four o'clock
All these woods through which Jimmie had blundered with his motor-cycle were now swarming with nice , new , clean-shaven , freshly-tailored soldier-boys , turned loose to get their first chance at the Hun . Four years they had been reading about him and hating him , a year and a half they had been getting ready to hit him -- and now at last they were turned loose and told to go to it ! Back on the roads was an endless procession of motor-trucks , with doughboys , and also marines , or `` leather-necks '' , as they were called . They had started at four o'clock that morning , and ridden all day packed in like sardines ; and here , a mile or two back in the woods , the trucks had come to a halt , and the sardines had jumped out and gone into this war ! Jimmie did not realize till long afterwards what a world-drama he had been witnessing . For four months the Beast had been driving at Paris ; irresistibly , incessantly , eating his way like a forest fire , spreading ever wider and more fearful desolation -- this Beast with the Brains of an Engineer ! The world had shuddered and held its breath , knowing that if he got to Paris it would mean the end of the war , and of all things that free men value .