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CHAPTER XXIV
A FINAL DAY ON THE WESTERN FRONT
NEEDLESS to say the human alarums at the hotel forgot
to call me in the morning, but happily I awoke
without their aid and dressed quietly as a mouse so as
not to disturb Duke Adolf Friedrich. Thereupon I wandered
off in the pitch-dark night with no other weapons than my
Zeiss glasses and my camera to the Europäischer Hof, where
the others were already assembled. I was asked to join the
party in the car driven by Tauchnitz, and already occupied
by Captain Kriebel and Lieut. Baron von Peihmann, both
attached to the General Command of the Falkenhausen army.
Our road took us south-eastward via Chåteau-Salins in Ger-
man Lorraine. We crossed into France further south at
Rixingen.
It was 7 o’clock when v/e started off. Day was just beginning
to break, but the sky looked threatening, the weather was
most unpleasant, and a thin layer of clayey mud lay over the
hard surface, making the road as slippery as soap. My two
companions inside were as agreeable and as light-hearted as
all other German officers whom I had met. As we were skim-
ming along, the pretty and interesting country we were passing
through was being explained to me on the map. We were only
a few kilometres from Rixingen when one of the pipes of the
engine broke, and the car absolutely refused to move another
inch. However, providence has presented us with legs, and
so after walking a short distance we came upon a motor-driven
hospital wagon, on the roof of which we made ourselves com-
fortable. We were soon to find that this motor conveyance
was not without its dangers, for the wagon skidded about
terribly on the slippery road and threatened any moment to
dive into the ditch. However we held ourselves ready for any
emergency so as at least to fall feet foremost when the catas-
trophe came. In the end we managed to get to Rixingen and
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