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136 have made the run in two hours easily with a clear way. As it was, we started at five o'clock and were stock still twenty minutes later. There was an unbroken stream of trucks, motor cars, and mule wagons all the way from Romagne to Villers. When something went wrong with one vehicle and it stopped, all the others were forced to stop also. Even if all went well, we could move only at a walk. The first truck to break down caused a thirty-minute delay because at the bottom of the truck's load was the general's bedding roll, and the drivers were determined that he should have his blankets. But the truck's case was hopeless, and we finally left it standing beside the road, general's bed and all. The rain dripped steadily, and we were stone cold. There was not even the comfort of a cigarette, for all lights were forbidden. The sudden blazing of the guns and occasional Verey flares which hung in the sky like the torches of death only made the gloom seem thicker. All about me were men from San Antonio, El Paso, and the border country, where a cloudy day is an event.

"Oh, boy," said a voice, "for an hour of Texas sunshine!"

"Cheer up, you'll soon be dead."

At that they broke into—