of it. So off he sent me to that gentleman, at whose very office I had had so abrupt a dismissal the day before. But Fenton went along with me and together we made them think that I was necessary for the safe return of the Luckenbach. I was so happy on the way back to the boat that I accosted a German road worker under an American guard, to see if I could get his little cap for a souvenir. But the old boy (he must have been forty-five) said: "Ichwurde, aberesist verboten"; and as one of his comrades explained, the French require them to wear the coat and cap of their uniforms, if they still have them, when they get out of the war zone. This forms a pretty good means of identification.

Late Sunday night the good news came that we were to sail early the next morning, and along with it, something not quite so encouraging. This was that two steamers had been sunk in the harbor out -