About the first week of December, Ghond and Gay-Neck were to go on a reconnaissance trip all by themselves. The place they went to was a forest not far from Ypres, Armentieres, and Hasbrouck. If you take a map of France and draw a line from Calais south almost in a straight line, you will come across a series of places where the British and Indian armies were situated. Near Armentieres there are many of Indian Mohommadan soldiers. There are no graves of Indian Hindu soldiers because the Hindus from time immemorial have cremated their dead, and those that are cremated occupy no grave. Their ashes are scattered to the winds, and no place is marked or burdened with their memory. To return to Ghond and Gay-Neck. They were sent to a forest near Hasbrouck which was behind the enemy's line, to find out the exact location of an enormous underground ammunition dump. If found, Ghond and the pigeon, singly or together, were to return to the British Army Headquarters with an exact map of the place. That was all. So one clear December morning, Gay-Neck was taken on an aeroplane. It flew about twenty miles over a forest, part of which was held by the Indian army and the rest by the Germans. When they had gone beyond the German line Gay-Neck was released. He flew all over the woods, then, having gained some knowledge of the nature of the land, he flew back home. This was done to make sure that Gay-Neck knew his route and had some inkling of what was expected of him. That afternoon when the sun had gone down, which happened at about four o'clock at this latitude ten degrees north of New York, Ghond, most warmly dressed, with Gay-Neck under his coat, started. They went on an ambulance as far as the second line of the Indian army in the great forest. In utter darkness they proceeded to the front, conducted by some members of the Intelligence Service. Soon they found themselves in what is called No Man's Land, but fortunately it was covered with trees most of which had not yet been destroyed by shell-fire. Ghond, who did not know French or German and whose knowledge of English was confined to three words, "yes," "no," and "very well," was now left to find a German ammunition dump in a forest, accompanied only by a pigeon fast asleep under his coat. First of all he had to remind himself that he was in a country of the cold Himalayan climate where, during the winter, trees stood bare and the ground was covered with dry autumn leaves and frost. Since there was very little foliage on tree or sapling, concealment of himself proved not an easy task. The night was dark and cold as a corpse, but since he could see in the dark better than any living man, and because his sense of smell was as keen as the keenest of all animals, he knew how to steer his course in No Man's Land. Fortunately that night the wind was from the east.