One  evening  while  we  were  discussing  the  fra-
ternizing at  the  front,  Colonel  Hurd  remarked,


RUNAWAY  RUSSIA  131

"Well,  you  are  going  to  be  disappointed ;  there  are
to  be  no  more  gas-attacks.  The  Germans  and  Rus-
sians have  been  fraternizing  and  have  made  an  ar-
rangement that  neither  side  is  to  send  out  any  gas."
He  laughed,  and  we  went  on  with  our  game.
Two  nights  later  his  secretary  came  in,  stood  at
attention,  and  delivered  a  message  from  army
headquarters.  The  telephone  was  in  a  dugout,  far
underneath  the  ground,  with  one  man  always  on
guard.  The  message  was:  "Heavy  gas  attack
being  delivered  on  our  front  between  -  —  and

— ."  To  the  astonishment  of  the  secretary,  who
was  a  Russian  soldier,  both  Colonel  Hurd  and  I
began  to  laugh.  Then  I  became  annoyed,  because
it  meant  sleeping  with  windows  closed  and  the
place  as  hermetically  sealed  as  possible,  with  a  gas-
mask in  my  hand.
