GETTING READY Tom wheeled his machine over to a long brick cottage which stood flush with the road and attended to it with the same care and affection as a man might show a favorite horse.

Then he sat down with several others on a long stone bench and waited.
There was something in the very air which told him that important matters were impending and though he believed that they had not expected him to arrive just at this time he wondered whether he might not be utilized now that he was here.

So he sat quietly where he was, observant of everything, but asking no questions.
There was a continuous stream of officers entering and emerging from the headquarters opposite and twice within half an hour companies of soldiers were brought into formation and passed silently away along the dark road.
"You'll be in Germany in a couple of hours," called a private sitting alongside Tom as some of them passed.
"Cantigny isn't Germany," another said.
"Sure it is," retorted a third; "all the land they hold is German soil.
Call us up when you get a chance," he added in a louder tone to the receding ranks.
"Is Cantigny near here ?" Tom asked.
"Just across the ditches." "Are we going to try to take it ?" "_Try_ to?
We're going to wrap it up and bring it home." Tom was going to ask the soldier if he thought there would be any chance for _him_, though he knew well enough that his business was behind the lines and that the most he could hope for was to carry the good news (if such it proved to be) still farther back, away from the fighting.
"This is going to be the first offensive of your old Uncle Samuel and if we don't get the whole front page in the New York papers we'll be peeved," Tom's neighbor condescended to inform him.
Whatever Uncle Samuel was up to he was certainly very busy about it and very quiet.

On the little village green which the cottage faced groups of officers talked earnestly.
An enormous spool on wheels, which in the darkness seemed a mile high, was rolled silently from somewhere or other, the wheels staked and bound to the ground, and braces were erected against it.

Very little sound was made and there were no lights save in the houses, which seemed all to be swarming with soldiers.