Frank drew a long breath as the last of the line of cars faded from sight in the darkness. So many sensations had come crowding in upon him in the last few minutes that his brain was in a whirl. He knew that he had been privileged to see one of the most momentous happenings in the history of the world. So engrossed was he in his thoughts that it was almost as in a dream that he exchanged cordial greetings with Colonel Pavet and the young lieutenant and started on his ride homeward. He had anticipated a hilarious time in narrating to Tom and Billy all he had felt and seen, but he was really glad when he arrived at his quarters that they were sound asleep. Ordinarily he would have wakened them without ceremony, but just now he wanted to snuggle down in his blanket and go over and over again in his mind the events of that night of nights. His first and controlling thought was that of his country. Above everything else he was an American through and through. He was proud of his country, of its traditions, of its history, of its glorious flag. For that flag he had risked his life again and again. He loved it with a consuming passion. Old Glory! The tears came to his eyes as he thought of it. The flag that had always stood for human freedom and human rights, the flag that had never covered an ignoble cause, the flag that had never been sullied by stain, had never been smirched by defeat, had never been dragged in the dust. Now once more it was triumphant in the greatest war that had ever been waged on earth. God bless it! Later his thoughts took a more personal turn. It meant that soon he would be back with that dear mother of his whose love for him had kept him clean and straight through all this terrible conflict. He saw the little house in Camport, embowered in roses, saw himself going back there, saw his mother running to the gate to meet him. It was a long time before he fell asleep. In the morning he was his own jolly care-free self again and it was well that he was, for he was besieged with questions by his chums concerning all the details of his experience. “Well, you haughty diplomat,” was Billy’s greeting, “have you settled the terms of the armistice? Have you ordered the Kaiser to be shot? Out with it, now.” “Hardly that,” laughed Frank. “I was simply a looker-on among a thousand others. But I tell you what, fellows, it was something worth looking at. It was something I sha’n’t forget as long as I live.” “I bet you won’t,” returned Tom. “How did the Huns look?” “They didn’t look as though they enjoyed it much,” returned Frank. “In fact, they looked very much like men who were going to be stood up before a firing squad. One of them reached out his hand to Colonel Pavet, but the colonel was looking over his head just at that moment and somehow failed to see it. He was very polite though. You know the Frenchmen are great sticklers when it comes to matters of etiquette and form.”