One Chance in a Million 



standing, treading water, to discern its cause and 

 in an instant my contentment was shattered. My blood 

 stood frozen in my veins! My hair stood on end 

 as I saw on the near bank of the stream a half dozen 

 white faced, madly gesticulating poilus shouting and 

 waving their arms at me in horror. Instantly the 

 splash was explained hand grenade ! 



" Five seconds! " and I galvanized into fierce and 

 frantic action, regardless of the self-evident fact that 

 action was useless! 



Five seconds! it would be an utter impossibility 

 to reach the safety of the shore, even had I all of 

 those short seconds in which to accomplish the jour- 

 ney. 



Five seconds ! and now there could be but a scant 

 remainder of even that scant time yet left me! Bet- 

 ter it were to cease all struggling and meet the inevi- 

 table with courage and with calm, yet I continued the 

 frantic thrust of arm and leg against the resisting 

 water, useless though I knew the effort to be. Five 

 seconds! and those gone! yet no explosion 

 and I was yet alive! Then my knees struck bottom, 

 and I madly charged up the bank to throw myself 

 exhausted beneath the nearest tree and to lie there 

 panting with great intakings of air while the trees 

 and earth and sky swam around me in dizzy circles 

 like a universe gone mad. 



As I gradually once again took hold upon the reali- 

 83 



