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Show 8-; PRINCESS MARY‘S GIFT BOOK ot" Noisy-le-(lrand. The Centigrade thermometer was down to twelve degrees below zero. and our little wooden hut with the sloping roof", which served us at. once as kitchen. mess-room. and dormitory. seemed to us all a eomtortahle shelter. ()utside its door the country glimmered away into darkness. a great. white silent plain of' snow. Inside. the camp~hedsteads were neatly ranged along the wall where the root' was lowest. A long table covered with a white cloth~vtor we were luxurious on Christmas night!oecnpied the middle of the floor ; in a corner stood a fine big barrel of Bavarian bccr which had arrived that morning as a (Thristmas present from my mother at Leipzig. \Ve were. none ot‘ us anxious to turn out into the hitter cold. I can tell you. But we were not colonels in those days. and while the Ilauptmann was proposing my mothers health the door was thrust open and an orderly mutlled up to the eyes stood on the threshold at the salute. " The [1611‘ ()berst wishes to see the Herr Lieutenant von Altroek," said he. and before I had time even to grumble he turned on his heels and marched away. I took down my great-coat. drew the cape over my head. and went out of the hut. There was no wind. nor was the snow falling, but the cold was terrible. and to me who had come straight from the noise of my companions the night seemed unnaturally still. I plodded aan through the darkness. Behind me in the hut the IIauptmann struck up a song. and the words came to me quite clearly and very plaintivelV across the snow : lch hatte einen Kamaraden Linen hcsseren {indest du nicht. THE EBONY BOX Raincy was only five miles distant. as the Cl‘OW flies. 85 Yes, but the French had made a sortie on the 21st. they had pushed back our lines. and they now held Ville Evrart and Maison Blanche between Baincy and Noisy-le-Grand. I should have to make a circuit; my five miles be‘ame ten. I did not like the prospect at all. I liked it still less when the Colonel added 2 " You must be careful. More than one German soldier has of late been killed upon that road. There arel/il‘tl7IL'VV-f1'7‘fl7lTS about. And you must reach ltainey." It was a verbal message which he gave me, and [was to deliver it in person to the commandant of the battery at ltainey. "There is a horse ready for you at the stables," said the Colonel, and with a nod he turned again to his scrap of paper. I saluted and walked to the door. As my hand was on the knob he called me back. \Vhat do you make of it '" he asked, holding the paper out to me. " It was picked out of the Marne in a sealed wine<bottlc." I took the paper, and saw that a single sentence was written upon it in a round and laborious hand with the words inisspelt. The meaning of the sentence seemed simple enough. It was apparently a message from a M. Bonnet to his son in the Mobiles at Paris, and it stated that the big black cat had had five kittens. " \Vhat do you make of it ? " repeated the (Toloiiel. " "lhy, that M. Bonuet's black cat has kittens." said I. I handed the paper back. The Colonel looked at it again. shrugged his shoulders, and laughed. " \Vell. after all. perhaps it does mean no more than that." said he. , r . u I ,. ' i ' ' I "OILlCIC d \wliClrlu inthe mOining, like that comrade, I should be a man to he mentioned in the past tense. For more than once a sentinel had been found frozen dead at his post. and I foresaw a long nights work before me. My Colonel had acquired a habit (it-choosing me for special services, and indeed to his kindness in this respect I owed my commission. ‘ I tound him sitting at a little table drawn close to the fire in a bare. dimly-lighted room. A lamp stood on the table. and he was peering at a crumpled scrap of paper and smoothing out its creases. So engrossed was he, indeed, in his scrutiny tllzl't-lt was some minutes before he raised his head and saw me waiting tor his commands. ‘ ' "Lieutenant von Altroek," he said. "you must ride to itaincy." ' int for the Colonels suspicionsI should not have given another thought: to that misspclt serawl. M. Bonnet was probably some little peasant engrossed in domestic aflhirs. who thought: that no message could be more consoling to his son locked up in Paris than this great news about the black cat. The wildest rumours were flying about our camp at that time. as I think will always happen when you have a large body of men ll\'lllf_{‘ under a great strain of cold and privation and peril. They perplexed the seasoned otliccrs and they were readily swallowed by the youngsters. of whom Iwas one. Now. this scrap 01' paper happened to fit in with the rumour which most ol‘ all exercised our iniagiua'iioiis, It was known that in spite of all our on: it» |