when shell-holes and other inequalities of ground do not
complicate the calculations still further. And it is hard to
maintain a perfectly straight line when moving forward through
choking fog and over scores of obstacles.

The halts for realignment consumed much time and caused no little
confusion. Nervousness began to encompass the Missouri recruit.
He was as brave as the next man. But there is something creepy
about walking with measured tread through an invisible space,
with no sound but the stealthy pad-pad-pad of equally hesitant
footsteps twenty feet away on either side. The Missourian was
grateful for the intervals that brought the men into mutual
contact, as the eerie march continued.

The first line of barbed wire was cut and passed. Then followed
an endless groping progress across No Man's Land, and several
delays, as one man or another had trouble in finding contact with
his neighbor.

At last the party came to the German wires. The lieutenant had
drawn on a rubber glove. In his gloved hand he grasped a strip of
steel which he held in front of him, like a wand, fanning the air
with it.

As he came to the entanglement, he probed the barbed wire
carefully with his wand, watching for an ensuing spark. For the
Germans more than once had been known to electrify their wires,
with fatal results to luckless prowlers.

These wires, to-night, were not charged. And, with pliers, the