Chester squirmed down into his funk hole until he could see the dial of his wrist watch. It was 10.35. In twenty-five minutes more the war would be over. A moment later American batteries behind them began sending over reprisal fire. The 75’s passing over their heads whined savagely, but not so savagely as those boche shells coming in. (It is a well-known fact that a shell going out has a different whine than a shell coming in, also a different effect on one’s nerves.) Twenty-five minutes is a long time when a man is hiding from death. To know that in twenty-five minutes, providing you are alive at the end of that time, death’s shadow will have ceased to follow in your footsteps, is a great inducement to live. Hal and Chester found it so. They were back with their own command again after the trying days they had spent with Marshal Foch and the German envoys whom they had accompanied to and from their own lines and back again. After leaving Stubbs in Soissons, following the little man’s triumph in flashing first word of the signing of the armistice to his paper in America, they had reported to General Pershing in Rheims. The American commander-in-chief had, of course, been informed some time before that the armistice had been signed. So, in fact, had all other officers in the allied armies. This had been necessary in order that there would be no doubt as to the hour upon which the armistice would become effective. General Pershing expressed his pleasure at seeing the boys again, and his gladness that they had been so fortunate as to be present at the signing of the armistice. "It is an honor that I would have been glad to have had myself," he declared. After a brief interview with the commander-in-chief, the lads were dispatched by him with a message to General Rhodes, their old commander, with the Forty-second division, still quartered at the front, just to the south and east of Sedan. Following the capture of Sedan, the American lines had been pushed forward in the face of determined resistance. Though the fighting was severe, the Germans did not have such a stiff front as they had formerly. It apparently was a well-known fact all through the German army that armistice proceedings were in progress, and consequently it appeared that the German officers were not willing to sacrifice their men needlessly. So the American positions had been advanced despite enemy efforts to halt them. After reporting to General Rhodes and delivering the communication they carried from the commander-in-chief, the lads repaired to the quarters of Colonel O’Neil. "By George!" exclaimed the colonel, "I certainly am glad to see you fellows again. You have been gone so long that I feared you had come to grief. Where have you been?" "Well, Colonel," said Hal briefly, "we saw the armistice signed."