On the way I heard Capt. Fleischmann’s voice from the darkness; his men also were worried about the stray bullets overhead. As I came up, a couple of his sentinels thought they had spotted the snipers, and cracked down on some figures moving past a clump of bushes to their left. A few remarks in choice American made it clear that they were potting away at my 3rd platoon, which had decided that it was time to quit for the night. Privately I was heartily in sympathy with this view; but officially I had to lead the way back to the trench and set the boys to work again. Meanwhile the C. O. of the 4th platoon, laboring under a similar delusion, had taken his wiring party back to their bivvies. Sgt. Rogers, Slim Price and one or two others were still on deck, very much disgusted. So we had a good long trudge back, routed the lads out, and all hands returned to the hill. At last 3 o’clock came, and we turned in tools and quit for the night. As Rogers, Hayden and I were crossing the belt of wire north of the Vieville road, four or five gas shells landed quite near by. We all got a pretty good snootful before we got our masks on; and Rogers, the Co. gas N. C. O., was so busy cussing the wire that he didn’t notice the gas soon enough, and got enough to put him in the hospital. My shell hole looked pretty luxurious to me; Chiaradio had swiped a piece of corrugated iron for a roof, and it wasn’t as wet as it might have been. I was glad to crawl in between him and Robbins and go to sleep. At about 9 A. M. Heinie set to work to blow us out. His range was fifty meters short, fortunately, and he shelled away on a line between us and Vieville with characteristic diligence and thoroughness. The flying fragments made promenading unhealthy. Lt. Schuyler came over to my bivvy with a rumor that the Austrians had quit. Two minutes after he left, a long jagged piece came whistling along and half buried itself just where he had been sitting, and six inches above my foot. Cheery-O used it to hang his mess kit on thereafter. That night we only furnished two small working parties, and the rest of us had a cushy sleep. On Friday, the 20th, the Co. Cmdrs. were assembled at Bn. Hdq., and were told that we were to relieve the 2nd Battalion on the night of the 21st. That afternoon we went up to reconnoiter the position we were to take over. The guides took us up past the Engineer dump, through the woods to the 2nd Bn. Hdq. Here we found Major Adee and his staff taking advantage of a quiet hour to have lunch above ground. They were using a couple of German dugouts as headquarters--very good ones, about 20 feet under ground and well timbered. Major Adee seemed to have aged twenty years. His face was lined and haggard with care and responsibility. His runner had been killed at the entrance to the dugout that morning by a shell.