The Hôtel Girardot and _Père Achille_ at the door! He recognizes me. "A ghost!" Everybody comes running up. Reymond, from the loft, thinks he hears my voice. He clambers down and stands amazed at my cadaverous appearance. "Can it be you, dear old fellow?" he asks. "Well, well, you are a pretty sight!" He grasps my hands; still I can find nothing to say. Then he carries me off to the lieutenant, the commander, the major. "Is there a bed for him?" asks the latter. "Yes." "Well, let him have it at once, and don't let him be moved. If no complications show themselves to-morrow, he will be on his feet in three days." They hoist me into the loft. "The Spy" has left, and so I take possession of the folding-bed. Verrier, who has come running up, tucks me in. A corporal, who knows all about drugs, briskly rubs turpentine into my skin. "Anything fresh here?" I ask. "I should think so. Two days after you left a new detachment was sent out, including 'the Spy,' Raoul, and Lefranc." Lefranc was first violin at the Colonne concerts. He would sometimes come up into our loft and play Ravel and Stravinski for us. Down below in the stable slept a couple of muleteers. They shouted out-- "Haven't you nearly finished up in the loft? How do you expect us to sleep with all this squeaking overhead?" Thereupon Lefranc played a slow drawling valse, and the muleteers calmed down. Reymond continues-- "Roberty comes here every day now. It will soon be our turn to leave. Within a week Humes will probably see no more of us." "Do you belong to Class 4?" "Yes." "Then I must make haste to get well, in which case I may accompany you." CHAPTER III AT THE DEPOT _Saturday, 29th August._ I am now able to rise, and, with the aid of a stick, go to all four musters of the company. I recognize the heaps of dung, the geese, ducks and cows, and the snivelling little children. My comrades in the section regard me as "the one who has seen fire." _Sunday, 30th August._ We are assured this morning that the Germans are in Amiens. _Monday, 31st August._ I go to Langres to restore my outfit, for I have nothing left. All I had so carefully prepared or bought in Paris the few days preceding my departure--foot-gear, linen, repairing materials, field-dressing, tobacco, chocolate, toilet bag and writing-paper--utterly disappeared in the Vosges on the 25th. I take a real bath in a real bathroom, and the sensation is glorious. Former baths I had always taken in mechanical fashion, without thinking, but now I savour and relish the joy and delight of it. The most contradictory rumours are abroad; some proclaim great victories, others a rapid advance of the Germans by the north. There is entire confidence, however. _Tuesday, 1st September._ Réveillé at three o'clock. The men who are well trained and ready to leave, and those who are weakly and more or less raw, are divided out into separate companies.