You will find me grateful---always!" Once more outside Lieutenant De Verne turned to Dick to ask: "You intend returning to the trenches ?" "By all means, for I feel as though the night had but begun," Dick cried.

"It has gone well so far, and I am ready for whatever the remaining hours can give me." "I had hoped that, at the most, you would ask me to find you a bunk in a dug-out where you might sleep," confessed De Verne.
"When you have been longer in the trenches, Captain, you will be glad to sleep whenever the chance comes your way." "But that will not be until I have learned more of the ways of your trench life than I know yet," Dick rejoined.

"At present I would rather sleep during the daylight, for it appears to be at night that the real things happen." De Verne accompanied him back to the fire trench, where Dick was glad to find Captain Ribaut with the other three American officers, that party having returned from a trip down the line.
De Verne soon after took his leave, hastening rearward to begin his rest.
Bang! sounded a field-piece back of the German line.
Between the French first-line and second-line trenches the shell exploded.

On the heels of the explosion came a furious burst of discharging artillery.
"This must be what you have been expecting, Major," shouted Ribaut over the racket.

"A barrage!" Down the line ran the noise of bombardment, the thing becoming more furious every instant.