Jimmy brought O. D. up to Regimental Headquarters, and by a little stroke of army diplomacy got Sergeant-Major Creamer to assign him to Battery C. Later he went to the captain with Jimmy and asked that O. D. be assigned to the same section as himself. “Put him in your gun crew, if you want to. You’ve got to be acting gunner-corporal now. Corporal Schott went to the hospital with fever,” said the captain. “_Trey-beans_,” answered Jimmy. “Thanks _beaucoup_.” “Not at all,” answered the C. O. “Great guy, our old man,” Jimmy told O. D. when they got out of the captain’s hearing. “Just like one of the fellows all the time. We call him Pop Henderson. He knows it, too. I believe you could call him Pop to his face and he’d take it all right. Course we don’t, you know. He’s too good. Bunch of officers like him in this outfit. There ’re cranks and bums in every profession, but our officers are pretty much the darb. Get that way after bein’ up at the front with you a long time, you see.” “Seemed mighty nice,” said O. D. “Where are we going to sleep to-night, Jimmy?” “Oh, we’ll rig up our shelter-halves and _cushay_ in the woods some place. Won’t be as good as that Frog bed we hit last night, but _say la guerre_, you know O. D.” “I’m willing, Jimmy.” “This place is as good as any, I guess,” said Jimmy, examining the ground with his foot. “There’s a few damn loots in the way, but if you get yourself wrapped around then you’ll _cushay bon_.” Jimmy didn’t try to put the tent up in regulation way. He got a few small branches, a stick or two, and with the poles that O. D. had he made a shelter that would at least keep some wind away or afford protection against rain. “I lost all my pins and poles ’round Château-Thierry,” he said in apology for using his bayonet as a tent-pin. Jimmy had two blankets and O. D. had three. They spread them all out on the ground, tucked in the end near the opening of the tent and crawled between the blankets, leaving two between them and the earth. “Roll your blouse up and use it for a pillow. Generally I use my gas-mask, sometimes my tin hat, for a pillow, if it’s cold and I’m alone. Neil and I used to _cushay_ together, but he can hang with Pop or Joyce, as he knows how to get along here.” CHAPTER XIII—“WE’RE GOIN’ TO TAKE METZ.” O. D. turned restlessly for a long time before he could adapt his body to the topography of the ground that was his bed. He had funny feelings in his joints as if something was grinding against the bones, especially when he remained in one position long. Jimmy’s snoring told him that his new friend was asleep. The new-comer to the environs of the front lay awake almost two hours. He thought of home, of his mother, of Mary, and of what was before him. Now and then a distant rumbling as if thunder was muttering in far-away skies came to his ears.