7

We went over to the station to find out what
time the next train left. Found that it left at
4:30 in the afternoon. Then we wanted to know
if we couldn't go over some other road and
get there sooner. We found that there was a
train leaving Chaumont at 9:18 for
Neauchateau and that there was a train
leaving there for Grougrecourt at 4:30.
It was then 7:20 and how were we to get
to Chaumont by 9:18. There was a
freight pulling through the station. We
asked the chef de Militaire if it were going
to Chaumont. He said yes but we
were not allowed to ride on it. We repeated
Chaumont a couple of times and he said
yes. We bolted out of the station with
him shouting defendu, defendu behind
us. We gumped the thing and had a
fine ride on the top of a flat car to
Chaumont (46 km.) Whenever we would
stop we would hide. At Chaumont we
got into a first class car and made
Neauechateau O.K. but had several
narrow escapes from the U.S. M.P.s
who wanted to see our traveling orders.
One time one of us acted as an officer
and got us by. Another time he
asked for traveling orders and we
kept him outside of the car busy
talking until the train pulled out.