“Did you ever hear the one about the Spanish Gentilio?” asked the guide. But before he could sing it, the car was shaken by a tremendous boom that came from an explosion so near it rocked the earth. We came to a sudden groaning stop, with the left front corner of the car apparently in a hole. “What happened then?” demanded the General. Ben got out and investigated. “Musta hit somethin’, General, sir. That wheel’s busted all to hell!” “Can’t we go on?” “’Fraid not, sir; it’s ruined.” Ben turned and stared in the direction of Germany. “The g—— d—— Dutch b——! Probably just waitin’ fer a General to appear on this road!” “No,” said the guide, “I’d bet a dollar to a doughnut that the Dutch are acting on some misinformation.... I’ll bet they think there’s reënforcements or supplies comin’ up this road to-night.... That’s the dope exactly!” “Why didn’t you say something about it sooner?” demanded the General irritably. “Yeh!” Ben bawls at him. “This is a fine g—— d—— place fer us to be if them Dutch c—— s—— are gonna shell hell outa this road the rest o’ the night!... A hell of a lot of help you been to us, guy! We oughta put you up in front of a couple speedy bullets, just to teach ya a lesson.” “How the hell did I know what those birds were planning to do?” retorted the guide. “I haven’t any way of knowin’ what those Deutschers think is goin’ on this road!” “Shut up, you two!” commanded the big boss. “Where do we go from here, young man? Can you get us out of here without us getting killed?” “Sure,” the pill-roller replied. “We can take the next road to the left and get back toward where we came from.” “Road!” exclaimed Chilblaines. “We don’t want to get on any more roads! Look at the one we’re on!” “Yeh—that’s this road,” explained our guide. “But the other road is probably nice and quiet. You see, this is a loop road, the main thoroughfare through this section, feeds the forward stations from both sides.” “How far are we from the bend?” asked the General. “And does this other road turn off before we get there?” “We’re almost there now,” replied the other. “There’s a lot of paraphernalia up there and a regimental headquarters and aid station. Now this other road turns off just before we get there and runs off to the left for about a mile and then turns south again.” “Well, let’s go somewhere,” said the old man. “We can’t do ourselves or anyone else any good by staying here.... And it’s starting to rain, too!”