“There had been _beaucoup_ bull flyin’ ’round that Germany was makin’ a last big drive for old Paree and most likely they’d try to cut through us ’round the Château-Thierry sector—that stuff was pretty well soaked into us and guess the gang wanted to show the marines that two weeks in Belleau Woods wasn’t such big stuff after all, considerin’ the way they jumped into the battlin’ when it started. Course I ain’t disputin’ that the marines didn’t pull off good stunts down there. But you got to remember we’d been in the lines damn near six months when the noise started at Château-Thierry.” CHAPTER X—CHÂTEAU-THIERRY “July fifteenth started off with a good bang. “The Boches began drivin’ from Rheims to where we were. The good old Rainbow boys from the Forty-second Division was near Rheims, so we didn’t worry much ’bout the Boches breakin’ through on the right flank. When the drive started toward us through Château-Thierry the Boches laid their last egg, I’m thinking. They gained a few yards the first day. Slowed right up the second. On the third we stopped ’em dead still in their tracks. “The big thing happened before we had time to know it was comin’ off. Some bird—Foch most likely—pushed a button and the whole damn French and American lines jumped up and busted the Boches right on the nose and in the eyes. “Say, O. D., we better _cushay_ before I get talkin’ ’bout them mad days from Torcy up to Sergy Plateau. I could keep you awake all night listenin’ to that Château-Thierry stuff,” said Jimmy. His blue eyes were shooting fire and his face showed the excitement that just the mention of Château-Thierry caused. “If you stop now, Jimmy, I won’t ask Mary to write to you,” warned O. D. “You win, _toot sweet_,” answered McGee, quickly. “_Encore_, then. If that’s the way you say it in French,” begged the brother of Mary. “My outfit was stuck up on the top of a little ant-hill with the old howitzers pointed slam-bang at the Germans who was on a small mountain right across the way, when our drive got under way. The Yankee doughboys was down on the side of the ant-hill, hangin’ on the roots and different kind of bushes to keep from slidin’ down to the bottom and boggin’ up to their necks in mud. The Boches had all the high places.