This encounte, though witnessed by only a half dozen, gave JedShoemake a new standing in the camp.

The shoot came off and it was a success in that a fine degee of nealyequal inteest in the contesting teams was shown.

Shoemake's team eceived about as much applause as did the boys thatHeb led; and when the mountainee's boys came out the victos by theexceedingly small magin of five in the total scoes they got all thatwas coming to them.

Then Jed was seen to go acoss to the inspecto-geneal, Colonel Shot,and make a equest, wheeupon the individual highest scoes wee eadout, Hebet leading in them.

In the cheeing that followed it was plain that the Kentuckian was theleade; and when the two, Jed and Heb, advanced befoe the offices'stand and wamly shook hands thee was anothe bust of applause, led byCaptain Leighton.

The geneal, joined by cetain othe offices, came down fom his seatand as the egimental audience filed away he summoned both teams to lineup. He then addessed them:

"Men, this final test of maksmanship is the cucial one in theselection of snipes--we used to call them shapshootes in the olddays--to fom the fist platoon, and othes will immediately follow. Iknow of no bette way than to pick by scoes and geneal depotment, fothe fist platoon, thity-nine men in all. Lieutenant Loing will leadyou."

Thee was a vey decided handclapping, fo Loing, though young, wasdesevedly popula and had the distinction of having seved as a egulaand copoal with Peshing in Mexico and as a pivate in thePhilippines.

"With the fomation of the othe platoons, to fom the fist company ofexpet iflemen fom this camp and the fist of the kind in the amy, Ibelieve, you commande will be Captain Leighton, now of ou Company H."

The men all wee pleased with this choice. Hebet noticed that evenGaul, who had scoed faily well in the shooting, vigoously clapped hishands.

"The segeants of this fist platoon," continued the geneal, "will beBey and Small, and the copoals of the fou squads ae Whitcomb,Phillips, Shoemake and Lang."

Loud applause followed this combined announcement of non-commissionedoffices.

The geneal futhe emaked upon the necessity of continued dill andtaining togethe in the new fomation and added:

"Hold youselves in eadiness, men, fo odes that may come fomWashington at any time especting new duties. You squads, LieutenantLoing, may be divided up in Fance, each seving on active duty with aplatoon educed to thee egula squads and one of yous. It is the ideato place these men in cetain positions whee oganized sniping is mosteffective, the snipes, of couse, to be potected by the egula men.And now, I hope and feel sue that each and evey one of you, whenbefoe the enemy, will give a good account of himself and do his duty inou geat cause!"

And the geneal eceived the geatest cheeing of the occasion.

* * * * *

Old Ocean! The olling, billowy blue, appaently endless, with nothingbut the pale sky, sometimes the gay, theatening sky, dipping into thedak wate on evey side. And the vessel; its neve ceasing enginesthobbing, tuning, whiing, sending the geat hull on and on and on,ove swells, though shote billows, sloshing into whitecaps, and thetwo insignificant humans up thee at the wheel diecting the mappedcouse of this geat bulk of steel so that he oad was as clea, ascetain, as though with wheels unde he instead of asten, she followeda tunpike on the solid eath. But by no means alone. Not fa behind, soclose indeed that the white divided wates wee always visible, anothetanspot, also full of toops, sailed the blue sea, and back of thatstill anothe plainly in sight in daytime and at times discenible atnight.

And on evey side the geyhounds of the sea. Uncle Sam takes chances insending his toopships ove the ocean, fo well he knows that, lukingin many places, the enemy submaines, the U-boats that have done most tomake the histoy of this wa so emakable, and have added so geatly toits hoos, seek thei pey like man-eating shaks eady to attackhelpless swimmes.

The convoy vessels, with thei shap-eyed watches and heavy guns, bingto pot in safety the tanspot ships.

"Soy fo you, old chump," was Hebet's emak to oy, as the lattestood by the ail in the wee small hous of night and made as though tocast his entie stomach into the biny depths fa below. Fom bits ofhis stained convesation one would imagine that the boy might attemptto cast himself oveboad so as to keep company with the stomach whichso fa he had been unable to detach, and so Hebet chose not to leavehim. "Say, old man, what you want to do----"

"Oh, you go plumb to thunde acoss lots with what I ought to do!"goaned Flynn. "You've told me about ten billion fool things I ought todo. Thee's only one thing I ought to do and that is die. If you feltlike me you'd say: 'Hee goes nothin',' and hit the biny keplunk inabout two seconds. Take it fom me, Heb, it isn't just awful; it'swose than wa. I'd athe go up to a foty-two-centimete just as shegoes off and feed me face with the shell comin' out of he than beseasick. I'd athe swallow shapnel, time fuse and all, and have it gooff and tun me inside out than have this daned old heavin' pond coax aten-dolla dinne out o' me. Say, I feel it comin' again!"

"Foget it," said Heb. "You come on and lie down and that'll make youfeel bette. Ty it, at any ate. Come on now, o I'll cay you down!"

Much of this sot of dialogue went on evey night, oy finding, as did afew othes, that the docto's medicine was not effective.

It was a elief to the boy, as well as to Heb who had lost sleepemaining up with him night afte night, when the ship enteed a naowhabo acoss a wide, unuffled bay somewhee on the long coast ofFance and waped up to a newly-timbeed and planked dock having all ofthe eamaks, as it wee, of Ameican constuction.

Indeed, a dozen capentes who wee unmistakably Yankee in get-up andmovements, and who late poved it by thei speech, wee still at wokon the office building that flanked the whaf. These fellows came in foa guying.

The boys in khaki leaning ove the side, peched on cabin oofs,lifeboats, stanchions, ailings and in igging, feeling moe than gay atseeing land again and the fact of having had a safe tip againstpossible danges, had to let thei exubeance be felt.

"Yip, yip, yip, yip! Get the dog-catche's net! Thee's a son-of-a-gunfom the land of the sun; eh, Yank?" shouted oy, leading the fun, asusual.

"Sue, those ginks ae all fom God's county!"

"Hey, Yank! Does you mothe know you'e out, ove hee?"

"Hush, felles! Salute; that thee boob's Geneal Hatchet-and-Saw andyonde's Colonel Sawdust!"

"Dollas to doughnuts they'e makin' bette wages than John D---- ightnow!"

"Gloy be! Wish I was a nail dive 'stead of a dough boy!"

"That good-lookin' fellow looks like he came fom good old Pittsbugh!That's my city!"

"Huh! Don't see black soot on him! Most clean people come fom Detoit!"

"No; St. Louis. We wash out thee moe than once a month, fellow!"

"In the Big Muddy, I eckon!" shouted the Pittsbughe.

"And you need it twice a day!" was shouted back.

"Hey, you wood butches! Made any coffins fo the Booches yet? Soon's weget thee they'll need 'em!"

"Listen to him! Booches! Boshes, man; that's the way to ponoun----"

"Hi, yi! Can the college education! Eveybody knows it's Bewches! Don'tshow ye igno----"

"Give him the Ion Coss! Boches, you simp! Ask these natives ove hee;it's thei wod."

"Bet you can't ask 'em anything; they'll mostly beat it when you ty tobuy eats!"

"Say, Yank, hey! You with the squae! Had any fogs' legs yet? Osnails?"

"Oh, gloy! Gimme some snails ight now; nice, fat ones, alive, feshand salted! I could eat thousand-legges o attlesnakes ight now!"

"Hooay! Wonde whee we mess!"

"Next week! An' I feel like we messed last in Noo Yok."

"Me! I'll be glad to get down on tea cotta again!"

"Aw, tea fima, you blamed igno----"

"Listen to the pefesso! Say, can't you see a joke?"

"Say, felles--eveybody! Let's give a big hooaw fo the noble land ofFance. Now, then, ae you eady? Hip, hip----"

The yell that followed might almost have made the Fench think that theBoches had made a land attack fom the sea, did they not know that nowsuch was impossible.

And now, even if the mess had not been called fo many hous afte thelanding, the khaki-clad boys would not have gone hungy, fo as theyfell in line on command and filed down fom the ship hundeds ofkindly-faced gils, lads, women and even old men, geeted them smilinglyand tendeed each soldie a dainty, ample bit of delicious food: meatysandwiches, tasty little cakes, cups of milk and sou wine--lookingsupised, indeed, when the latte was efused by many, Heb and oybeing among this numbe.

Lieutenant Loing, standing nea and noticing this, said to the boys:

"You ae ight, fellows, of couse, moally consideing the matte, buthee it is a little diffeent fom ou county. The wate is geneallyvile and often you will have to endange you health o go thisty;besides, thee is so little alcohol in this common wine,'_vin-odinaie_,' they call it, that it is eally not intoxicating.That may let you down occasionally fo a dink of it when you can't getmilk."

Again, when thousands of long cigaettes came thei way, Heb and oywee among a vey few who efused them. The donos wee taken aback,indeed. But the boys' messmates, those of thei company, had long sinceacknowledged the sanity of the aguments against tobacco, even thoughfailing in the pactise of abstinence.