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-                          FIGHTING WITH FRENCH
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-
-
-Title: Fighting with French
-       A Tale of the New Army
-Author: Herbert Strang
-Release Date: June 01, 2013 [EBook #39801]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING WITH FRENCH ***
-
-
-
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39801 ***
 
 Produced by Al Haines.
 
@@ -7455,377 +7432,4 @@ KOBO: A STORY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
 
 BROWN OF MOUKDEN: A STORY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
 
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING WITH FRENCH ***
-
-
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-
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+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39801 ***
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-                          FIGHTING WITH FRENCH
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-
-
-Title: Fighting with French
-       A Tale of the New Army
-Author: Herbert Strang
-Release Date: June 01, 2013 [EBook #39801]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING WITH FRENCH ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Al Haines.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Cover]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: A FOUL BLOW (_See p_. 52.)]
-
-
-
-
-                                FIGHTING
-                              WITH FRENCH
-
-                        _A TALE OF THE NEW ARMY_
-
-
-                                   BY
-                             HERBERT STRANG
-
-
-
-             _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY CYRUS CUNEO_
-
-                                 LONDON
-                              HENRY FROWDE
-                          HODDER AND STOUGHTON
-
-
-
-
-                       _First published in_ 1915
-
-
-
-
-                                PREFACE
-
-
-In these days one would rather fight than write; and those of us whom
-inexorable Time has superannuated can but envy and admire.
-
-Seven years ago the father of two boys at Rugby asked me to write a
-story on the German peril, and the necessity of closing our ranks
-against a possible invasion.  After some hesitation I decided to decline
-the suggestion, anxious not to insinuate in young minds a suspicion of
-Germany which might prove to be ill-founded.  Two years later, when the
-subject was again pressed upon me, I felt bound to attempt some little
-service in the cause of national defence; but again I avoided any direct
-implication of Germany, imagining an invasion of Australia by an
-aggressive China.  In two or three books I had poked a little fun at
-German foibles, how harmlessly and inoffensively may be known by the
-fact that one of these books was translated into German.  The course of
-events, the horrors of the present war, show how needless were my
-scruples.  Germany has come out in her true colours, and the mildest of
-pacifists feels a stirring of the blood.
-
-In _A Hero of Li�ge_ I wove a little romance upon the early events of
-the war, when we were still under the shock of surprise and information
-was scanty.  The present story has been written under more favourable
-conditions.  A good deal of it springs from personal knowledge of the
-training of the New Army.  The "Rutland Light Infantry" exists, under
-another name, and one or two of the characters may perhaps be recognised
-by their friends.  But I should point out that a story is not a history.
-The history of this great struggle must be sought elsewhere.  The
-romancer is satisfied if he is reasonably true to facts and
-probabilities, and more than happy if his fictions, while amusing an
-idle hour, have also anything of stimulus and encouragement.
-
-HERBERT STRANG.
-
-
-
-
-                                CONTENTS
-
-CHAP.
-
-I  A CHANCE MEETING
-II  SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE
-III  STONEWAY ENLISTS
-IV  THREE ROUNDS
-V  THE BACK OF THE FRONT
-VI  BAGGING A SNIPER
-VII  IN THE ENEMY'S LINES
-VIII  SKY HIGH
-IX  D.C.M.
-X  HOT WORK
-XI  THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GINGER
-XII  DOGGED
-XIII  THE FIGHT FOR THE VILLAGE
-XIV  THE HIKIOTOSHI
-XV  THE OBSERVATION POST
-XVI  EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY
-XVII  STRATEGY
-XVIII  USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY
-XIX  SUSPICIONS
-XX  MONSIEUR OBERNAI'S ATTIC
-XXI  MARKED DOWN
-XXII  'RECOMMENDED'
-
-
-
-
-                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-A FOUL BLOW . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ (_see page_ 52)
-
-"HANDS UP!"
-
-A LONG WAY BACK
-
-THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I
-
-                            A CHANCE MEETING
-
-
-Mr. Kishimaru smiled, and rubbed his long lean hands gently the one over
-the other.
-
-"Yes, Mr. Amory, you make great progress," he said, in low smooth tones,
-and with the careful enunciation of one speaking a foreign tongue.  "You
-will be an artist. Yes, I assure you: jujutsu is a fine art; more than
-that, it is an application of pure science.  I say that, and I know.
-Compare it with boxing, that which your grandfathers called the noble
-art.  Rapidity of movement, yes; quickness of eye and judgment, yes; but
-delicacy of touch--ah! jujutsu has it, boxing no.  There is nothing
-brutal about jujutsu."
-
-Kenneth Amory smiled back at the enthusiastic little Japanese, and
-rubbed his left shoulder.
-
-"Nothing brutal, I agree," he said.  "But it has been a dry summer, Mr.
-Kishimaru."
-
-"A dry summer?" the Japanese repeated, still smiling, but with an air of
-puzzlement.
-
-"Yes; the turf's uncommonly hard, and I came down a pretty good whack
-that last time."
-
-"I am sorry.  You have not quite recovered your strength yet, or you
-would not have fallen so heavily.  But you do well; it is good exercise,
-for body and mind too. A little rest, and we will try another throw."
-
-Kenneth Amory was seated on a bench on the lawn where, in summer, Mr.
-Kishimaru instructed his pupils in the fine art of jujutsu.  He wore a
-loose white belted tunic and shorts: head and legs were bare. Mr.
-Kishimaru, a wiry little Japanese of about thirty-five, similarly clad,
-walked up and down, expounding the principles of his art.
-
-A bell rang in the house.  The garden door opened, and a tall young
-fellow of some twenty years came with quick step on to the lawn.
-
-"Hullo, Kishimaru!" he cried.  "How do?  Have you got a minute?"  He
-glanced towards the figure on the bench, but did not wait for an answer.
-"Just back from Canada--to enlist.  Got to smash the Germans, you know.
-But look here; just spare a minute to show me the Koshinage, will you?
-I was in a lumber camp, you know, out west; lumbering's hard work; no
-cricket or anything else; had to do something; taught 'em jujutsu, odd
-times, you know. But the Koshinage--I fairly came to grief over that:
-tried it on a big chap, and came a regular cropper.  Made me look pretty
-small; I'd been explaining that I'd throw any fellow, no matter how big.
-Somehow it didn't come off: must have forgotten something, I suppose.
-I've only got a few minutes; have to catch the 4.30 at St. Pancras; just
-put me through it once or twice, there's a good chap."
-
-Mr. Kishimaru rubbed his hands all through this impetuous address.  He
-was always pleased to see an old pupil, and Harry Randall, voluble,
-always in a hurry, had been one of his best pupils a year or two before.
-
-"I am delighted to see you, Mr. Randall," he said.  "If you will
-change----"
-
-"No time for that.  I'll strip to my shirt, be ready in a winking."
-
-He threw off coat and waistcoat, wrenched off his collar, with some
-peril to the stud, and knotting his braces about his waist, stood ready.
-Meanwhile Mr. Kishimaru had stepped to the bench.
-
-"The Koshinage is the exercise we have been practising, Mr. Amory," he
-said. "Perhaps you will be good enough to go through it with Mr.
-Randall, an old pupil.  I will watch, and criticise if necessary."
-
-Amory sprang up.  In the newcomer he had at once recognised a
-schoolfellow--Randy, they used to call him; a fellow everybody liked;
-impulsive, generous, easy-going, always in scrapes, always ready to
-argue with boys or masters.  They had left school at the same time, and
-had not seen each other since.
-
-Mr. Kishimaru explained to Randall that his pupil would practise the
-exercise with him, and was about to introduce the two formally.  But
-Randall anticipated him.
-
-"Hullo, Amory!" he cried.  "It's you. Didn't recognise you.  Come on; no
-time to spare."
-
-Without more ado they took up position for the exercise, holding each
-other as though they were going to waltz.  Then they made one or two
-rapid steps, Mr. Kishimaru skipping round them, intently watching their
-movements.  With a sudden turning on his toes and bending of the knees,
-Amory dragged Randall from behind on to his right hip.  A jerk of the
-left arm and the straightening of the knees lifted Randall's feet from
-the ground, and in another moment he was hoisted over Amory's hip to his
-left front and deposited on his back.
-
-"Excellent!  Excellent!" cried Mr. Kishimaru.
-
-"Just what I tried to do with big Heneky, and came bash to the ground
-with him on top of me," said Randall.  "But it's knack, not strength.
-I'm heavier than Amory. Show me the trick."
-
-Mr. Kishimaru placed them again in position, showed Randall how to get
-advantage in the preliminary grip, and left them. In a few seconds Amory
-was thrown.
-
-"You have it, Mr. Randall," said the Japanese, rubbing his hands with
-pleasure. "It is like a problem in chess: white to play and mate in
-three moves.  It is inevitable, given the position; it is mathematics,
-mechanics, applied to the muscular human frame..."
-
-"That's all right, old chap," interrupted Randall.  "Knack, I call it.
-Once more, Amory, then I must be off."
-
-But at the third attempt he failed, and he would not be satisfied until
-he had performed the feat three times in succession.  Then, looking at
-his watch, he found that he was too late for his train.
-
-"Can't be helped," he said.  "I'll go down to-morrow.  Come along to my
-hotel, Amory: haven't said how-de-do yet.  We'll have some grub and a
-talk.  But you've got to change.  Can't wait.  I'll do some shopping and
-wire home to the governor; you'll find me at the Arundel.  Dinner seven
-sharp: don't be late."
-
-"The same old Randy!" thought Amory, smiling as he went into the house
-to change.
-
-At seven o'clock he found Randall walking restlessly up and down in
-front of the hotel.
-
-"Here you are.  I've bagged a table. It's jolly to see you again
-after--how long is it?  Remember Shovel?  He's got a commission in the
-Fusiliers.  Give me your hat. Want a wash?  I landed yesterday; come
-6000 miles, by Jove!"
-
-And so, darting from one subject to another, he led the way to the
-coffee-room. Before the soup arrived he started again.
-
-"Heard the news right away in the backwoods.  Lot of Germans and
-Austrians in the camp.  They began to crow.  I slipped away; had to
-tramp ten days to the rail. Gave a hint to the police, and hope all
-those aliens are now in gaol.  Extraordinary enthusiasm in Canada, old
-chap.  They wanted me to join their contingent, but I'd already applied
-for a commission at home.  People here seem to take things very coolly.
-It'll be a bigger thing than they realise.  And this rot in the papers
-about the Germans' funk--running away, crying their eyes out! Stupid
-nonsense, believe me.  Had a letter in New York from my governor.  Jolly
-exciting voyage, I can tell you.  All lights out; wireless going
-constantly; alarm one night: German cruiser fifty miles away. We all
-crowded on deck.  By and by lookout signalled a vessel.  We held our
-breath: turned out to be a British cruiser.  Captain gave our skipper
-instructions for the course. We took ten days instead of five.  What'll
-you drink?"
-
-Amory having intimated his modest choice Randall went on:
-
-"Things'll have to wake up here.  My governor's men are a lot of
-rotters.  Wrote me that out of five hundred or so only about a dozen had
-'listed.  Disgraceful, I call it. I'd sack 'em, but I know the governor
-won't; he's against compulsion.  I'm going down to-morrow to stir 'em
-up.  Haven't come 6000 miles for nothing.  By the way, what are you
-doing?  You were a sergeant in the O.T.C.  Of course you'd get a
-commission right away.  I shall never forget your cheek.  Nearly died of
-laughing when you went up to the O.C. and asked him to make you a
-corporal.  'What for?' says he.  'I've been a private long enough, sir,'
-says you, as cool as you please.  But I say, what are you doing?"
-
-"I've been rather seedy," said Amory, amused at his friend's chatter,
-but not yet disposed to tell him that he had already seen service in
-Belgium.
-
-"But you're fit now, eh?  You'll apply?"
-
-"Yes, I suppose I shall."
-
-"Why, hang it all, man, why suppose? They're awfully slow at the War
-Office.  I applied at once; passed the doctor and all that.  I shan't
-wait much longer.  There's a Public School Corps forming; I shall join
-that.  I daresay they'll give me a platoon. I say, why not join too?
-We're sure to find a lot of our old fellows in it; we might make up a
-company.  I hate waiting about. What do you say?"
-
-"I'll think it over."
-
-"Oh, I say, man, what rot!  I tell you I've come 6000 miles to join.
-You used to be keen enough."  A cloud of disappointment, almost of
-affront, hovered upon his face.  Then suddenly he flashed a look of
-mingled horror and disgust at his friend. "You don't tell me you're a
-professional footballer?" he muttered.
-
-"No, no," replied Amory with a laugh. "Don't be alarmed, Randy; I shan't
-sit at home and read the papers."
-
-"That's all right, then.  But do make up your mind, there's a good chap.
-I tell you what, what's your address?  I'll wire you to-morrow when I've
-had a go at the governor's men.  Twelve out of five hundred!--no wonder
-the poor old governor is biffy. It's a disgrace.  Well, I'll wire you;
-let you know how I get on as a recruiting officer. Then we'll meet
-somewhere.  Find out the headquarters of the Public School Corps, will
-you? and make up your mind to join that with me.  It won't spoil your
-chance of a commission--perhaps hurry it up. Anyway, it will be jolly to
-be together.... Waiter, bring me some more of that souffl�. You don't
-get things like that in the backwoods, Amory."
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER II
-
-                         SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE
-
-
-Kenneth on his way home looked in at the doctor's.  An attack of
-influenza after his return from Belgium had pulled him down, and he had
-put off joining the army until assured of his complete recovery.  As he
-put it to the doctor: "A crock would be no use to K. of K."
-
-"You'll do," said the doctor after thoroughly overhauling him.  "All you
-want is a little hardening up.  I'll give you a prescription.  The
-open-air life of the army will do you good.  And I wish you luck."
-
-Thus fortified, as soon as he got home he posted an application for a
-commission in the Flying Corps.
-
-Next day, soon after lunch, he received a telegram from Randall.
-
-"No go.  Slackers.  Mules.  Governor mad. Come and lend a hand."
-
-He handed the telegram to his mother.
-
-"What does it mean?" she asked. "Your friend must be rather a curious
-person."
-
-"Oh, it's just Randy," said Kenneth, who had told his mother of his
-meeting with Randall on the previous day.  "At school he always wanted
-to lug everybody with him. I don't see what I can do.  I'll wire him."
-
-He wrote on the reply-paid form:
-
-"Sorry.  Not my line."
-
-Within a couple of hours came a second telegram.
-
-"Rotter.  Writing."
-
-Next morning's post brought the letter.
-
-"You simply must come.  What do you mean, not your line?  How do you
-know till you try? Here I've come 6000 miles--but I told you that
-before.  This is the situation.  The governor is raving: never saw him
-so biffy.  He got a spouter down from London, who lectured the men in
-the dinner-hour, waved a flag and all that.  The men only jeered.
-Governor says I'll only make them worse if I try; calls me a
-scatter-brain; I assure you he's in a deuce of a wax.  Used to be as
-meek as Moses; wouldn't hear of compulsion; he's turned completely over,
-talks of sacking the men, closing the works, conscription, and so on and
-so forth. Something must be done.  You were always a cool hand; come and
-let's talk things over, at any rate: smooth the governor down; he won't
-listen to a word from me, and in my opinion goes the wrong way to work.
-I told him I was inviting you; best pal at school, cock of the House,
-going to join with me: so on and so forth.  He'll be glad to see you."
-
-"A very strange person," remarked Mrs. Amory when she had read the
-letter.
-
-"Perhaps I had better go," said Kenneth. "Of course I can't do any good
-with the men, but it will please Randy, and my being on the spot may
-prevent him and his father from coming to loggerheads.  They're both
-peppery, evidently."
-
-Accordingly, Kenneth travelled by the 10.30 from St. Pancras, and
-reached the small midland town in time for lunch.  He saw at once that
-Mr. Randall himself was at any rate partly responsible for this trouble.
-A prosperous manufacturer, he was inclined to be dictatorial and was
-certainly no diplomatist.  Full of patriotic zeal himself, deploring the
-fact that he was too old for active service, a special constable, an
-energetic member of the local home defence corps, he had expected all
-his able-bodied men to rush to the colours, promised to keep their
-places for them, and to make up their pay for the sake of their
-dependents.  The paltry response filled him with fury. Without taking
-the trouble to discover the cause of the general reluctance he poured
-scorn upon the skulkers, talked of the white feather, tried to dragoon
-them into volunteering, threatened to sack them or close the works, with
-the result that the men stiffened their backs and defied him.  Clearly
-he did not know how to handle men in an emergency like the present.
-
-At lunch Kenneth tactfully listened to his host's outpourings, without
-offering any criticism or suggestion.
-
-"Good man!" said Randall, when he and Kenneth were alone.  "Let him blow
-off! That's the way."
-
-"What have you done?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"Not much.  I wanted to make a speech to the men, but the governor
-wouldn't let me.  Now, am I a scatter-brain?  D'you think that's fair?
-Anyway, I'm his son! But I spoke to old Griggs, our foreman; asked him
-why the men won't enlist.  ''Cos they're Englishmen,' says he.  'What's
-the meaning of that?' says I.  'Won't be druv,' says he.  'Rather be led
-by the nose,' says he."
-
-"What did he mean?"
-
-"Well, it appears that the fellows take their cue from two ringleaders.
-One of them's a man named Stoneway, only been here about six months: I
-don't know him. But I know the other chap--a carrot-headed fellow named
-Murgatroyd; Yorkshire, I suppose: the men call him Ginger.  He's been
-with us years: came as a boy.  A rough customer, I can tell you: a jolly
-good workman, but a regular demon for mischief. All the same, you can't
-help liking him. He's a sportsman, too: good at boxing, a first-class
-forward, just the fellow you'd expect to be the first to go.  Griggs
-told me he didn't expect to see him back after his week's holiday in
-August: but he turned up a day or two late, and backed up Stoneway
-against the governor.  He'll be sacked at the end of the week, sure as a
-gun."
-
-"Those two are the men you must tackle, then," said Kenneth.  "Bring
-them round, and the rest will follow like sheep--or donkeys, 'led by the
-nose,' as your Griggs says."
-
-"By the way, he told me the men are having a meeting in the yard at
-tea-time to discuss the governor's threats.  Shall we slip down and hear
-what they have to say?"
-
-"Our appearance might shut them up."
-
-"Not if I know our men--free and independent, don't care a rap for
-anyone: you know the sort.  They'd take a huge delight in letting us
-hear a few things about ourselves--idle rich, bloated capitalists and so
-on: which reminds me that I've got about twopence halfpenny.  We'll hear
-them spout, and tackle Stoneway and Ginger quietly afterwards."
-
-Shortly after four o'clock the two friends strolled into the works yard.
-Several hundreds of hands were there assembled, from engine boys and
-apprentices to grey seasoned veterans.  The most of them had tea cans,
-some were smoking.  At one end of the yard, standing on a tub, a stoutly
-built man of about thirty, with close cropped hair and thick brown beard
-and moustache, was haranguing the mob.
-
-Randall was recognised by some of the men, whose grins of greeting he
-acknowledged with nods.  A whisper ran round: "The young governor!"  It
-caught the ears of the man on the tub, who broke off his speech for a
-moment and glanced sharply at the two tall figures on the outskirts of
-the crowd.  Then he resumed what was evidently a studied peroration.
-
-"Is this a free country, or is it not, mates?" he cried, with a sweeping
-arm.  "If a man wants to fight, let him; I won't say a word against it.
-But when it comes to forcing him, then I say he's a slave, and all the
-talk about Britons never will be slaves is blankety rot, and I say that
-when an employer threatens to sack us or close the works because we
-don't feel called on to turn ourselves into gun-fodder, I say he's a
-nigger-driver and a tyrant.  And what's it for?  Are we invaded?  I'd
-defend my own home with any man.  But what do we pay the navy for?
-That's their job.  What I say is, let the French and the Russians do
-their own fighting.  It's no business of ours."
-
-"What about Belgium?" cried one of the boys.
-
-"'What about Belgium?' says the nipper. What has Belgium done for us?
-Perhaps the nipper will tell us.  Speak up....  Not a word, and why?
-Because Belgium has done nothing for us.  Then I ask you in the name of
-common sense why on earth we should do anything for Belgium?  Belgium
-has only herself to thank.  The Germans have promised to leave Belgium
-as soon as they have settled with the French, and even if they
-don't----"
-
-"Way there!" shouted Randall, elbowing his way through the crowd.  Cries
-of "Way for the young governor!" drowned the speaker's voice.  "Time's
-up, Stoneway!" sang out the boy who had questioned him. Kenneth followed
-his friend, hoping that he would be discreet.
-
-Stoneway descended from the tub, Randall mounted in his place.
-
-"Look here, men," he cried, "I came to listen, to get at your ideas, not
-to speak, but I can't keep quiet when I hear such stuff. We're free men:
-that's all right; but we're men of our word.  An Englishman's word: you
-know what people say about that. We've given our word to Belgium: if we
-break it we're mean skunks, we're disgraced for ever.  Besides, every
-decent chap loathes a bully, and Germany's just a great hulking bully.
-If you see a big chap hurting a little 'un, you want to knock him down.
-My father tells me that only about a dozen of you have enlisted.  What's
-the reason of it? You'd feel jolly well insulted if I called you
-cowards.  Are all you hundreds going to skulk at home while your mates
-do the fighting for you?  What'll you feel like in ten years' time?  You
-won't be able to look 'em in the face.  Here I've come 6000 miles to do
-my bit; buck up and show what you're made of."
-
-Randall's words tumbled out in a boiling flood.  There was some
-cheering, mingled with cries of "Ginger!" which grew in volume until the
-din was deafening. Presently there edged his way through the crowd a
-thin lank fellow with lean clean-shaven cheeks, deeply furrowed, and a
-touzled mop of reddish hair.  A red scarf was knotted about his neck.
-He slouched forward, hands in pockets, murmured "Afternoon, Mr. Harry,"
-as he passed Randall, mounted the tub, hitched up his breeches, drew the
-back of his hand across his mouth, and looked round, with a grin, upon
-his shouting fellow-workmen.  The noise subsided, and the crowd gazed
-expectantly up into their favourite's face.
-
-"We're all glad to see the young governor, mates," he said, in the broad
-accents of a north-countryman.  There was a volley of cheers.  "But we
-don't hold with him--and no offence.  I hold with Stoneway--every word
-of it."  He thumped the air. "Who made this war?  Not us: we wasn't
-consulted.  No: it was the nobs done it. Are we going to let 'em force
-us into it?"  (Shouts of "No!")  "We won't be druv. It's all very well
-for the officers: they get a comfortable billet and good pay.  Tommy
-gets the kicks and Percy gets the ha'pence."  ("Go it, Ginger!")  "Now,
-Mr. Harry, you've come 6000 miles--what for, sir? an officer's job, I
-take my oath."
-
-"That's true," said Randall.  "I've applied.  But----"
-
-"Hold on, sir.  There you are!  Just what I thought.  Well, I ain't got
-no personal objection to having a smack at the Germans; never seen a
-German yet but what I'd give him one on the boko, and if Lord
-Kitchener'd make me a lootenant or a capting in the Coldstream Guards,
-with a sword and eppylets and ten bob a day--well, I don't say I
-wouldn't consider it."  ("Bravo, Ginger!")  "But as it is, to be a
-private on one bob a day, and dock threepence or more, they tell me, for
-the missus and kids--I'm not having any."
-
-When the cheers that hailed his assertion had fallen away, Kenneth said
-quietly:
-
-"You forget that thousands of men have thrown up good jobs and
-sacrificed big incomes to join the ranks."
-
-"Not in these parts, governor.  Down here they give their subscriptions
-to this, that, and the other, and reduce their men's wages, if they
-don't sack 'em.  And if it comes to that, what have _you_ done?"
-
-A breathless silence settled upon the crowd. All eyes were fixed on the
-young governor's friend, awaiting his reply to this poser. Kenneth had
-an inspiration.
-
-"It doesn't matter what I've done," he said, quietly, but in a tone that
-carried his words to the corners of the yard.  "But I'll tell you what
-I'll do, and if I know my friend Mr. Randall, he'll do the same.  If you
-men will enlist, we'll enlist with you, and share and share alike."
-
-The man was taken aback.  He looked from Kenneth to Randall: his mates
-watched him curiously.  "One for you, Ginger!" cried the irrepressible
-boy.
-
-"D'you mean that, sir?" asked the man.
-
-"Certainly," said Kenneth.
-
-"It's a firm offer, Ginger," added Randall.
-
-"Privates--no kid?"
-
-"A bob a day," said Kenneth.
-
-For a half-minute or so Ginger had the air of one who is caught out.  He
-looked round among his mates, grinning awkwardly, avoiding their eyes.
-They were silent, watching him.  All at once he burst into a guffaw,
-wiped his mouth, and with frank good-humour cried:
-
-"Well, hanged if you ain't good sports. Come on, mates.  Who's for
-Kitchener's army and a smack at the Germans?  I'm number one."
-
-The crowd was captured by the sporting spirit.  Striking while the iron
-was hot, Randall and Kenneth headed a procession to the recruiting
-office.  Mr. Randall, called to his window by the tramp of many feet and
-the strains of "It's a long long way to Tipperary," was amazed to see
-hundreds of his young workmen marching with linked arms behind the two
-young fellows.  He rang for Griggs.
-
-"What does this mean, Griggs?" he asked.
-
-"Gone to enlist, sir.  We shall be very short-handed."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III
-
-                            STONEWAY ENLISTS
-
-
-Mr. Randall pulled a wry face when he heard of Kenneth's impulsive
-action.  At the dinner-table he spoke his mind.
-
-"This won't do, you know.  You are both certain to obtain commissions.
-I don't object to your serving as Tommies for a week or two, for the
-sake of example, you know; but I'm not going to allow you to let
-yourself down permanently, Harry.  Your friend, of course, can do as he
-pleases."
-
-"I've promised, Father," said Harry.
-
-"Promised what, may I ask?"
-
-"To share and share alike with the men."
-
-"Fiddlesticks!  It won't do.  Good gracious, what are we coming to?  The
-whole social order will be destroyed.  You'll succeed me at the head of
-this business, when you've settled down and are a trifle less
-scatter-brained than you are now.  How in the world do you expect to
-maintain the proper relation between employer and employed if you put
-yourself on a level with the hands?  Look at it logically.  Take it that
-I myself had been idiot enough to do as you've done, and put myself in
-the position to be ordered about by some factory hand who happened to be
-a sergeant, or some young whipper-snapper fresh from school who happened
-to have got a commission: what would become of my authority, I should
-like to know?  How could I maintain control over my workmen?  Do look at
-it reasonably.  It's preposterous."
-
-The idea of portly Mr. Randall as a Tommy was almost too much for the
-boys' gravity. But Harry answered meekly:
-
-"Well, we've enlisted over a hundred men, and there'll be more
-to-morrow.  That's what you wanted, Dad, isn't it?  You won't have to
-close down now."
-
-"But I didn't want my son to consort with a lot of roughs--socialists,
-too, to a man, by gad!  You can't associate with such fellows without
-getting coarsened, and besides, as I said before, it's the principle of
-the thing--the principle of social order, caste, call it what you like.
-Destroy caste, and you ruin old England.  Come now, I'll see the
-colonel, and he'll arrange to get you gazetted to the regiment.  You'll
-then be in a natural position of authority over my men, and I'll be
-proud to think that my works has furnished a contingent to the New Army,
-with my own son as one of the officers."
-
-"You ought to have lived in the middle ages, Dad," said Harry,
-admiringly.  "What a jolly old feudal chief you'd have been! But it
-can't be done.  Amory and I have thrown in our lot with the men, and
-we'll stick it: we can't go back on our word."
-
-"I'll see that you have proper under-clothing, my dear," said Mrs.
-Randall. "I'm told that some of the poor men have only one shirt."
-
-"Shirts!" cried Mr. Randall.  "Oh, I'm out of all patience with you.  Do
-as you please, do as you please.  I wash my hands of it.  Don't expect
-any sympathy from me if you are disgusted, horrified, in a week."
-
-As Harry had said, more than a hundred of the men had already given in
-their names. Next day a still larger number volunteered, and when the
-medical tests had been applied, it was found that the recruits from the
-Randall works were enough to form a company.  This accordingly was
-scheduled as No. 3 Company in the 17th Service Battalion of a regiment
-which, for reasons which will appear in the course of this narrative, we
-shall know as the Rutland Light Infantry.
-
-Colonel Appleton, the officer commanding, sent for Harry and Kenneth in
-the course of the day.
-
-"Look here, young fellows," he said, "you're both O.T.C. men, aren't
-you?"
-
-They confessed that they were.
-
-"Well, I'm short of officers.  They've sent me several boys without any
-experience at all, who'll want a thundering lot of licking into shape.
-I'll put you both down, glad to have somebody who knows something about
-company drill."
-
-"Thank you, sir," said Harry, "but we only got the men to enlist by
-promising to go in with them."
-
-"That's all very well, but nobody can object to promotion.  The men will
-think it the most natural thing in the world for you to officer them."
-
-The boys, however, persisted in their refusal.
-
-"Nonsense," said the colonel.  "I'll give you twenty-four hours' leave
-to think it over.  There'll be nothing doing for a day or two.  It's
-chaos at present: no uniforms, no boots, no earthly thing.  Come and see
-me this time to-morrow, and tell me you've changed your mind."
-
-As they left, they saw Ginger and two or three other men on the opposite
-side of the street, evidently on the watch for them. Ginger took his
-hands out of his pockets, wiped his mouth, and came across the road.
-
-"Beg pardon, sir," he said to Harry, "but we only want to know where we
-are. The question is, have we got to salute you, or ain't we?"
-
-"Of course not.  That's a silly question. We're all Tommies together."
-
-"There you are, now, what did I say?" Ginger called to his mates.
-"Unbelieving Jews they are," he added, addressing Harry. "Said it was
-all kid, and you'd come out majors or lootenants or something.  I knowed
-better."
-
-"Make your minds easy on that score, Ginger.  We've given our word."
-
-"That's a bob lost to Stoneway."
-
-"By the way, Stoneway hasn't enlisted, of course."
-
-"Not him!  He bet you'd get yourselves turned into officers as soon as
-you'd raked us in.  That's a day's pay extra for me."
-
-"That fellow Stoneway is a bit of a riddle," said Kenneth as they passed
-on. "Judging by his speech the other day, he's better educated than
-most--a Scot perhaps; there's a sort of burr in his accent."
-
-"I daresay," replied his friend.  "A fellow who likes the sound of his
-own voice, I fancy.  Cantankerous: always agin the Government; you know
-the sort."
-
-"Well, old chap, as we've got twenty-four hours' leave I'll run up to
-town and explain things to the mater, make a few business arrangements
-and so on.  I'll be back to lunch to-morrow."
-
-"All right.  I suppose they'll put us in billets for the present, so
-I'll arrange to have you billeted on the governor.  He'll get seven bob
-a day for the two of us; rather a rag, eh?"
-
-Kenneth was early at the station on his return journey next morning.
-The platform was crowded, a good sprinkling of men in khaki mingling
-with the civilian passengers always to be seen before the departure of a
-north-going express.
-
-Standing at the bookstall, deliberating on a choice of something to
-read, Kenneth heard behind him the accents of a voice which he had heard
-so recently as to recognise it at once, though the few words he caught
-were French.  He glanced over his shoulder and was not surprised to see
-Stoneway, the orator of Mr. Randall's yard.  The man was walking up the
-platform beside a companion somewhat older than himself, upon whose arm
-he rested his hand as he spoke earnestly to him.
-
-"A French Socialist, I suppose," thought Kenneth.  "One of the anti-war
-people. Well, war is horrible, and I don't know I wouldn't agree with
-them if they had the power to put a stop to it altogether.  But they
-haven't, and that French fellow had better realise that we've got to
-lick the Germans first.  I was evidently right about Stoneway: he's
-better educated than most working men."
-
-He bought a magazine, and thought no more of the matter, seeing nothing
-further of the two men.  As he stepped into a first-class compartment he
-smiled at the thought that it was probably the last time for many a long
-day.  Henceforth he was to be a "Tommy."
-
-Harry met him at the station.
-
-"Billets no go, old chap," was his greeting. "We're quartered in an old
-factory--beastly hole.  But I've told the colonel we're going to stick
-it.  Come along.  They're going to serve out uniforms this afternoon; no
-fitting required!  You'll be rather difficult: average chest but extra
-long arms. I suppose we might buy our own, but we'd better make shift
-with the rest.  And I say, who do you think we've got for one of our
-officers?"
-
-"Who?"
-
-"You remember that squirt, Dick Kennedy?"
-
-"You don't say so!"
-
-"That's just what I do say.  I was loafing about the barracks when he
-came up to me, fresh as paint in his new uniform. 'What O, Randall!'
-says he.  'You here, too?  Ordered your kit, I suppose?'  'I believe
-it's on order,' said I, and I saluted, just for the fun of the thing.
-'Oh, I say, we don't do that to each other,' says he; 'we don't salute
-anyone under a major, do we?'  'I don't want a dose of clink--already,'
-said I.  'What on earth do you mean?' says he.  Then I told him, and you
-should have seen his face!  He wouldn't believe me at first, and went as
-red as a turkey-cock when I said I wouldn't mind earning half-a-crown
-extra a week as his servant."
-
-"I always thought him a bit of an ass at school," said Kenneth, "but a
-genial ass, you know.  He wasn't in the O.T.C., and I expect we shall
-have some sport with him."
-
-They went on to the large disused factory which had been turned into
-barracks for the occasion.  The quartermaster was superintending the
-allocation of uniforms, and they were in due course fitted more or less
-with khaki and boots.  As yet there were no belts, bandoliers or rifles.
-
-The basement of the factory consisted of two large halls with bare brick
-walls and concrete floors.  One of them, to be used as a drill hall, was
-empty.  The other was fitted up with wooden frames to serve as sleeping
-bunks.  At one end was a platform on which stood a piano, and one of the
-recruits was laboriously thumping out a rag-time.  Another was playing a
-different tune on a penny whistle.  At one corner four men were absorbed
-in halfpenny nap; elsewhere groups were amusing themselves in various
-ways.
-
-Kenneth and his friend joined one of these.  There was a little
-stiffness at first. The workmen, ranging in years from nineteen to
-thirty-five or so, were a little shy and subdued in the company of the
-"young governor."  But the ice was broken when Ginger came up, his
-square mouth broadened in a grin.  He was about to touch his cap to
-Harry, but altered his mind when he remembered the situation, and wiped
-his lips instead.
-
-"Bet you don't never guess," he said.
-
-"What's up, Ginger?" asked his mates in chorus.
-
-"Why, Stoneway--he's been and gone and done it."
-
-"What's he been and gone and done? Not done himself in?"
-
-"Course not!  Think he's broke his heart 'cause of losing us, then?  No
-fear!  He's 'listed, that's what he's done."
-
-"Garn!"
-
-"True as I'm standing here.  He's 'listed right enough.  He's got a
-chest on him too; forty inches, doctor said.  He's been and got shaved;
-he'll be along here presently.  His beard, that is.  We can let our
-moustaches grow now, if we like."  He rubbed his upper lip.
-"Hair-brush, that's what it is.  Bet a penny it's as good as Stoneway's
-under six weeks."
-
-"But what's he 'listed for, after all his jaw?" asked one of the men.
-
-"Converted, that's what he is," Ginger replied.  "Seen the error of his
-ways, or else he's so sweet on me he couldn't bear the parting.  'You
-made me love you, I didn't want to do it,'" he hummed.  "This here khaki
-looks all right, mates, don't it? Matches my hair.  Here, old
-cockalorum," he shouted to the man at the piano, "we've had enough of
-that there funeral march. Play more cheerful, or we'll all be swimming
-in our tears."
-
-Ginger's high spirits were infectious, and the group of which Kenneth
-and Harry formed a part chatted and laughed away the afternoon.
-
-Just before ten o'clock they were arranging their simple beds on the
-frames when a chorus of yells, cat-calls, whistles, and other discordant
-noises caused them to look around the hall.  Stoneway had just made his
-appearance.  It was a different Stoneway. The brown beard was gone, the
-long and flourishing moustache had been clipped to bristly stiffness,
-revealing heavy lips and a full round chin.  The man bore his uproarious
-greeting with a defiant glare, and only looked annoyed when Ginger
-shouted:
-
-"Smart, ain't he?  Doesn't look so much like a blinky German, does he?"
-
-The bugle sounded the Last Post, the electric light was switched off,
-and the five hundred men of the 17th Rutland Light Infantry clambered
-into their bunks and sought repose.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IV
-
-                              THREE ROUNDS
-
-
-At six o'clock next morning sergeant-majors and corporals went round the
-hall stirring up the sleepers.  There were groans and grumbles, but the
-men turned out, and there was a general dash for the washing basins--one
-among twenty men--and a free fight for the razors.  Our two friends had
-brought their own safeties and pocket mirrors, and when they had
-finished operating upon their downy cheeks there was a competition among
-their new messmates for the loan of those indispensable articles.
-
-"Your bristles will ruin a blade in no time, Ginger," said Harry, as he
-handed over the razor, somewhat ruefully.
-
-"Perseverance, that's all you want," replied Ginger, through the lather.
-"Yours 'll be as hard as mine in time."
-
-At half-past six each man seized a mug and rushed off to the cook-house
-across the yard for cocoa.  They sat about the hall, swilling the
-morning beverage, grumbling at the blankets, asking one another who'd be
-a soldier; then they rubbed up their boots and made their beds, and were
-ready for the seven o'clock parade.
-
-Dressed only in their shirts and slacks they formed up in the
-drill-hall.  There was a good deal of disorder, and the N.C.O.'s, in
-early-morning temper, roared above the din.  It happened that Dick
-Kennedy was orderly officer for the week.  When the men were at last
-ranged in ranks, dressed, and numbered by the sergeants, he posted
-himself in front and, with a nervous twitching of the lips, said
-gently--
-
-"Battalion, 'shun!"
-
-"Louder, louder!" whispered a fellow-officer who had come up behind him.
-"This isn't a mothers' meeting."
-
-The second lieutenant tried again.
-
-"Battalion, 'shun!  Advance in fours from the right.  Form fours!"
-
-Some of the men knew what to do, but many of the new recruits looked
-about them blankly.
-
-"You don't know the movements?" said the lieutenant.  "Well, when I say
-'form fours,' even numbers take one pace to the left with the left foot
-and one pace to the right with the right.  Now, form fours!"
-
-The result was disorder--jostling in the ranks, cries of "Who're you
-a-shoving of!"
-
-"Sorry!  My mistake!" said Kennedy, with a smile.  "We'll try again.  I
-should have said, 'one pace to the rear with the left foot.'  Now then,
-form fours!"
-
-His cheerfulness won the men's sympathy, and the order being now
-correctly carried out, one or two of them cheered.
-
-"Silence in the ranks!" roared Kennedy. "Right!  Quick march!" and the
-battalion marched off.
-
-The day's work began with a run for three-quarters of an hour, to the
-bank of a river some two miles away.  A "run" so called, for it
-consisted of slow and quick march and doubling in turn.  At eight
-o'clock they were back in the hall for breakfast: tea, bread and bacon,
-sausage or cheese. The provisions were good, the men had healthy
-appetites, and at 9.15, when the battalion orders of the day were read,
-they were contented and cheerful.
-
-Marching out to the parade ground, a field in the neighbourhood, they
-spent an hour in physical drill under experienced N.C.O. instructors,
-and then a couple of hours in company drill.  Dismissed at 12.15, they
-met again for dinner at 1, a plentiful meal of meat pie and vegetables.
-Then came a route march and extended order drill, tea at 4.30, with jam
-and tinned fruits, and at 5.30 company lectures.
-
-"It'll be rummy to hear Kennedy lecture," said Harry, sitting beside
-Kenneth on the form.  "I wonder what he'll spout about."
-
-"Poor chap!" said Kenneth.  "I'm beginning to think the Tommies haven't
-the worst of it.  Keep a straight face whatever he says."
-
-Somewhat to his surprise, when Kennedy appeared the men were at once
-silent.  The habit of discipline was strong in those who had already
-served in the Regulars or the Territorials; the recruits were interested
-in the novel circumstances, and subdued by the indefinable influence of
-constituted authority.
-
-"Now, men," began Kennedy, unfolding his notes and studiously avoiding
-the eyes of his old school-fellows, "I'm going to say a few words to you
-on Feet."
-
-"My poor tootsies!" murmured one of the men.
-
-"We have all got feet," Kennedy went on, "but do we all know how to use
-them?"
-
-"Give us a ball and we'll show you, sir," cried a voice.
-
-"Well, I hope we'll have some footer by and by, but that's not the
-present question. We have just done a ten-mile walk.  Two or three of
-you fell out, two or three were limping before we got back.  Why was
-that?"
-
-"'Cos we ain't used to it, sir," said one of the unlucky ones.
-
-"Ate too much pie and 'taters, sir," cried another.
-
-"Got a corn inside o' my toe," said a third.
-
-"Well, we'll leave out greediness for the present: that's a moral defect
-which perhaps one of the senior officers will deal with. We'll confine
-our attention to the proper care of the feet."
-
-And he went on to give some simple and practical advice as to bathing,
-greasing, methods of hardening, until six o'clock struck, and the men
-were dismissed until first post at 9.30.
-
-"Call that a lecture!" scoffed Stoneway, when the officer had gone.
-"Does he take us for an infant school?  Giving us pap like that!"
-
-"You shut your face!" said Ginger. "The young feller spoke downright
-good common sense, much better 'n you'd expect from a chap as went to
-one of them there public schools.  He said a thing or two I didn't know,
-nor you either, Stoneway. 'Course he didn't go to the root of it;
-dursn't cry stinking fish.  What's the root?  Why, boots.  These 'ere
-things they've gi'en us, they're no good.  They're made to raise
-blisters, they are, and they'll just mash when we get the rain."
-
-"They're only temporary, I believe," said Kenneth, "till the factories
-can turn out army boots in sufficient quantities."
-
-"That's the English Government all over," said Stoneway, with a sneer.
-"Nothing ready: no boots, no rifles----"
-
-"Oh, stow it!" cried Ginger.  "What did you 'list for if you're going to
-grouse all the time?  The worst of it is, you can't resign: we shall
-have to put up with you, I s'pose, unless you mutiny, or strike your
-superior officer, or do something else to get dismissed the army.  Come
-on, boys; let's go and see the pictures.  We'll be back in time to draw
-some soup from the cook-house, 8.30 to 9."
-
-That is a fair sample of the day's work during the next two or three
-months.  It was monotonous, but, during the dry autumn, healthy.  When
-the rainy weather set in, hardship began to be felt.  The men often got
-drenched to the skin; their temporary boots, as Ginger had foretold,
-became pulp.  The factory was bleak and draughty, in spite of its gas
-stoves.  There was a certain amount of sickness, and an increase in the
-number of offenders to be dealt with every morning by the colonel. But
-the men were well fed, and cheered by presents of tobacco and cigarettes
-from kindly townsfolk; and many wet, dull evenings were enlivened by
-concerts and entertainments got up by friends of the officers.
-
-Kenneth and Harry steadfastly declined offers of promotion as N.C.O.'s,
-but owing to their knowledge of drill they were made right and left
-guides of their platoon.  They bought a football, and got up
-inter-company matches in which No. 3 Company distinguished itself.
-Indeed, both in work and play No. 3 Company became the crack company of
-the battalion.  The captain, an old army man who had been retired some
-years and was some little time picking up the details of the new drill,
-was a good sportsman and a hard worker, and by the end of January the
-company was thoroughly efficient and knit together by that esprit de
-corps which is the soul of fighting men.
-
-Then came vaccination and inoculation. Stoneway was the ringleader of a
-little group that declined the doctor's attentions, to the disgust of
-Ginger and the majority.
-
-"You're a traitor, that's what you are," said Ginger to Stoneway when
-the latter flatly declined to be poisoned, as he put it. "You'll go and
-catch some rotten disease or other and give it to us."
-
-"This is a free country," retorted Stoneway.  "And as to you, you're a
-turncoat. Weren't you always spouting against the war?  Didn't I back
-you up?  Who caved in as meek as a lamb?"
-
-"Well, you followed along with the other sheep, didn't you?  What you
-joined for goodness only knows.  You're always grousing about something
-or other.  Bacon's too fat, then it's too lean; cheese is dry, then it's
-damp; you pick out little bits of lead out of the pear gravy, and spread
-'em round your plate and put on a face like a holy martyr.  You sit at
-lecture with a snigger on your ugly mug; the pianner's out of tune;
-nobody can sing for nuts; _you_ take jolly good care you don't do
-nothing to amuse the company.  Nothing's right; you always know better
-'n anyone else; lummy, I believe you think you ought to be capting, if
-not commander-in-chief.  What did you join for, that's what I want to
-know.  I tell you straight, we've had enough of your grousing.  Why
-don't you take your grumbles to the officers?  'Any complaints?' says
-they when they come round inspecting; why don't you speak up like a man?
-No fear; you ain't got a word to say.  All you can do is to growl when
-they ain't by, and try to make yourself big before all the dirty swipes
-of the regiment.  Why, look at the other night, when they gave the
-alarm, and we was all confined to barricks: what did you do then?  When
-all those nice young ladies came with their fiddles and things and sang
-and played to us proper, gave us fags all round, too, you must get up in
-a corner with your dirty lot and make such a deuce of a row we couldn't
-hear a word of 'Dolly Grey'--my favourite song, too!  If I'd been
-colonel I'd have given you a good dose of clink straight away, and so
-now you know it."
-
-Ginger had fairly let himself go, and the applause that followed his
-speech showed that he voiced the opinion of the majority. Stoneway made
-no reply, but gradually edged away.
-
-This was the culmination of an estrangement which had been developing
-between the two men ever since the company was formed.  Whatever had
-brought them together previously, their enlistment had sundered them
-completely.  Ginger, whose backing Stoneway had been wont to count on in
-any attack on authority, was now the most orderly as well as the
-cheeriest man in the company.  He passed off with a jest every hardship
-of that trying winter. "Think of those poor chaps in the trenches," he
-would say, if someone complained of the cold or a wetting.  Stoneway
-clearly resented his change of spirit, though it was a puzzle to the
-better disposed among the men why he could have expected a display of
-insubordination from these enthusiastic recruits in the New Army.
-
-It must be admitted that Ginger took no pains to conciliate his old
-companion.  He did not launch out again into invective, but assumed the
-still more irritating airs of a humorous observer.  From time to time he
-let fall a jesting word that had a sting, and took a delight in chaffing
-Stoneway in the presence of other men.  And since Stoneway himself
-turned out to be no match for Ginger in these little bouts of wordy war,
-and Ginger always managed to keep his temper, Stoneway became more and
-more furious, and fell to meditating reprisals.
-
-One Saturday afternoon, after a more than usually smart exchange of
-banter on the one hand and abuse on the other, Ginger was sent by the
-quartermaster to a farm some two miles away to fetch the balance of a
-quantity of butter which had not been completely delivered.
-
-"Just my luck!" said Ginger, in the hearing of a group that included
-Kenneth and Harry.  "It won't break my back, but I'd rather carry it two
-yards than two miles. However!"
-
-"I'm off duty presently," said Kenneth, "and I'll come part of the way
-to meet you and lend you a hand."
-
-"You're a white man," said Ginger. "Well, so long."
-
-Some little while afterwards Kenneth and Harry started together by a
-footpath across fields to the farmhouse.  They had not gone far when
-they caught sight of a figure in khaki about half a mile ahead, going in
-the same direction as themselves.  It was soon lost to sight behind a
-hedge.
-
-The path led over a hill that descended steeply on the farther side.  On
-reaching the top they saw two men in khaki at the foot of the slope
-below them.  One of them was Ginger, who had dropped his wicker basket
-on the grass and stood with arms akimbo facing the other man, now
-recognisable by his burly frame as Stoneway. Ginger, slim and wiry,
-looked insignificant by comparison.
-
-Just as Kenneth and Harry caught sight of the men, Stoneway lifted his
-fist and with a sudden swift blow that took Ginger unawares sent him
-head over heels.  Ginger was up in an instant, and after skipping about
-on his short legs for a few moments, made a rush at his opponent.
-Stoneway staggered, but recovered himself immediately, clinched, and
-profiting by his superior height and weight threw Ginger heavily, and
-not being able to disengage himself, fell with him. The two men heaved
-and twisted in a fierce struggle on the ground.  Then Stoneway dragged
-himself away, rose, and Kenneth, now running down the hill, saw him
-deliberately kick the prostrate body of his apparently senseless
-comrade.
-
-"You cad!" shouted Kenneth, with Harry hard on his heels; "what do you
-mean by that foul play?"
-
-Stoneway, too much preoccupied to be aware of the approach of observers,
-growled something under his breath, and was making off sullenly.
-
-"No you don't!" cried Kenneth, seizing him.  "Just have a look at
-Ginger," he added to Harry.
-
-Ginger, pale and shaken, sat up and smiled feebly.
-
-"Time?" he said.  "I'll have another round."
-
-"Not a bit of it," said Harry.  "He kicked you on the ground.  Didn't
-you know? It was foul play.  What was it all about?"
-
-"I didn't kick him," muttered Stoneway.
-
-"That's a lie.  I saw you do it," said Kenneth.  "What's the row,
-Ginger?"
-
-"Well, what you may call a bit of a shindy," Ginger replied.  "Just
-between ourselves, like.  I'm ready for another go."
-
-"No.  Come, out with it, man."
-
-"Well, I was traipsing along with that there basket on my head when up
-he comes and starts rounding on me for chipping him. 'I'm not having any
-truck with grousers,' says I.  Then we had a few words, and he got me
-one afore I was ready, that I own.  But I can't hardly believe he kicked
-me when I was down, and a bit dazed like."
-
-"He did.  You take a rest and recover: we'll settle with him."
-
-"What are you talking about?" Stoneway blustered.
-
-"Giving you a hiding.  Off with your coat," said Kenneth.  "You'll see
-fair play, Harry."
-
-"I say, this is my job," said Harry. "You've been on the sick list."
-
-"I'm all right."
-
-"No, really."
-
-"Well, don't let's waste time.  I'll toss you for it."
-
-And while Stoneway looked on in amazement, Kenneth spun a coin, won,
-stripped off his tunic and rolled up his shirt sleeves.
-
-"Two to one against the big 'un," cried Ginger, with a grin of delight.
-
-Seeing there was no help for it, Stoneway slowly took off his tunic.
-
-"And mind you fight fair," Harry warned him, "or I promise you I'll take
-a hand myself."
-
-The two men faced each other.  They presented a striking contrast.
-Stoneway was slightly the taller and much the heavier; his big chest
-bulged under his shirt, and his biceps were thick.  But Harry, scanning
-him keenly, noting his fleshiness, decided that his muscles were rather
-flabby than hard; and observing Kenneth's slighter but well-knit frame,
-and remembering his promise as a boxer at school, felt pretty confident
-of the result.
-
-After the first few exchanges he was more doubtful.  Stoneway had a
-longer reach, and was clearly accustomed to the use of his fists.  At
-the start he forced the fighting, trying to get a knock-out blow, and
-Kenneth needed all his skill to meet his bull-like rushes and
-sledge-hammer strokes.  He managed to land one punishing body-blow that
-would have shaken up a smaller man, but Stoneway recovered himself
-quickly, and the first round ended with little damage on either side
-except that Stoneway found himself somewhat winded.
-
-The combatants had now taken each other's measure.  In the second round
-Kenneth in his turn adopted forcing tactics, bewildering his opponent by
-the whirlwind rapidity of his attack and his elusiveness in defence.
-Stoneway began to realise that he had met more than his match.  He
-breathed heavily; his fat cheeks took on a yellowish tinge; and the end
-of the round found him with a bigger nose and a bump over his right eye,
-and greatly distressed in wind.
-
-"Next round finishes him," whispered Harry, as he wiped Kenneth's face.
-
-The third round was in fact conclusive. Stoneway made a desperate rush,
-stopped by a neat upper cut, and before he could recover he was hurled
-to the ground by a blow above the heart that might have finished a
-professional pugilist.
-
-"Now you'll apologise to Ginger," said Kenneth, as Stoneway slowly
-picked himself up.
-
-But Stoneway scowled out of his damaged brows, put on his tunic in
-silence, and walked away without uttering a word.
-
-It was much to Ginger's credit that not a man in the battalion ever
-discovered how Stoneway had come by his bruises.  There was an end alike
-to his grumbling and to Ginger's rough banter.  But there was an end,
-too, to all show of friendliness between them.  They never spoke to each
-other, and Stoneway was always careful to keep out of Kenneth's way.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V
-
-                         THE BACK OF THE FRONT
-
-
-The slow wet winter dragged itself out. The training went on, fair
-weather or foul. The 17th Rutland Light Infantry got their service boots
-in due time, but other details of their equipment were slow to arrive.
-Presently they received enough rifles and entrenching tools for half the
-battalion, and the ordinary drill and physical exercises, which Kennedy
-had privately confided to Amory "bored him stiff," was varied with
-musketry practice and digging trenches. There were long marches,
-semaphore practice, sham fights, night operations; day by day the men
-gained new knowledge of their trade.  More rifles came, this time with
-bayonets; bayonet exercise and practice in attack gave further variety
-to their work. At last, towards the end of February, the whole battalion
-was fully equipped, and the men grew excited at the prospect of going to
-the front.
-
-It was a great moment when the colonel gave them a few hours' notice of
-entrainment. Lusty cheers broke from a thousand throats; the longed-for
-day had come at last.  Crowds of townsfolk assembled at the station to
-see them off, but they were quiet, serious crowds, the women's faces
-tense with anxiety, the children unwontedly subdued. It was no picnic
-for which these sturdy Englishmen were setting out.  Everybody was now
-aware of the greatness of the struggle, the bravery and tenacity of the
-enemy, the scientific skill and terrible thoroughness with which the
-Germans had prepared through many years for this attempt to seize the
-mastery of the world. Hearts were full as the men stepped blithely into
-the long train; how many of them would return, and of these, how many
-would be sound and strong?
-
-Their immediate destination was known to none except the commanding
-officer. When, after a tiring journey, with much shunting and
-side-tracking, the men were finally detrained at a small station in the
-south of England, with no sign of sea or transports, there was a general
-feeling of surprise and disappointment.  They were marched to a wide
-barren plain, peppered with tents and huts, and here, it became known by
-and by, they were to spend a month or more in further training.
-
-Even Ginger for once became a grouser.
-
-"I've had about enough of this," he growled.  "What's the good of it
-all?"
-
-"Discipline, Ginger," said Kenneth.
-
-"Discipline!  That's obedience, ain't it? Well, I ask you, don't we do
-as we're told like a lot of school kids?  I'm sure I'm as meek as Moses.
-Never thought I could be so tame.  I've quite lost my character, and if
-ever I get back to the works I'll have to go a regular buster, or else
-I'll be one of the downtrodden slaves of the capitalist."
-
-"I don't think so badly of you," said Kenneth, with a smile.  "But
-discipline is more than obedience.  Between you and me, I think this
-extra training is as much for the officers' sake as ours.  The British
-officer leads, you see.  He knows we'll obey orders; he has to make sure
-that he gives the right orders.  If he didn't there'd be an unholy mess:
-we should lose confidence in him, and the game would be up.  We've got
-to work together like a football team, every man trusting every other;
-and that's what all this drilling and training is for."
-
-"I daresay you're in the right," said Ginger.  "I wasn't thinking of
-them young officers!  They're a good lot, though, ain't they?  I don't
-know what it is, but there's something about 'em--why, Mr. Kennedy now,
-he's ten years younger than me, and yet somehow or other he manages me
-like as if I was a baby.  And no bounce about it either; I wouldn't
-stand bounce from any man, officer or not.  But he don't bounce; he
-speaks as quiet as a district visitor; but somehow--well, you feel
-you've just _got_ to do what he says, and you'd be a skunk if you
-didn't.  I don't understand it, I tell you straight."
-
-Kenneth did not speak the thought that arose in his mind, but he warmed
-to this testimonial from the British working-man to the British
-public-school boy.
-
-There came a day, about the middle of March, when the battalion was once
-more entrained.  This time the men took it more quietly: the first
-disappointment forbade them to set their hopes too high.  It was dark
-when the train reached its destination; the lights on the platform were
-dim; but one of the men shouted, "A ship, boys!" as he got out of his
-compartment, and a thrill of excitement ran through the crowd.
-
-They were in fact at the dock station at Southampton, and a big
-transport vessel lay alongside.  Many of the men had never been on the
-sea before.  Ginger looked a little careworn, and confessed to Kenneth
-that he felt certain he was going to be sick. The night was nearly gone
-when all the men were aboard.  Some lay down in their overcoats; others
-remained on deck, irked by the impossibility of satisfying their
-curiosity about the vessel.
-
-At daybreak the ship cast off and steamed slowly through the fairway of
-Southampton Water towards the open sea.  It was a bright calm morning,
-and the men watched with fascinated eyes the ripples glistening in the
-sunlight, the various shipping, the shores receding behind them.  And
-presently, when they had rounded the north-east corner of the Isle of
-Wight, and the course was headed southward across the Channel, they
-burst into cheers when they caught sight of the low lean shapes of
-destroyers on either side of them.
-
-"What price submarines to-day!" cried one of the men.
-
-"Ain't got an earthly," remarked another.
-
-"Don't believe there are none," said a third.  "Our men in blue have
-sunk 'em all long ago."
-
-"How are you getting on, Ginger?" asked Kenneth.
-
-Ginger was half lying on his back, gripping a stanchion, and looking
-straight ahead with nervous anticipation.
-
-"Is it much farther?" he asked.
-
-"Nothing to speak of.  The Channel's as calm as a millpond."
-
-"It may be, but the ship ain't.  She's very lively.  All of a shake, she
-is.  Takes a lurch for'ard, then backs a bit, seemingly, then another
-lurch.  It ain't what I'm used to.  It worries the inside of me.  I want
-to say 'Whoa, steady!' like I do to the donkeys at fair time.  And it
-gives me the needle to see that there Stoneway sticking hisself out as
-if he was driving the bally ship.  It don't seem fair, a big chap like
-him taking it so easy when he's got twice as much as me to lose."
-
-"Well, you won't lose much if you keep still," said Harry, laughing at
-the man's woe-begone face.  "It's quite certain you couldn't have a
-calmer crossing."
-
-Ginger's alarms were needless.  When the cliffs of France hove in sight
-he got up and leant over the rail, eagerly watching the advancing
-coast-line.
-
-"That's France, is it?" he remarked. "I don't see much difference.  I
-can't understand why the folks over there don't speak English, when they
-live so close.  I reckon we'll learn 'em afore we get back."
-
-The red and blue roofs of Boulogne became distinct.  Presently the
-vessel rounded the breakwater and manoeuvred herself alongside the quay.
-There was scarcely anything to show that the men had actually arrived in
-France.  Khaki predominated on the quay; an English voice hailed the
-skipper through a megaphone; a blue-grey motor omnibus with the windows
-boarded up and the words "Kaiser's coffin" chalked on the sides stood on
-the road.
-
-No time was lost in disembarkation.  The men were marched across the
-railway lines to a train in waiting.  Ginger, with Kenneth, Harry, and
-half a dozen more, got into a compartment labelled "D�fense de fumer,"
-and started lighting up at once.
-
-"We'll defend it all right," said Ginger, "but the rest is spelt wrong."
-
-"It means you mustn't smoke," said Kenneth.
-
-"Well, that's a good 'un!  What do they take us for?  Any gentleman
-object?"
-
-"No!" yelled in chorus.
-
-"I didn't half think so."
-
-The train rumbled away eastward, and the men scanned the bare country
-from the windows, remarking on its dreary character, scarcely relieved
-by the pollard willows that raised their naked boughs against the grey
-sky.  By and by they got out at a small station, and marched along a
-straight road between rows of trees to a country village. They kept to
-the right side; the other was busy with empty supply wagons, lorries of
-familiar appearance, now and then a mud-caked motor car.
-
-Some officers had gone on ahead to arrange billets.  Arriving at the
-village, the majority of the men were accommodated in the barn and
-outbuildings of a large farm, a few in separate cottages.  Kenneth, with
-Harry and Ginger and other men of their platoon found themselves
-allotted to a labourer's cottage, where shake-downs of clean straw had
-been laid on the floors of a couple of rooms.  A road divided their
-billet from the garden of a good-sized house, in which quarters had been
-found for two or three of the officers.
-
-Apart from the traffic on the road there was as yet no sign of war.  No
-sound of guns broke the stillness of the spring afternoon. But it had
-become known that the firing line was only a few miles ahead, and the
-men were all agog with expectation of an early call to the trenches.
-
-It soon appeared, however, that they were not yet to enter upon the real
-work of war. Rumour had it that Sir John French was waiting for further
-reinforcements before pursuing the forward movement recently started at
-Neuve Chapelle.  Day after day passed in exercising, marching,
-practising operations in the field.  Word came of other regiments
-pouring across the Channel and occupying other villages and towns behind
-the firing line.  All day long they heard the distant bark of guns, and
-saw too frequently the swift passage of motor ambulances conveying their
-sad burdens to the coast. When off duty they strolled about the village,
-making friends of the hospitable villagers, romping with the children,
-playing football, cheerful, light-hearted, scarcely alive to the
-actualities of the desperate work in which they were so eager to engage.
-
-One day a trifling incident occupied Kenneth's attention for a moment.
-He happened to have gone into a little shop to buy cakes for the
-children of the good people upon whom he was billeted.  Several of the
-men were there making purchases, and one of them was vainly trying to
-explain his wants to the shopkeeper.  Stoneway was standing by.  Kenneth
-translated for his baffled comrade; then, suddenly remembering what he
-had overheard on the platform at St. Pancras station, he said to him:
-
-"Why didn't you ask Stoneway to help you?  He speaks French."
-
-Stoneway looked astonished and startled, but said at once:
-
-"Me!  I know a word or two, but you can't call it speaking French.  I
-couldn't do it."
-
-Kenneth said no more, though his recollection of the energetic
-conversation at the station was very clear, and he wondered why the man
-had denied his accomplishment.
-
-There was only one opinion of the kindness and hospitality of the
-villagers, and the men were particularly enthusiastic about the owner of
-the house across the road.  Far from limiting himself to the sumptuous
-entertainment of the officers billeted on him, he went out of his way to
-lavish attentions on the soldiers, making them presents of cigarettes,
-and treating them to the wine of the country.  The village had not
-suffered from the ravages of war, though the Germans had occupied it for
-a few days during their rush towards Calais; but it harboured many
-refugees from towns and villages farther eastward, and these were
-supported by the benevolent owner of the large house, who maintained a
-sort of soup kitchen where the homeless people could obtain free
-rations.
-
-One evening, when Kenneth and his comrades were at supper in their
-host's capacious kitchen, the talk turned on Monsieur Obernai, "the
-mounseer over the way," as Ginger called him, "one of the best."  Jean
-Bonnard, the cottager, and his wife took their meals with their guests,
-and chatted freely to Kenneth and Harry, the only men who knew enough
-French to understand them. Kenneth repeated in French what Ginger had
-said.
-
-"Ah yes, monsieur," said Bonnard. "Monsieur Obernai is a good man.  You
-see, he is from Alsace, and has reason to hate the Germans."
-
-"All the same, I don't like him," said his wife, pressing her lips
-together.
-
-"That is a point on which we don't agree," said Bonnard, with a smile.
-"Just like a woman!  She doesn't like him, but she can't say why."
-
-"You hear him!" said madame.  "Just like a woman!  As if a woman was not
-always right!"
-
-"But you have a reason, madame?" said Harry.
-
-"Bah!  I leave reasons to men; I have my feelings."
-
-Bonnard shrugged his shoulders.
-
-"Well, mon amie," he said, "I can put my reasons into words, see you.
-Monsieur Obernai came here from Alsace five or six years ago.  He could
-not stand the Germans, so he sold his property and came and settled
-here, and he has been a good friend to the village, that you cannot
-deny.  A very quiet man, too; he lives all alone with an old housekeeper
-and a couple of servants, and makes himself very pleasant.  When our two
-boys went off to the war, didn't he give them warm vests and stuff their
-haversacks with cigarettes?"
-
-"Yes, he was good to our poor boys," admitted the good woman grudgingly,
-"but I don't like him all the same.  I don't like his voice; it makes me
-shrivel."
-
-"A man speaks with the voice God gave him," said her husband.  "As for
-me, I look at what a man does, and don't trouble myself about his voice.
-And after all, it is not a bad voice."
-
-"Smooth as butter," rejoined the woman. "But there, we shall never
-agree, mon ami. Get on with your soup."
-
-After supper, some of the men settled down to write home.  The postal
-regulations annoyed Ginger.
-
-"I'm a poor hand at writing," he said, "and I don't see why I shouldn't
-send my love to my wife and kids on one of these here postcards.  It
-ain't enough for a letter; yet if I put it on the postcard they'd
-destroy it, they say.  What for, I'd like to know?"
-
-"It does seem hard lines," said Kenneth, "but I suppose it's to ease the
-censors' work. They've an enormous number of cards to look over, and
-they'd never get done if they had to read a lot of stuff."
-
-"'Love' 's a little word; that wouldn't hurt 'em.  Still, rules is
-rules, no doubt."
-
-He proceeded to cross out several sentences on the official postcard
-provided, leaving only "I am quite well" and adding his signature and
-the date.
-
-Presently the post corporal came to collect the letters and cards.
-
-"Captain wants you, Murgatroyd," he said.
-
-"Going to give you your stripe at last, Ginger," said Harry.
-
-"I shouldn't wonder," said Ginger, grinning as he went out.
-
-When he returned, twenty minutes later, the expression on his face
-checked the congratulations that rose to his comrades' lips. His
-features were grimly set, and he went to his place by the fire without
-uttering a word.
-
-"No luck, Ginger?" said one of the men indiscreetly.
-
-"Shut up!" growled Ginger, lighting his pipe.
-
-Nothing would induce him to explain why he had been sent for, or the
-reason of his annoyance.  He was one of the best-behaved men in the
-company, and it seemed unlikely that he had got into trouble without the
-knowledge of the others.  Wisely, they did not press him with questions,
-expecting that he would tell them all in good time.
-
-Ginger's interview with Captain Adams had been a surprising one.
-
-"You know the post regulations, Murgatroyd?" said the captain.
-
-"Yes, sir."
-
-"Well, look at this postcard.  Is that your signature?"
-
-"D. Murgatroyd; that's me, sir," said Ginger, after a glance at the
-pencilled name.
-
-"What do you mean by writing the name of the place in invisible ink?"
-
-"Never did such a thing, sir.  Don't know anything about invisible ink."
-
-"Well, how do you explain it, then?  This card had the name written in
-invisible ink. It was discovered by the Post Office in London, and
-they've returned it for inquiries.  What have you to say?"
-
-"What I said before, sir: I didn't do it."
-
-"You write to Henry Smith, 563 Pentonville Road?"
-
-"Never heard of him, sir."
-
-"What's the game, then?  Go and fetch the post corporal," he said to his
-servant.
-
-The man came in with a bundle of recently collected cards in his hand.
-
-"Look at this," said the captain, showing him the card in question.
-"Did you get that from Murgatroyd?"
-
-"I couldn't say, sir; I get such a lot."
-
-"But you know his signature?"
-
-"I can't say I do, sir; but he has just written a card; perhaps you
-would like to have a look at it."
-
-He searched his bundle, found the card and handed it to the captain, who
-compared the two signatures.
-
-"This is very odd," he said.  "They are very much alike, but there's a
-slight difference in the shape of the y.  It looks as though some one
-were imitating your fist, Murgatroyd."
-
-"Yes, sir," said Ginger, stiffly.  "I'd like to punch his head, sir," he
-added, as the baseness of the trick struck him.
-
-"Well, we must find out who it is.  Keep this to yourselves, men; he may
-try it again and give us a chance to catch him. Not a word to anyone,
-mind."
-
-Ginger saluted and returned to his billet, his indignation growing at
-every step.
-
-The incident was discussed at the officers' mess that night.
-
-"Murgatroyd is straight enough," said Kennedy.  "He's one of the best
-men in my platoon.  It's rather a mean trick."
-
-"And a senseless one," said the captain. "I'm inclined to think one of
-the men must owe him a grudge, and want to get him into trouble."
-
-"What about the addressee?" asked another officer.  "Who is Henry Smith,
-of 563 Pentonville Road?"
-
-"The London people will keep him under observation, no doubt," said the
-captain. "I told the post corporal to examine every batch carefully, and
-see if there are any more addressed to the same person."
-
-Three days passed.  No letters or cards addressed to Henry Smith were
-discovered. On the third day a telegram from London was delivered to the
-colonel.
-
-"Henry Smith gone, leaving no address.  Report result of enquiry."
-
-After consulting Captain Adams the colonel telegraphed in reply that
-Murgatroyd's signature appeared to have been forged, probably with the
-intention of getting him into trouble, and that he was keeping a careful
-watch on the correspondence.  Ginger meanwhile had recovered his
-spirits.  He had been made a lance-corporal, and sewed the stripe on his
-sleeve with ingenuous satisfaction.  At the back of his mind was a
-suspicion that Stoneway might have sought a mean revenge for his
-thrashing by this use of invisible ink; but since the scheme had failed,
-he resolved not to trouble his head about it.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER VI
-
-                            BAGGING A SNIPER
-
-
-The village being within easy range of the German guns, its immunity
-from bombardment struck the officers of the battalion as rather strange.
-For a few days, it is true, the enemy might have been unaware that
-British troops were in occupation; but a German aeroplane, a dove-winged
-Taube, had been observed to fly over the place, and it could hardly be
-doubted that information of their presence had been carried to
-headquarters.  All that the soldiers knew of warfare for two or three
-weeks was the dull boom of distant guns, the passage of ambulances
-occasionally and of supply wagons frequently, and the passing of railway
-trains conveying new howitzers and field guns along the line a mile or
-two away.
-
-The call to action came unexpectedly. One evening, just after supper,
-the men were ordered to parade in full marching kit.  They overflowed
-from the little market square into the adjacent streets, and there they
-were inspected by the colonel, who passed up and down the ranks with an
-orderly carrying a lantern.
-
-When the inspection was finished, the colonel posted himself on a tub in
-the middle of the square.  It was a dark night, and the flickering light
-of the lantern illuminated only the lower part of the colonel's body,
-leaving his face in shade.
-
-"Now, men," he said, "we are going to take a spell in the trenches.  We
-have several miles to march; there must be no straggling, or you'll
-pitch into Jack Johnson holes in the road.  No talking, no smoking. I
-know you'll give a good account of yourselves.  We're a new battalion;
-we've got to make our name; and by George, we'll do it!"
-
-The platoon commanders stifled an incipient cheer, and the battalion
-marched off into the night.
-
-Along the dark straight road they tramped, between lines of tall poplars
-that raised their skeleton shapes against the sky.  For a mile or two
-nothing impeded their progress; then the advance guard came upon a deep
-cavity extending half across the road, and two men were told off to warn
-the succeeding ranks of the danger.  Presently they passed through a
-hamlet which had been shattered by the German artillery. The sides of
-the road were heaped with bricks and blackened rafters, behind which
-were the jagged walls of roofless cottages.
-
-A little beyond this they were met by a staff officer, come to guide
-them to the trenches.  Then they had to ease off to one side to allow
-the passage of the weary men they were relieving.  At length they came
-to a small clump of woodland, and learnt that the trenches were on the
-further side of it.  Section by section they passed into the shelter of
-the trees, stepping across trunks felled and split by shells, and slid
-noiselessly into the narrow zig-zag ditches where they were to eat and
-sleep and spend weary days and nights.
-
-Kennedy and his platoon, among whom were Kenneth, Harry, Ginger, and
-their pals, found themselves in a narrow passage about 4 ft. 6 in. deep,
-with a loopholed parapet facing eastward, and here and there little
-cabins dug out in the banks, boarded, strewn with straw, warm and
-stuffy.  In the darkness it was impossible to take complete stock of
-their surroundings, but learning that in a dug-out it was safe to strike
-a light, Kenneth lit a candle-end, and was amused to see that his
-predecessor in the little cabin to which he had come had chalked up
-"Ritz Hotel" on the boarding.
-
-The men were too much excited to think of sleeping.  They had learnt on
-the way up that the position they were to hold was rather a hot place.
-The Germans in their front, only a few hundred yards away, were very
-active and full of tricks.  They watched the British trenches with lynx
-eyes, and so sure as the top of a cap showed above the parapet it became
-the mark for a dozen rifles. There were night snipers, too, somewhere in
-the neighbourhood, constantly dropping bullets on their invisible
-target.  The men who had just left the trenches had been much worried by
-these snipers, whom they had failed to locate; but they had reason to
-believe that the pestilent marksmen were hidden somewhere behind the
-lines.
-
-"You're safe enough so long as you keep your heads down," said the
-officer who directed Kennedy to his position.  "Except for the snipers
-we have had little trouble lately; and I hope you'll have a good time."
-
-Kennedy told off his men to keep watch in turn through the night.  While
-off duty they sat in the dug-outs chatting quietly, listening for sounds
-from the enemy's trenches, wondering what was in store for them when
-daylight came.  Fortunately the wet weather had ceased; the bottom of
-the trench was still sticky, but the March winds were rapidly drying the
-ground.  The night was cold, but there was a brazier in each dug-out,
-and the men, crouching over these in their great-coats, contrived to
-keep warm and comfortable.
-
-They watched eagerly for daylight.  At the first peep of dawn some of
-the men were told off to the loopholes.  About thirty yards in front
-there stretched a wire entanglement, with small cans dangling from it
-here and there.  Two or three hundred yards beyond this they saw the
-similar entanglement of the Germans.  For about a hundred yards of the
-line this wire was more remote, and the men learnt afterwards that a
-pond of that breadth filled a declivity in the ground. Here and there,
-all round the position at varying distances, stood isolated farmhouses,
-trees, and patches of woodland.  All was peaceful; no sound of war broke
-the stillness of the fair March morning.
-
-They had their breakfast of cocoa and bread and jam.  Towards noon two
-men from each section were told off to go back to a farm house behind
-the lines for the day's rations.  They hurried along the trench in a
-crouching posture, struck into a communicating trench leading to the
-rear, and emerged on the outskirts of the wood. There was instantly the
-crack of a rifle.  A sniper had begun his day's work.  The men waited
-uneasily, clutching their rifles, wondering if any of their comrades had
-been hit.  Kennedy posted his men a yard apart along the trench, ready
-to fire at the first sign of movement among the enemy.  The zig-zag
-formation of the trench prevented any man from seeing more than the men
-of his own section, and there came upon them a feeling of loneliness and
-almost individual responsibility.
-
-In about an hour's time Kenneth and his comrades were relieved to see
-their food-carriers returning with steaming pails. These contained a
-sort of hash mixed with beans and potatoes.  The men poured this into
-their billies, warmed them at the braziers, and acknowledged that their
-dinner of Irish stew � la Fran�aise wasn't half bad. After that food was
-carried up only at night.
-
-The day passed uneventfully.  A rifle-shot was heard now and then; from
-a distant part of the line came the continual rumble of artillery-fire;
-once they caught sight of a British aeroplane far away to the
-north-east, with little patches of white smoke following it, hugging it.
-There was nothing to do except to keep a continual look-out.
-
-But at dusk the reality of their danger was brought home to them.
-Cramped with the fatigue of maintaining a bending-posture one of the men
-got up to stretch himself. "Keep down!" shouted Kennedy, but it was too
-late.  There was a slight whizz; the man fell headlong.  Kenneth ran to
-him, as the crack of the rifle was heard.  Nothing could be done.  The
-bullet had pierced the man's brain.
-
-When it was dark Kenneth and Ginger carried their dead comrade through
-the trenches to the wood, and buried him there among the trees.  They
-returned in silence to their post.
-
-"You'll write to his mother," said Ginger, as they got back.  "She'll
-like to know as how poor Dick has been put away decent."
-
-"Yes, I'll write," said Kenneth.  "He felt no pain."
-
-"War's a cursed thing," Ginger broke out.  "What call have these Kaisers
-and people to murder young chaps like Dick, all for their own
-selfishness?--that's what it comes to.  It didn't ought to be, and 'pon
-my soul, it beats me why us millions of working men don't put a stop to
-it.  We're in it now; I'll do my bit; but seems to me the world would be
-all the better if they'd just string up a few of the emperors and such,
-them as thinks war's such a mighty fine thing."
-
-Their first loss threw a cloud upon the spirits of the men.  But it did
-not lessen their resolution.  Direct knowledge, slight though it was at
-present, of the grim realities of war braced their courage.  Already
-they had a comrade's death to avenge.  To the more thoughtful of them
-the dead man represented a blow struck at their country, and they saw
-more clearly than before that it was their country's service that had
-called them here.
-
-Their spell in the trenches was to last two days.  They were days of
-inaction, discomfort, tedium.  Apart from intermittent sniping the
-Germans made no movement.  The Rutlands kept incessant watch on them,
-with no relaxation until the fall of night.  Even then they were not at
-ease. Sniping was kept up fitfully through the night, and they learnt
-that even in the darkness there was peril is rising to stretch their
-cramped limbs.  At dusk on the first day a man was slightly wounded.
-These sneaking tactics, as they considered them, on the part of an
-unseen enemy worried and irritated the men.  Whenever a shot was heard,
-they tried to estimate its direction, but their guesses were so
-contradictory that no definite opinion could be arrived at.  On one
-occasion Kenneth tried to calculate the distance of the marksman by
-noting the interval that elapsed between the whistling sound of the
-bullet and the subsequent report of the rifle; but neither his data nor
-his watch were sufficiently accurate to give him much satisfaction.  The
-one thing that seemed certain was that the night sniping was done
-somewhere behind the lines.
-
-When the battalion was relieved, and returned to billets for a couple of
-days' rest, officers and men talked of little but the sniping.  They
-thought that nothing could be more demoralising, having as yet had no
-experience of heavy gun-fire.  The officers discussed the possibility of
-getting hold of the snipers, and determined to take serious steps to
-that end on their next turn of duty at the trenches.
-
-An opportunity seemed to offer itself on their second day back.  There
-had been a good deal of sniping overnight, and in the morning Kenneth
-happened to notice what appeared to be a bullet-hole on the inner side
-of the parapet.  He at once called Captain Adams' attention to it.
-
-"That's proof positive," said the captain. "The sniper is behind us."
-
-"It seems odd that he should fire on the mere chance of hitting
-somebody, for of course he can't take aim in the dark," said Kenneth.
-
-"He's got our range, of course, knows we've no rear parapet yet, and
-guesses that we move about more freely after dark.  But we ought to be
-able to locate him now. Stick your bayonet carefully into the hole,
-Amory; we'll get a hint of the direction of the bullet's flight."
-
-The bullet had penetrated some little distance into the earth.  Kenneth
-probed the hole with his bayonet, and it seemed pretty certain that the
-shot had been fired from the left rear, and, judging by the angle of
-incidence, from a considerable distance, probably not less than a mile.
-
-Captain Adams scanned the ground in that direction through his field
-glasses. About a mile to the left rear stood a small copse.  Slanting a
-rifle towards it, and comparing the angle with that of the hole made by
-the bullet, the captain decided that the copse was too far to the right,
-and swept his glasses towards the left.  The only other likely spot was
-the ruins of a farm, but that seemed too far to the left.  Between farm
-and copse ran a low railway embankment, which appeared almost exactly to
-meet the conditions.
-
-"The sniper is there or thereabouts," said the captain.  "Are you game
-to do a little scouting to-night, Amory?"
-
-"Anything you like, sir," Kenneth replied.
-
-"Well, creep out to-night and see if you can make anything of it.  It
-would be safer to go alone, perhaps, but on the other hand a little
-support may be useful, so you had better take another man--Murgatroyd,
-say: he's an active man, and not too tall.  You must have your wits
-about you."
-
-Ginger was delighted at the chance of doing something.  The other men
-envied him, and Harry looked a trifle sulky.
-
-"Cheer up, old man," said Kenneth. "Your turn will come some day."
-
-At dusk Kenneth and Ginger, the former carrying a revolver supplied by
-the captain, the latter armed only with his bayonet, made their way
-through the communication trenches to the second line of entrenchments
-and thence to the road leading to the village. They waited until
-complete darkness had fallen before stepping openly on to the road. The
-Germans had the range of it, and knowing that it was used after dark by
-British troops moving to and from the trenches, they might start
-shelling at any moment.
-
-"We'll leave the road as soon as possible," said Kenneth, as they set
-off, "and bear away to the left."
-
-"The right, you mean," said Ginger.
-
-"No, the left, and work our way round. We'll take a leaf out of the
-Germans' book; they prefer flank attacks to front.  We've plenty of
-time."
-
-It was very dark.  They struck off to the left across fields, and picked
-their way as well as they could, stumbling now and then into holes and
-over broken relics of former engagements.  They could only guess
-distance.  Kenneth took the time by his luminous watch, and allowing for
-the detour, when they had walked for twenty minutes he bore to the
-right, crossed the deserted road, and peered through the darkness for
-the ruined farm and the railway embankment. No trains had run beyond the
-village for a considerable time, and it was known that the permanent way
-had been cut up by German shells.
-
-Moving purely by guesswork they failed to find the farm, but after a
-time came suddenly upon the embankment, and halted.
-
-"Right or left?" whispered Kenneth.
-
-"The farm?" returned Ginger.
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Right, I should say."
-
-At this moment a shell burst in the air some distance to their right,
-whether from a British or a German gun they could not tell.  It lit up
-the country momentarily like a flash of lightning, and as the two men
-instinctively flung themselves down, they caught sight of the ruins some
-distance on their right hand.  The illumination was over in a second,
-leaving the sky blacker than before.
-
-They waited a little, wondering whether the shell was herald of a night
-attack.  But the shot was not repeated.  The country was silent.
-
-"Just to let us know they ain't gone home yet," Ginger whispered.
-
-"We'll make for the farm," said Kenneth in equally low tones.  "The
-sniper hasn't begun work yet; I haven't heard any rifle shots about
-here.  We'll separate when we get to the place, and approach it from
-opposite sides."
-
-Very cautiously they groped their way across the open field towards the
-farm house, and when they caught sight of it, bent down under cover of a
-hedge, and crept on almost by inches.  Then, leaving Ginger near the
-broken gate of the farmyard, Kenneth stole away to make a complete
-circuit of the place.
-
-In ten minutes he returned.
-
-"It's a mere shell," he whispered.  "The roof is gone, except in one
-corner; there are heaps of rubble everywhere, rafters lying at all
-angles, and furniture smashed to splinters."
-
-"Did you go inside?"
-
-"No, but I think we might risk it.  Look out you don't get a sprained
-ankle."
-
-They crept through the yard, over the rubbish, and into what had been
-the house. Kenneth had an electric torch, but dared not use it.  They
-halted frequently to peer and listen, then went on again, doing their
-utmost to avoid any disturbance of the broken masonry and woodwork.
-Before they had completed their examination of the premises, the crack
-of a rifle at no great distance away caused them to abandon the search
-and hurry into the open again.
-
-Outside, they waited for a repetition of the shot to give them a clue.
-It was some time before it came.  At length there was a dull rumble of
-distant artillery, and in the midst of it a sound like a muffled
-rifle-shot from the direction of the railway.
-
-"He's a clever chap," whispered Kenneth. "I hadn't noticed it before,
-but I think he waits for the sound of firing elsewhere before he fires
-himself--a precaution against being spotted.  Let us wait for the next."
-
-Presently there was the rattle of musketry from the trenches far to the
-left.  Before it had died away, a single rifle cracked much nearer at
-hand.
-
-"From the railway, sure enough," said Ginger.  "We'll cop him."
-
-They hurried across the field to the embankment, crawled up it, and when
-their eyes reached the level of the track, they peered up and down the
-line.  They could see only a few yards, so dark was the night. There was
-no glint even from the rails, which were rusty from disuse.  After
-listening a while, they crept up on to the track, and waited for another
-shot to guide them.
-
-It was long in coming.  To move before knowing the direction would be
-useless and might be dangerous, so, curbing their impatience, they lay
-on the slope of the embankment.
-
-At last they heard the whirr of an aeroplane.  Having learnt to expect a
-shot from the sniper when it was masked by some other sound, they sprang
-up.  The humming drew nearer; then came the single sharp rifle crack.
-
-"Behind us!" whispered Kenneth.
-
-With great caution the two men moved along the track, stepping over
-sleepers and rails torn up, and skirting deep holes made by shells.
-Every now and again they stopped to listen.  Presently they were brought
-to a sudden halt by the sound of a rifle-shot apparently almost beneath
-them.  Dropping to the ground, they peeped over the embankment.  At this
-spot there had been a landslip, evidently caused by a heavy shell. At
-the foot of the embankment lay a pool of water, extending for some
-twenty yards. Except for these nothing was to be seen.
-
-They felt rather uncomfortable.  On this bare embankment, rising from an
-equally bare plain, there seemed to be no cover of any kind.  Yet it was
-certain that a sniper was within a few yards of them, perhaps within a
-few feet.  They lay perfectly still, watching, waiting for another shot.
-It did not come.  Kenneth began to wonder whether the sniper had seen or
-heard them, and stolen away.  Or perhaps he was stalking them.  At this
-thought Kenneth gripped his revolver.
-
-What was to be done?  To prowl about in the darkness on the chance of
-discovering the marksman would be mere foolhardiness. He hoped on for
-another shot, not daring even to whisper to Ginger.  The minutes
-lengthened into hours; the two men were cramped with cold; but as if by
-mutual consent they lay where they were.  Neither was willing to go back
-and report failure. Now and again they caught slight sounds which they
-were unable to identify or locate. They nibbled some biscuits they had
-brought with them, determined at least to await the dawn.  Conscious of
-discomfort, they had no sense of fatigue or sleepiness.  And when at
-length the darkness began to yield, they fancied they saw shadowy
-enemies on the misty plain.
-
-When it was light enough to see clearly, they looked to right and left,
-to the front and the rear, and discovered no sign of life within a mile
-of them.  The air began to fill with the roll of artillery and the
-rattle of rifle-shots.  Here and there in the distance they saw columns
-of black smoke.  Two aeroplanes passed overhead towards the German
-lines, and shrapnel shells strewed white puffs around and below them.
-But on the embankment all was quiet.
-
-"He must have got away in the darkness," Kenneth ventured to whisper at
-last.
-
-"Can't make it out," murmured Ginger in return.
-
-How the sniper could have escaped unseen was a mystery.  Daylight
-revealed the bareness of the plain.  Only a few low hedges divided the
-fields.  One such, bordered by a narrow ditch, ran northward from the
-railway within a few yards of them.  But this could be of no use to a
-sniper, for it was on the wrong side of the embankment, towards the
-north.
-
-After a murmured consultation they rose to examine the embankment more
-closely, in the hope of finding tracks of the sniper. As they did so, a
-number of bullets whistled around them; their figures had been seen on
-the skyline by the Germans.  Dropping instantly to the ground, they
-crawled along, skirting the hole made by the shell, and taking care not
-to slide down in the loose earth that had been displaced.  They covered
-thus a hundred yards or so in each direction, up and down the line,
-without discovering anything.
-
-"We must give it up," said Kenneth at last.  "I don't like to, but I see
-nothing else for it."
-
-"Our chaps are in billets to-day," said Ginger.  "I'm game to stay till
-to-night if you are."
-
-"All right.  We've got our emergency rations.  We may as well lie up in
-the farm, and take turns to sleep."
-
-They crawled across the track to the British side of the embankment,
-slid down the slope, and being now safe from German shots began to walk
-erect along the bottom, following a slight curve in the direction of the
-farm.  The less of open field they had to cross, the better.
-
-They had taken only a few steps along the base of the embankment when
-Ginger, a little in advance of Kenneth, stopped suddenly, and stooped.
-Then he turned his head quickly, putting his finger to his lips. Kenneth
-hurried up.  Ginger pointed to a slight track in the grass, leading
-round the low hedge before mentioned.  Without hesitation they began to
-follow it up, moving with infinite precaution, and bending under cover
-of the hedge.
-
-Running straight for some distance, the track at last made a sharp bend
-to the right, then skirting another hedge parallel with the embankment.
-The two men were on the point of turning with it when Kenneth, in the
-rear, happening to look behind him over the hedge, caught sight of a man
-about half a mile away, coming apparently from the direction of the
-village where the Rutlands were billeted.  Ginger came back at a low
-call from his companion, and they stood together at the hedge, watching
-the stranger, careful to keep out of sight themselves.
-
-The man drew nearer.  He was old and shabbily dressed.  A small basket
-was slung on his back.  Every now and again he looked behind as if
-fearful of being followed. They watched him eagerly, surprised, full of
-curiosity and suspicion.  His path ran along the hedge parallel with the
-railway, and he was screened by it from the British lines.
-
-He came on until he had almost reached the hedge behind which the two
-Englishmen were posted.  At this point there was a wide gap in the hedge
-that covered him, and he turned off sharply at right angles towards the
-railway.  Kenneth instantly guessed that he had done this to avoid
-observation through the gap, that he would pass round the end of the
-hedge near the embankment, and follow the track by which Ginger and he
-had recently come.
-
-As the man turned, Ginger caught Kenneth by the sleeve.  His eyes were
-bright with excitement.  He seemed about to speak, but Kenneth hastily
-clapped a hand over his mouth.  Watching the man until he was on the
-point of turning the corner, Kenneth drew Ginger through a small gap in
-the hedge parallel with the railway, and they waited there until the
-stranger came up to it on the track they had just left, and began to
-walk towards another hedge at right angles to it, which led back to the
-embankment almost at the spot where they had watched through the night.
-
-They followed him quietly.  He was on the inner side of the hedge, they
-on the outer. They saw that he was wading along the ditch towards the
-railway.  At the end of the hedge they stooped and peeped through a gap,
-to see what was going on within a few feet of them.  They heard a low
-whistle, and were just in time to catch sight of the man disappearing
-into a culvert that carried the ditch under the embankment.
-
-Allowing him time to get through, they crawled through the hedge, up the
-embankment, over the line, and approaching the culvert from above,
-established themselves on top of the brickwork at the entrance. They
-heard voices from below, within the culvert.  Kenneth held his revolver
-ready, Ginger gripped his bayonet.  And there they waited for one or
-other of the men inside to come out.
-
-They had not long to wait.  The mumble of voices came nearer.  Kenneth
-listened intently, but could not distinguish the words until, just
-beneath him, he heard "Auf Wiedersehen!"  Immediately afterwards the man
-they had followed waded out through the shallow water at the bottom of
-the culvert, bending almost double to avoid the arch.  His basket was
-gone.  Just as he was about to straighten himself, Kenneth called
-sternly, "Hands up!"  The man swung round, saw a revolver pointed at his
-head, and instantly threw up his hands, at the same time glancing right
-and left as if seeking some way of escape.
-
-[Illustration: "HANDS UP!"]
-
-What were they to do with him?  Within a few feet of them, in the
-culvert, was the sniper, a man of courage and daring, or he would not
-have elected or been chosen for this particular means of serving his
-country. Luckily Kenneth was a man of quick decision.
-
-"Collar that fellow while I keep an eye below," he said.  "Take care you
-don't show against the opening."
-
-Ginger sprang down the embankment, and approached the captive, whom
-Kenneth covered with his revolver, at the same time keeping an eye on
-the arch below.  In a few seconds Ginger had made the man pull off his
-coat and waistcoat, and unfasten his braces, and with these he tied him
-hand and foot.
-
-"You'll be safe there for a bit," he said, laying the man at the foot of
-the embankment.  Then he rejoined his companion.
-
-Meanwhile Kenneth had been considering how to get the sniper out.  There
-had been no sound from the culvert, but the German must be well aware of
-what had happened. That he had not attempted to escape by the other end
-was probably explained by his ignorance of the number of men he had to
-do with.  Armed with his rifle, he might have thought himself pretty
-safe in the narrow culvert, where he could take heavy toll of any
-assailants who should attempt a direct attack.
-
-"We'll have to smoke him out," whispered Kenneth, as Ginger joined him.
-"There's some straw in the farmhouse; cut back quickly and bring as much
-as you can carry."
-
-In ten minutes Ginger returned with two large bundles which he had
-himself trussed. He kindled one of the trusses, and placed it at the
-rear end of the culvert, the quarter from which a slight breeze was
-blowing. Kenneth meanwhile kept watch above the brick arch at the other
-end.
-
-The straw was somewhat damp, and made as much smoke as they could have
-wished. Carried by the breeze through the culvert, it floated out
-beneath Kenneth, tickling his throat and causing his eyes to smart.
-Every moment he expected the sniper to make a rush from his unendurable
-position. When a minute or two had passed without any sign of the man he
-was surprised: was insensibility to smoke one of the German
-superiorities?
-
-"Any more straw, Ginger?" he asked.
-
-"Another bundle," Ginger replied, and returned to the farther end to
-light it.
-
-He had only just disappeared over the edge of the embankment when
-Kenneth, who had been straining his ears for sounds of movements below,
-heard a slight displacement of ballast on the line above him. Glancing
-up, he found himself looking straight at the barrel of a rifle, behind
-which was a head surmounted by a German helmet.
-
-For half a second he was paralysed with astonishment.  Then a click
-galvanised him into activity.  Realising that the rifle had missed fire,
-forgetting--like an idiot, as he afterwards confessed--that he had a
-revolver, he made a spring and with his left hand seized the muzzle a
-few feet above him.  The German held fast; there was a momentary tug of
-war; then the German lost his footing on the slippery earth, fell
-suddenly to a sitting posture, and slid down the embankment helplessly,
-driving Kenneth under him into the shallow pool of water at the foot.
-
-Kenneth was a thought quicker than the German in recovering his wits.
-Wriggling sideways, he flung his arm over the man, spluttering out a
-mouthful of muddy water, and grappled him.  For a few seconds they
-heaved and writhed like grampuses.  Then Ginger, drawn by the splash,
-came running across the line, saw the struggling figures, sprang down
-the embankment, and dashed his fist in the German's face.  In another
-moment he had dragged the man out of the water and a foot or two up the
-embankment, and held him down until Kenneth had shaken himself and come
-to his side.
-
-"This beats cockfighting," he said. "Where did the beggar come from?"
-
-"Don't know," said Kenneth.  "We'll see presently.  I'm nearly choked
-with mud. We'll have to use his braces too."
-
-When they had tied the man securely, they got up to investigate.  What
-they discovered was a proof of the ingenuity which the Germans exhibit
-in all their undertakings.  The landslide, a little to the right of the
-culvert, formed a sort of boss on the embankment.  At the farther
-extremity of this, out of sight from the spot where Kenneth had stood,
-the German had forced his way up from a small chamber excavated in the
-base of the embankment, where he had a folding chair, a rug, a tin plate
-and mug, a supply of ammunition, and the basket which the visitor had
-carried.  It was full of food.  There were two or three inconspicuous
-openings for the admission of air, and, towards the British trenches, a
-small tube, and an arrangement by which the rifle could be clamped.
-Evidently the sniper took his sights in the daytime, and set the rifle
-in such a position in the tube that he could fire directly on the
-trenches with the certainty of having the correct aim.
-
-"Up to snuff, ain't they, not half," said Ginger, with unwilling
-admiration.  "But how did you come to be wallowing in that there
-puddle?"
-
-Kenneth explained.
-
-"My word! a lucky missfire," said Ginger.
-
-"Lucky indeed!" replied Kenneth. "And we can't discover the cause of it;
-the rifle's in the mud."
-
-"Never mind about the cause of it. We've bagged our first prisoners;
-that's one to us and the Rutlands."
-
-But Kenneth was never satisfied to leave a problem unsolved.  Thinking
-over the matter constantly during the next few days, unwilling to
-ascribe to luck something that must have a sufficient cause, he came to
-the conclusion that the breech of the rifle had become clogged with
-earth as the sniper forced his way up through the landslide.
-
-They marched their prisoners back to headquarters in the village,
-keeping the embankment between them and the enemy as long as possible.
-
-"I've often seen this old rascal about the village," said Ginger,
-referring to the civilian.  "He's a spy, that's what he is. They'll
-shoot him, won't they?"
-
-"The colonel will hold an enquiry, no doubt.  By George!  I shall be
-glad to get back and dry my things and have a good feed."
-
-They received an enthusiastic welcome from their comrades, and Colonel
-Appleton commended them for their successful work. The sniper was sent
-to the rear as a prisoner of war.  An investigation was held.  It came
-out that the civilian who supplied him with food was a supposed refugee,
-and one of the pensioners of Monsieur Obernai.  That gentleman was
-summoned to the court of inquiry, and was overcome with horror on
-learning that one of the men whom he had assisted was a spy.
-
-"It is heart-breaking," he said.  "It is enough to make one hard.
-Besides, it might throw suspicion on me.  Still, it would not be just to
-abandon my humble efforts to alleviate distress because one man has
-deceived me.  But in future I shall make the most careful inquiries
-before I assist a stranger."
-
-The spy was shot, and thereafter there was no more trouble from night
-snipers at that part of the lines.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII
-
-                          IN THE ENEMY'S LINES
-
-
-It was during their next spell in the trenches that the Rutlands had
-their first taste of artillery fire.  They were not systematically
-bombarded: there was no indication of infantry attack; but at irregular
-intervals shells from field guns burst over or behind the trenches,
-doing very little damage, but making the men nervous and irritable.
-When the ominous tearing sound was heard as a shell flew through the
-air, the men winced and cowered, and at the explosion they looked
-fearfully around, sometimes through a shower of earth, wondering to find
-themselves still alive.
-
-"You'll get used to it by and by," said Captain Adams to the men of his
-company. "The bark is worse than the bite at present. It's really very
-kind of the Bosches to let you get accustomed to them gradually."
-
-After a day or two the bombardment became heavier and more persistent.
-Two or three batteries were located, either by officers in observation
-posts or by British airmen, and the British gunners replied to them, not
-without success.  But presently the trenches were shelled at night by
-heavier guns which it seemed impossible to place. The position of the
-guns appeared to vary. Sometimes the reports came from the south-east,
-sometimes from the east, sometimes from the north-east; and in general
-they were louder than those of the guns which had been definitely
-located, though this fact, in the opinion of some of the men, was due to
-the stillness of the night air.  They began to suspect that the Germans
-were bringing up more guns to various parts of their line, with the idea
-of discouraging any attempt to break through at this point.
-
-All this made the Rutlands eager to come to grips with the enemy, and
-the prolonged inaction tried them sorely.  To amuse them during the long
-weary evenings in the trenches the colonel sent for a number of mouth
-organs, and some of the officers read to them in the dug-outs by candle
-light. One evening the men of Kennedy's platoon pricked up their ears
-when they heard the plaintive notes of a flute from a short distance on
-their left.
-
-"Who's playing?" they asked.
-
-Word was passed along the trench that it was Stoneway, who had bought a
-flute in the village.
-
-"There's a chap for you!" said Ginger. "All the months we were training
-the beggar never did a thing, playing or singing. Seems to me he can
-play, too.  But he didn't ought to play 'Home, sweet Home.'  Gives you a
-lump in your throat.  Pass the word along for 'Dolly Grey,' will you,
-mates?"
-
-Stoneway's unsuspected musical accomplishments raised him in the
-estimation of his comrades.  Every night there were calls for him.  He
-knew a great number of their favourite tunes, and was always ready to
-play them.  He would usually begin by running up and down the scale, and
-practising tuneless exercises; and sometimes, when these preliminary
-flourishes were rather prolonged, the men called to him to "cut it" and
-come to the real thing.
-
-As time went on, the shelling became more frequent.  It soon became
-clear that the Germans were working from definite knowledge of what was
-going on behind the British lines.  The bombardment often took place
-when parties were relieving one another in the trenches, though this was
-always done in darkness.  And one day, when the general commanding the
-division came to the village to inspect the battalion, a particularly
-brisk shelling caused a stampede of the people, who had come to regard
-themselves as safe. Several cottages were damaged, several civilians as
-well as soldiers were killed or wounded, and a heavy shell excavated a
-deep hole in the garden of Monsieur Obernai's house.
-
-One morning the trenches were subjected for the first time to the fire
-of a heavy howitzer.  A peculiar low drone, rapidly increasing in
-loudness, was heard.
-
-"'Ware Jack Johnson!" cried Captain Adams, and the men crouched in the
-trenches, holding their breath.
-
-The first shell fell some distance behind the lines.  They heard a
-terrific crash, and saw a column of thick smoke.  The second shell,
-about a minute after the first, fell far too short, plunging into the
-ground just in front of the German trenches, and bespattering them with
-earth.  The third exploded in the pond between the lines, and sent a
-wave into the German trench at the side.  During the next half hour the
-ground in front of the pond between the opposing forces was pitted with
-holes made by the heavy shells.
-
-"There's something wrong with the range-finding or the charges,"
-remarked Harry.
-
-"Lucky for us," said Kenneth, brushing from his coat some dust cast up
-by one of the shells.  "The smell is bad enough."
-
-After half an hour the shelling ceased, and the men wondered what
-purpose the Germans could have had in such an apparently motiveless
-bombardment.  Captain Adams suspected that something was going on in the
-German lines, and remembering the success of Kenneth and Ginger in
-discovering the sniper, he decided to send them out that night as a
-listening patrol.  Harry begged to be allowed to go with them.
-
-"Very well," said the captain.  "If you're successful we'll try a whole
-section another time.  It's a ticklish job, you understand.  You'll
-crawl over to the German trenches, and listen.  You know German, Amory,
-I believe.  You'll do the listening, then; you others keep on the watch.
-Don't lose your way.  I'll take care that the men here don't fire on you
-as you come back; but if you stray too far to right or left you may find
-yourselves in hot water."
-
-"You've no special instructions, sir?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"No: you must work out the details yourselves.  You're not puppets on
-the end of a string."
-
-"Nor yet monkeys on a stick," Ginger murmured when the captain had gone.
-"What did Capting mean by that?"
-
-"He meant that we're not machine made, as the Germans are, by all
-accounts," replied Harry.  "I say, I'm jolly glad he let me go too: I'm
-getting quite fat with doing nothing."
-
-They talked over their plans together. Obviously the safest direction in
-which to approach the enemy was towards the large pond.  This was an
-irregular oval in shape, and the Germans had not closely followed its
-curve in cutting their trenches, for, if they had done so, it would have
-exposed them to enfilading fire from the British.  They had carried
-their advanced trench close up to the border of the pond on each side,
-then run communicating trenches at right angles from front to rear, and
-there dug a straight trench along the breadth of the pond, about a
-hundred yards in the rear of their first alignment.  The wire
-entanglements in front of the pond, facing the British, were not so
-elaborate as on the rest of their line, from which the inference was
-that the water was too deep to be waded.
-
-Just before midnight the three men crept stealthily out of their trench,
-armed only with their bayonets, crawled under the barbed wire, and
-wriggled forward towards the pond.  It was slow and tiring work, for the
-ground was much cut up by shell fire, and littered with fragments of
-shells, empty tins, and other rubbish.  There was a certain advantage in
-the unevenness, in that it gave cover; but it also contained an element
-of danger, because there was a risk of their displacing something as
-they proceeded, and they knew that the slightest noise would provoke a
-fusillade from the enemy.
-
-The moon was not up, but the sky was spangled with stars, by whose
-feeble light they were able to distinguish objects on the ground within
-ten or a dozen paces.  They heard the Germans talking and laughing in
-their trenches, and here and there a slight radiance marked the places
-where they had candles or lamps.  Foot by foot they crawled on, Kenneth
-leading the way towards the angle of the trenches on the left.
-
-At last he came to a stop within a few feet of the parapet.  The three
-men lay flat on the ground.  For some moments Kenneth was not able to
-distinguish anything from the general murmur, but presently he realised
-that one man was reading aloud to the rest from a German newspaper.
-"The blockade of England.  Great German success in the North Sea.  An
-English merchantman of 245 tons laden with bricks was torpedoed in the
-North Sea yesterday, and seriously damaged.  The starvation of England
-proceeds satisfactorily."
-
-"What, do the English eat bricks?" asked one simple soul.
-
-There was a laugh.
-
-"They have good teeth!  Look at this picture," said another.
-
-"If the English bricks are harder than our war bread I pity them," said
-a third.  "We needn't cry 'God punish England' any more."
-
-"Is there any news of sinking a grain ship?" asked a voice.
-
-"No," replied the reader.  "Grain comes in big vessels; I expect the
-Americans won't let their ships sail.  We shall have America on our side
-soon."
-
-"Anything to shorten the war," said a man. "I'm tired of it.  I want to
-get home to Anna and the children.  The General said it would be all
-over by Christmas."
-
-"So it will, by next Christmas.  I want to get back to the Savoy: I made
-�10 there the Christmas before last."
-
-"You won't make it again.  The English won't have any money after this."
-
-Signing to the others to remain where they were, Kenneth crept still
-farther forward until he came below the parapet. From the direction of
-the voices he guessed that the trench was unoccupied at the angle; the
-men who should be there were gathered around the man who had the paper.
-Cautiously raising himself, he peeped first through a loophole, then
-over the crown of the parapet.  Here he was able to look along both the
-main trench and the communicating trench at right angles to it.  In the
-former, about a dozen yards away, he saw a group of men at the entrance
-of a dug-out, from which a glow shone forth.  It was here, evidently,
-that the man was reading.  He discovered the reason why, apart from the
-attraction of the newspaper, this part of the trench was empty.  The
-stars were reflected in water that lay along the bottom.  There was
-evidently a considerable leakage from the pond.  On the right hand the
-communication trench was quite dark.  Apparently it was not manned at
-all.
-
-Kenneth dropped down again, and remained for a short time listening.
-The conversation had changed: instead of discussing the war, the Germans
-were talking of domestic matters; the ex-waiter of the Savoy Hotel
-described his little house and garden at Peckham, and told how he had
-happened to meet in London a girl from his own village in Wurtemburg,
-who was now his wife. Luckily he had saved enough money to keep her and
-his children for a year or two.
-
-Finding that he was not likely to gain any important information,
-Kenneth crawled back to his companions, and they made their wriggling
-way to their trench without being discovered.  Captain Adams was a
-little disappointed at the meagre result of their reconnaissance.  The
-only valuable piece of news was that the communication trench was empty
-and the angle flooded.
-
-Shortly after their return the mysterious gun again opened fire.
-Several men were wounded by splinters of shells, one so seriously that,
-in spite of the risk, he had to be carried at once to the rear.
-
-Next day Kenneth said to Harry:
-
-"Look here, last night's business has whetted my appetite.  Why
-shouldn't we get behind the German lines and see if we can locate that
-gun?  Every day we lose a man or two without being able to retaliate,
-and it's quite time to put a stop to it."
-
-"Will the captain let us?"
-
-"Adams wouldn't object, I think; but I'm afraid we should have to get
-the colonel's leave for this.  I'll take the first opportunity of
-speaking to the captain.  It would be a pity not to make some use of the
-little information we were able to pick up."
-
-Captain Adams, when the proposal was put to him, at once said, as
-Kenneth had expected, that he must ask the colonel's permission.
-
-"It's a good deal more dangerous than last night's affair, you see.
-You'll be shot out of hand if you're caught."
-
-"But it's worth trying, sir, if we can find that gun.  Apart from our
-losses, it's making the men jumpy."
-
-"That's all very well, but I don't want to lose two useful men.  Still,
-I'll see what the colonel says."
-
-Later in the day he sent for them.
-
-"I've seen the colonel," he said.  "He was at first dead against it, but
-I did my best for you.  He agrees, provided you come back at once if you
-find things too unhealthy: that is to say, you are not to go on if you
-come up against any considerable body of the enemy.  And keep the matter
-to yourselves. You'll be supposed to be going out again as a listening
-patrol.  I shall tell only Mr. Kennedy and your sergeant.  No one else
-is to know what has become of you, and they will be on the look-out for
-your return."
-
-He gave them a large-scale map of the district behind the German lines,
-and recommended them to study it carefully during the day.  The railway
-seemed likely to be their best landmark.  It ran almost due north-east.
-About four miles away it passed over a canal running north and south.
-With these two fixed lines and a pocket luminous compass they should not
-wander far afield in ignorance of their general position.  Much nearer
-to the British trenches, and almost directly in their front, was a
-ruined church, the spire of which, used by the Germans as an observation
-post, had been shot away some time before the Rutlands arrived at the
-front.
-
-Their diligence in conning the map aroused the curiosity of their
-comrades, but they laughed off enquiries, and gave the map back to the
-captain.
-
-They decided to start, carrying revolvers, soon after dark, at the time
-when the Germans might be supposed to be taking their evening meal.
-With some difficulty they managed to slip away unnoticed by the other
-men. Moving with even more caution than on the previous night, they
-crawled over the ground until they reached the angle of the trenches
-abutting on the pond.  It was quite dark; the moon, in its third
-quarter, was, as they had learnt from the almanac, not due to rise for
-some hours.
-
-Peering down into the firing trench, they neither saw nor heard any sign
-of occupants in the space immediately below them; but they heard voices
-from a traverse a few yards away.  Then Harry caught sight of three or
-four men coming down the communication trench, and from their gait
-concluded that they were bringing food.  The two dropped down below the
-parapet and lay motionless: it was clear that they had started a little
-too early.
-
-They waited until they heard the men pass back along the communication
-trench; then, after a short interval, rose to carry out the plan
-previously agreed upon for descending into the trench.  The principal
-danger was a fall of loose earth from the parapet or a splash in the
-water at the bottom.  Kenneth cautiously clambered up the earthwork, lay
-flat on top of the parapet, then backed until his legs hung over inside.
-To avoid slipping he held Harry's hands, and so lowered himself until he
-stood on the banquette, which was an inch or two under water.  Pressing
-himself close against the earthen wall, he steadied Harry in his
-descent: both stood in the trench.  They were panting with excitement.
-
-From their left came the sounds of conversation; the speakers were
-invisible. They were just about to start down the communication trench
-when they heard footsteps approaching from the farther end. Flattening
-themselves into the angle they waited breathlessly.  The corner was so
-dark that they hoped to escape detection; but their hearts leapt to
-their mouths when they saw the flash of an electric torch some distance
-away in the communication trench. Escape was impossible.  If the light
-was shown as the men approached the corner discovery was certain.
-
-"Don't waste the light," Kenneth heard one of the men say.  "We are
-running short of batteries.  You can see the turn by looking up.  Watch
-the stars."
-
-The light was switched off.  Holding their breath the Englishmen waited.
-Two Germans drew nearer, splashed through the water, and turned into the
-firing trench. As soon as they had disappeared, Kenneth and Harry
-started to go down the communication trench, stepping very slowly
-through the water, and halting every now and again to listen.  Presently
-they were startled by hearing voices behind them.  The Germans
-apparently were returning.  To retreat now was impossible.  Whatever
-danger might lie ahead, they must go on.
-
-By this time they had quitted the water. Seemingly they had passed
-beyond the pond. But the bottom of the trench was sticky with mud;
-walking was difficult.  And the men behind were gaining on them.
-Suddenly they came to a trench at right angles--no doubt the trench at
-the rear of the pond. Scarcely daring to look along it, they went
-straight on.
-
-"Anything doing?" asked a voice close by.
-
-"All's quiet," replied Kenneth in German.
-
-Another hundred yards brought them to a third trench.  It appeared to be
-unoccupied. After listening intently for a few moments they decided to
-trust their luck down this trench rather than continue along the
-communication trench, in which they could still hear the footsteps and
-voices of the men following them.  Others might be coming towards them.
-Striking to the left, they went along the trench for a few yards; then,
-coming upon another communication trench at right angles, they stopped
-to consult in murmurs.  They decided that the trenches were more
-dangerous than the open ground.  Retracing their steps for some little
-distance, they waited a moment or two.  All was silent.  Cautiously they
-clambered up and lay, breathing hard, upon the grass.
-
-A little ahead of them was the ruined church standing black and gaunt in
-the starlight.
-
-"We go past that," whispered Kenneth, "then strike off to the
-north-east.  We'll try that direction first, at any rate.  Most of the
-shots appear to come from there."
-
-"About how far away?"
-
-"Two or three miles, I think."
-
-"I say----"
-
-"Well?"
-
-"Oh nothing!--only I feel sort of empty inside."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VIII
-
-                                SKY HIGH
-
-
-Harry's feeling of emptiness simply meant that he was only now beginning
-to realise the difficulty of the task undertaken so lightheartedly by
-himself and his friend. They had come only about a fourth of the
-distance they expected to cover, and it was the easiest portion, for
-after all there was much less chance of meeting enemies in the quiet
-communication trenches than behind the lines, where movement was
-unconstrained, and a German might lurk behind every tree.
-
-They lay for a few minutes, peering into the darkness, listening,
-thinking out their course.  Somewhere to the left they heard the rumble
-of carts, the clatter of motor cars, the voices of men.  Similar sounds,
-but fainter, came from the right.  On either hand there was a road to
-avoid.  No doubt there was a path running from the church to one or
-other of these roads.  Their best plan seemed to be to creep along by
-the churchyard wall and strike across the fields, taking what cover the
-hedges, ditches, and isolated trees afforded.  There was no definite
-clue to their direction.  The gun they had come to seek had not yet
-begun its nightly work.
-
-Assuring themselves that there were no sounds in their immediate
-neighbourhood, they got up and stole towards the tree-lined wall of the
-churchyard.  The wall was broken in many places; trees had been split
-and felled and tombstones shattered by gunfire.  They moved very
-cautiously along the wall towards the open fields. Suddenly they both
-halted and crouched. High up in the ruined tower a light had flashed for
-a moment.  From the same place came faint sounds which they soon
-recognised as the murmur of voices.  The light again shone forth, and
-again disappeared. It came and went at intervals, now long, now short,
-and in a few minutes they realised that the men in the tower were
-signalling.
-
-The light showed in the direction of the trenches.  They had never
-noticed it in their night watches there; presumably the signallers were
-at work for the first time, or perhaps the direct rays were masked, and
-the light was visible only at a higher elevation.  Beyond doubt the
-signallers were Germans; no British soldiers, or natives in collusion
-with them, would have chosen a spot within the German lines, and so near
-the trenches--a spot where the glow of the lamp could be so clearly
-distinguished.
-
-But it was puzzling.  Why should the Germans signal towards their own
-trenches? Was it possible that they were communicating with somebody
-behind the British lines?
-
-The two Englishmen crouched below the wall.
-
-"Shall we take a look-in at the tower?" asked Harry in a whisper.
-
-"It's not our present job," returned Kenneth.  "We're out to find the
-gun. Perhaps afterwards--at any rate we'll report it.  The men up there
-have got a good view over the fields; we shall be lucky to get away
-without being discovered."
-
-Bent double, they hurried along the wall, and when it came to an end,
-crept on under cover of a hedge across a field.  Descending into a
-shallow hollow, they sprang across a brook, and made for a small clump
-of trees on rising ground in front of them.  The ground was rough and
-stubbly; walking was difficult and fatiguing.  They passed through the
-skirt of the wood, crossed more fields, taking to the ditches where the
-ground rose, and quickening their pace through the depressions.  Kenneth
-frequently consulted his compass and watch, the dials of which were
-faintly luminous.
-
-At length he announced that they must have come about three miles from
-the trenches.
-
-"It's no good going farther at present," he said.  "All we can do is to
-wait until we hear the discharge of the gun, perhaps see its flash.  And
-it will be just our luck if they don't fire it to-night."
-
-"How long shall we wait?"
-
-"That's the problem!  If we wait too long we shan't get back to-night,
-and that means hiding up all to-morrow.  We can't possibly return in
-daylight.  But it's no good talking.  Let's make ourselves as
-comfortable as we can in the shade of this hedge.  And for goodness'
-sake don't let me fall asleep."
-
-"Not much chance of that if you feel like me.  I couldn't sleep a wink,
-though I'm tired enough."
-
-They sat down, took some chocolate from their tins, and prepared for
-their vigil.  All was silent around them.  There were no longer sounds
-of traffic; the roads had apparently diverged.  The whole countryside
-lay peaceful under the silent stars.
-
-Time went on.  The air was cold.  Now and then they got up and tramped
-to and fro to stir their chilled blood.  Ten o'clock: eleven: no sound.
-Kenneth looked at his watch at ever shorter intervals.  He was becoming
-restless.  Had they adventured on a vain quest?  The moon crept above
-the horizon, dimly illuminating the landscape, showing here a dark
-rounded mass that must be a wooded hill, there the white walls of a
-solitary farmhouse.
-
-"There's no getting back to-night," thought Kenneth, as the light
-increased.
-
-It was just past midnight.  They were sitting side by side, silent,
-disappointed, depressed.
-
-"Hark!" said Harry suddenly.
-
-There was a low continuous rumble in the distance.  It grew louder.
-They rose to their feet, and looked across the fields eastward.  The
-ground stretched away in undulations, alternate dark and light bands in
-the moonshine.  They could see nothing to explain the sound.  It came
-from their right, increasing in volume as it approached, then
-diminishing as it passed away to the left, finally ceasing.
-
-"Sounded like a railway truck," said Harry.
-
-"There's no line there," replied Kenneth. "The only line shown on the
-map is the one running through the village almost due east; it turns to
-the north-east after cutting the German lines.  It must be a good three
-or four miles from here.  That sound went right across our front, from
-south to north, and couldn't have been more than half a mile away."
-
-"Well, it's stopped now.  We needn't bother about it.  Quite certainly
-it wasn't made by the guns, and that's the only riddle we're called on
-to solve.  I'm fed up with this, Ken."
-
-"So am I.  The idea of a whole day here is sickening.  Still, it can't
-be helped."
-
-They sat down again, each thinking his own thoughts.
-
-Suddenly there was a momentary flash, instantly followed by a terrific
-roar.
-
-"The gun!" exclaimed Kenneth, springing up.
-
-"And jolly close, too," said Harry, looking across the fields.  "Which
-side of us?"
-
-"I don't know.  We must wait for the next.  This is getting exciting."
-
-Within a minute or two they saw the flash again, lighting up the sky
-behind a low ridge on their left front.  The noise of the discharge
-reverberated and died away.
-
-"Come on!" whispered Kenneth.
-
-They crept along the hedge in the direction of the ridge.  A third
-report rent the air; then, after a minute's silence, they were surprised
-to hear a renewed rumbling, which passed across their front nearer than
-they had heard it before, and receded towards the south.
-
-"'Pon my word, it seems to have some connection with the gun after all,"
-murmured Kenneth.
-
-They went on, as fast as they could with caution.  Crawling up the
-ridge, they peered over.  Nothing was to be seen in either direction.
-They crawled down the other slope, and came to what appeared to be a
-sunken grass road.  It was shadowed by the ridge.  Looking to right and
-left, and discovering nothing, they got up and began to walk across the
-road.  Suddenly Harry stumbled, and uttered a low exclamation.
-
-"A whack on the toe," he murmured.
-
-"By George!" whispered Kenneth behind him.  He had stooped to look at
-the obstruction.
-
-Harry turned.  The obstacle was a rail. There was no glint from it;
-apparently it was rusty.  But it was sticky to the touch. Kenneth held
-his fingers to his nose.  They smelt of tar.
-
-Beside the rail there was a layer of loose grass, twigs, rubbish of all
-sorts, and beyond this, five feet away, a parallel rail.
-
-"We have come on a single-track railway," said Kenneth.  "It's not
-marked on the map; must have been recently laid.  Let us go on a little,
-and examine it."
-
-In a few minutes their discovery was confirmed.  The seeming grass road
-was a roughly laid track.  But the rails had been painted over with tar,
-and the sleepers and permanent way were hidden under low heaps of
-litter.
-
-"They're clever beasts," said Kenneth. "D'you see the trick?  No airman
-would ever guess this to be a railway.  The rails are quite dark."
-
-"But what's it for?"
-
-At this moment came the report of the gun, some distance to the south.
-
-"That's what we are going to find out," said Kenneth.
-
-They made their way stealthily along the track between the rails in the
-direction of the sound.  Presently, at a gentle curve, they came to a
-white post with a small square platform in front of it, abutting on the
-railway.  Wondering what it was for, they went on, and in a few moments
-heard the rumble of an approaching train.  They scrambled up the ridge
-on their right, threw themselves flat on the ground and watched.
-
-In a few minutes an engine and two trucks glided into view, making
-extraordinarily little noise.  They passed slowly below the watchers.
-There was no smoke from the engine; perhaps it was electric. The first
-truck carried a heavy gun; the other, containing men, was like an
-ordinary railway wagon, but apparently better sprung, for it moved with
-only the low rumble which the watchers had already heard.  The effect of
-the train gliding past, dark, almost without sound, was mysteriously
-strange.
-
-When the train had passed, they hastened after it, walking just below
-the crest of the ridge.  They had scarcely started when they heard a low
-screeching of brakes. Stealing on a few steps, and peering over, they
-saw that the train had stopped opposite the small platform.  The men had
-got out of their truck, and were moving noiselessly but quickly about
-the truck containing the gun.  Orders were given in a low voice. There
-was a slight grating of machinery and creaking of timber.  The recoil
-cradle of the gun, which still remained on the truck, was being placed
-on the platform; the gun itself was being loaded.  Its muzzle pointed
-over the railway line towards the trenches.
-
-Stuffing up their ears, Kenneth and Harry waited.  The gun was fired.
-They heard the heavy projectile whizz over their heads. Three times the
-gun spoke; then it was swung round on the truck, and the train moved on
-to the north-east.
-
-Dazed and deafened by the tremendous noise, the watchers followed it
-along the line.  Here was a discovery indeed.  It was no wonder that the
-gun had never been located.  But what they had already learnt made them
-eager to learn more.  Where was the gun kept when not in use?  Where was
-the headquarters of the men?  If they could find out this, they would
-have information of real value to carry back with them.
-
-They went cautiously along the line, on the look-out for sentries.  But
-the line was not guarded.  Its existence was probably known only to the
-German staff, and it was evidently used only for the gun train.
-
-About half a mile beyond the platform, the train came to rest at
-another.  Again the gun was fired: then the train rumbled back.  The two
-men hid until it had passed, then continued along the line in the
-opposite direction.  During its absence they would seize the opportunity
-to survey this part of the line.
-
-Some ten minutes after the train had passed they caught sight of low
-buildings ahead on the east side of the track, and a dim light.  In case
-there might be Germans on the spot, they left the rails, walked across a
-field under cover of the hedge, and approached the buildings from the
-east. These, they found, were three low wooden sheds, near the opening
-of a large quarry, which Kenneth remembered having seen marked on the
-map.  The sheds were in ill repair: there were many chinks and gaps in
-their boarded walls.  Apparently the quarry and its appurtenances had
-been for some time disused.  The light which they had seen from the
-railway line proceeded from one of the sheds, from the interior of which
-they now heard guttural voices. Peeping through a chink in its wall,
-they saw four Germans smoking, drinking, and playing cards by the light
-of oil lamps.  There were narrow beds ranged along the opposite wall,
-some of which were occupied.  Helmets and tunics hung from pegs.  In one
-corner rifles were piled.  In another stood a cooking stove, its iron
-chimney passing out through the roof.  It was evident that the shed was
-continuously occupied.  At the end nearest the line the door was open,
-and a sentry paced to and fro.
-
-While the Englishmen were taking stock of all this, they heard the drone
-of an aeroplane approaching.  The four men at the table sprang up,
-turned down the lamps, seized their rifles and ran to the door. Kenneth
-stole a few yards along the wall until he came within earshot of them.
-He was on the shaded side of the shed; there was nothing but
-miscellaneous litter on the ground, so that it seemed unlikely that the
-Germans would come in this direction.
-
-"Is it one of ours?" asked one of the men, as the drone grew louder.
-
-"I can't see," replied another.  "It sounds like an English machine."
-
-"Well, they won't spot us.  They haven't done it by daylight, so they
-won't now."
-
-"They're flying rather low.  We could easily hit them."
-
-"But that would be to give ourselves away.  They have gone past.  It's
-all right."
-
-The aeroplane disappeared.  But the men had no sooner re-entered the
-shed than its drone was heard again.  They hastened out.
-
-"It's coming round in a circle," said a voice.  "The cursed Englishmen
-seem suspicious."
-
-"They're hunting for the gun, of course. But it has been quiet lately.
-The captain heard the sound in time.  And there's nothing bright about
-the gun.  The English are dished."
-
-"They're no good, the stupid English. They've no chance against German
-brains."
-
-The aeroplane finally vanished, and the men returned to their cards,
-turning up the lamps again.  Some ten minutes later the report of the
-gun was heard.  It was fired at intervals for an hour, at varying
-distances; then the low rumble of the train approached. The watchers
-heard the door of the second shed creak.  In a few minutes the train
-glided up, and entered the shed, into which, it being the middle one of
-the three, the Englishmen could not see from their present position.
-After a while the door was closed, and the gun crew joined their
-comrades. They were not accompanied by their officer, who had no doubt
-gone to more select and comfortable quarters elsewhere.  After
-exchanging a few words with the cardplayers, the newcomers threw off
-their clothes and got into bed.
-
-"I should like to have a look into the other sheds," whispered Harry.
-"But the moon lights up the other side; and the----"
-
-"Don't talk here," said Kenneth.  "Come round to the back."
-
-Taking care not to displace loose stones, they crept along the wall and
-some distance into the quarry.
-
-"They can't hear us here," said Kenneth, still, however, speaking in
-whispers.  "I think we've found out enough.  The place is marked on the
-map.  Our gunners can shell it by map measurement."
-
-"Yes, but let's have a look at the other sheds before we go.  It won't
-be safe to go into the moonlight, perhaps; but couldn't we take a peep
-from the rear?"
-
-"The sheds are built right against the quarry wall.  But we'll go and
-see."
-
-They stole across the litter until they came to the back of the sheds.
-There they found that there was some chance of achieving their purpose.
-The wall of the quarry was very uneven, just as it had been hewn out.
-Consequently the back walls of the sheds did not fit flush against it;
-there was a space of varying width, but at its narrowest part wide
-enough to admit a man.  Into this they crept.
-
-They discovered that this end of the sheds was in worse repair than the
-side they had already seen.  Protected from the weather by the wall of
-the quarry, the timber had not been renewed.  There were many gaps, and
-when they touched the wood, its crumbling gave signs of dry rot.  But
-the interiors of the second and third sheds were quite dark: it was
-impossible to distinguish anything within.
-
-Harry broke off several fragments of the dry wood without making any
-sound.
-
-"We can get in," he whispered.
-
-Kenneth hesitated.  They had learnt enough for their purpose; it would
-be a pity to risk the failure of the whole enterprise.  But youth is
-adventurous and confident.  The voices of the men in the first shed
-would smother any slight sounds they might make; the sentry was at least
-a hundred and fifty feet away.
-
-"All right," he murmured.
-
-With their clasp knives they cautiously attacked the boards in the wall
-of the third shed, stopping every now and again to listen.  After a
-while they were able to remove two of the boards, leaving an opening
-large enough to admit them.  Very carefully they climbed in.  Dark as
-the interior had appeared from the outside, they found when they were
-inside that there was just light enough, filtering through cracks in the
-wall, to reveal the contents of the shed. The whole interior, except for
-narrow gangways, was packed with shells and cases of high explosives.
-Near the door there were shells for field guns and howitzers, and a
-certain quantity of small arms ammunition. It was clear that the shed
-was an ammunition depot.
-
-Creeping carefully back, they replaced the boards, and went to the
-middle shed, which they managed to enter in the same way, after the
-exercise of greater patience, owing to the more constricted space
-between the shed and the wall of the quarry.  Here they found the gun
-train, and a number of petrol tins: evidently the engine was petrol
-driven. While Kenneth examined the engine as well as he could in the
-still dimmer light, wishing he dared to use his electric torch, Harry
-stole to the front of the shed, and watched the sentry through a crack
-in the badly fitting folding doors.  Kenneth followed him.
-
-"Let me know when the sentry's back is turned," he whispered.  "I'll use
-my torch then."
-
-Harry gave the sign by a scarcely audible hiss.  Kenneth made the best
-use of the few seconds afforded him at intervals.  His experience of
-motor engines had taught him exactly what to look for.  And he was
-prompted, not by mere curiosity, but by a sudden idea which had occurred
-to him, but which he had not yet mentioned to his companion.  The engine
-was still warm. He knew that it ran very smoothly; it was provided with
-a very efficient silencer, or he would not have mistaken it for an
-electric engine.  With their customary thoroughness, the Germans had
-ensured that the movements of their gun train should lack nothing in
-secrecy.
-
-The mechanism was simple, similar to that of an ordinary touring car,
-except that there were only two speeds and reverse.
-
-"Well," he thought, "why not run off with the train, gun and all?"
-
-The train had backed into the shed trucks first.  They were still
-coupled to the engine.  The load was very heavy; the question was
-whether he could get up speed in time to escape.  Some of the Germans
-were awake: the sentry was at the door; the feat seemed impossible, and
-Kenneth dismissed the idea, feeling glad that he had not suggested it to
-Harry.  But before leaving the engine he looked into the tank, and saw
-that it was half full of petrol.
-
-A hiss called him to the door.  The sentry was being changed.  The new
-man was grumbling at having had to leave his bed.  The voices in the
-further shed had ceased.
-
-"All gone to bed?" asked the sentry who was being relieved.
-
-"Yes," replied the other, yawning.
-
-"Schneider won five marks of me this afternoon.  He said he'd give me my
-revenge.  Well, I'll beat him to-morrow."
-
-He went into the shed: there was a rustling for a few moments: then all
-was silent, except for the heavy tramp of the sentry as he paced slowly
-up and down.
-
-The two Englishmen went back to the quarry wall, and were replacing the
-boards.
-
-"I say!" whispered Harry.
-
-"What is it?"
-
-"It's mad, perhaps; but I wondered if we couldn't run off with the
-train."
-
-"Absurd!" replied Kenneth.
-
-"But----"
-
-"Hush! we'll talk presently."
-
-They returned to their former position across the quarry.
-
-"I daresay you are right," said Harry, "but I wish we could collar that
-gun."
-
-"It's impossible," said Kenneth, arguing against his own inclination.
-"We couldn't open the door without being seen."
-
-"But it's so ramshackle that it would burst at a touch."
-
-"Then we'd make a row starting the engine, and before we had any speed
-on they'd be at us."
-
-"I don't know.  They've got to wake up, and dress----"
-
-"Why waste time dressing?"
-
-"Well, is a German a soldier without his uniform?  Anyhow, they would be
-too sleepy for a few seconds to understand what was going on.  It might
-just give us time to get off."
-
-"I don't mind telling you that the idea occurred to me, but I gave it
-up."
-
-"Oh, do let us try it.  It's a sporting chance.  They feel perfectly
-secure; that's so much in our favour.  They'll be struck all of a heap,
-and you know what confusion there is when fellows are taken by
-surprise."
-
-"You've the tongue of the old Serpent, Harry.  With a little luck--ah!
-while we're about it, oughtn't we to blow up the ammunition?"
-
-"That means blowing up the men too."
-
-"Well?  We can't take 'em prisoners. And when you remember that every
-shell in the shed may kill or maim a lot more Englishmen or Frenchmen
-than there are Germans in the shed, you'll see that it's our duty.
-War's war, more's the pity. There are some fuses near the door."
-
-"Come on, then."
-
-They stole back.  Kenneth crept into the ammunition shed, and started a
-time fuse while Harry removed the boards from the wall of the engine
-shed.  Just as Kenneth, returning, had almost reached the opening, in
-his haste he displaced a shell that was standing insecurely.  It toppled
-over with a heavy thud.  He sprang through the gap.
-
-"Touch and go now!" he panted.  "We haven't a second to lose."
-
-There was no time to replace the boards. They slipped into the engine
-shed, hearing the sentry call to his comrades and run towards the
-ammunition shed.  In a few moments he would discover the gap in the
-wall, and the Germans would be scouring the place.
-
-The Englishmen ran to the engine.
-
-"Jump in!" gasped Kenneth.
-
-He stooped down to find the starting handle, in the agitation of the
-moment forgetting that, when examining the engine, he had noticed the
-push that indicated a self-starter.  There was no crank, but only the
-shaft on which it should fit.  For the moment his brain ceased to work;
-he was conscious only of the noise of shouts and hurrying footsteps
-dinning in his ears.  Then recollection came in a flash.  He raised
-himself, sprang into the cab of the engine, and simultaneously released
-the brake and pressed the button of the starting mechanism.  Beneath his
-feet there was a welcome whirr; he threw the engine into gear, and the
-heavy machine, with the heavier trucks behind, lurched forward.
-
-The folding door was only eight or nine feet away--little enough space
-to allow for momentum.  It was neck or nothing.  At the first movement
-Kenneth threw out the clutch, racing the engine; then he let it in, and
-the train jerked itself forward in a way that alarmed him for the
-couplings.  The manoeuvre succeeded.  The engine crashed into the crazy
-door; it was shattered and partly wrenched off the hinges; and the train
-glided out, rounded the curve, and ran with increasing speed into the
-straight towards the south.
-
-All this had occupied only a few moments. Meanwhile, what of the
-Germans?  At the thud of the falling shell the sentry was at the farther
-end of his beat.  He hastened towards the ammunition shed, calling to
-his comrades as he passed their door.  Some sprang up, others only
-turned in their beds. The former, as Harry had foretold, began to throw
-on their uniforms.  There was no sound from outside to alarm them.  But
-a second cry from the sentry caused them to seize their rifles and rush
-out as they were. They followed him into the ammunition shed, where he
-showed them, by the light of an electric torch, the hole in the wall.
-They poked their heads through, and seeing nothing, were beginning to
-ask each other what they had better do when they heard through the shed
-wall the whirr of the starting engine.  Shouting, they hurried back,
-overturning shells and bruising their toes, heard the crash of the door,
-and reached the entrance in time to see the train lumbering round the
-curve to their left.
-
-One or two rifle shots rang out.  Kenneth and Harry heard for a minute
-or two, above the purring of the engine, shouts as if the Germans were
-pursuing them on foot.  And then there was a terrific roar; the sky was
-lit up by a flash that blinded the pale moon, and fragments of metal
-fell in a thick shower upon the train, inflicting sharp blows upon the
-Englishmen, of which their hands and faces bore signs for several days.
-
-"What double asses we were!" gasped Kenneth.  "The row will bring the
-Bosches swarming about us."
-
-"They'll make for the sheds.  By George! what a blaze!  Lucky we're
-running in a hollow.  Where does the line lead to?"
-
-"Don't know.  Be ready to jump.  We're going nearly thirty miles an hour
-now; I'll slow down in a minute or two.  We must get away from the line
-and hide up."
-
-In a few minutes he slackened speed to about five miles.
-
-"Drop off!" he said.
-
-Harry leapt out.  Kenneth opened the throttle to the utmost, put the
-engine into top, and jumped clear as it gathered way. By the time he had
-picked himself up the train had disappeared.  Clambering up the western
-bank, the two men, bending low, raced as fast as they could towards a
-small clump of trees that stood up dark in the moonlight.  They were but
-halfway across the field when there was a tremendous crash somewhere to
-their left rear, a sound of tearing and rending, then silence.
-
-"It's run off the line or something," Kenneth panted.  "Hope the old gun
-is smashed."
-
-It was weeks before they knew what had happened.  Then, passing over the
-ground in the course of a general advance of the British forces, they
-saw the debris of the train, engine, gun, and trucks, lying amid
-shattered masonry in and beside a shallow brook.  The engine had failed
-to take a sharp curve and dashed into and through the parapet of the
-bridge.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IX
-
-                                 D.C.M.
-
-
-The two men had almost reached the clump of trees when they heard the
-thud of horses' hoofs approaching them from the front.  They instantly
-dropped flat into one of the furrows of the stubble field.  Two horsemen
-galloped round the corner of the clump, and rode down towards the
-railway, passing within twenty yards of the fugitives.
-
-Waiting breathlessly until the horsemen had gone out of hearing, the two
-got up, and, still bending low, hurried over the few yards between them
-and the clump and plunged among the trees.
-
-"We shall have to get back to-night, by hook or crook," whispered
-Kenneth. "They'll track us down as soon as it is light....  Listen!"
-
-From beyond the clump came the steady tramp of a considerable body of
-men.  Was it possible that the Germans were on their track already?  For
-a few moments they were unable to decide in what direction the men were
-going.  The sounds became gradually fainter, receding towards the
-railway. Apparently a detachment had been dispatched towards the scene
-of the conflagration.
-
-They stole towards the western side of the clump, and, standing within
-the shadow of the trees, looked out across the country. The moon was
-still up, obscured at moments by drifting clouds.  Far ahead, a little
-to their left, they could just distinguish the tower of the ruined
-church.  Still farther to the left the moonbeams revealed the roofs of
-the small village which the church served, and in which, no doubt,
-German soldiers were billeted.  Lying on the eastern slope of a low
-hill, it was invisible from the British lines, but Kenneth remembered
-having seen its position marked on the map.
-
-"It's past two o'clock," said Kenneth, glancing at his watch.  "The moon
-won't go down for hours, and it will be light by six. We simply must get
-back before sunrise.  All we can do is to creep along the shady side of
-the hedges and take our chance."
-
-After a good look round, they left the trees and hurried to the shelter
-of the nearest hedge.  Being now on lower ground, they could no longer
-see the church: but they judged their general direction by the compass,
-and made their best speed.  Once they found themselves in a field
-completely surrounded by a hedge.  Forcing their way through at the cost
-of many scratches, they fell some five feet into a ditch that the hedge
-concealed, and sank over their ankles in slimy mud.  They scrambled up
-the other side, the brambles tearing their skin and clothes, and tramped
-on again.
-
-It was nearly an hour before they came once more in sight of the church,
-farther to the left than they had expected.  Their best course seemed to
-be to try to find the communication trench by which they had come.
-Keeping always on the shady side of the hedges, they paused only to
-glance towards the tower, to see if the light was still showing, then
-turned their backs on it and hurried on.
-
-They came to a stretch of open ground on which there was no cover of any
-kind, and knew that they were now near the trenches. The most
-nerve-racking portion of their journey was before them.  They dared not
-go erect, in the moonlight.  If they should stumble unawares upon an
-occupied trench it was all up with them.  Throwing themselves on the
-ground, they crawled forward by painful inches, stopping every few
-seconds to listen.  Once the scurry of some wild creature across their
-front tightened their hearts and sent a cold thrill along their spines.
-Presently they heard the murmur of voices on their right, and instantly
-edged to the left, only to be brought to a check after a few minutes by
-voices in that direction also.  Had the rearmost trenches been manned
-during their absence?
-
-Aching in every limb, they crawled still more slowly over the ground.
-At last they encountered a ridge of broken earth, and stopped, holding
-their breath.  There was no sound near them; faint murmurs came from a
-distance.  Harry cautiously raised his head, crept forward a few inches,
-and whispered--
-
-"A trench!"
-
-They peered over.  The trench was empty. Sliding into it, they ran along
-to the left, and presently struck a trench at right angles.  This too
-was empty.  They halted at the corner to listen, then hurried along
-until they had almost reached the second trench.  A man, by his figure
-an officer, turned from it into the communication trench, and walked
-rapidly towards the firing line.  They pressed themselves against the
-wall.
-
-"Making his rounds," whispered Kenneth. "Our best chance is to follow
-him."
-
-"We've come right," said Harry. "There's the water."
-
-A bank of cloud veiled the moon.  They hoped it would not pass for the
-few minutes during which darkness would be so precious a boon.  They
-heard the officer splashing through the water at the further end of the
-trench, and crept after him as rapidly as they dared.  He turned into
-the firing trench.  Voices were heard.  There was great risk in crossing
-the trench, and it occurred to Harry that it would be less dangerous to
-clamber over the embankment on their left and wade through a few yards
-of the pond, which could not be very deep thereabout.  If the moon
-remained in cloud, they would not be seen from the trench behind the
-pond.  Accordingly, two or three yards from the angle of the trenches,
-they swarmed up the bank, and began to let themselves down on the other
-side, clinging to the earth so that they should not drop heavily.
-
-Then fortune deserted them.  The earth crumbled in Kenneth's grasp, and
-he fell into the water with a great splash.  Harry at once flung himself
-face downwards, and the two crawled through several inches of water
-towards the dry land.  The light was increasing as the thinner end of
-the cloud moved slowly across the moon.  Crushing their inclination to
-jump to their feet and sprint over the ground towards their trench, they
-scampered along on all fours.  And then the unveiled moon flooded the
-scene with light.
-
-Shouts came from behind them.  Shots rang out, and pattered around them.
-A bullet carried off the heel of Harry's boot. Still they wriggled on.
-They were conscious of sounds in front.  The trench was alive. A hand
-grenade fell just behind them, bespattering them with earth.  Yard by
-yard they dragged themselves over the ground; here was the wire
-entanglement. As they drew themselves under it, a bullet struck one of
-the tin cans suspended from the top.  There were only a few yards now.
-From right and left a hail of bullets flew from the British trench.
-They reached the parapet.
-
-[Illustration: A LONG WAY BACK]
-
-"Steady!" whispered Kennedy.  "Keep flat for a moment."
-
-But the caution was vain.  After coming a hundred yards under fire they
-thought of nothing but the safety of the trench.  They crawled on, over
-into friendly arms.  Bullets sang around them.
-
-"Pipped!" exclaimed Kenneth, as something stung his shoulder.
-
-But next moment they were safe, dropping exhausted on to the banquette.
-And then the air was rent by a storm of cheers hurled defiantly at the
-Germans.
-
-"Good men!" said Kennedy, as he helped Kenneth to pull off his coat.
-"You're a lucky fellow, by George!  It's little more than a graze.  I
-didn't expect to see you back.  Ah! here's the captain."
-
-Captain Adams came up.
-
-"Amory hurt?  A mere scratch, I see. It was a tight moment.  You seemed
-an age crawling up.  But come now, have you anything to report?"
-
-"Ammunition depot blown up, sir."
-
-"That was the row we heard, then," the captain interrupted.  "We thought
-it must have been an accident, as no firing was going on at the time."
-
-"And to the best of our knowledge and belief, the gun is done for."
-
-"You don't say so!  Talk, man; a round unvarnished tale deliver.  Oh,
-but this is good!"
-
-The captain was evidently excited. Kenneth and Harry between them
-related the whole sequence of their adventures, to an audience of the
-captain, two lieutenants, and as many men of the platoon as could come
-within earshot.  When the story was finished, another roar of cheers
-burst forth, which was taken up along the trench far on both sides,
-though the most of the shouting men could not have known as yet what
-they were cheering for.
-
-"A dashed fine piece of work," said the captain, warmly.  "It's a
-feather in the cap of No. 3 Company, and certain promotion for you two
-men.  You'll have to see the colonel to-morrow, when we get back to
-billets.  Go into the Savoy and sleep; you deserve a day's rest, and you
-shall have it."
-
-When they reappeared among their comrades next day a broad grin welcomed
-them.
-
-"You do look uncommon pretty," said Ginger.  "I never see anyone like
-you except once, and that was when a chap I knew got drunk at the fair,
-had a fight with another chap, tumbled into a blackberry bush on the way
-home, and was found by a copper in the ditch after it had been raining
-all night.  Your best gals would fair scream at the sight of you.  'Oh
-George, dear, where did you get them scratches?  You've been a-fighting,
-you horrid creature, you!'  'No, Sally, I've had a little bit of
-misfortune.'  'Rats! You won't get over me. I'd be ashamed to be seen
-along of you, with a face like that.  I'll walk out with Bill next
-Sunday, so there!'  And off she goes, and on Monday morning you get hold
-of Bill and spoil his beauty for him, and then there's a pair of you."
-
-Everybody laughed, and the two dirty and disfigured objects concerned
-understood that that was Ginger's way of paying a compliment.
-
-On returning to the village at the close of the day, they had only just
-washed and got rid of some of the mud from their clothes when the
-colonel sent for them.  They had to repeat their story.
-
-"I don't happen to have any Iron Crosses," said the colonel, "but I'm
-going to recommend you for commissions.  Officers are badly wanted
-still, and you've got over that nonsense of a few months back?"
-
-"Not at all, sir," said Kenneth.  "We're bound by our promise."
-
-"Ridiculous!  I don't mean that you are ridiculous to keep your word,
-but to give such a promise was a piece of confounded stupidity.  Why,
-goodness alive! after what you've done the men would follow you
-anywhere."
-
-"It's very good of you, sir," Kenneth replied, "but really we must stick
-to what we said."
-
-"Not that I want to lose you from my regiment.  Well, I shall have to
-get Captain Adams to give you your stripes.  You won't object to that?"
-
-"I'm afraid we must, sir.  You see, anything that gave us a lift over
-the other men would be a breach of the understanding."
-
-"Well, you're a couple of young jackasses. I hope I'm a man of my word,
-but----  Oh well, have it your own way!  Virtue shall be its own reward.
-You've relieved the whole battalion of a great worry and danger, and I'm
-uncommonly obliged to you."
-
-It was not until some weeks later that the two friends learnt that their
-names had appeared in the _Gazette_ among a list of men recommended for
-the distinguished conduct medal.  Their refusal of promotion had become
-known to their comrades, and it was observed that Ginger and some of his
-friends often had their heads together, and appeared to be conducting
-delicate negotiations with the men of the other platoons.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER X
-
-                                HOT WORK
-
-
-Kenneth had not omitted to report the signalling from the church tower.
-The light had not been seen from the trenches of his own battalion, and
-it was guessed that the receiver of the messages was at some other point
-behind the long British front.  But on the first night of their return
-to billets it occurred to Harry that the light might possibly be visible
-from some post of equal height with the tower in which it shone, and he
-suggested to Kenneth that they should go up into the belfry of the
-church in their village.  In order to give no excuse for a German
-bombardment the colonel had refrained from making use of this as an
-observation post, which some of his officers regarded as an excess of
-scrupulousness.  It would be necessary to get permission now before
-Harry's suggestion could be acted upon.
-
-Harry put the question to Captain Adams. He saw the colonel, who in view
-of the fact that the Germans were certainly using a church tower a few
-miles away gave his consent.  Finding, therefore, the sacristan, Harry
-and Kenneth got him to take them up the belfry at about the same hour as
-they had seen the Germans' lamp.
-
-Furnished with Captain Adams' field-glasses, they scanned the country in
-turns. For a long time they had no reward, and they were indeed on the
-point of quitting the spot when Kenneth caught sight of a twinkle far
-away to the south-east.  It vanished and reappeared at irregular
-intervals, just as the light from the tower had done.
-
-"We are not getting the full rays here," said Kenneth, after Harry had
-taken a look.  "But it is clear that they are signalling to someone in
-this direction, more or less."
-
-"Let us go half way down the tower, and see if the light is visible
-there," suggested Harry.
-
-But they found that only at the foot of the belfry itself could they
-catch sight of the twinkling light.
-
-"It's very cleverly arranged," Harry remarked.  "They are not signalling
-to this village, that's clear.  There's certainly no observer but
-ourselves here, and no other place is high enough to catch the rays."
-
-"Except Obernai's house," said Kenneth, looking round over the village.
-Most of the roofs were considerably lower than the spot on which they
-stood.  Only the attics of the Alsatian philanthropist's house rose
-above that level.  That large building in its extensive grounds was
-about sixty yards to their left.  There was a light in one of the lower
-rooms, where Captain Adams and several other officers were billeted: the
-rest was dark.
-
-"It's not very likely, after that spy business, that any of Obernai's
-servants is in German pay," Kenneth continued.  "Still I'll tell the
-captain what we have seen."
-
-He made his report to Captain Adams next morning.  Later in the day the
-captain said to him:
-
-"There's nothing in that matter, Amory. I asked Monsieur Obernai whether
-his servants were trustworthy, and he assured me that he had had them
-for years, and could answer for them all.  I didn't tell him why I had
-made the enquiry; it's best to keep these things as quiet as possible;
-we don't want to make people uneasy.  I've no doubt the signals are
-directed to some place farther away on our left, and the colonel is
-sending word along the front, asking them to keep a look-out."
-
-Nothing more was heard of the signalling for a long time.
-
-When they returned to the trenches, their position was somewhat altered.
-The Rutlands were moved a little to the right, and Kennedy's platoon
-occupied a portion of the trench which had formerly been held by another
-platoon.
-
-Kenneth was making himself comfortable in a dug-out with Harry and
-Ginger when he picked up, among the various articles left by its former
-occupants, a piece of ruled music paper dotted with notes.
-
-"A relic of your friend Stoneway, Ginger," he said with a laugh.  "He's
-the only musician in the company."
-
-"Is he, by George!" cried Harry.  "You forget I was in the school choir,
-old chap."
-
-"So you were!  I remember how the mothers used to admire your pretty
-little cherub face when you let off your songs on the platform.  'Isn't
-he sweet, mother?' I heard a girl say once.  You remember how we rotted
-you."
-
-"Yes, confound it!  I was jolly glad when my voice broke, and I got out
-of all that.  I haven't sung a note since; if I try, my voice is like a
-nutmeg grater."
-
-"You've lost your cherubic mug too, old man.  But look here; whistle
-over this tune; let's hear what it is."
-
-Harry took the paper, scanned it for a moment or two, then said:
-
-"It's no tune at all.  The notes go up and down all anyhow."
-
-He whistled a few notes.
-
-"Oh, for any sake stop it!" implored Ginger.  "It's Stoneway's
-exercises, by the sound of it.  Call that music!  It's enough to make a
-cat ill."
-
-"I'll give it back to Stoneway next time I see him," said Harry.
-
-"Tear it up," said Ginger.  "If he hasn't got it, perhaps he can't----"
-
-A shout interrupted him.
-
-"Stand to!  Here they come!"
-
-They seized their rifles and rushed out into the trench, Harry stuffing
-the paper into his pocket.  The men were posting themselves a yard apart
-on the banquette, looking excitedly through the loopholes. Across the
-open ground in front the Germans were advancing in a serried mass.  It
-was a surprise attack, not heralded, in the customary way, by a
-bombardment.  The testing moment had come for the Rutlands at last.
-
-They stood at their posts, tense, quiet with excitement.  Ginger's
-features twitched; Harry's lips were parted.  With their fingers at the
-triggers they awaited breathlessly the order to fire.  On came the dense
-grey lines. The Germans did not fire; with fixed bayonets they swarmed
-forward rapidly.  They came to the wire entanglement; with clock-work
-precision every man in the first rank plied his nippers, and then, in
-the trench, Kennedy cried in a hoarse whisper:
-
-"Three rounds, rapid!"
-
-All along the line sounded the crackle of rifles.  On the right a
-machine-gun rattled; on the left another.  Three times the rifles spoke.
-Men were shouting, they knew not what.  Other sounds mingled with the
-din: yells, groans, guttural orders from the German officers; and at the
-wire entanglement lay a long swathe of fallen men.
-
-But behind them another multitude was dashing on.  They leapt over their
-stricken comrades, only to drop in their turn before the withering
-volley from their unseen enemy in the trench.  Through the gaps poured
-an unending torrent; the grey-clad men were drawing nearer to the
-trench.  The rifle-fire was now continuous, but it was of no avail to
-repel this close-packed horde.  There was no longer question of taking
-cover.  The Rutlands leapt up to meet the charge.  They fired as fast as
-they could, until their rifles were hot.  In spite of their losses the
-Germans pressed on until sheer weight of numbers carried them to the
-edge of the trench.
-
-It is not for us to describe the scene of carnage there--the hideous
-work of the bayonets, the cries of the wounded, the hoarse shouts of
-defenders and assailants. The Germans fell back.  Kennedy's clear voice
-shouted the order for volley-firing. And now came a fierce reply from
-the German ranks.  Then they fell on their knees and crawled forward
-again.  Again they were driven back.  They began to retreat. And then
-Kennedy leapt on the parapet and gave the command to charge.  The men
-responded with alacrity.  Up they scrambled, over the fallen men, and
-dashed forward with exultant shouts.  There was a whizz and boom
-overhead.  The British artillery behind was coming into play.  From the
-front came deafening crashes; columns of earth and smoke rose into the
-air.  The Rutlands lay on the ground until the guns had ceased fire;
-then dashed on.  They plunged into the reek about the German trench;
-they sprang over the parapet and drove the Germans out; and a storm of
-cheers acclaimed their victory.
-
-They were preparing to hold the ground they had won when word was
-brought that strong reinforcements were hurrying up to the Germans from
-the east.  They had no reserve strong enough to hold the new line in
-face of a superior force.  The colonel ordered them to evacuate the
-trench, after doing as much damage as was possible in the short time
-available.
-
-The men set to work with their own trenching tools and with those
-abandoned by the Germans to hack down the walls of the trench.  Kenneth
-caught up a pick, and remembering the pond at the right of the
-communicating trench, he began to cut a hole through the three or four
-feet of intervening earth.  Ginger joined him.  In a few minutes the
-water burst through in spate, flooding the trenches, and driving the
-Englishmen out pell-mell.
-
-Laughing, singing, throwing jokes one to another, they returned to their
-own trenches. They picked up swords, rifles, helmets, and other articles
-of equipment that were scattered over the ground, threaded their way
-among the fallen men, stopping here and there to assist wounded
-comrades. Meanwhile the British artillery was pounding the German lines
-to discourage a renewed attack, and the Red Cross men moved swiftly and
-silently over the field.
-
-Kenneth had not seen Harry for some time, and was anxious about him.
-But the friends met at the edge of their trench. Each ran his eyes
-rapidly over the other; their set faces cleared when they recognised
-that neither was hurt.
-
-Settled down once more in their dug-out, the three men talked over their
-experiences.
-
-"I felt my blood run cold," said Harry, "but I hadn't time to be afraid.
-I feel worse now.  Look at my hand shaking."
-
-Ginger, very pale, was mechanically cleaning his rifle.  He flung it
-down with a curse.
-
-"What have they done to me?" he cried. "What have they done to me?  I
-killed an officer, a nice young chap as might have been your brother.
-What for?  What about his mother?  And all those poor chaps yonder: why
-can't them as make wars let us alone? Men ain't made to kill each other.
-What's the good of it all?  When the war's over, millions dead, millions
-crippled, millions miserable.  It didn't ought to be."
-
-"We're serving our country, Ginger," said Kenneth.  "It's not a question
-of just the present moment.  We've got to think of the future.  What
-would life be worth to our people at home if the Germans had their way?
-You can get nothing good without paying the price, and it will be good
-if we can teach the Germans and the world that force isn't everything,
-that people have a right to live their own lives without being bullied.
-For every man that dies, whether English or German, perhaps thousands
-may have a better time in days to come.  That's worth fighting for, and
-dying for, if need be.  We've all got our little part to play. It's not
-a thing you can argue about: you feel it.  Look at what Sir Edward Grey
-said: he'd rather cut the old country altogether than be obliged to give
-up our good English ways and to put up with German tyranny.  Don't you
-feel like that too?  Well, that's why we are fighting; we're fighting to
-call our souls our own, and, please God, we'll win."
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER XI
-
-                      THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GINGER
-
-
-It was when the battalion next returned to billets that the meaning of
-Ginger's confabulations with the men of other platoons came out.
-
-One evening after supper Kenneth and Harry were smoking in the Bonnards'
-kitchen.  They were alone.  Ginger and the other members of their billet
-had left them some little while before, and the men's faces had worn the
-sly, conscious look of those who are meditating a secret design.
-
-"If I didn't know Ginger, I should think they were up to some mischief,"
-Harry had said.
-
-Presently the door opened, and Ginger reappeared, at the head of eight
-or ten men from other platoons of No. 3 Company. They all looked a
-little sheepish and uncomfortable as they filed into the room.  Some
-hung back and were pushed forward by their mates.  Ginger moved to the
-rear, and was instantly seized by several hands and expostulated with in
-fierce whispers.
-
-"Keep your wool on; I'm only going to shut the door," said Ginger.
-
-"What's in the wind, you fellows?" said Kenneth.  "Why are you hanging
-about the door?  Come round the fire and light up: we'll have a smoking
-concert or something."
-
-There were mutterings among the group. Some words reached the ears of
-the two men at the fire-place.
-
-"It's your job: you're a sergeant."
-
-"No fear; you don't catch me..."
-
-"Ginger's the man..."
-
-"Spouts like a M.P...."
-
-At last Ginger was pushed through to the front.  He grinned, half turned
-to protest, was swung round again; then he drew his hand across his
-mouth.
-
-"Mr. Harry, and Mr. Amory," he began.
-
-"Oh, come now, no misters here," Harry broke in.
-
-"Not in the ordinary way, of course," said Ginger, "but this ain't an
-ordinary occasion. The fact is, we're a deputation, that's what we are;
-a deputation from No. 3 Company, and the other chaps have made me
-foreman of the jury.  Not as I want to push myself; not me.  I consider
-it's a job for a three-stripe man; but Sergeant Colpus here is a very
-bashful and retiring man, though you'd never think it to look at him."
-
-"Dry up!" growled the sergeant, turning fiery red as the other men
-sniggered.
-
-"Well, you _would_ put it on to me," Ginger went on, "and I must do it
-my own way, always respecting my superior officer, of course.  Being
-foreman of the jury, I speak for 'em all, got to give the verdict, as
-you may say.  The fact of it is, we men of No. 3 Company, what you may
-call the Randall Company, ain't easy in our minds at the idea of being
-dogs in the manger like.  We know as the colonel wants to make you
-officers, and we think it ain't fair to you or the army to keep you in
-the ranks 'cause of us.  A promise is all right, and we take it very
-kind that you've stuck to your guns, in a manner of putting it, all
-these months.  Speaking for myself, I didn't expect nothing else.  But
-we think it 'ud be a dirty shame if we held you to your promise now,
-specially when every man of us knows you ought to be officers, and
-there's not a man of us but would be proud to follow your lead anywhere.
-And so we've come to say that the promise is off, and we don't stand in
-the way of your getting your rights."
-
-There was a chorus of approval as Ginger wiped his mouth again and
-stepped back among his comrades.
-
-"It's very good of you, Ginger," said Harry, "but I'm sure neither Amory
-nor myself want to leave the ranks."
-
-"Not at all," said Kenneth: "thanks all the same."
-
-"But it ain't right," said Ginger, coming forward again.  "We've learnt
-a thing or two since we started being soldiers, and we've lost a lot of
-the bally nonsense that used to fill our heads, about all men being
-equal and such like.  Mind you, I'm a Socialist, as strong as ever I
-was.  I say now, as I've said afore, that there's no call for a man to
-stick himself up and think himself mighty superior 'cos he's got a quid
-for every penny I've got. And I don't say but what, if we'd had your
-eddication and chances and all that, we wouldn't be as good as you.  But
-that ain't the point.  We've got to look at things as they are, and be
-honest about it, and what I say is that you've had the training that
-makes officers and we haven't; and besides, you were born one way and we
-were born another, and it's no good trying to make out that chalk's as
-good as cheese.  And there's another thing.  When we've got a tough job
-afore us like licking the Germans we're bound to consider what's best
-for the company and the regiment, and if a man is cut out for an officer
-it's simply silly to keep him a private: he ain't in his right place,
-doing his right job.  So we think it's only right for us and the army
-that you should do what the colonel wants, and that's the size of it."
-
-"Is that what you all think?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"Well, I can't say that; all but one or two, and they're a disgrace to
-the company. There's----"
-
-"I don't want to know who they are," said Kenneth, interrupting.  "We're
-both immensely obliged to you for your good-will, but we enlisted on
-certain terms, and I feel for my part that we can't break our contract
-without the unanimous consent of the company."
-
-"I agree," said Harry.  "The men enlisted on the faith of our promise,
-and it wouldn't be fair to break it without the consent of all.  So
-we'll drop it, Ginger, and go on as before."
-
-"It's for you to say, sir," said Ginger. "There!  'Sir,' says I.  A slip
-of the tongue, mates; you can't get out of bad habits all of a sudden.
-Well, I'll say for No. 3 Company that we'd be sorry to lose such good
-pals, and as there's no chance that St---- that the pigheaded members of
-the jury will come round to the opinion of the sensible ones, we may
-reckon it as certain that the defendants will be condemned to serve as
-Tommies for three years or the duration of the war."
-
-"And now we'll discharge the jury," said Kenneth, "and have a sing-song
-until 'lights out.'  Come on, Ginger; start off with 'Dolly Grey.'"
-
-Next afternoon Kenneth was summoned to the captain.
-
-"I've a little job for you, Amory.  You know how to drive a motor; do
-you know anything about the mechanism?"
-
-"Not much; but Ginger--that is, Murgatroyd, sir--is a bit of a mechanic.
-Of course I'll have a shot at whatever is required."
-
-"Add Randall, and we have the Three Musketeers complete.  You didn't
-know that's our name for you, I suppose?  Well, it's this.  A motor
-cyclist came in just now with a despatch for the colonel, and reported
-that on the way he had passed a man who'd had an accident of some sort
-with a motor lorry, and wanted help.  Just go and see what you can do,
-the three of you.  I don't know whether the load is for us; if it is, so
-much the better.  Take my map; the breakdown is thereabouts"--he pointed
-to a spot some three miles away--"and be as quick as you can."
-
-The three men set out, Ginger carrying a bag of tools he had borrowed
-from the village smith.  The place where the accident had happened was
-apparently on a by-road about halfway between the village and the
-headquarters of the next regiment on the left of the Rutlands.  They
-followed footpaths across the fields, some of which had been sown by the
-inhabitants.  The air was very misty, and but for the map they could
-hardly have found their way.  But presently they caught sight of a man
-in khaki sitting on the grass at the corner of the main road and
-by-road.  The man bore the badge of the Army Service Corps on his
-sleeve.
-
-"What's wrong?" asked Kenneth, going up to him.
-
-"Are you the Wessex?" said the man.
-
-"No, the Rutlands.  You've had a spill by the look of you."
-
-"You're right," said the driver with an oath.  "And I owe that there
-parson one. It's his fault.  Did that cyclist send you along?"
-
-"No, but the capting did," said Ginger. "Where's your lorry?  We'll have
-a go at it."
-
-"Well, if you two chaps 'll be a pair of crutches I'll take you to it.
-I'm bruised all over, and my ankle's got a twist so that I can't hardly
-walk.  It's about a mile away."
-
-Supported by Kenneth on one side and Harry on the other, the man led
-them slowly along the by-road.
-
-"I only came out a week ago, a Carter Paterson man I am," he said.  "I
-was driving up a load of grub for the Wessexes, and somehow took the
-wrong turning away back there.  I'd drive over London blindfold, but I'm
-new to this job, see.  It came over misty, and I got a sort of notion I
-was on the wrong road, and there was nobody about to ask the way of,
-even supposing I could have made 'em understand me. However, at last I
-happened to catch sight of a fat parson in a long cloak just ahead of
-me.  I pulled up, and pointed to the name of the village on my map, for
-twist my tongue to it I couldn't.  'All right, my man,' says he,
-speaking English like a countryman. 'You take the first turning on the
-right': that's this road we're on now.  That seemed about the right
-direction.  'Good road?' says I: 'not too soft for a heavy load?'
-'Capital road,' says he.  'Go as fast as you like, straight through to
-the road you've left.'
-
-"Well, it seemed all right.  Wasn't a bad road for a bit, and I put on
-speed to make up for lost time.  Then, just as I was going through an
-avenue of trees, and what with the mist and the shade couldn't see more
-than a few yards ahead, the road took a sharp dip, and I throttled down
-and screwed on the brakes; but the road made a sudden bend, and before I
-knew where I was, I was chucked in the ditch by the roadside.  I was
-dazed for a bit, and when I come to, there was the lorry in the field.
-I crawled to it; it was stuck fast, and even it if hadn't been I
-couldn't have driven it in the mashed state I was in.  A pretty fix to
-be in, in a strange country, with no garage handy.  I didn't know what
-to do.  When I'd recovered a bit, I crawled back to see if I could find
-that parson.  It was all his fault, not warning me, and he ought to get
-me out of the mess. But I couldn't find him, so all I could do was to
-crawl to the main road, on the chance of seeing some of our chaps.  It
-was hours before any one came along; just my luck; another time the road
-would very likely have been crowded.  But presently that cyclist came up
-at forty miles an hour.  He would have gone past if I hadn't bellowed
-like a bull.  He wouldn't get off his machine to take a look at the
-lorry, but he said he'd send help if he could.  And all I want is to get
-hold of that parson; I'd know him again in a minute by his size and the
-wart on his nose.  Why, a German couldn't have served me a dirtier
-trick; and he said he knew the road....  There's the lorry; I doubt
-whether you'll get it up; and the Wessexes howling for their grub, I
-expect."
-
-The lorry was tilted over to one side, with the near front wheel
-embedded nearly up to the axle in the soft earth of the field.
-
-"Got a jack?" asked Ginger.
-
-"You'll find it under the seat."
-
-Ginger fetched it, and with his companions tried to jack the wheel up;
-but the tool sank into the earth.
-
-"Let's unload and then see," suggested Kenneth.
-
-It took them half an hour to unload the car, working so hard that they
-were all bathed in perspiration.  Again they plied the jack, but in
-vain.
-
-"The only chance is to get something solid to put under it," said
-Ginger.  "There's nothing handy hereabouts.  Any houses about here?" he
-asked the driver.
-
-"Hanged if I know.  It was too misty to see when I came along.  The
-parson lives somewhere, I suppose."
-
-"I'll run up the hill and take a look round," said Harry.
-
-"Take your rifle, man," Kenneth called, as Harry was starting without
-it.
-
-"All right; but we're miles away from the German front.  You might have
-a look at the engine while I'm gone."
-
-All this time there had been sounds of firing in the distance eastward,
-with reports of British guns at intervals nearer at hand. But they were
-now so familiar with such sounds that they scarcely heeded them. Guns
-and gunners were alike out of sight. There were few signs of war
-immediately around them; but for the absence of human activity on the
-fields the country might have been at peace.
-
-Harry went up the hill and for some distance along the road before he
-discovered anything that promised assistance.  A slight breeze was
-dispersing the mist; but the sun was already far down in the western
-sky; in an hour or two it would be dark. At length, on his right he
-noticed a rough cart track leading to a small farm building half hidden
-in a hollow about half a mile away.  He hurried towards it across the
-fields, soon regretting that he had not gone by the beaten track, for
-the soil was soft and heavy.
-
-Approaching the building at an angle, he saw a man pottering about in
-the yard. While he was still at some distance the man happened to glance
-towards him, then went into the house.  Harry quickened his pace, and
-entering the yard, was met at the house door by a burly individual who
-gave a somewhat surly response to his salutation. In his best French
-Harry explained the circumstances, and asked for the loan of a stout
-board.
-
-"You'll find one in the shed yonder," said the man.  "You'll bring it
-back?"
-
-"Oh yes," Harry replied, thinking that the farmer might at least have
-offered to help.  "By the way, could you lend us a horse to pull the
-lorry on to the roadway when we get it up?"
-
-"I haven't got one; all my horses are requisitioned."
-
-"That's hard luck.  I hope we'll soon clear the country, and there'll be
-better times.  Many thanks: I'll return the board presently."
-
-Reflecting on the hardships war inflicted on honest country people,
-Harry trudged back with the plank, this time taking the cart track.
-
-"Good man!" said Kenneth.  "Where did you get it?"
-
-"At a small farm.  The farmer's rather a bear, but I suppose the war has
-pretty well ruined him.  Now, Ginger, let's see what we can do."
-
-Placing the plank by the embedded wheel, they set the jack on it and
-screwed up the axle until they finally succeeded in releasing the wheel.
-
-"The lorry isn't damaged, luckily," said Kenneth.  "We'll get the wheel
-on to the plank, then I'll start the engine and we'll back on to the
-road.  You fellows shove."
-
-In a few more minutes the lorry stood on the road, facing towards its
-original destination.
-
-"Now for loading up," said Harry.  "This is back-aching work; I
-shouldn't care to be a docker."
-
-The three men started to carry the boxes and baskets from the field to
-the lorry, the driver sitting on the grass by the roadside. They were
-about halfway through the work when they heard the hum of an aeroplane.
-Like the reports of artillery it was so common a sound that they paid
-little attention to it. But Kenneth, glancing up as the sound grew
-louder, exclaimed:
-
-"It's a Taube, about 5000 feet up.  I fancy.  There'll be a pretty chase
-presently. By Jove! it's dropping.  Something must have gone wrong with
-the engine.  I'll try a pot shot at it if you fellows will go on
-loading."
-
-Seizing his rifle, he stood watching the aeroplane as it circled above
-them, gradually coming lower.
-
-"Look out!" he cried suddenly.
-
-Almost as soon as he had spoken there was a terrific crash on the road
-about thirty yards away, and a shower of earth and stones bespattered
-the lorry and the men. Kenneth fired as the Taube made another sweep
-round, still lower.
-
-"Here's another!" he called.  "Down with you."
-
-They all threw themselves flat on their faces.  The second bomb exploded
-farther away than the first, doing no damage. They sprang to their feet,
-and all three fired at the aeroplane, which was now making a vol plan�,
-and would come to earth apparently about half a mile away.
-
-"We'll nab them," cried Ginger.  "Come on."
-
-They ran up the hill.  The aeroplane was descending on the far side of
-the farm, near a clump of trees.  They rushed across the fields, and
-were just in time to see a man leap from the aeroplane and dive into the
-copse.  The farmer joined them as they ran past.  They came to the
-aeroplane.  The pilot was _in extremis_.  After the shot had struck him
-he had managed to control the machine until it reached earth; he would
-never fly again.
-
-"We must catch the other fellow," said Kenneth.
-
-All three ran into the copse, the farmer following them.  Separating,
-they scoured the plantation in all directions without finding the
-fugitive.  After about half an hour Kenneth called the others together.
-
-"He seems to have got away," he said. "We must give it up.  It'll soon
-be dark, and we've got to get the lorry home.  Ginger, will you mount
-guard over the aeroplane? Our fellows are sure to have seen it, and will
-no doubt be coming up shortly.  We'll motor back if we can borrow a
-car."
-
-"Right you are," said Ginger.  "I'll wait for you, in any case."
-
-The others left him, returned to the lorry, and lifting the driver on to
-it, drove off rapidly towards its destination.  There they told their
-story, and the colonel at once sent off a motor omnibus with a number of
-men to secure the aeroplane.  When they approached the spot where they
-had left it the machine was gone.
-
-"Somebody must have fetched it already," said Kenneth.  "It's a pity you
-fellows are too late."
-
-They drew up at the rear of the farm. Kenneth and Harry sprang out,
-surprised that Ginger was not awaiting them.
-
-"He's inside, perhaps," said Harry.  "He makes friends of most people;
-perhaps he has got over the farmer's surliness."
-
-They went through the yard to the house door.  The farmer met them on
-the threshold.
-
-"Ah, messieurs," he said, "this is lamentable."
-
-"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
-
-"Your comrade, messieurs, he is gone.  I fear he is a prisoner.  He made
-signs that he was thirsty, and I left him there at the aeroplane while I
-returned here to fetch him some little refreshment.  Ma foi!  I was just
-uncorking the bottle when I heard a whirr. I rushed out with the bottle
-in one hand and the corkscrew in the other, and voila! there was the
-aeroplane already in the air."
-
-"But how?--what..."
-
-"I do not know," said the farmer, with a shrug.  "I only guess.  The man
-who ran away must have hidden until your backs were turned, then come
-back and overpowered your comrade and flown away with him."
-
-"That's very rummy," said Kenneth to Harry.  "Ginger isn't a man to be
-caught napping easily.  What do you make of it, sir?" he asked the
-lieutenant in charge of the omnibus party, who had followed them.
-
-Kenneth repeated the farmer's story.
-
-"Very curious," said the officer quietly. "The man wasn't himself a
-flier, I suppose?"
-
-"No."
-
-"Well, I think we'll run your farmer back to headquarters.  It looks
-rather fishy: there are spies all over the place.  You speak French?  I
-don't, more's the pity.  Just tell this fellow he's to come with me."
-
-The farmer protested volubly, but the officer was inexorable.  The
-omnibus party returned with their prisoner, and Kenneth and Harry
-tramped back in the twilight to their village.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XII
-
-                                 DOGGED
-
-
-There was great indignation among the men of No. 3 Company when Ginger's
-capture was reported.  Latterly the German airmen had rarely appeared
-behind the British lines; their experiences had usually been
-unfortunate.  "Like their cheek!" grumbled one of the men.  "And to
-carry off Ginger, too, after a lucky shot had brought 'em down.  That
-farmer chap must have been a spy, and I hope they'll give him what he
-deserves over yonder."
-
-The loss of the most popular man in the battalion was a blow to the
-Rutlands.  And to be a prisoner they counted the worst of luck.  Death
-they were ready for; to be wounded was all in the day's work; there was
-not a man of them but preferred death or wounds to captivity, to be the
-mock and sport of a misguided populace, and the victim of brutal and
-barbarous guards.
-
-"And we can't do nothing," growled a sergeant.  "Lor bless you, when I
-think of the stories I read as a nipper in the boys' papers, daring
-rescues, hairbreadth escapes and all that--what a peck of rubbish I used
-to swallow!  And believe it all too, mind you. It all looked so easy.
-There was the prison, and the jailer's pretty daughter, perhaps a file
-to cut away the bars, or a knife to dig a tunnel underground, or a note
-carried to a wonderful clever pal outside, or the prisoner dressing up
-in the gal's clothes: gummy, how excited I used to get.  Them chaps that
-write the blood-curdlers don't know nothing about the real thing, that's
-certain."
-
-Kenneth laughed.
-
-"The real thing tops anything ever invented, after all," he said.
-"You've heard of how Latude escaped from the Bastille; and how Lord
-Nithsdale escaped from the Tower; and how an English prisoner--I forget
-his name--a hundred years ago made a most wonderful escape from the
-French fortress of St. Malo; and only the other day, a German prisoner
-in Dorchester had himself screwed into a box and nearly got away."
-
-"Nearly ain't quite, though.  But I never heard of those other Johnnies;
-you might tell us about them--if they're true, that is; I don't want no
-fairy tales."
-
-And Kenneth beguiled an evening or two by relating all the historical
-escapes he could remember.
-
-Ginger's case, they agreed, was hopeless. The papers, it was true, had
-recorded the escape of Major Vandeleur from Crefeld, without giving any
-of the particulars which the men were hungry for.  That a British
-lance-corporal could ever escape from a German concentration camp was
-beyond the bounds of possibility, and they had to resign themselves to
-the hope of one day, when the war was over, seeing Ginger again, perhaps
-half-starved, ill, wretched, a speaking monument of German "culture."
-
-The Rutlands were sent into the trenches again, where they again endured
-the tedium of watchful inactivity.
-
-One evening, Captain Adams sent Kenneth to the village with a message.
-The telephone between the village and the trenches had suddenly failed.
-Kenneth found the place busier than he had ever known it.  A new
-regiment had arrived.  Officers of all ranks were present; despatch
-riders were coming in.  He was asked to wait for a return message to the
-firing line.  While waiting he became aware of a considerable movement
-some distance in the rear of the British lines.  There were sounds of
-heavy vehicles in motion in several directions. Something was clearly in
-the air.
-
-It was about three hours before he was sent for and received a written
-message from a staff-officer.
-
-"What's your name?" he was asked.
-
-"Amory, sir."
-
-"Oh!  You had a hand in destroying that German gun the other day?"
-
-"Yes, sir," replied Kenneth, rather taken aback to find that his name
-had become known.
-
-"A capital bit of work!  Get on with this despatch as quickly as you
-can.  It's important.  And if you have heard anything out there"--he
-pointed to the rear--"you needn't say anything about it.  There are
-spies everywhere.  The telephone wire has been repaired, by the way; it
-was cut near the village; but we've a reason for not using it just at
-present.  Tell Colonel Appleton that, will you?"
-
-The night was very dark, but by this time Kenneth knew every inch of the
-road to the trenches.  There was desultory firing, both artillery and
-rifle, for a considerable distance along the lines ahead.  As he left
-the village the sounds from the rear grew fainter, drowned by the firing
-and by a moderate wind blowing from the direction of the enemy's lines.
-
-The road was quite deserted.  All coming and going between the trenches
-and the billets had ceased for the night.  But when he had walked for
-about a quarter of a mile he was conscious of that strange, often
-unaccountable feeling that sometimes steals upon a solitary pedestrian
-on a lonely road at night--the feeling that he was not alone. He had
-heard neither footfall nor whisper; the wind sighed through the still
-almost bare branches of the trees.  His feeling, he thought, was
-probably due to mere nervousness caused by the knowledge that he was
-carrying an important despatch.  But it became so strong that he sat
-down by the roadside and slipped off his boots, slinging them round his
-neck, and walked on heedfully in his stockings, keeping a look-out for
-holes in the road, and stretching his ears for the slightest unusual
-sound.
-
-In a moment or two he came to the end of the avenue of poplars; those
-which had formerly lined the rest of the road had been felled, partly to
-provide wood for the trenches, partly for the sake of the gunners. On
-the left, a few yards from the road, was a small plantation.  It had
-been sadly damaged by German shells, but many trees still remained.
-Just as he came opposite to the plantation his ears caught a sound
-which, though indistinguishable in the wind, was different from the
-rustling of branches or foliage.  It appeared to come from behind him.
-He slipped from the road towards the clump of trees; then, as it
-suddenly occurred to him that some other person might be making for the
-same place, he reached for a branch just above his head, and swung
-himself up with the "upstart" of the gymnasium.  It was a frail support,
-but he sat astride the branch near the trunk, and there, among the
-burgeoning twigs, he waited.
-
-His senses had not deceived him.  Three vague shapes moved out of the
-blackness, and passed almost beneath him.  His ears scarcely caught the
-sound of their movements; yet sound there was, a dull muffled tread as
-though their feet were blanketed. Who were these nocturnal prowlers?
-What were they about?  Kenneth wished there were no despatch buttoned up
-in his pocket, so that he were free to follow these stealthy figures.
-He had not been able to determine whether they wore uniforms.  If they
-were villagers, they had no right to be hereabouts at night.
-
-Peering through the foliage, he was just able to discern that the three
-men had halted at the edge of the plantation.  For a moment or two there
-was complete silence. He guessed they had stopped to listen. Then they
-spoke in whispers.  A few words were carried on the wind to Kenneth's
-attentive ears: "Soeben geh�rt ... ganz nahe ... ja."
-
-"They're after me!" thought Kenneth. He had no doubt that it was he whom
-they had referred to as "just heard ... quite near."  Spies were
-everywhere, as the staff-officer had said.  These men must have learnt
-in the village that he was carrying a despatch.  He wished that he could
-stalk the stalkers, but he dared do nothing that would endanger his
-errand.  One man he might have tackled; with three the odds were too
-heavy against him.  And while he was still debating the matter with
-himself the three dark shapes had disappeared as silently as they had
-come.
-
-He waited a minute or two.  They had apparently gone along the road
-which he himself was to follow.  They might suspect that they had
-outstripped him, and ambush him before he reached the trenches.  He must
-dodge them by making a detour. Dropping lightly to the ground he skirted
-the northern side of the plantation and struck across the ploughed land
-at what seemed a safe distance from the road.  The soil was sticky; his
-progress was slow; and he stopped every now and again to listen. For
-some time he heard nothing but the wind and the crack of distant rifles
-or the boom of guns.  Presently, as he drew nearer to the trenches,
-there fell faintly on his ear the customary sounds of conversation,
-laughter, singing.  At one moment he believed he heard the tootle of
-Stoneway's flute.  As these sounds increased in loudness, he despaired
-of recognising the stealthy movements of the spies.  He unslung his
-rifle, resolving, if he caught sight of them, to fire.  The shot, even
-if it failed to dispose of any of them, would probably bring men from
-the trenches in sufficient numbers to deal with them.
-
-He had to guess his course across the fields, pushing here through a
-hedge, there descending into a slimy ditch and crawling up the further
-side.  At last he caught sight of a landmark: a ruined shed which stood
-about two hundred yards in rear of the trenches. To reach the trench in
-which Colonel Appleton had his quarters he must strike across to the
-right, and pass between the shed and the road.
-
-There was no sign of the three spies.  The fields were quite bare; the
-shed was the only thing that afforded cover.  Instinctively he gave it a
-wide berth, and was leaving it some paces on his left when he heard a
-sudden guttural exclamation, and two figures rushed from the shed
-towards him.  There was no time to fire.  Uttering a shout he thrust his
-bayonet towards the assailants.  The stock of his rifle was seized from
-behind.  And now, at this critical moment, the years of training on the
-football field, in the gymnasium, on Mr. Kishimaru's practice lawn, bore
-fruit in instantaneous decision and rapid action.  Releasing his rifle
-suddenly, the man behind him fell backward to the ground.  At the same
-moment Kenneth stooped, tackled the nearest of the other men, and
-brought him down.  The second man toppled over them.  Freeing himself
-instantly, Kenneth sprang up and sprinted towards the road, hearing in a
-moment the thud of heavy footsteps behind him.
-
-But there were sounds also in front.  His shout had been heard in the
-trenches, and some of the Rutlands were running to meet him.  A word
-from him sent them at a rush towards the shed.  Leaving them to hunt for
-the spies, he hurried on and delivered his despatch to the colonel, to
-whom he related his adventure.
-
-It was some time before the men returned.
-
-"They got away," said one of them.  "It was no good hunting any longer
-in the dark. But we've brought these."
-
-He handed over Kenneth's rifle and a cap bearing the badge of a
-Territorial regiment. It was clear that the spies had disguised
-themselves in British uniforms.  The colonel telephoned particulars to
-the village, asking that a thorough search should be made; but other
-matters were then engaging attention.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIII
-
-                       THE FIGHT FOR THE VILLAGE
-
-
-In the darkest hours before the dawn the trenches were buzzing with
-excitement. Word had been passed along that next morning the Rutlands
-were to attack.  The long, trying period of inaction was over.  Sir John
-French had ordered the capture of the village within the German lines.
-The hill on which it stood commanded a wide stretch of open country, and
-its possession was an essential preliminary to the general advance which
-would take place when the weather improved and the reserves of
-ammunition were completed.
-
-During these last hours of the night sleepy men trudged along the road
-and across the sodden fields towards the firing line. Fresh troops, some
-of whom had never been under continuous fire, crowded into the trenches.
-Some of the men tried to prepare breakfast in the constricted space; the
-most of them were too much excited to feel any inclination to eat.  The
-bustle which Kenneth had noticed in the village was explained. Batteries
-of heavy artillery had been brought up and placed all along the rear of
-the British lines.  The men listened eagerly for the boom that would
-announce the great doings of the day, and they gazed up into the inky
-sky, longing for the dawn.
-
-Sitting, sprawling, packed tight in the trenches, they waited.  Would
-morning never come?  The darkness thinned; the blackness gradually was
-transformed into ashen grey, streaked here and there with silvery light.
-A gun boomed miles in the rear. The men stifled a cheer.  Rifle fire
-burst from the German trenches.  Bullets pinged across the breastworks,
-and some of the newcomers involuntarily ducked.  Captain Adams passed
-along the simple orders of the day.  "The battalion will advance in line
-of platoons at 7 o'clock."  Another hour to wait!
-
-The men took off their equipment and stowed their coats in their packs.
-Some munched sticks of chocolate, others lighted cigarettes but forgot
-to smoke them.  Boom, boom!  The British guns were in full play. The
-German guns were answering.  Shells screamed across the trenches in both
-directions.  The din increased moment by moment.  The air quivered with
-the thunderous crashes, and sang with the perpetual _phwit, phwit_ of
-bullets.  Not a man dared to lift his head.  Clouds of earth rose into
-the air before and behind, showering pellets upon the waiting soldiers.
-
-Boom and roar and crash!  Presently the stream of shells from the
-Germans diminished.  It almost ceased.
-
-"Platoons, get ready!"
-
-"Fix bayonets!"
-
-The men began to swarm up the parapet. There was no enemy to be seen.
-The wire stretched across their front had been battered down in many
-places.
-
-All at once there was a great stillness.  The artillery had finished its
-work.
-
-"Now, men!" shouted Kennedy, commander of the leading platoon.
-
-With a cheer the men rushed forward, Kenneth on the right, Harry on the
-left. On either side other regiments had already deployed and were
-advancing.  They came to the first of the German trenches--empty, except
-for prone and huddled forms in grey, and a litter of rifles, helmets,
-water-bottles, mess-tins, equipment of all kinds.  Kenneth sprang into
-the communication trench beside the pond, and splashed through the water
-at the bottom, the rest of the platoon after him. Where were the
-Germans?
-
-They came to the second line of trenches, floundered through what seemed
-an endless series of mysterious zigzag passages, waded through two or
-three feet of greenish water, scrambled up the embankment beyond, and
-raced across the open field, as fast as men could race with packs on
-their backs, full haversacks, and rifle and bayonet, over ground pitted
-with holes, heaped with earth and stones, scattered with the bodies of
-men, strands of barbed wire, fragments of shells and all the dreadful
-apparatus of warfare. Still there were no Germans to be seen, but
-bullets spat and sang among the advancing men; here a man fell with a
-groan, there one tumbled upon his face without even a murmur, scarcely
-noticed by his comrades pressing on and on with shouts and cheers.
-
-Kennedy's platoon reached the ruined church which Kenneth and Harry had
-passed on their memorable night expedition.  With shaking limbs and
-panting lungs they flung themselves down behind the wall of the
-churchyard for a brief rest.  The next rush towards the village would be
-across two hundred and fifty yards of open ground, bare of cover until
-they came to the gardens at the back of the cottages.
-
-The modern battle makes greater demands on individual effort and
-resource than the old-time battles on less extensive fields, where all
-the operations were conducted under the eye of the commander-in-chief.
-Kennedy's men knew nothing of what was going on on their left and right.
-They heard the insistent crackle of rifles, the rapid clack-clack of
-machine guns, the whistling of shrapnel. They saw the white and yellow
-puffs, with now and then a burst of inky blackness, in the sky.  Boom
-and crash, rattle and crack; pale flashes of fire; the ground trembling
-as with an earthquake; all the work of deadly destructive machines,
-operated by some unseen agency.  And in a momentary lull there came
-raining down from somewhere in the blue the liquid notes of a lark's
-song.
-
-"Now, men," cried Kennedy, "the last rush.  No good stopping or lying
-down.  On to the village.  Stick it, Rutlands!"
-
-The men sprang through the gaps in the wall, rushed across the
-churchyard and into the open fields.  From the houses a little above
-them on the hillside broke a withering fire.  They pressed on doggedly,
-stumbling in holes and shell pits, scrambling up and moving on again,
-bullets spattering and whistling among them, their ears deafened by the
-merciless scream and boom.  On, ever on, the gaps in their extended
-order widening as the fatal missiles found their mark.  There was no
-faltering.  A mist seemed to hide the houses from view, but they were
-drawing nearer moment by moment.  Suddenly there was a tremendous
-detonation in their front; a vast column of smoke, earth and brick dust
-rose in the air, and where cottages had been there were now only heaps
-of ruins.  "I hope our own gunners won't shell us," thought Kenneth on
-the extreme right, as he dashed towards the side street in which the
-explosion had taken place.
-
-And now at last the enemy were seen, some on the ground, some fleeing
-helter skelter from the ravaged spot.  The Rutlands yelled.  From the
-further end of the village came answering British cheers.  Working round
-the shoulder of the hill another company had forced the defences, and
-the village was won.
-
-With scarcely a moment's delay the men set to work to prepare for the
-inevitable counter-attack.  Lieutenant Kennedy was not to be seen.
-Sergeant Colpus took command of his platoon, diminished by nearly a
-half.  Kenneth and Harry, bearing no marks of the fight except dirt, had
-time for only a word of mutual congratulation before they rushed off to
-place machine guns at the salient angles of the village.  Others threw
-up new entrenchments and barricades, utilising the debris of houses and
-furniture. And meanwhile, on the shell-scarred field behind, the
-ambulances and Red Cross men were busy.
-
-The village consisted of one principal street, with a few streets
-springing from it on either side; crooked and irregular, following the
-contour of the hill.  For a couple of hours the men toiled to strengthen
-the position they had carried; then warning of the impending attack was
-given by a shell from a German battery miles away to the east.  It burst
-some fifty yards in front of the village.  A minute or two later four
-shells plunged among the houses almost at the same instant.  The warning
-had given the Rutlands just time enough to evacuate the houses and take
-what shelter was possible. An aeroplane soared high over the position
-towards the German lines.  Shrapnel burst around it, but it sailed on
-unperturbed for several minutes, then swept round and returned.  No
-visible signal had been observed, but almost immediately shells began to
-scream over the village: the British artillery had been given the range
-and had opened fire.  For half an hour the German bombardment continued,
-gradually slackening as gun after gun was put out of action by the
-British shells from far away.  Finally the German batteries were
-silenced, but the enemy had not relinquished his design of a
-counter-attack. In the distance, over a wide front, column after column
-of grey-clad infantry was seen advancing in the dense formation that had
-cost countless lives in the early months of the war, but which had
-succeeded many times in crushing the defence, even though temporarily,
-by sheer weight of numbers.
-
-The Rutlands manned the houses, the ruins, the garden fences, the
-breastworks hastily thrown up.  Other battalions occupied the German
-reserve trenches running close beside the church in the rear.  The
-advancing Germans were met with rapid fire from rifles and machine guns.
-Great gaps were cut in their ranks, but they were instantly filled up.
-Time after time they were brought to a halt and showed signs of
-wavering; but in a few minutes their lines were steadied and they came
-on again with indomitable courage.  It was soon apparent that the German
-commander was hurling immense masses forward with the intention of
-recapturing the village at all costs.  As they approached they spread
-out to right and left, attacking the village on three sides. The
-Rutlands and the one company from another regiment which held it could
-look for no support, for the men in the trenches also were hard beset
-and unable to leave their positions because of the enfilading fire of
-the numerous German machine guns.
-
-Kenneth and Harry, with the other survivors of their platoon, occupied
-two or three small houses on the southern slope of the hill.  A dozen
-men held a detached cottage some forty yards beyond.  It was on this
-cottage that the huge German wave first broke.  Two or three times it
-was swept back; then Captain Adams, recognising the hopelessness of
-attempting to retain this isolated outpost, ran into one of the nearest
-houses and called for a volunteer to carry the order for its evacuation.
-Harry sprang forward among the group that instantly responded.
-
-"Good, Randall!" said the captain. "Bring them back at once.  Look out
-for cover."
-
-Harry left the house, ran along for a few yards sheltered by a brick
-wall, then with lowered head sprinted along the open road towards the
-cottage.  He entered it from the back.  Of the dozen men who held it,
-only four or five were now in action.  Two were dead; the rest, among
-whom was Stoneway, were wounded.  On receiving the captain's order, the
-men who were unhurt carried out those of their comrades who were
-incapable of movement, and began to withdraw.  The moment they left
-their loopholes the Germans they had held at bay swarmed up the slope.
-Laden as they were, they could hardly escape without assistance.
-
-"Come on, boys!" shouted Kenneth.
-
-Followed by several of his companions he dashed out of the house.  At
-the wall they stopped to fire one volley, then with a ringing cheer
-charged with the bayonet.  At the sight of cold steel the Germans
-recoiled, and their pause, short as it was, gave Harry time to bring the
-retiring men under cover of the wall.  Then the Germans came on again in
-such numbers that Kenneth and his party had to fall back, firing as they
-went, and rejoin the men in the house.
-
-For ten minutes more they held their position, hurling the grey mass
-back by the rapidity of their fire.  Their rifles were hot to the touch.
-Still the Germans pressed forward, some of them flinging hand grenades,
-which set fire to the houses.  To remain longer was to court certain
-destruction. Dashing out at the back, the men rushed from garden to
-garden towards the main street, only to find that the enemy had already
-forced their way into that, and were pressing hard upon the remnants of
-two platoons that were falling back, disputing every yard.
-
-Kenneth glanced round among the men who had accompanied him from the
-houses. Neither Sergeant Colpus nor any other non-commissioned officer
-was with them.
-
-"We'll give them a charge, boys," he cried.
-
-Several files of Germans had already passed the end of the lane that ran
-along the rear of the gardens into the main street. Forming his little
-party in fours, Kenneth led them along the lane.  They swept upon the
-flank of the enemy, their sudden onset cutting the column in two.  The
-eastern portion recoiled: the western, caught between these new
-assailants and the Rutlands stubbornly retreating up the street, were
-cut to pieces.
-
-"Well done!" cried Captain Adams, rushing up at the head of the men upon
-whom the pressure had been relieved, "Dash down those walls there."
-
-He pointed to a house that was already tottering through the effects of
-the bombardment.  Taking advantage of the enemy's confusion, the
-Rutlands completed the demolition of the walls, hurling bricks, plaster,
-rafters, furniture across the street, and hastily raising a barricade.
-When the Germans returned to the charge, they found themselves faced by
-a formidable breastwork, from behind which the Rutlands met their rush
-with rifles and machine guns. They were thrown back again and again, and
-during every interval the defenders ripped up the pave and worked
-energetically at sinking a trench across the whole breadth of the
-street.
-
-"They are checked for the moment," said the captain.  "But they'll bring
-up field guns, and splinter the barricade.  We'll hold the houses on
-each side.  I've already sent word to the colonel; if we can manage to
-hold our ground for the rest of the day we shall get support to-morrow."
-
-It was clear that the attack had been checked all along the line.  The
-Germans immediately in front of the village established themselves at
-the foot of the hill facing the street, no doubt with the intention of
-renewing the attack after another bombardment. During the day the
-Rutlands were not further molested.  Early next morning the village was
-heavily shelled by the German batteries, but British artillery had been
-moved up in anticipation of this onslaught, and after a hot duel that
-lasted for nearly an hour the Germans were again silenced.  Their
-infantry was observed to be entrenching themselves in the fields half a
-mile away, and a certain amount of spasmodic rifle fire and sniping went
-on between the two forces.
-
-The Rutlands were worn out with fatigue and hunger.  It had been
-impossible to bring up supplies, and they had only their emergency
-rations and what food they could find in the village.  But in the
-evening two fresh battalions came up to relieve them, and they were
-ordered back to their original billets.  There the brigadier himself
-complimented them on their success, and promised them a well-earned
-rest.
-
-When the roll was called, it was found that the success had been won at
-a heavy cost.  Half the officers and thirty per cent. of the men were
-killed or wounded.  Colonel Appleton was slightly injured by a splinter,
-Lieutenant Kennedy had narrowly escaped death: a bullet had shattered
-the wire-nippers in his breast pocket, causing lacerations of the flesh.
-Stoneway's wound turned out to be very slight; and some of the men who
-had been with him in the cottage were rather aggrieved that he had
-withdrawn from the firing line though not incapacitated. Captain Adams,
-Kenneth and Harry were among those who had come through unscathed.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV
-
-                             THE HIKIOTOSHI
-
-
-The village appeared to be full of wounded. Some were being attended to
-by doctors on the spot, others were sent to the rear in motor ambulances
-as fast as these could be brought up.  The Rutlands learnt that their
-attack on the village had been only one incident in operations that had
-extended for several miles along the front, and which had resulted in a
-certain gain of ground. The German trenches had been stormed, and the
-enemy thrown back for a considerable distance.
-
-During the morning a motor despatch rider came in with a message from
-the general of division.  An immediate answer was required, which
-Colonel Appleton at once proceeded to write, while Captain Adams
-questioned the cyclist on what he had seen in the course of his ride.
-The divisional headquarters was at a village some fifteen miles to the
-north-east as the crow flies, but the route taken by the cyclist, well
-behind the British lines, was almost twice that distance.  He had been
-instructed to return the same way.  It occurred to Captain Adams,
-however, that much time would be saved if a more direct route were
-followed, and he suggested that the colonel should take advantage of the
-change in position resulting from the forward movement and the confusion
-in the German lines, to send his message along a road that ran from the
-captured village in the rear of what had been the enemy's trenches.
-
-"That's all very well," said the colonel, "but in the first place this
-man is ordered to go back the same way, and in the next we have no other
-cycles or cyclists."
-
-"We have a couple of cycles," said the captain.  "Don't you remember,
-sir, we sent a requisition to the base for a couple of new machine guns
-and by some blunder or other they sent us two motor cycles instead?"
-
-"And we still have them?"
-
-"Oh yes!  We shall have to keep them until someone discovers that they
-are missing and ultimately finds out their whereabouts. And I've no
-doubt we've several men who can ride."
-
-"There's a further consideration.  The road you mention is now between
-our firing line and the enemy's.  It will be decidedly unhealthy."
-
-"A little risky, no doubt; but by all accounts the Germans have been
-thrown back some distance, and they'll be too busy consolidating their
-new position to be very dangerous to-day.  I daresay there'll be snipers
-here and there, but they're not very successful at running targets.  I'd
-suggest that you triplicate your despatch: send one copy by this man the
-long way, and two at short intervals by the direct road.  You'd make
-sure of it thus."
-
-"Well, I'll 'phone to the front and discover how the land lies.  In the
-meantime see if you can find riders.  If it appears reasonably safe I'll
-adopt your suggestion: it will save half an hour or more."
-
-The captain at once hurried to the Bonnards' cottage.  "Amory's a likely
-man," he thought.
-
-The upshot was that when the official despatch rider was returning to
-headquarters by the long way round, Kenneth and Harry were speeding
-along the road north-eastward.  Harry was the first to start; Kenneth
-followed at a minute's interval, just keeping his friend in sight. Their
-orders were to let nothing interfere with or delay the delivery of the
-despatch. If any accident happened, if either of them was hit by a
-sniper's bullet, there must be no question of helping the other.
-
-Before starting they had attentively studied a large-scale map of the
-district. The colonel's information had shown the impossibility of
-attempting to reach headquarters without leaving the direct road. This
-lay, for about half the distance, between the new fronts of the opposing
-forces, but it then crossed the new position which the Germans were
-believed to be entrenching, and ran for several miles behind it.  There
-was, however, a by-road forking to the left just before the halfway
-point was reached, and this opened into a bridle track leading in the
-right direction.  By making this slight detour they would lose a mile or
-two, but they might hope to incur no more danger than they were bound to
-risk in the early part of the journey.
-
-"Barring accidents, we shall save a good deal more time than the colonel
-thinks," said Kenneth, as he folded the map.  "The way the other fellow
-has gone is sure to be congested with traffic: this will be clear."
-
-"I hope so," replied Harry, "but don't forget there's been an action.
-The road is probably half pits.  Well, I go first then; if I come a
-cropper, take warning and scoot."
-
-At the outset the road was not so bad as he had expected, and he was
-able to run the machine at a pace of nearly forty miles an hour without
-much risk.  There were few marks of gun fire, no doubt because the road
-followed the bottom of an indentation over which the shells had passed.
-But after a time it rose, and the ground fell away on each side, and
-Harry was warned of the necessity of reducing speed by a sudden jolt
-that made him bite his tongue.  From that moment he had to watch every
-yard of the road.  Sometimes on the left, sometimes in the centre,
-sometimes on the right, yawned a shell pit deep enough to bury a wagon.
-Presently he had to pick his way through a litter of broken rifles,
-helmets, haversacks, all sorts of articles of equipment, evidently
-dropped or thrown aside by the Germans in their disordered flight the
-day before.  Time was so important that, even now, he rode at a speed
-that would have seemed lunacy to a motorist with a proper respect for
-springs and bearings, avoiding only dangerous holes, and riding over
-most of the obstacles. His progress was a succession of jolts and jerks
-that threatened to dislocate the machine, and he afterwards wondered
-that it had not broken down under the strain.
-
-He came into the by-road.  This, being at a lower level than the road he
-had left, had not suffered so much from shells; on the other hand, it
-was scored with ruts and soft with mud, into which the wheels now and
-then sank several inches.  He was beset now by a constant fear of
-skidding, and annoyed by splashes of mud on his face.
-
-"It might be worse," he thought.  "Lucky they are not bullets."
-
-So far, it was clear, he had not been seen by the snipers whom Captain
-Adams had mentioned as the greatest risk of the journey. The ground on
-either side rolled away in gentle undulations.  There was neither house
-nor living creature in sight.  Guns were booming in the far distance,
-but though he knew that there were thousands of invisible soldiers on
-each side of him, nothing on the face of the country indicated a state
-of war.
-
-Topping a rise, he came to a ruined hamlet in which not a single cottage
-was whole. Beyond this branched the bridle track that led to his
-destination.  It was a lane no more than four feet wide, between hedges,
-and thick with slimy mud.  It wound and twisted in an erratic and
-seemingly purposeless manner, and but for the evidence of the map he had
-conned Harry would have had no confidence in its general direction.
-
-Suddenly he heard the characteristic scream of a shell not far ahead.
-Immediately afterwards the deep boom of a heavy gun came from his right.
-The German gunners had started work.  In a few seconds there was rolling
-thunder on each side of him; it was evident that a violent artillery
-duel was in progress.  The hedges prevented him from seeing anything;
-but reflecting that the gunners were aiming at each other's positions he
-was not disturbed about his own safety.
-
-He had just turned an awkward corner, narrowly avoiding a sideslip, and
-was congratulating himself on a few yards of straight track and a
-widening that gave hope of reaching an open road, when, amid the sound
-of guns, he caught another sound, which at first he mistook for the
-whirr of an aeroplane.  In a moment, however, he recognised his error.
-It was the purring of a motor bicycle, and in front, approaching him.
-Almost as soon as he knew this, the machine came in sight at the far
-corner, perhaps a hundred yards away, running at no great speed.  At the
-first glance he saw that the rider was a German; at the second that the
-German was not unprepared to meet him. He realised afterwards that, the
-wind being with him, the noise of his own swiftly running engine must
-have been heard first.
-
-Each had only a few moments to decide what to do.  The German, the
-instant he recognised the approaching rider as a British soldier,
-screwed on his brakes, turned the bicycle across the lane, sprang off
-and drew a revolver, no doubt expecting that the Englishman would swerve
-at the obstacle, be forced into the hedge, and present an easy target.
-His reasoning, if such it was, would have been sound enough had it not
-proceeded from a faulty estimate of the English mind--an error into
-which the Germans have been betrayed many times since the Kaiser made
-his initial blunder in the same kind.  The German is a master of the
-obvious, and imagines that what he would do is the best thing to be
-done, and that an Englishman will do it badly.
-
-Harry, however, was not committed by training or habit to either of the
-obvious courses: to allow himself to be forced into the hedge, or to
-stop dead and fight the German on foot.  It seemed to him, in those few
-seconds that he had for deciding, better to clear the way for Kenneth,
-who, no doubt, was not far behind.  A spill would at any rate not hurt
-his feelings, as it might a German's.  Accordingly, instead of applying
-the brakes, he opened the throttle, and bracing himself for the shock,
-drove his machine at ever-increasing speed straight for the enemy.
-
-This, of course, from the German point of view, was English madness.
-Still, it was unexpected, and when the German fired, at the distance of
-twenty paces, his aim was flurried by his natural surprise, and by the
-sudden realisation that his machine would certainly be smashed.
-Dropping his revolver, and shouting something that was far from
-complimentary, he tried to pull his bicycle clear; but his action was
-not only too late; like so many well-meant efforts to prevent mischief,
-it furthered it.  His movement of a few inches caused Harry's bicycle to
-strike the hub of the driving wheel instead of the middle of the
-machine, for which he was steering.  Harry was flung over the
-handle-bars into the hedge, a few feet in advance of the bicycles, which
-lay mangled together, and not quite so far from the German, who had very
-luckily escaped being crushed beneath them.
-
-The two men staggered to their feet almost at the same moment, bruised
-and shaken, but equally unconscious of their hurts.  The German, with
-his cultivated instinct, fumbled for his revolver, remembered it was on
-the ground out of reach, and was drawing his sword-bayonet when Harry,
-in the British way, flung himself upon him.  And when Kenneth, half a
-minute later, drawn up at speed by the sound of the crash, came upon the
-scene, he beheld with mingled amazement and concern two military
-figures, begrimed with mud, struggling on the ground.  The figure in
-grey was undermost.
-
-"Go on!" shouted Harry.  "I've got the Hikiotoshi on him."
-
-Kenneth had slowed down, but remembering the captain's injunction, and
-seeing that his friend was well able to take care of himself, he opened
-out and in a few seconds was pushing along at as high a speed as the
-greasy lane permitted.  He could not help smiling at the recollection of
-his own bewilderment and na�ve indignation when, in one of his early
-lessons in jujutsu from Mr. Kishimaru, he had found both legs suddenly
-swept from under him, and heard the Japanese, beaming down upon him,
-gently remark:
-
-"That, my dear sir, is the Hikiotoshi."
-
-Kenneth's experiences along the road had been identical with Harry's.
-But a few seconds after he had left the scene of the collision he had
-reason to wonder, for the first time, whether he would ever reach his
-destination.  The bridle track opened into a road that intersected a
-stretch of plain. It had suffered hardly at all from shells; being on a
-higher level than the bridle track it was fairly dry and gave a better
-surface for riding; but it was fully exposed on either hand, without
-protection of hedge or dyke; and anyone passing along it must be in full
-view for a considerable distance left and right.  And Kenneth found that
-he had run into the very centre of the artillery duel the sounds of
-which he had heard for some minutes.  Shells whizzed over his head in
-both directions.  Bang to the left of him, boom to the right of him, and
-above him shriek and moan in various tones.  And in the midst of the
-broken sounds came the continuous hum of an aeroplane somewhere in the
-neighbourhood.
-
-Neither the German nor the British batteries were visible.  Kenneth
-indeed did not look round for their flashes or the smoke from the
-bursting shells.  Bending forward over the handle-bars he raced on,
-congratulating himself that, his course being probably midway between
-the distant batteries, the gunners on each side were too intent on
-searching the hostile position to concern themselves about a solitary
-cyclist careering across their front at a shorter range.  But he knew
-that between him and the guns infantry were watching in their trenches,
-perhaps awaiting the order to advance, and at any moment he might find
-himself caught between two fires.
-
-He was not long left in doubt whether he had been seen.  From the right
-a bullet sang across the road.  It was a single shot, from the rifle of
-some sniper concealed somewhere in advance of the German lines.  At a
-speed of fifty miles an hour he must be a difficult target even for the
-most expert of marksmen, and he hoped that speed would save him.
-Another shot whistled by his ear; that was a narrow escape, he thought;
-but there had been no volley from the German trenches: apparently he had
-not been seen except by the sniper, and it was only a stream of shot
-from rifles or machine guns that he had to fear.
-
-Presently, however, he was startled by a loud explosion near at hand on
-his left; glancing round, he saw a column of earth and smoke rise from
-the ground.  "That's a shell from a field-gun," he thought.  "The
-Germans have spotted me, and are trying their hand."  Another shell
-burst on his right, close enough to bespatter him with earth.  A few
-seconds afterwards there was a shattering explosion on the same side, of
-such force that the concussion of the air alone was sufficient to hurl
-his machine sideways.  Uncontrollably it mounted a low bank on the left,
-jumped a ditch, tore a furrow through the heavy soil, then stopped
-slowly and turned over.
-
-Kenneth picked himself up, covered with dirt but unharmed.  He looked at
-the fallen machine.  Both wheels were buckled; from one the tyre had
-been ripped off; the bicycle was damaged beyond repair.  A shell
-bursting within a hundred yards sent him scrambling into a ditch, where
-he rested for a few moments to collect himself.  The German gunners were
-apparently satisfied; the firing ceased.
-
-"Scuppered, and with only a few miles to go," he thought.  "Both of us!
-The long way will prove to be the shortest after all."
-
-After a little consideration he came to the conclusion that there was
-still a chance of arriving first at headquarters by making his way along
-the ditch parallel with the road.  In any case he must attempt it, for
-the third rider might have met with an accident: his clear duty was to
-go on and deliver the despatch.  He was farther from his destination
-than he supposed, and it would probably have taken him an hour to reach
-it on foot.  But he set off along the bottom of the ditch, sinking
-sometimes over his ankles in slime and water.
-
-Some twenty minutes afterwards he was surprised to hear another series
-of explosions on the road behind him.  A little later the wind carried
-towards him the purr of a motor bicycle.  It was rapidly approaching;
-the crash of bursting shells came nearer and nearer.  Was the rider a
-friend or an enemy?  It could not be either Harry or the German he had
-met, for he had seen at a glance as he passed by that their machines
-were crippled.  He was bound to be discovered; the ditch, while deep
-enough to conceal him from the gunners in the distance, would not hide
-him from anyone passing along the road, even if he lay flat in the
-filthy ooze.  He drew the revolver which Captain Adams had lent him,
-resolving to get his shot in first.
-
-Only a few seconds elapsed between his hearing the sound and the
-appearance of the bicycle round a curve in the road behind.  The rider
-was in khaki; he was flat over the handle-bars; the machine seemed to
-leap along the road.  It flashed by, and Kenneth, crouching over the
-ditch, was amazed to see that the rider was Harry. Whether his friend
-had recognised him he could not tell.  Quite oblivious of the shells
-that were still bursting on and near the road, he watched the bicycle's
-breakneck career until it passed under a bank that protected it from the
-German guns, turned a corner, and disappeared.  Next moment there was a
-crash behind him; he was conscious for the fraction of a second of sharp
-blows on every part of his body; then he knew no more.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER XV
-
-                          THE OBSERVATION POST
-
-
-Harry reached the divisional headquarters without further mishap, and
-delivered his despatch.  The rider who had come by the long way had not
-arrived.  It was more than half an hour later when he at last rode in,
-and explained that he had been delayed at several points by congestion
-of traffic.
-
-Meanwhile Harry had obtained leave to ride back and bring in his
-companion, whom he expected to meet within a mile or two. Evening was
-coming on; heavy clouds were heaping themselves in the western sky,
-hastening the dark.  Harry had only the vaguest idea of the locality of
-the spot where he had caught a momentary glimpse of Kenneth, and after
-riding for some distance, untroubled by attentions from the German
-gunners, without meeting him, he began to feel uneasy.  The sight of the
-abandoned motor bicycle increased his misgiving. Turning at the bridle
-path he rode back very slowly, closely scanning both sides of the road.
-At length he descried, in the failing light, a body lying half in, half
-out of the ditch.  He jumped off his machine and hastened to the
-prostrate form, dreading to find that his friend was killed.  But a
-moment's examination sufficed to reassure him.  The heart was still
-beating.  A few drops from his flask revived Kenneth, who sat up, a
-deplorable object, caked with mud from head to foot.
-
-"How do you feel, old man?" asked Harry anxiously.
-
-"Ugh!" grunted Kenneth.  "Is my collar-bone broken?"
-
-"Not a bit of it, or you couldn't move your neck like that.  Can you get
-up?"
-
-"Give me a hand."
-
-He rose slowly to his feet.
-
-"Is my skull cracked?" he asked. "Where's my cap?"
-
-Harry picked it up, and put it on his head after feeling all over the
-skull.
-
-"Just pinch me up and down the legs, will you?" said Kenneth.
-
-"I don't think there's anything wrong," said Harry after pressing all
-the joints and muscles.
-
-"Then I've cost the Germans a good few pounds for nothing.  I'm horribly
-dizzy; feel as if a whole rugger team had been over me.  You got through
-to headquarters?"
-
-"Yes.  But look here, I'll tell you about it presently.  D'you think you
-could stick on the carrier?  The sooner we get out of this the better."
-
-"Let me walk a little first.  I'm rather top-heavy at present.  You got
-there first?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Good man!  'Fraid we'd both muff it....  Is my face as dirty as my
-hands?"
-
-"My dear child, your face is all right. If you talk like that I shall be
-certain you are cracked."
-
-"All right, old man; only I was thinking of your face, you know.  I
-don't mind so long as we are both pretty much alike."
-
-"Well now, hop on, and I'll go fairly slowly.  If you feel inclined to
-tumble off, sing out and I'll catch you before you fall."
-
-Kenneth, however, managed to maintain his seat on the carrier, and the
-two rode into headquarters just before absolute dark.  They were given a
-billet for the night, and told to return to their regiment as best they
-could next day.  Luckily able to get a bath, they were then provided
-with supper, and Harry had an opportunity of telling at his ease how he
-had managed to save the situation.
-
-"You see, after I had put him down with the Hikiotoshi----"
-
-"I nearly rolled off with laughing when you sang that out," Kenneth
-interrupted. "How delighted old Kishimaru would be! I must write and
-tell him about it.  Go on."
-
-"Well, I had to lay him out, which wasn't very difficult, and for
-safety's sake I tied him up in his own straps.  Then I had a look at my
-machine.  The front wheel was hopelessly buckled.  What about the
-German's, I thought.  I found that the engine was mere scrap iron; it
-had got the full force of the collision.  But the back wheel wasn't hurt
-a bit.  By good luck it was exactly the same size as mine, and as the
-tool bag was there all complete, I set about exchanging the wheels--and
-also more or less pleasant remarks with the German, who showed a
-wonderful command of English bargee idiom when he recovered his senses.
-I had pulled my old Rover to pieces so often at home that I had no
-trouble, though it took me a long time.  When I had finished, I wondered
-whether I could bring in the German as a prisoner, but I couldn't very
-well fix him on the carrier without help. And besides, the front forks
-had been so strained and twisted that I was afraid the whole concern
-might come to grief.  So I went over and bade him a polite good-bye,
-eased his lashings so that he could wriggle free with a little exertion,
-and then set off at full speed.  By the way, I had taken the liberty of
-examining his pockets, left him a photograph and a few trifles, and took
-a letter and a despatch which I handed to the general.  On the whole I
-think we've done a good day's work."
-
-"I rather think we have.  Pity you didn't leave the German tied up: we
-might have got him to-morrow on our way back."
-
-"No thank you!  Once running the gauntlet of German shells is enough for
-me. We'll go back the long way.  And as we shall have only the one
-machine between us I'll take it to the repairing shop and have it looked
-over.  There's not much wrong with it, and we'll take turn and turn
-about on the carrier."
-
-They set off in a fine spring dawn, taking their midday meal with them.
-It was slow going on this outer circle.  The road, lying well behind the
-British lines, was encumbered with military traffic.  The pave was for
-long stretches occupied by motor omnibuses and lorries, carrying men,
-provisions, and ammunition.  Here was a lorry loaded with bacon, there
-one packed with loaves of bread from the baking ovens, there another
-heaped with parcels sent out from home, another with new uniforms, boots
-and equipment.  Time after time the cyclists had to hop off, leave the
-pave for the muddy unpaved border of the road, and stand ankle deep in
-mud until the heavy vehicles had passed, exchanging pleasantries with
-the cheerful drivers.
-
-"I say, this is a nuisance," said Harry, at one of these stoppages.  "If
-I'm not mistaken, the map showed a cross-road about halfway, leading
-into the road we travelled yesterday.  It comes out by that hamlet we
-passed.  I vote we take that and chance it. There's no firing at
-present, and the road is less exposed at that end.  Of course there's no
-hurry, but this constant hopping off and on is too monotonous for
-anything."
-
-"We'll have a look at the cross-road when we come to it.  It may be too
-bad for riding."
-
-On reaching the cross-road, they found that there was no traffic on it,
-though there were marks of the recent passage of heavy vehicles.  It
-looked fairly easy, so they struck into it, and bowled along for a mile
-or two without interruption.  In spite of bruises due to their spills on
-the previous day they felt very fit, and the rapid movement through the
-fresh morning air had its usual exhilarating effect.
-
-"This is better than the trenches--heaps better than hanging about in
-billets," said Kenneth.  "I'd rather like despatch riding."
-
-"So would I," replied Harry.  "But I don't regret anything.  All I'm
-sorry for is that poor old Ginger is collared.  I'm afraid he's having a
-rotten time of it."
-
-The road was winding and hilly, running through country for the most
-part bare, but dotted with clumps of woodland.  Presently they passed a
-train of artillery transport. Shortly afterwards they came in sight of a
-low hill from the further side of which they expected to see the ruined
-hamlet. As they rode up the hill they suddenly noticed, just below the
-crown on their left, a battery of British field-guns getting into
-position.  The gunners were masking it from aerial observation by means
-of branches of trees and shrubs on which the foliage was well advanced.
-Then a bend of the road brought them in sight of a battalion of
-infantry, evidently in support of the guns.
-
-"Halt there!" cried a man, coming towards them.
-
-They slipped off, left the bicycle by the side of the road, and
-accompanied the man to the colonel.
-
-"Where are you going?" he asked.
-
-Kenneth mentioned the name of their village.
-
-"You can't go this way," said the colonel. "The enemy isn't far on the
-other side of the road this leads to, and I don't want anything to
-attract his attention to this quarter.  Ride back, and go along the main
-road."
-
-"We can't get along very well for the traffic, sir," said Kenneth.  "We
-rode the other way yesterday, and know it quite well.  It's much
-shorter, and a good deal of it is in a hollow, so that we are not very
-likely to be seen.  Besides, sir, we might possibly do a little scouting
-on the way."
-
-"You're not in a signal company?"
-
-"Not officially, sir, though we carried an emergency despatch
-yesterday."
-
-"Well, I'll let you through on condition that you come back at once if
-you see anything worth reporting.  You're a public school man, aren't
-you?"
-
-"Yes, sir.  Haileybury."
-
-"O.T.C.?"
-
-"Yes, sir."
-
-"Couldn't wait for a commission, I suppose?  Well, remember your work on
-field days.  I can trust you to use your intelligence."
-
-"Thank you, sir."
-
-"By the way, I must tell you that a field telephone has gone ahead.
-Look alive; the gunners are in a hurry."
-
-They remounted and rode on, passing a screen of scouts lying over a wide
-front below the crest of the hill.  As they were nearing the foot of the
-farther slope they saw the telephone wagon coming towards them.  On
-meeting it they stopped and asked the driver what was going on.
-
-"Nothing yet.  We've laid the wire to a cottage you'll see in the
-distance when you get beyond those trees.  There's a lieutenant and four
-men in charge.  You'd better hurry up."
-
-"What, are there any Germans in sight?" asked Harry.
-
-"No; but there's been a bit of sniping. I don't think they could have
-seen us going into the cottage, but they must have caught sight of us on
-the road.  I heard the smack of a bullet on the back of the wagon, and
-was thankful when I got under the trees."
-
-They went on.  Beyond the trees the road ran straight up a long gradual
-incline. To the left, on the crest, stood a small cottage, enclosed,
-with its garden, within a brick wall.  They had ridden only a few yards
-up the ascent when they heard the crackle of rifle fire ahead.
-
-"The Germans must have seen or guessed that the men went to the
-cottage," said Kenneth.  "We had better leave the machine and go up
-across the field.  The cottage and garden wall will give us cover.  It
-will be just as well to learn what's going on."
-
-They left the road and ran up the grassy hill towards the cottage.  On
-nearing the crest they became aware that the firing they had heard was
-being directed from the front of the cottage.  There was no answering
-fire, but it was clear that the little party in the cottage was
-expecting an attack. Being an observation party, to whose success
-secrecy was essential, it was equally clear that they would not have
-fired except from urgent necessity.
-
-"Ride back and tell the colonel," said Kenneth.  "I'll go on and lend a
-hand."
-
-At another moment it would have been Harry's way to dispute his friend's
-right to the dangerous part, and to settle the matter by the spin of a
-coin.  It might have occurred to him, too, that the call for support
-would reach the colonel by telephone more quickly than he could convey
-it on the bicycle.  But guessing that the position was critical, he
-turned his back at once, ran down the hill, mounted the machine, and
-rode back at his utmost speed.  Kenneth meanwhile had vaulted the garden
-wall, and dashed into the cottage through the open door at the back.
-
-During the next ten or fifteen minutes events crowded one upon another
-more rapidly than can be related, and we must pause for a little to make
-the position clear. The cottage stood on a spur projecting slightly
-eastward from the general line of the ridge.  Below it the ground sloped
-gently down to the road which Kenneth and Harry had travelled on the
-previous day.  Beyond that the country undulated for several miles.
-About a mile away was a young plantation.  The road ran right and left,
-with considerable windings, and a mile and a half away, on the right,
-was the ruined hamlet through which the motor riders had passed.  A
-little below the cottage a stone wall of no great height stretched
-across the ground, ultimately meeting the road.  On the eastern side of
-it--that is, in the direction of the German lines--was a ditch, shallow
-and empty.  During the night a full regiment of Germans, reorganised
-after their recent repulse, had occupied the wood and the hamlet, the
-advance guard of a large body whose purpose was to carry their line
-forward just as the British on their side were doing.  The British
-engineer party had not completed the installation of the telephone in
-the cottage when the lieutenant saw the Germans debouching from the wood
-towards the hamlet, and considerable movement in the hamlet itself.
-Ordering his men to cut loopholes in the wall of the front room on the
-upper storey, and to fire if the enemy appeared to be advancing on the
-cottage, he worked at the telephone, and had almost finished when the
-German scouts were seen creeping up the hill about half a mile away.
-Below them was a company in extended order; below them again a second
-company in support.  They were coming straight towards the cottage, and
-the men, in obedience to their officer's orders, had fired.
-
-Kenneth dashed into the cottage.  The lower floor was empty.  He rushed
-up the stairs into the only room above.  Four men were posted at the
-loopholes; the lieutenant was screwing on the receiver of the telephone.
-He looked up as Kenneth entered.
-
-"Are they coming on already?" he asked.
-
-"No; but a pal of mine has ridden back to tell the colonel."
-
-"That's good.  It will be a minute or two before this wretched thing is
-in working order."
-
-Just then there was a burst of rifle fire from the enemy.  The windows
-were shattered.  One of the men dropped his rifle and shouted.
-
-"Get out and back to our lines," called the officer, seeing that he was
-_hors de combat_. "Take his rifle, will you?" he added to Kenneth.  "For
-goodness' sake don't go near the window."
-
-Kenneth picked up the rifle and hurried to a loophole.  From the volume
-of the enemy's fire it was clear that the assailants were a very
-numerous body, and it struck him as madness for five men to attempt to
-hold the place.  He ventured to say so.
-
-"Done at last!" said the lieutenant. "What was that you said? ... All
-right" (he spoke through the telephone).  "Infantry advancing.  No sign
-of battery.... Hold it!  Of course we must.  If they get here they can
-see our battery from the roof.  Besides, if we can hold them off until
-the battalion comes up we couldn't have a better defensive position than
-the wall and ditch in front....  Gad! that's bad."
-
-A shell had burst on the slope between the cottage and the road, clear
-of the infantry advancing farther to the right.
-
-"Take my glasses," continued the lieutenant, "go well to the left, and
-see if you can spot the direction when the next shell comes."  In low
-distinct tones he spoke into the bell of the receiver: "Enemy firing
-line about 700 yards below crest, range say 5200."
-
-Another shell burst about a hundred yards to the left of the cottage.
-
-"See the flash?" asked the officer, with the receiver at his ear.
-
-"No."
-
-"They're firing at long range....  Yes: all right....  They've had to
-change their position--our battery, I mean.  Want another five minutes."
-He looked at his wrist watch.  "By that time the Germans will be upon
-us, even if a lucky shot from one of their big guns don't tumble the
-place about our ears.  However!"
-
-Kenneth admired the young officer's coolness as, laying down the
-receiver, he took up a rifle and posted himself at a loophole. The
-Germans had stopped firing: bending low they were creeping up yard by
-yard towards the wall.
-
-"Are you a good shot?" asked the officer.
-
-"Fair," replied Kenneth.
-
-"Then pick off the men on the flank.  If they get across that dyke
-they'll work round to our rear and have cover until they are close upon
-us."
-
-Kenneth, sighting for 500 yards, took aim at the man highest up on the
-enemy's extreme left flank.  The man dropped.  Then he fired at the next
-man, and missed.  A second shot found its mark.  Meanwhile the officer
-and his three men methodically fired, each through his own loophole.
-And for four crowded minutes they poured their bullets into the line of
-scouts, which thinned away until not one was visible on the hillside.
-
-But the company behind was pushing steadily on, and now opened fire.  A
-hail of bullets struck the walls of the cottage and whistled through the
-broken windows. The officer, creeping across the floor to the telephone
-receiver, was smothered with splinters of wood.  One of the men uttered
-an oath and drew his hand across his cheek.
-
-"A free shave, Tom," said the next man with a grin.  "Whiskers won't
-grow there no more."
-
-Meanwhile, every twenty or thirty seconds a shell burst in the
-neighbourhood of the cottage, every time nearer.  The noise was
-terrific.
-
-"Long time getting the range," said the lieutenant, holding the receiver
-to his ear. "Our boys are just going to start.... Yes; still coming on;
-range 5000: 400 less will smash _me_, so be careful." ...
-
-Almost immediately afterwards a British shell burst in front of the
-cottage.
-
-"Where did it fall?" asked the officer.
-
-"Behind their supports, sir," replied one of the men.
-
-"Make it 4800," said the lieutenant through the telephone.
-
-The words had scarcely left his lips when there was a terrific crash.
-For a few seconds Kenneth was so dazed as almost to be unconscious.
-When he regained his wits he found himself lying in darkness on the
-floor.  An acrid smell teased his nostrils. Wondering where he was, and
-why he was alive, he tried to rise, and knocking his head, discovered
-that he was under a bed. He crawled out, over a heap of rubbish, and
-wriggled to a gap in the back wall, and into the garden.  And there,
-emerging from the framework of what had been a window, was the
-lieutenant, his face streaming with blood.  But he still held the
-telephone receiver, which, by one of the freaks of such explosions, had
-remained undamaged.
-
-"Cottage bashed to bits," he reported coolly through the telephone....
-"No answer.  The line's broken somewhere. Wonder whether it was a German
-shell or one of ours.  Hunt about for a rifle.  By their howls they're
-coming on.  We'll creep round into the ditch.  I've got my revolver:
-come after me if you can find a rifle."
-
-But Kenneth was diverted from his search for a rifle by groans from
-beneath a heap of debris.  Removing it as quickly as possible, he
-released one of the privates, whose face was cut and bruised and his arm
-broken. He was wondering whether to look for the other men or for a
-rifle when he saw a khaki figure running along by the garden wall
-towards the ditch.  Another followed, then another, then groups, all
-hastening quietly in the direction of the firing.  The battalion had
-come up at last.  Kenneth continued his search for the men.  One was
-dead; the third badly wounded.
-
-Meanwhile the British soldiers, puffing hard with the run up the hill,
-were filing into the ditch, opening fire on the Germans the moment they
-arrived.  The enemy's artillery was silent, no doubt for fear of hitting
-their own men.  But British shells were falling almost incessantly on
-the German columns down the hill.  Still the enemy advanced, losing more
-and more heavily as the ditch filled up.  And presently, unable to
-endure the terrible fire from the British vantage position above them,
-they recoiled and were soon in full retreat, with still heavier losses,
-for by the time they reached the road the whole of the British battalion
-was extended along the firing line.
-
-The British at once set to work to deepen the ditch for a regular
-trench.  Before long the German artillery again began to play, the fire
-becoming more and more accurate as the gunners found the range.  The Red
-Cross men were kept busy in tending the wounded under cover of the
-ruined cottage. In a short time the British position on the ridge was
-consolidated, and preparations were made for a line of trenches,
-somewhat farther back and less exposed, which would become the permanent
-trenches if the Germans were in sufficient force to return to the
-attack.
-
-By force of circumstances Kenneth had taken no part in the fight after
-the collapse of the cottage.  But the engineer lieutenant, who had
-retired from the firing line as soon as the ditch was manned, and
-imperturbably rummaged among the ruins for the broken wire, thanked him
-for his help.
-
-Kenneth wondered why Harry had not returned.  As soon as he had an
-opportunity he enquired about him, and learnt that the colonel had sent
-him to the village with a message.  The road by which Kenneth had
-intended to return being closed, he could only regain his billet by
-tramping back until he reached the main road.  But Harry on the bicycle
-met him halfway, and they reached their quarters in time for dinner. And
-there they learnt that a portion of the village which they had captured
-two days before had been won back by the Germans.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XVI
-
-                          EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY
-
-
-In a small room in one of the houses at the foot of the hill village,
-bending over a table spread with papers, sat Lieutenant Axel von
-Schwank, an officer of a crack Prussian regiment, and a scion of an
-ancient and exalted family.
-
-He had had an excellent dinner, without sparing the wine: what need was
-there to do so when so many cases had been obtained gratis in Champagne?
-He would have liked to remain with his brother officers, convivially
-employed in the room on the other side of the passage; but his colonel
-had given him some work to do. That was the penalty of being a musician.
-
-For Lieutenant Axel von Schwank was accomplished in music.  His
-rendering of the Waldstein sonata was wonderful for an amateur and a
-Prussian; he sang "The Two Grenadiers" with _�clat_, as his friends used
-to say before the authorities ordered the French language to be
-abolished; and he was renowned for his ability to read the most
-difficult score at sight.  With all that he was full of martial spirit:
-his cheeks were seamed with no fewer than three scars, proud memorials
-of his student days.
-
-But it was for his musical skill that the colonel had selected him for
-the piece of work on which he was now engaged.  It was very elementary
-work for a man who could play the Waldstein sonata and read a score by
-Strauss; any school girl could have done it; but even the greatest
-philosopher has at times to perform the simple operation of washing his
-face, and the lieutenant need not have felt that he was demeaning
-himself by a task so much below his powers.  For what Lieutenant Axel
-von Schwank was doing was simply to transcribe into musical notation, on
-a sheet of ruled music paper, the two lines of German with which the
-colonel had supplied him.
-
-Surely that is difficult, you say?  He has only seven letters, A to G,
-to employ, representing the seven notes of the scale, and the German
-alphabet has twenty-six.  What about the v's, and w's, and z's in which
-the German language is so much superior to the French?  But in the first
-place, remember that the German musician calls H the note which the less
-accomplished Englishman calls B, and in the second place that the range
-of most instruments, including the German flute, extends beyond a single
-octave.
-
-So that if the lieutenant writes this
-
-[Illustration: [musical note]]
-
-for A, there is nothing to prevent him writing
-
-[Illustration: [musical note]]
-
-for I, and by means of the sharps and flats he can even arrive at Z,
-without exceeding the compass of that dulcet instrument.
-
-He was busy with his transcription when he heard a scuffling of feet and
-the clank of swords in the opposite room.  His fellow officers were
-hurrying to the street door. The colonel put his head in.
-
-"We are called to the trenches," he said. "Go on with that, and follow
-us when you have done."
-
-The lieutenant had sprung up, turned round and saluted.  When his
-superior was gone, he sat down and set to work again. After all, he
-probably reflected, music has charms: it would preserve him for a few
-minutes more from the bullets of those hateful pigs the English.
-
-The house was in silence.
-
-A little while after the officers had departed, a strange, unshaven,
-unkempt face peered round the edge of the door, which the colonel had
-left open.  It was a lined and somewhat careworn face; the eyes were
-bright and wild; the hair, very rough and tangled, was red.  The face
-moved slowly forward; inch by inch a dirty, tattered khaki uniform
-showed itself; and the rays of the lamp on the table glinted on the
-blade of a long carving knife, held in the man's right hand.  He wore no
-boots, and his stockings made no sound as he tiptoed across the room.
-
-[Illustration: THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI]
-
-Lieutenant Axel, bending over the table with his back to the door, was
-absorbed in his occupation.  But just as the intruder reached his chair
-he seemed to become aware that he was not alone.  He turned suddenly,
-his right hand holding the fountain pen, his left, by some instinct,
-crushing the papers into his pocket, and found a determined face glaring
-at him, and a carving knife pointed at his breast.  Before he could
-collect himself a sinewy hand clutched him by the throat, and a voice
-said in a hoarse whisper:
-
-"Make a sound and you're a dead 'un."
-
-Whether a knowledge of English was one of Lieutenant Axel's
-accomplishments or not, there was no mistaking the hand, the knife, the
-purport of the words.  He turned pale; his eyes searched the room for a
-chance of escape; he was discreetly silent; and at a significant
-movement of the offensive blade he raised his hands above his head.  A
-drop of ink fell on his nose.
-
-The captor, in whose expression there was eagerness, anxiety, an air of
-listening, loosed his grip on the officer's throat.
-
-"Take off your uniform and 'coutrements," he said, with a jerk of the
-knife.
-
-Lieutenant Axel hesitated for a moment only.  The Englishman's face was
-not pleasant.  Hurriedly he stripped off tunic, trousers, belt and
-boots.
-
-"That'll do," said Ginger, in whose eyes the look which the German had
-mistaken for fury really indicated that he was at his wits' end to know
-how to effect the change of clothes without putting down the knife and
-giving his captive an opportunity to dash for the door.
-
-An idea flashed upon him.  Still pointing the knife at the officer, he
-took up the lamp with his left hand, placed it on the chimney piece
-close by, and stripped the cloth from the table.
-
-"Put it over your head," he whispered fiercely.
-
-Again a movement of the knife abridged the lieutenant's hesitation.  The
-shrouding table-cloth eclipsed the concentrated fury of his eyes.
-Ginger wasted not a second. He shoved the officer into a corner of the
-room, pulled a sofa across to bar him in, cut a bell-pull with the
-knife, and drawing the cord over his head, began to tighten it. The
-German began to struggle; for the first time he spoke.
-
-"You shtrangle me!" came the muffled words.
-
-"Shut up!" growled Ginger, with a premonitory dig of the knife.  "I
-won't graze your skin if you don't make a fuss.  But----"
-
-Lieutenant Axel may have wondered: this hateful pig was certainly not
-expert in frightfulness; he was very soft, like all the English.  But
-the struggles ceased; the officer was quiet while Ginger knotted the
-cord about his neck.  And he stood there in the corner, a statue in
-table-cloth and pants, as Ginger, with a quickness learnt on raw
-mornings in the barracks at home, endued himself with the well-tailored
-habiliments of a Prussian officer.  The boots were a trifle large for
-him.
-
-He listened.  All was quiet.  He threw a dubious look at the rigid
-officer.
-
-"Not safe," he muttered.
-
-Hastening to the German, he loosed the cord, pulled off the table-cloth,
-and looking into the hot face said:
-
-"You've got to be tied up.  Make a row and you know what.  Join your
-hands behind you."
-
-While Ginger was tying his hands, and his feet to a leg of the sofa,
-Lieutenant Axel von Schwank cursed him in undertones in both English and
-German.  Ginger made no reply.  But as soon as this part of his work was
-finished, he caught up some papers from the mantelpiece--they were
-copies of the Hymn of Hate--twisted them together, and with a sudden
-movement thrust them into the German's mouth.
-
-"There!  Bite them," he muttered. "Such shocking language!"
-
-He once more threw the table-cloth over the helpless man's head, put the
-pickel-haube on his own, and quietly left the room. Passing the open
-door opposite he hesitated for the fraction of a second, then went in,
-gulped a glass of wine, caught up the frame of a chicken from the table,
-and digging his teeth into it ravenously, hurried back, along the
-passage, down a dark flight of steps, and out through the back door into
-the garden. He drew quick breaths as he leant against the wall, gnawing
-the carcase.  From somewhere on his right came low sounds he had learnt
-to recognise as signs of Germans in their trenches.  On the left there
-was silence. In the distance guns boomed.  After a few minutes he threw
-the chicken bones upon a neglected garden plot, sighed, drew his hand
-across his lips, and murmured:
-
-"Blowed if I know!"
-
-The village was a mile or more from his old trench; he knew that.  It
-was, he supposed, wholly in possession of the Germans.  He would have to
-go through it up the hill, or round it, and pass the enemy's trenches
-before he could reach his regiment.  And at any moment the German
-officer might be discovered!
-
-"I must skip," he said to himself.
-
-The assuagement of his terrible hunger had seemed a necessity beyond all
-others. Now he realised his peril.  Choosing the direction that was
-silent, he stole from garden to garden, scaling the fences, and
-presently found himself in a lane.  It was uphill to the right: that was
-his way.  The lane ended in a street.  There he turned to the left, but
-had taken only a few steps when the tread of feet and the sound of
-guttural voices coming towards him sent him back hastily in the opposite
-direction. To his dismay, in a few seconds he heard other men
-approaching.  There was no escape.  On one side he was blocked by a high
-wall, on the other a house dimly lighted.  The night was dark; he wore a
-German uniform; unless accosted by a real officer he might pass safely.
-With shrinking heart but an assured gait he walked boldly on, close to
-the wall.
-
-Dark though it was, the soldiers returning from the trenches recognised
-the officer's uniform and went by stiffly at the salute. Ginger was
-bringing his hand up smartly when he remembered that he was an officer,
-eased the movement, and dropped his hand again, quaking lest some
-terrible blunder in the mode of his return salute should have betrayed
-him.  But in the darkness it passed muster. No doubt the men were tired.
-They went on.  Ginger, perspiring and limp, leant against the wall for a
-moment or two.
-
-"Oh crumbs!" he murmured as he braced himself and set off again.
-
-A few steps brought him to a lane that broke the line of houses on his
-left.  It was quiet.  He turned into it.  The ground rose somewhat
-steeply.
-
-"Must be going right," he thought.
-
-Soon the houses were left behind.  The lane became a track across even
-ground, with a few trees at the borders.  Suddenly the silence was
-broken by the sharp crackle of rifle fire from the upper part of the
-hill. Ginger threw himself down and crouched behind a stout trunk.
-There was no reply from the German trenches, which must be somewhere
-below him, he thought.  He waited patiently until the firing died away,
-then rose and crept forward.
-
-His heart sank into his boots when he came unawares upon a trench and
-heard the murmur of guttural voices.  Before he had time to retreat, a
-sentinel addressed him in German.
-
-"Sssh!" Ginger hissed, sliding into the trench a few feet from the dark
-figure. Further down the trench there were dim lights.  It was neck or
-nothing now. Stepping on to the banquette he began to clamber up to the
-parapet.  The sentry, no doubt believing that the officer was engaged on
-some special scouting duty, came towards him, whispering, "Erlauben Sie,
-Herr Leutnant," and gave him a leg-up.
-
-Ginger scrambled over, fell on hands and knees, and crawled over the
-ground.  How far ahead were the British trenches he knew not; the night
-was too dark for him to be seen, but at the least noise he would
-certainly be taken for a German and become the invisible target for a
-dozen rifles.
-
-While he was slowly wriggling forward he heard a commotion far in his
-rear--shouts, the sound of many men on the move. Probably the muffled
-lieutenant had been discovered; the men in the trenches would be advised
-of the outrage, and the no man's land between the hostile forces might
-be swept by a fusillade.  Crushing himself flat he dragged himself on.
-
-Now there were sounds in front of him. He stopped, panting, listening.
-Yes, they were British voices; were they those of his own comrades?
-What should he do?  If he called, he might be riddled with shot. So many
-Germans could speak English. The Rutlands would know his voice, but what
-if the men in the trenches were not the Rutlands?
-
-For a few moments he lay inert with hopelessness.  Then an idea occurred
-to him.  On again, inch by inch, feeling out for barbed wire.  There was
-none; the position must have been hurriedly occupied. The voices were
-more distinct; his straining cars caught individual words.
-
-"English, I surrender!" he called in a low tone.
-
-The voices were hushed.
-
-"Who goes there?" said a voice.
-
-"Murgatroyd, of the Rutlands," he replied.
-
-"Keep still."
-
-There was a momentary flash of light.
-
-"Don't fire!" called Ginger, instantly realising that his uniform must
-have been seen.  "I surrender."
-
-"Hands up and come on."
-
-Ginger was just rising when bullets sang over his head from behind.  He
-dropped down again; his last chance was gone; they would believe he was
-tricking them.  But he heard an officer give an order.  There was no
-answering fire from the trench in front, no repetition of the volley
-from the rear. He crawled on, dimly seeing the parapet a few yards away.
-
-"I surrender," he repeated, and crawled on, over the sandbags, was
-seized by rough hands, hauled headlong into the trench, and held firmly
-by the neck.
-
-"Got him, sir," said a voice.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XVII
-
-                                STRATEGY
-
-
-"Don't throttle me," Ginger murmured, scarcely able to speak from
-physical exhaustion and the reaction from mental strain.  "Are you the
-Rutlands?"
-
-"No, we ain't.  Got a special fancy for the Rutlands, 'eemingly."
-
-"I'm Murgatroyd, No. 939, 17th battalion, 3rd company, 1st platoon,"
-said Ginger feebly.
-
-"Oh, we know all about that.  You German blighters all speak English,
-but you don't come it over us."
-
-"Silence, Barnet; bring him along," said the officer.
-
-"Yes, sir.  Says he's a Rutland, sir."
-
-Ginger was taken along the dark trench to a dug-out lit by a
-candle-lamp.  The lieutenant looked at him.  The uniform was German,
-from helmet to boots: the Iron Cross was on his breast; but the dirty,
-lined, unshaven face was not that of a German officer.
-
-"Who do you say you are?" said the lieutenant, puzzled.
-
-"Murgatroyd, lance-corporal in the 17th Rutlands, sir: called Ginger,
-sir: look at my hair."
-
-He removed the helmet.  The lieutenant laughed.
-
-"The name suits you," he said.  "But what have you been up to?"
-
-"Taking French leave and German toggery, sir," said Ginger.  "Beg
-pardon; could you give me a drink?  My mouth's that parched.  I'm all of
-a shake."
-
-Refreshed by a cup of tea, Ginger told his story.
-
-"A regular romance," said the lieutenant. "You're as plucky as you are
-lucky.  By George!  I should like to have seen the German taking off his
-uniform.  He must have been very mad."
-
-"He had a very swanky shirt, sir, but I couldn't stop to take that.  Can
-I get back to my billet, sir?"
-
-"Certainly.  I'll send a man with you out of the trenches.  You go round
-by the church, you know."
-
-"I'll find my way, sir, never fear.  If you'd give me a cigarette or
-two...."
-
-"But you'll never get through in that uniform.  I can't give you a
-change.  Stay, I'll write you a note; don't wear the helmet."
-
-"No, sir: I'll send it home to the kids, along with the Iron Cross."
-
-"You've deserved that, at any rate. Well, good luck to you.  I wish you
-were one of my men."
-
-"Thank you, sir."
-
-
-Somewhere about midnight, Ginger, after certain amusing adventures with
-the sentries, knocked at the door of Bonnard's cottage. There was some
-delay: then Bonnard opened the door, lifting a lighted candle.
-
-"Bong swar, m'sew," said Ginger.  "What O!"
-
-"Ma foi!" ejaculated the Frenchman, throwing up his hands.  "C'est
-Monsieur Ginjaire!"
-
-"Ah, wee, wee!  Large as life!  Give me some grub, m'sew: la soupe; more
-so; anything; haven't had a good feed since I saw your jolly face last."
-
-"Oll raight!  Mais c'est merveilleux, �patant!  Entrez donc, m'sieur
-Ginjaire; 'ow d'you do!  Shake 'and!"
-
-"Got the Iron Cross, m'sew," said Ginger with a grin, flicking the
-decoration with his finger-nail.
-
-"Par exemple!" cried Bonnard.  "Ah! vous avez fait un prisonnier; vous
-avez pris un officier prussien, n'est-ce pas?  Bravo! 'ip, 'ip, 'ooray!"
-
-There were growls through the closed door of the bedroom adjoining.
-
-"Messieurs, messieurs," shouted the Frenchman excitedly, "c'est que
-m'sieur Ginjaire est revenu, avec la croix de fer. Eveillez-vous,
-messieurs, pour le voir."
-
-"Shut up; taisez-vous!" called Harry, sleepily.
-
-"Let 'em wait till morning," said Ginger. "Give me some grub.  Don't
-want nothing else in all this wide world.  I've got a fang, as you call
-it.  J'ai fang, comprenny?"
-
-"Ah oui!  Vous allez manger tout votre so�l."
-
-"Cheese'll do for me ... What O!"
-
-The door had opened, and Harry appeared, blinking.
-
-"What's all this? ... Great Scot!  Where on earth ... I say, Ken, it's
-Ginger!"
-
-"Shut up and go to sleep."
-
-"It's Ginger, I tell you.  Wake up, man. In a German uniform!"
-
-"Ginger, did you say?" cried Kenneth, joining him.  "Well, I'm
-jiggered!"
-
-Ginger, a spoon in one hand, a hunk of bread in the other, grinned as
-they rushed to him, clapped him on the back, shook each an arm.
-
-"Don't choke me, mates," he spluttered. "Let me finish this soup, and
-I'll tell you a story as beats cock-fighting."
-
-"Tuck in.  They starved you, I suppose--the brutes!" said Harry.  "Let's
-get our coats, Ken: it's chilly.  Bonnard will make up the fire."
-
-Presently, sitting around the fire, they listened to Ginger's story.
-
-"I was sitting on the wing of that aeroplane, thinking of the missus and
-kids, when all of a sudden I was knocked head over tip from behind.
-When I came to myself, there was I strapped in the aeroplane, going
-through the sky like an express train.  We came down in the village over
-yonder, and they lugged me to a colonel, and he asked me a heap of
-questions, and of course I wouldn't answer, and then they hauled me to a
-room, took away my belt and bay'net and boots, and locked me in.  Here's
-the end of my milingtary career, thinks I, and only a lance-corporal!
-
-"They gave me some black bread, like gingerbread without the ginger, and
-some slops they called coffee; I called it dishwater.  I wondered how
-long I'd last on fare like that.  But just before morning I was woke by
-a touch on my face, thought it was a mouse, slapped my hand up, and
-heard a little voice say 'Oh!'  If I could only speak French like you!
-It was the woman of the house.  She let me out and took me down to the
-cellar, and said something which I took to mean she'd give me the tip
-when to get away, but it might have been something else for all I know.
-Anyway, she didn't come back."
-
-"A very unsafe place, I should think, with Germans," said Kenneth.
-
-"There you're wrong.  For why?  'Cos there was no wine there.  The
-cellar was empty.  Hadn't been used for an age, I should think.  It was
-almost pitch dark; just a little air through some holes at the top of
-the wall.  Well, there I was.  The woman had given me some pang and
-fromarge, and a so of o--rummy lingo the French, ain't it?--and for I
-don't know how long I waited, thinking she'd come back and tell me the
-coast was clear.  But she didn't, and knowing the Germans were all over
-the village I didn't dare to stir of my own accord.  Besides, when
-you're expecting something, you don't trouble for a time.  I was so sure
-the woman would come when she could.
-
-"Down there in the dark, of course, I'd no notion of how time was going.
-I heard guns booming every now and again, and sounds in the house above,
-and being pretty easy in my mind, as I say, I dropped off to sleep.
-When I woke I finished off my grub, waiting as patient as a monument for
-the word to clear.  Whether it was night or day I couldn't tell: there
-seemed to be someone moving about the house all the time.  At last I got
-hungry and mortal sick of being alone in the dark, and began to wonder
-what I'd do if she didn't come back.  Thought I'd try and have a look
-round.  I felt my way to the door, and came to the bottom of the
-staircase.  It was light up above, and I heard the Germans talking
-overhead, and didn't dare go up.  I decided to wait till night and try
-again.  I went to that staircase a dozen times, I should think, before
-night; the day seemed extra long; and even when night came I was dished,
-for a lamp was burning, and there were more voices than ever, and I
-heard someone playing a flute.  I guessed they'd sacked the woman for
-letting me go, and smiled to myself at their hunting like mad for me all
-over the place.
-
-"But it was no smiling matter there, I can tell you.  I didn't sleep a
-wink that night, but kept on going to the staircase on the chance they
-were napping above.  Not they!  And I was getting hungrier and hungrier,
-and thirsty!--I never knew before what thirst was.  I felt seedy, and a
-banging in my head, and couldn't keep still, going round and round that
-cellar till I was nearly mad."
-
-"Why didn't you break out when we stormed the village?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"How was I to know about that?"
-
-"There must have been a terrific row," said Harry.  "Close by, too."
-
-"If I'd known I'd have been out like a shot, you bet.  But I guess how
-it was.  I must have got fair worn out with traipsing round and round,
-and fallen asleep at last, and when you go to sleep like that, nothing
-on earth 'ud wake you.  'Specially being used to the sound of guns in
-the trenches. Anyway, when I woke up, I was so mad for food that I said
-to myself I'd get out somehow and chance it.  I went to the staircase;
-there was a light above, so I knew it was night, and I began to crawl
-up.  But there was a footstep on the passage, and down I went again, but
-not into the cellar; that gave me the horrors.  I sat in the dark at the
-foot of the staircase, in the hope there'd be quiet above in time.
-
-"Well, I waited hours, it seemed.  I heard laughing and talking, and
-knives and forks going, and that made me mad.  I was just going to make
-a dash for it when I heard the Germans going along to the door.  I
-didn't hardly dare to hope they'd all clear out, but I waited a bit, and
-all was quite still, and I crawled up on hands and knees so the stairs
-shouldn't creak.  What I was afraid was that the servants were in the
-kitchen, but there wasn't a sound; and I crept along the passage.
-
-"There was two doors, one on each side, open.  On the right was the room
-where the officers had been dining.  The sight of that table was too
-much for me, famished as I was.  I must eat if I died for it.  I was
-just a-going to begin when a little sound almost made me jump out of my
-skin.  I snatched up a carving knife and whipped round, and there,
-across the passage, in the room opposite, was an officer writing at a
-table, with his back to me.  Quick as lightning I thought if I could
-only get into his uniform I'd have a chance of getting through their
-lines in the dark.  I listened: the house was quiet as a graveyard: and
-with the carving knife in my hand I stole across the passage."
-
-He described his brief operations with the German lieutenant and his
-subsequent proceedings.
-
-"And all I want now," he concluded, "is a photo of that Frenchwoman to
-send to the missus, and I hope she've come to no harm."
-
-"You're a trump, Ginger," cried Harry, clapping him on the back.
-"You've certainly won that Iron Cross."
-
-"It'll do for the kids to play with," remarked Ginger.  "Myself, I
-wouldn't wear the thing the Kaiser gives away by the ton. Ah!  I said I
-only wanted one thing, but there's another."
-
-"What's that?"
-
-"Why, to find that farmer that helped the German chap to strap me to the
-aeroplane.  And he pretended to help us hunt for him.  He's a spy,
-that's what he is."
-
-"He was taken into our lines.  I don't know what became of him," said
-Kenneth. "You must tell the captain to-morrow all about it, and he'll
-make enquiries.  You must be fagged; get to bed.  Our men will be jolly
-glad to have you back again."
-
-Ginger's feat made him the hero of the battalion.  The colonel promoted
-him full corporal, and sent a messenger at once to the Wessex regiment
-to enquire what had become of the farmer.  The reply was that the French
-authorities had nothing against the man, who had lived in the
-neighbourhood for years, and he had been allowed to return to his farm.
-Colonel Appleton at once resolved to arrest him.
-
-"We had better do everything in order," he said, to Captain Adams.
-"We're in France, and the authorities might feel hurt if we dispensed
-with them.  I'll get the police commissaire of the district to take the
-matter up as there are no French military officers within thirty miles:
-it will save time.  Tell the Three Musketeers to be ready to go with him
-to identify the man."
-
-Later in the day the summons came. The three men found Captain Adams in
-the company of a stout little spectacled functionary, resplendent in a
-tri-colour sash, and two red-trousered gendarmes.  The police commissary
-not being on the spot, the maire of the neighbouring town had undertaken
-the task.  He had been a sergeant in the army of 1870, and was full of
-zeal.  A motor-car was in waiting.  Into this the party crowded.
-Ginger, clad in a new uniform with the double stripe on his sleeve,
-fraternised with the gendarmes at once, and conversed with them on the
-back seat in a wonderful jargon.  Kenneth and Harry, as more
-accomplished in French, sat with the maire in front.
-
-He was a fussy little man, proud of his antiquated military experience.
-Inclined to dilate on the details of his service under Mac Mahon, he was
-adroitly led by Kenneth to the business in hand.  Then he was full of
-tactics and strategy.
-
-"We must proceed by surprise, messieurs," he said.  "That is a sound
-principle.  I know the place well.  We will stop at some distance from
-the farm house, and advance through the wood in skirmishing order,
-myself in the centre, the gendarmes supporting me, and you English
-gentlemen on the flanks.  Thus we will converge upon the rear of the
-farm house, taking care to arrive simultaneously, and carry the place by
-a coup de main."
-
-It occurred to Kenneth that there were defects in this plan, and that
-their object was to arrest a spy, not to carry a fortress. But he deemed
-it best to say nothing.  The maire evidently liked the sound of his own
-voice, and was bursting with elation at having the conduct, after forty
-years, of what he regarded as a military operation.
-
-"By this means," he went on, "we shall cut off the enemy from his line
-of retreat, which would afford him good cover if he could reach it.
-That I take to be sound tactics, messieurs."
-
-About a mile from the farm house, on a hillside above the wood behind
-it, they came upon a shepherd tending two or three sheep.  He looked up
-as the car ran up the hill, called out, "Bon soir, monsieur le maire!"
-and watched the car as it descended on the other side.  It stopped at
-the foot, the six men got out, and set off across the field towards the
-wood.  The shepherd, a big man with a wart on his nose, instantly took
-to his heels, and running downhill on the near slope, out of sight of
-the maire's party, made at full speed for the wood, about a quarter of a
-mile from the spot where the maire would enter it.
-
-Meanwhile the maire had halted, and was impressively declaring his final
-instructions.
-
-"You will advance cautiously through the wood, with the silence of
-foxes.  Take cover, but preserve a good line: that is a sound principle.
-When you hear my whistle, advance at the double, converging on the
-centre--that is myself.  It is well understood?"
-
-Kenneth explained all this to Ginger, who rubbed his mouth and said:
-
-"He don't happen to be General Joffre, I suppose!  I reckon we three 'ud
-do better without him."
-
-"We're under orders," replied Kenneth. "We must look out for our chance.
-Of course he ought to have sent some of us to the other side."
-
-"He ought to have stayed at home to mind the baby," growled Ginger.
-"However!"
-
-They extended, crept through the wood, and at the given signal dashed
-out upon the farm house.  The maire was left far behind. The doors were
-open, back and front. Ginger was first in at the front, Harry at the
-back.  The house was deserted.  In the kitchen the table was laid for a
-meal; there was hot coffee in a pot: one of the cups was half full.  The
-occupants had evidently left in haste: the surprise had failed.
-
-The Englishmen rushed out, and Ginger collided with the maire, who was
-puffing and blowing, partly from haste, partly from fury at having been
-outstripped.
-
-"My fault, m'sew," said Ginger, picking him up.  "They've bunked."
-
-Kenneth translated, soothingly.
-
-"They must have escaped by the front while we approached from the rear,"
-he said.
-
-"My plan was sound.  It would have succeeded if they had waited," said
-the maire.  "And we gave them no warning: it is incomprehensible."
-
-Meanwhile Harry, Ginger, and the gendarmes were scanning the
-neighbourhood, hastening to various points of vantage. Suddenly Ginger
-gave a shout.  Far to the right, along the road by which the motor lorry
-had been driven, three cyclists were pedalling at full speed away from
-the farm. The rearmost was a big man, like the shepherd whom the party
-had passed on the hill. As soon as Harry saw them, he squared his elbows
-and ran towards the motor-car, nearly a mile away, shouting to Ginger to
-inform the others.  By the time he drove back in the car, the maire had
-decided on pursuit, and was making calculations of speed.  In a few
-moments the car was flashing along the road.  But the cyclists had had
-eight or nine minutes' start.  There was no sign of them.  They had
-evidently quitted the road and made off by one or other of the by-paths
-on each side, along which, even had their tracks been discovered, the
-car could not follow them.
-
-"We're done, all through him!" growled Ginger, in high indignation, with
-a jerk of his head towards the maire.
-
-That little man was explaining to Kenneth that the soundest principles
-sometimes fail in practice through unforeseen contingencies.
-
-"But they will not dare to return to the farm house," he said, "so that
-we have accomplished something."
-
-They returned to the village.  Kenneth gave the colonel a faithful
-report of the expedition.  Colonel Appleton let out a hot word or two.
-
-"Next time we have an arrest to make we'll do it first and consult the
-police afterwards," he said.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XVIII
-
-                       USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY
-
-
-The Rutlands had a somewhat longer spell in billets than usual.  They
-were awaiting a draft from the base to make good their losses.  The
-officers and kind friends at home had provided books and games as a
-relief from the constant mental strain to which modern warfare subjects
-a man, and with these and impromptu smoking concerts they beguiled the
-tedium of inaction.
-
-Monsieur Obernai was very active in effort on their behalf.  Speaking
-English with only a trace of foreign accent, he went freely about among
-the men, conversing with them about their experiences, retailing
-reminiscences of Alsace, making liberal presents of cigarettes.  He was
-very affable with the officers billeted in his house, and sometimes
-joined them in their mess-room. On one of these occasions he remarked
-with a smile that but for the incessant booming of the guns he would
-hardly have known that war was going on, so little did they talk about
-it.
-
-"Anything but that, monsieur," replied Captain Adams.  "'Deeds, not
-words,' is our motto.  The whole thing is so frightful that we try to
-forget all about it at off times."
-
-"It is so different in our army," said Monsieur Obernai.  "Our officers
-are not capable of such detachment."
-
-"'A still tongue makes a wise head,' monsieur," said the captain.
-
-Monsieur Obernai looked puzzled, but smiled amiably.  He had a pleasant
-smile.
-
-One day the battalion was suddenly paraded.  A few minutes afterwards a
-motor car drove up, and the men recognised with a thrill that the
-commander-in-chief had come to inspect them.  Sir John French passed up
-and down the lines, addressing a man here and there, then made a little
-speech to the battalion as a whole, complimenting them on the work they
-had done and promising them stiff work in the future and ultimate
-victory.  After visiting a few slightly injured men who remained in the
-village, the field-marshal drove away amid ringing cheers.
-
-The battalion had only just been dismissed when the whirr of an
-aeroplane was heard, and a few seconds later a Taube flew over the
-place.
-
-"Look out!" cried somebody.
-
-Some of the men scuttled for cover, others looked up nonchalantly into
-the sky.  The aeroplane was out of range.  Suddenly there was a terrific
-explosion.  A column of earth and smoke shot up from a field a few
-hundred yards west of the village.  The Taube was seen flying back,
-chased by a couple of English aeroplanes.
-
-"It almost looks as if they knew the chief was to be here," remarked
-Colonel Appleton, watching the chase among his officers.
-
-"And we only knew it ourselves twenty minutes before he arrived," said
-Captain Adams.
-
-"Well, I knew it last night, but I kept it to myself.  Got word by
-telephone.  They may have tapped the wire.  The spies aren't all
-scotched yet, Adams."
-
-"The deuce!" exclaimed the captain. "I'd like to catch some of them."
-
-"The Germans have very little for their money, though.  Look! our
-fellows have brought the Taube down."
-
-Behind the German lines the aeroplane was whirling in precipitous
-descent from an immense height.
-
-"Two more good men lost!" said the colonel.  "And the spies will go on
-spying."
-
-Next night the Rutlands were ordered back to the hill village.  The
-enemy was to be turned out at all costs.  Regiments were coming up in
-support, and as soon as a sufficient reserve was collected the attack
-was to be driven home.  The men were fired with grim resolution.  News
-had just come in of the employment of poisonous gas at Ypres, miles away
-to the north, and as they cleaned their bayonets they vowed to avenge
-their fallen comrades from Canada.
-
-The upper part of the hill had been held against repeated assaults by
-the Germans. The opposing lines crossed the main street, about ninety
-yards apart.  Between them the houses had been demolished by one side or
-the other.  The houses above the British trenches, and those below the
-German, were occupied by snipers.  The British snipers had an advantage
-in being above the enemy; on the other hand they were more exposed to
-artillery fire, and their positions had been a good deal knocked about.
-To protect themselves from the fire of these snipers the Germans had
-made the parapets of their trenches unusually high.  This handicapped
-them to some extent in replying to rifle fire; but they had compensated
-themselves by installing a large number of machine guns, which were
-certain to take a heavy toll of the attackers when they charged down the
-hill.
-
-Soon after the Rutlands reached their position at the top of the hill,
-in the dusk, a lorry came up from the rear with supplies for the next
-day.  Owing to the rearward slope the vehicle could be brought to within
-a few yards of the trenches without being seen by the enemy, and since
-horses were employed as less noisy than a motor engine, supplies had
-been regularly brought up in this way without the knowledge of the
-Germans.
-
-Kenneth and Ginger, with other men, were unloading the lorry when a
-second lorry appeared near the foot of the hill on the British side.  It
-was heavily laden, and the slope proved to be too much for the two
-horses drawing it.
-
-"Old cab horses, they are," said the driver of the lorry that was being
-unloaded. "Not fit for this job.  I'll have to go down and lend a hand."
-
-Placing a brick under one of the wheels, he unharnessed his horses and
-led them down the hill.  Kenneth and Ginger were carrying a box between
-them to the communication trench running downwards from the crest when a
-shell came whizzing over from the German side and exploded near the
-lorry they had just left, bespattering them with earth, felling one or
-two of their comrades, and sending the rest scampering into the trench.
-The shock of the explosion caused Kenneth to drop his end of the box:
-both he and Ginger were dazed for a few seconds. When they looked round,
-they were aghast to see the lorry moving backward down the hill.  Only
-half its load had been removed, and though its motion was at present
-slow, it would gather speed and, unless it could be checked, would crash
-into the second lorry to which the driver was now yoking his horses.
-For a moment they were paralysed by realisation of the frightful danger.
-Men, horses, stores would all be hurled and crushed in hideous wreck.
-The heavy vehicle was already rolling on more quickly when with mutual
-decision they left the box and sprinted after it.  The case was
-desperate.  Neither of them had any idea how the catastrophe could be
-averted.  It would scarcely be possible to loose the skid and throw it
-into position while the lorry was running, faster every moment.
-
-More fleet of foot than Ginger, Kenneth rushed ahead, overtook the
-lorry, and, a thought striking him, seized the pole, and exerting all
-the force of which he was capable while running at speed, twisted it to
-the left.  The lorry swerved, appeared to hesitate, then ran into a
-shallow ditch at the side of the road and turned over.  The pole,
-striking against a tree, snapped off, flinging Kenneth to the ground.
-
-"Whew!" gasped Ginger, running down. "That was a near thing."
-
-"Twenty yards," said Kenneth, rising and rubbing his elbow.
-
-"George! that was a near 'un!" panted the driver, who had hastened up.
-His face was very pale.  "I owe you one, mate. Nothing else would have
-saved us.  Hope you ain't hurt."
-
-"Nothing to speak of.  The lorry has come off the worst."
-
-"George! you're right!  It's what you may call snookered.  Done for,
-that's what it is.  We'll have to shove it out of the way before I can
-bring my horses up, and leave it.  What you say, Bill?"
-
-"Can't do nothing with it," said the driver of the second lorry.
-
-"Take my tip, and put the skid on when you get yourn up, mate.  George!
-it give me a fright and no mistake."
-
-They drove the second lorry to the summit, leaving Kenneth and Ginger to
-carry up the spilled load.
-
-"The lorry isn't so badly damaged as he thinks," said Kenneth.  "The
-brake is bent, and a good deal of wood is chipped off, but the thing
-will run all right."
-
-He so informed the driver when he met him.
-
-"All the same, you don't catch me driving it back to-night," said the
-man.  "It's nearly dark, the road's bad enough when you're too complay,
-as the Frenchies say. I'll leave it to the morning at any rate."
-
-It was dark when Kenneth and Ginger had finished their task.  They took
-their places with their platoon in the firing trench.
-
-"Think they'll have any gas for us to-morrow?" said Ginger.
-
-"It's not very likely," said Kenneth. "The gas the Germans have been
-using lies low; it would be more useful to us."
-
-"Well, why shouldn't we use it too? What's the odds whether you're
-killed with gas or shrapnel?  Gas don't hurt, I expect, and it's a deal
-cleaner."
-
-"Upon my word I don't know," Kenneth replied.  "There's no logic in it.
-But somehow it goes against the grain.  You poison dogs with gas, not
-men."
-
-"Besides, it's taking an unfair advantage," said Harry.  "It depends on
-the wind--and there's no crossing over at half-time."
-
-The notes of a flute came along the trench from the left.
-
-"Stoneway's at it again," said Ginger.
-
-"The fellow can play," remarked Harry. "Good stuff, too.  He doesn't
-confine himself to the trumpery tunes of the musical comedies.  That's a
-bit of Mozart."
-
-"I've heard that tune somewhere," said Ginger reflectively.  "I haven't
-got much of an ear for music, but I know them twiddles.  Why, hang me, I
-heard 'em when I was in that cellar.  Somebody was playing 'em
-upstairs."
-
-"It's a concerto every flautist knows," said Harry.  "The Germans
-certainly lick us in music."
-
-"A pity they're not satisfied with that," said Kenneth.
-
-They listened in silence till the conclusion of the piece, and joined in
-the general applause.  After a short interval the performer began again,
-now, however, playing detached notes that had neither time nor tune.
-
-"Those exercises, again!" said Ginger. "That's the worst of music.  My
-little Sally is learning the pianner, and she makes me mad sometimes
-with what she calls the five-finger exercises.  'For mercy's sake play
-us a tune,' says I.  'I've got to practise this, Dad,' says she.
-'What's the good of it?' says I.  'Teacher says it's to get my fingers
-in order,' says she.  Anybody'd think her fingers weren't the same as
-other people's; they're all right; a very pretty hand she's got....
-He's stopped, thank goodness! Pass up the word for 'Dolly Grey,' mates."
-
-Silence presently reigned.  The men reclined, dozing.
-
-"I say, Harry," said Kenneth.
-
-"What is it?" replied Harry sleepily.
-
-"I've been thinking.  We might make good use of that lorry."
-
-"How?"
-
-"Let it loose on the Germans."
-
-"Send it down-hill, you mean?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"What's the good?  They'd hear it coming and clear out of the way.  It
-might break their wire and a bit of the parapet--hardly enough damage to
-be worth the fag."
-
-Kenneth was silent for a little.  Then he roused Harry again.  There
-ensued a long conversation between them, at the conclusion of which
-Kenneth crept along the trench to find Captain Adams.  It was some time
-before he returned.
-
-"The colonel agrees," he said in some excitement.  "There's no time to
-lose.  We've got to attack at four o'clock.  Wake up, Ginger."
-
-Ginger having been informed of what was intended, he and Kenneth stole
-from the trench, up the communication trench, and set off at a trot
-towards their billets.  Two hours later they returned in a motor car,
-which halted at the eastern foot of the hill. They carried up a large
-rectangular object, and at a second journey a number of bolts and a
-heavy hammer.  Soon the men in the trenches heard the clank of
-hammering, and Harry suggested that the lorry was being repaired.
-
-His comrades were in fact at work on the lorry.  The object which they
-had brought up consisted of several sheets of corrugated zinc which
-Ginger, a skilled mechanic, had bolted together in the village.  This he
-was now fixing upright over the rear axle of the lorry, so that it
-overlapped the body of the vehicle on each side.  With the assistance of
-Kenneth and the driver of the car he was turning the lorry into an
-armoured car, of unusual form, it is true, but likely, they thought, to
-serve its purpose.  When the zinc was in position, they filled up the
-space between the sheets with sand, and so completed a bullet-proof
-screen about nine feet wide.  Then, going into one of the half-ruined
-houses, they brought out a number of planks and carried them to the
-centre of the firing trench.  There, over a space of about ten feet, the
-parapet was quickly demolished, and the planks were laid across side by
-side, forming a bridge.  The men of the platoon had meanwhile been taken
-into their confidence, and when Captain Adams called for volunteers to
-cut the wire immediately in front, several men crawled out and did the
-work without being detected.
-
-These preparations having been completed, half a dozen men quickly
-pushed the lorry over the crest of the hill to within a few yards of the
-trench.  Favoured by pitch darkness, and moving with the utmost
-quietness, they had everything in readiness by three o'clock, without
-the knowledge of the Germans, and even of the more distant platoons of
-their own battalion.
-
-The orders of the day were already known along the British line.  They
-were to attack just before dawn.  The hill was to be cleared of Germans.
-It was a task for rifles, bayonets, and hand grenades.  They could
-expect no help from artillery, so narrow was the space dividing the
-lines.
-
-At the appointed moment, twenty men of the 1st platoon formed up in file
-behind the lorry, each carrying a hand grenade in addition to his rifle.
-The word was given. They pushed the lorry off; on each side the other
-men scrambled out of the trenches; some crawled forward and cut the wire
-on either side.  Then, without uttering a sound, they charged down the
-hill.
-
-The lorry rumbled slowly over the plank bridge, on to the road, and
-gathered way as it bumped and jolted down towards the German trenches,
-the twenty men running behind it.  When it had covered a dozen yards it
-was greeted with rapid rifle fire from the German sentries.  There were
-shouts from below, but before the enemy realised the manoeuvre, a shower
-of hand grenades fell among them, the lorry crashed through the wire
-entanglement, broke through the parapet, and turned a somersault over
-the trench.
-
-Then a yell burst from the throats of the Rutlands, and the air was rent
-by the crackle of rifles all along the line except at the spot where the
-lorry had fallen.  There Kenneth and his companions sprang into the
-trench, and pushing along to right and left, cleared it with the
-bayonet, the panic-stricken Germans fleeing before them or flinging up
-their hands in token of surrender. Confusion spread along the whole
-line.  The British arrangements had been thoroughly made.  While the
-Rutlands charged down the main street, other regiments were sweeping
-through the streets and alleys on either side, raking them with fire
-from machine guns, flinging bombs into the occupied houses, chasing the
-Germans at the point of the bayonet.  Here and there were furious hand
-to hand encounters; at one point a mass of the enemy's reserves surged
-forward and gained ground, only to be borne back in turn by the
-irresistible dash of British supports.  In half an hour the streets were
-cleared, and while some of the British blocked up the captured trenches
-against counter-attack, others rushed the houses to which the enemy
-still clung, and stormed them one after another.
-
-All this had happened in the grey chill dawn.  By the time the sun's rim
-appeared over the distant horizon the position was completely won, at
-comparatively slight cost.  More than two hundred prisoners remained in
-British hands, and among them Ginger, who had escaped with a few
-bruises, recognised the lieutenant to whom he had been indebted for a
-uniform.
-
-When the roll was called, it was found that of the twenty men who had
-followed the lorry only one had been wounded.
-
-"A capital idea of yours, Amory," said Captain Adams.  "It's a pity we
-can't always be going down-hill behind screens. There's a fortune
-awaiting the man who invents a bullet-proof protection for infantry in
-the field."
-
-"Wouldn't that result in stale-mate, sir?"
-
-"Well, if it put an end to warfare by machinery it would give us a
-chance for our fists!  Men will fight, I suppose, to the crack of doom.
-It would be much healthier if we could fight out our quarrels without
-killing one another."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIX
-
-                               SUSPICIONS
-
-
-Next day fresh regiments were moved up, and the Rutlands, who had twice
-borne the brunt of the struggle for the hill, were sent into reserve and
-promised a long rest.  They went back to their old quarters, now a good
-deal farther behind the firing line.
-
-One night, when Kenneth was returning alone to his billet, he heard the
-thin squeak of a bat, and glanced up, though it was so dark that he
-could scarcely expect to see the animal.  To his surprise, he caught a
-momentary glimpse of it as it flew across the lane.  It was as though a
-moonbeam had flashed upon the wings for the fraction of a second.  But
-the moon was not up. The sky was clouded; only one or two stars were
-visible; and the rays of a star were too feeble to light up the
-flittering wings.
-
-Kenneth was puzzled.  He stood still, looking up, waiting for the bat to
-reappear. It was circling somewhere above him; he could still hear it
-faintly squeaking; but it did not again come within view, and after a
-while the sound ceased.
-
-"Extraordinary!" thought Kenneth.
-
-He was about to move on when he heard the grating of a key in a lock, so
-slight that it might have passed unnoticed had he not been listening
-intently for the bat.  In this quiet lane, with trees on one side and a
-garden wall on the other, the sound challenged curiosity.  The villagers
-were forbidden to leave their cottages after dark; Kenneth himself had
-only chosen this route as a short cut to his billet; he could not help
-suspecting that one of the inhabitants was breaking rules and entering
-his house by a back way to avoid detection.
-
-It was no part of his duty to play the policeman, and he would have gone
-on his way if he had not at this moment heard a light, hasty footfall,
-as of one walking quickly but cautiously.  Instinctively he remained
-still, keeping close to a tree trunk. A man passed him, moving very
-quietly, almost touching him.  He appeared to be in uniform.  A second
-later he heard the key again.  Then all was silent.
-
-He was now interested, suspicious.  The man was going in the direction
-from which he had come.  Who was he?  What was he doing at this late
-hour?  For a moment he thought of following him; but he was averse to
-getting a man into trouble for what was perhaps a harmless escapade, and
-he decided to proceed.
-
-A few steps brought him to a door in the wall.  The man must have been
-silently let out, and must have left without a word, the door being then
-as quietly closed and locked behind him.  The wall, as Kenneth knew,
-bounded the gardens of two or three of the larger houses.  It might
-perhaps be worth while to find out from which house this nocturnal
-visitor had departed so stealthily. It was too dark to see; Last Post
-would be sounded in a few minutes; all that he could do was to put a
-mark upon the door which he could identify next day.  He scratched a
-cross with his pocket-knife on the right side of the door, on a level
-with the keyhole, which was on the left, and went on, treading lightly
-by instinct.
-
-So soon as he could get off next day, he returned to the lane.  The door
-he had scratched was one of three.  Two were close together.  The wall
-was too high for him to look over; he could only discover the house to
-which his door belonged by going to the end of the lane, and round to
-the front of the houses.  The gardens were large; it meant a walk of
-some considerable distance.  His most certain course was to number his
-paces along the lane, and take an equal number along the street which
-the houses faced.  He went along with even stride, and in the lane
-counted 239 steps. In the street the 237th pace brought him to the front
-gate of Monsieur Obernai.  This must be the house.  His paces had
-probably differed a little, or the street and the lane were not quite
-parallel.
-
-"It's all right," he thought.  "The man was one of the officers'
-servants, perhaps, sent out on some late errand."
-
-But as he went away, this explanation did not appear quite convincing.
-A servant sent on an errand by one of the officers quartered in Monsieur
-Obernai's house would not have been let out stealthily, and locked out.
-Furtiveness implied an uneasy conscience.  Upon this thought came a
-sudden recollection of Madame Bonnard's dislike of the Alsatian.  He had
-seldom himself come into contact with the village philanthropist; it
-seemed to him now that he had even avoided him.  "It never struck me
-before," he thought, "but I haven't felt the least inclination to meet
-him.  Yet some of the men are quite keen on him."
-
-On the previous night he had not mentioned the incident to his comrades.
-It was not in Kenneth's nature to be expansive. He had told them about
-the sudden appearance and disappearance of the bat, which, however,
-they, not having seen it, had not regarded as extraordinary.  But now, a
-little uneasy, he decided to tell them everything.  He felt the need of
-talking it over.
-
-"Capting wants you," said Ginger, meeting him at the door of Bonnard's
-cottage.
-
-"What's it about?" he asked.
-
-"That uniform I borrowed; they found some papers in the pockets, in
-German, seemingly, and Capting wants you to read 'em."
-
-Kenneth went back to Monsieur Obernai's house, was admitted, and found
-Captain Adams with other officers in the mess-room.
-
-"Ah, Amory, we want you," said the captain.  "You know German.  What do
-you make of that?"
-
-He handed him a scrap of paper, straightened out after having been
-crumpled, on which were written two lines in German.
-
-"Tell our friend it is now due east," Kenneth translated.
-
-"That's what I told you, Adams," said one of the lieutenants.  "There's
-nothing in it."
-
-"Well, look at these, Amory."
-
-He handed to him the contents of Lieutenant Axel von Schwank's
-pocket-book. Kenneth looked them over: a copy of the Hymn of Hate, a
-cutting from the _Cologne Gazette_ announcing the blowing up of Woolwich
-Arsenal, some letters from members of the Schwank family, one or two
-memoranda of no importance.  He translated them aloud one by one.
-
-"Nothing of any value to us," said the captain.  "I think we might give
-the letters back to the prisoner.  His people idolise him, evidently.
-Well, the only thing left is this."  He took up a crumpled piece of
-music paper.  "Schwank seems to write music in his spare time--a setting
-of the Hymn of Hate perhaps.  Our find is no use.  Very good, Amory,
-that's all."
-
-But Kenneth, rendered suspicious of everything by his recent
-discoveries, remembered that he had found a similar piece of music paper
-in the trench some weeks before.
-
-"Before you tear that up, sir," he said, "I think I'd let Randall have a
-look at it. We found a paper like it in our trench."
-
-"You think there may be something in it?"
-
-"I'm rather suspicious, sir, but I'd rather say no more until Randall
-has seen it."
-
-The captain sent a man to find Harry. When he arrived, Kenneth asked him
-whether he still had the piece of music paper he had found.  After
-rummaging in his pocket Harry drew the paper out.  The two pieces were
-laid side by side.
-
-"Well?" said the captain, when Harry had examined them for a few
-moments. The other officers crowded round in an interested group.
-
-"They are not alike except in one particular," said Harry: "that neither
-is a recognisable tune."
-
-He whistled the notes.
-
-"Very ugly, certainly," said the captain. "Any further suggestion,
-Amory?"
-
-"What do you call that note in music?" Kenneth asked Harry, pointing to
-the first note on Stoneway's paper.
-
-"B flat," said Harry.
-
-"And the next?"
-
-"E, then D, then E again; the next is A sharp above the stave."
-
-"What are you driving at, Amory?" asked the captain.
-
-"I was wondering if I could make a word out of it, but _bedea_ doesn't
-begin any word either in English or German that I know of. Try the other
-paper."
-
-"F sharp, A, G, E," said Harry.
-
-"It's the sharps and flats that bother me," said Kenneth.  "Do they ever
-call them anything else?"
-
-"No ... Wait a bit.  The Germans call B flat B, and B natural H.  I
-remember toiling away at a fugue on the name BACH years ago.  I say,
-give me a minute.  I've got a notion."
-
-He sat down at the table, took out pencil and began to write the names
-of the notes on the lines and spaces, beginning with A on the second
-leger line below the stave.  Having written H on the third line, instead
-of writing A on the second space he wrote I, and on the third space J.
-Then he paused, looking reflectively at the notes originally written.
-Except in the case of B flat, all the accidentals were sharps.
-
-"We'll try this," he said.
-
-On the third space he wrote C sharp, and called it K, and so proceeding,
-completed the alphabet by writing two notes, the second sharpened, on
-each line and space.  Z fell on the third space above the stave.
-
-"Now try again," he said to Kenneth.
-
-Kenneth took up von Schwank's paper, and read off the names of the notes
-in this new notation.  The first four letters were _Sage_.
-
-"That's good German," he said.
-
-"Go on," said the captain.  "This is very interesting."
-
-Kenneth wrote down the letters as he read them.
-
-"By George!" he cried.  "In English it reads: 'Tell our friend it is now
-due east.'"
-
-"What's due east?" Captain Adams exclaimed.  "Try the other paper."
-
-"The first word is _bedeutend_, 'considerable,'" said Kenneth, writing.
-"The English of it all is, 'Considerable movement in the rear.'"
-
-The officers glanced at one another.
-
-"We've had a spy among us, then," said the captain quietly.  "Where did
-you get this, Randall?"
-
-Harry explained, without however naming the man whom, in common with
-Kenneth, he now suspected.  But his reticence was unnecessary.
-
-"It's that fellow Stoneway, without a doubt," said one of the
-lieutenants.  "He makes the most weird sounds on his flute. You'll
-arrest him, Adams?"
-
-"Wait a little.  There's a deep-laid scheme here.  There's more than one
-man involved.  Who is 'our friend'?"
-
-"I must tell you what I saw last night, sir," said Kenneth.
-
-He described the stealthy exit from the gate in the lane, and the
-discovery that it led from Monsieur Obernai's garden--behind the house
-in which they were then assembled. Captain Adams whistled under his
-breath.
-
-"Rather serious for our polite Alsatian host," he said.  "We must get to
-the bottom of this.  It won't do to act too hastily.  We must catch the
-fellow at it."
-
-"But hang it all, we can't stop here under the roof of a spy," said a
-lieutenant.
-
-"If I may suggest, sir," said Kenneth, "do nothing yet.  Nobody knows
-about this except ourselves.  If you leave the house or show any sign of
-suspicion, those who are involved will smell a rat, and we shall perhaps
-fail to learn all there is to be learnt.  Wouldn't it be better if you
-go on as usual, and let Randall and me, and perhaps Murgatroyd, keep a
-watch on the lane?"
-
-"But Obernai won't appear in the lane," said the captain.
-
-"Very likely not, sir.  I believe his work is done in the house.  You
-remember the lamp signalling we saw in the church tower."
-
-"That's in our hands now."
-
-"Yes, and the light now comes from due east."
-
-"You think that's it?  Have you seen a light?"
-
-"No, sir; but last night I caught a sudden glimpse of a bat flying above
-my head in the lane; it was for only the tenth of a second, just as if
-the bat had crossed a pencil of light.  But I was puzzled, because there
-was no light visible.  I can't help thinking that it has some connection
-with this discovery, and if you'll give us leave to keep a look-out at
-night, we may make sure of it and give you positive grounds for taking
-action."
-
-"What about Stoneway?  Hadn't we better keep him under observation?"
-
-"Leave him to us, sir.  I'd give him plenty of rope."
-
-"And keep enough to hang him afterwards," said the lieutenant of his
-platoon.
-
-"Very well, Amory," said the captain. "You'll of course say nothing to
-any one else.  We'll do our best to keep up appearances before Obernai,
-though upon my word it will tax our histrionic powers.  If you make any
-discovery, don't come to the house; report to me elsewhere."
-
-"If we can collar the men, sir?"
-
-"Oh, in that case do so, and put them under lock and key.  But don't
-attempt too much: it's of great importance to get hold of the whole
-gang, for I imagine that we've been unawares in a wasps' nest all this
-time. We must scotch them all."
-
-"One thing, sir, before we go: will you tell us the arrangement of the
-house?"
-
-"So far as I know it.  Our billets are all in the front.  Obernai and
-his servants live at the back.  On this floor there's a long passage
-between us.  Upstairs there's no communication between back and front:
-the doors are blocked up, to secure our privacy, Obernai said."
-
-"There's a back staircase, then?"
-
-"No doubt."
-
-"How many servants are there, sir?"
-
-"Two men, whom Obernai brought with him from Alsace, he says.  I've
-caught a glimpse of an old woman, too, but she rarely leaves the back
-premises."
-
-With this information Kenneth and Harry left the house, and returned to
-their billet to consult Ginger.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER XX
-
-                        MONSIEUR OBERNAI's ATTIC
-
-
-"I can't hardly believe it," said Ginger, when Kenneth recounted the
-facts and his inferences.  "Never thought Stoneway had the pluck."
-
-"A man without pluck is no good as a spy," Harry remarked.
-
-"True.  He must have had an awful time of it, always wondering if he'd
-be found out, or copped by a German bullet."
-
-"What strikes me most forcibly is the thoroughness of the German
-organisation," said Kenneth.  "You'll always find individuals ready to
-take their lives in their hands, for patriotism or pay; but you won't
-always find things so perfectly organised.  If we're right, Stoneway
-must have been employed first as an anti-recruiting agent, with orders
-to enlist and act as spy within our ranks if that seemed feasible."
-
-"I see through that post-card business now," said Ginger.  "He gave our
-address to some pal in London so that the Germans should know where he
-was, and make use of him.  And then to put it on to me!--a dirty trick.
-But what can you expect when the Kaiser lets his men do dirty tricks and
-gives 'em Iron Crosses for it?  Whatever he is, Bill is no gentleman."
-
-"Stoneway is a German, I suppose?" said Harry.
-
-"Steinweg--not an uncommon German name," replied Kenneth.  "But now, how
-are we going to set about our job?"
-
-"What was that you said about a bat?" said Harry.  "I didn't pay much
-heed."
-
-Kenneth again described the curious phenomenon, adding:
-
-"That's why I want to do something more than watch the lane.  If the man
-I saw was Stoneway, we might catch him again, but give time for Obernai
-to clear away anything suspicious.  It seems to me that what we have to
-do is to get into the house, and have a look at the back premises."
-
-"That means we should have to get in at the back secretly?"
-
-"Yes; if we went to the front openly we shouldn't get farther than the
-lobby."
-
-"Suppose it turns out that we are quite wrong, wouldn't it be rather a
-serious matter to break into a French house?  Obernai is popular: it
-might not be easy to persuade the French authorities that we were not
-burglars."
-
-"Let's chance that," said Ginger.  "For any sake don't let the police
-know beforehand, or the whole thing will be messed up like it was with
-that maire.  Besides, if it comes to that, we've got the capting behind
-us."
-
-"I quite agree," said Kenneth.  "We'll risk it.  Well now, judging by
-the length of the side garden wall, the house is about sixty yards from
-the lane.  With these mysterious comings and goings the back gate will
-very likely be watched; at any rate there'll be somebody about to let
-visitors in and out.  I vote we get into the next garden, and clamber
-over the wall into Obernai's.  We shall have to wait until the people in
-the next house are asleep--say eleven o'clock to-night."
-
-About half-past ten, when the village was dark and silent, the three men
-left their billet and, to avoid detection, took a round-about route to
-the lane.  The air was rather chill, and a light mist hung low over the
-ground.  Each of the three carried a revolver, and they had agreed not
-to speak except in case of necessity, and then only in whispers.
-
-Creeping along softly under cover of the trees that lined one side of
-the lane, they passed Obernai's door, and halted opposite the door of
-the next house, a few yards beyond.  Here they waited, listening.  All
-was silent.  Then Kenneth tiptoed across the lane and quietly tried the
-door of Obernai's garden.  It was bolted.  The next door opened to his
-touch.  Joined by his companions, he entered and found himself in a
-garden much overgrown with weeds. They stole along by the side wall, and
-halted under it about fifty feet from the house.
-
-"Give me a leg-up," Kenneth whispered.
-
-In a few seconds he was down again.  The top of the wall was spiked with
-glass. Stripping off his overcoat, he mounted again, laid the coat over
-the glass, and dropped lightly to the ground, after listening awhile to
-make sure that nobody was about.  The others followed him in turn.
-
-The back of the house was quite dark. There was no sound within or
-without. Through the mist they could just distinguish the path leading
-to the back door.  Kenneth crossed the grass to it, stole along, and
-cautiously turned the door handle.  The door resisted his slight
-pressure: it was locked or bolted.  He looked up the wall. The windows
-were out of reach.  It seemed that the house could only be entered
-forcibly.
-
-He was returning to consult his companions when he suddenly heard behind
-him a sound like the ringing of a muffled electric bell inside the
-house.  Hurrying on, he crouched with the other two at the foot of the
-wall and waited.  In a few moments they heard a bolt drawn.  They could
-see nothing, but apparently the door was being opened.  Then from the
-doorway came a low whisper: "Geben Sie Acht," followed, as by an
-instantaneous after-thought, by the French words, "Prenez garde."  There
-was no reply, but a slight rustle approached, and the three watchers,
-peering over the bushes, saw a woman passing in almost absolute silence
-down the path to the back wall.
-
-Had she left the door open?  Kenneth was thinking of stealing up to it
-to find out when it occurred to him that the woman had perhaps gone to
-let in a visitor.  It would be well to wait a little.  Very soon he was
-justified.  The figure of the woman, scarcely distinguishable in the
-gloom, reappeared. At her heels was a man.  They passed along the path
-within twenty feet of the lurking watchers; neither spoke a word.
-Presently came the sound of a bolt gently shot, then all was silent
-again.
-
-It was pretty clear that the bell had been rung from an electric push in
-the garden door.  Kenneth had seen none; it was probably concealed.
-
-"Shall I find it, and get the door opened?" he whispered to his
-companions.
-
-"That would give the whole show away," said Harry.  "We don't want to
-raise an alarm."
-
-"Then I don't see that we can do anything. The only thing is to tell the
-captain to-morrow, and he'll arrest the lot."
-
-"Why not?" said Ginger.  "If they're innocent, they won't mind--not
-much."
-
-"But we shan't catch them at it.  You may be sure there's nothing
-suspicious to be found in the daytime.  We've got very artful men to
-deal with."
-
-They were still discussing their course of action when they heard the
-bolt drawn again.  Next moment there was a perpendicular streak of dim
-light, which widened rapidly.  The door was open; the room or lobby
-behind was now lit by a small oil lamp, turned very low.  Through the
-illuminated rectangle of the doorway came a man and a woman.  The man
-was in a British uniform.  They stepped down to the path.
-
-"Stoneway!" whispered Ginger.
-
-Pressing themselves almost flat on the ground they watched the two
-figures walking down the path, the end of which, towards the garden
-wall, was scarcely reached by the feeble rays from the doorway.
-
-"Now!" murmured Kenneth.
-
-Bending double, they hastened across the grass, and slipped in through
-the doorway. They were in a lobby.  At the further end of it was a
-closed door.  There were doors on both sides, one of them slightly open.
-In the corner on the right was the staircase leading to the upper floor,
-and on the square-topped newel-post stood the small oil lamp.
-
-Taking in all this at a glance, Kenneth peered through the open door on
-the left. The room was dark and untenanted.  He beckoned to his
-companions.  They followed him into the room.  In less than a minute the
-woman returned from the garden, closed and bolted the door, and was
-moving along the lobby when the stairs creaked slightly, and an old man
-came tottering down.
-
-"Bier, noch Bier," he said in low tones to the woman.
-
-The woman muttered something, took the lamp from its place, and
-accompanied by the old man went into one of the rooms off the lobby on
-the opposite side from the three watchers.  They were heard clumping
-down wooden steps, no doubt leading to the cellars.
-
-"Now's our chance," Kenneth whispered.
-
-The three stole out of the room into the dark lobby, and crept on hands
-and knees up the staircase.  The landing above was equally dark, except
-in the far corner on the right, where light came through a door slightly
-ajar.  The three men tiptoed to it. Kenneth peeped in.  The room was
-apparently Obernai's bedroom.  No one was in it; the bed had not been
-disturbed.  A candle was burning on the dressing-table.  Pieces of heavy
-French furniture afforded means of concealment.
-
-"You stay here," whispered Kenneth. "I'll go on."
-
-He slipped off his boots, blew out the candle, and crept out.  There was
-no sound from below.  On the opposite side of the landing was a narrow
-staircase, leading, he presumed, to the attics.  Up this he groped his
-way.  At the top there was a passage, at the end of which, on the right,
-was a streak of light on the floor.  Feeling his way along, he felt two
-other doors, the handles of which he turned in succession, hoping to
-slip into a dark room as he had done below.  Both doors were locked.  At
-this moment, hearing the footsteps of the old man coming slowly up the
-bottom flight of stairs, he slipped back to the dark end of the passage
-and stood watching there.
-
-The old man mounted the upper flight. A can clinked against the post as
-he turned to the right towards the door beneath which the light shone.
-He tapped on the door; it was opened; the man passed in.  Kenneth heard
-a guttural voice say: "Zwei Batterien heute morgen----"  The remainder
-of the sentence was cut off by the closing of the door.  In a few
-moments it opened again; the old man came out, closed it behind him, and
-sat down on a stool at the end of the passage, either as sentry, or to
-be at hand if more beer was required.
-
-Kenneth scarcely dared to breathe.  What was going on in that room?
-What could he do?  After several uncomfortable minutes the door suddenly
-opened--too wide for his comfort--and a voice said:
-
-"Frisch auf!  Die Lampe ist beinahe erl�scht."
-
-The door was shut.  The old man rose wearily and hobbled downstairs, no
-doubt to fetch oil or whatever was used for the lamp.
-
-Kenneth felt that the time had come for action.  The mention of the lamp
-left no doubt in his mind of the work on which the occupants of the room
-were engaged.  Waiting until the old man had reached the foot of the
-lower staircase, he stole down to the room where he had left his
-companions and told them in a few whispered words what he had
-discovered.  They removed their boots and stood behind the door,
-prepared to follow the man when he came up again.
-
-In a few minutes he returned.  They waited until he had ascended the
-upper staircase, then followed him noiselessly, saw him enter the room,
-and crept along to the door, drawing their revolvers.  From within the
-room came the smell of acetylene gas. Standing back against the wall,
-they waited for the reopening of the door.  As soon as the old man
-reappeared, they started forward, pointing their revolvers at him,
-pushed him before them and entered the room.
-
-There was an exclamation, a moment of confusion.
-
-"Hands up, or I fire!" cried Kenneth in German.
-
-There were four men in the room, three seated at a table drinking beer,
-the fourth occupied with a steel lever operating a disc that worked from
-side to side in front of a bright bull's-eye lamp.  Kenneth's warning
-had checked a movement on the part of two of the seated men towards
-their coat pockets. The man at the lamp, who had faced round at the
-sudden intrusion, was quicker than his companions, and drew his revolver
-at the moment of turning.  But as he was raising his hand Harry fired.
-His revolver fell to the floor with a crash, and with a curse he clasped
-his broken wrist with the other hand.
-
-The three others had fallen back into their chairs.  A stream of beer
-from an overturned mug trickled from the table to the floor, for one
-tense moment the only sound in the room.  The men's faces were pale and
-contorted with fear.  They sat, limp, with no spirit for resistance,
-recognizing that the game was up.
-
-Kenneth and Harry glowed with a quiet satisfaction.  Ginger was more
-demonstrative.
-
-"Blest if I haven't got him at last!" he exclaimed, smiling triumphantly
-at one of the prisoners.  "It's the chap that downed me when I was
-sitting on that aeroplane."
-
-"Monsieur Obernai is unfortunate in his friends," said Kenneth.
-
-Obernai glared at him; it was not the expression of a bland
-philanthropist.  One of his companions, a big man with a wart on his
-nose, did not wear the look of pious resignation that might have been
-expected from a man dressed in a cure's soutane.  The features of the
-fourth man seemed familiar to Kenneth, though at the moment he could not
-recall the time or place of his seeing him before.
-
-"We'll just hand these men over to the captain," said Kenneth.  "Then
-we'll deal with Stoneway."
-
-After ordering the men to empty their pockets, they marched them
-downstairs, and through the door connecting the back part of the house
-with the officers' billets. Captain Adams, like the others, had gone to
-bed.  He came to the door of his room in his pyjamas.
-
-"We've caught Obernai and three others signalling with a lamp, sir,"
-said Kenneth.
-
-"You don't say so!  What have you done with them?"
-
-"They are below, sir."
-
-"Take them off to the provost-marshal: I don't want to see them."
-
-"Stoneway is in it, sir, I am sorry to say."
-
-"Arrest him, as quickly as you can. Then come back and tell me all about
-it."
-
-The spies were marched off to prison. Then Ginger with a corporal's
-guard went to the cottage where Stoneway was billeted. Stoneway was not
-there.  Enquiry and search were alike fruitless.  It was not until an
-hour later that Ginger hit on a possible explanation of his absence.
-
-"By jinks!" he exclaimed, with a gesture of vexation.  "I forgot the old
-woman."
-
-He hastened back to Obernai's house. The old woman had disappeared.
-
-On returning to the house some time before, Kenneth and Harry found the
-officers, all in their night attire, examining the signalling apparatus
-in the upper room.
-
-"They are all safely locked up, sir," Kenneth reported.
-
-"That's well.  How did you catch them?"
-
-Kenneth gave an account of the night's work.
-
-"You did very well, Amory," said the captain.  "The battalion is lucky
-in having the Three Musketeers.  And the whole brigade is indebted to
-you.  This is a fiendishly ingenious arrangement."
-
-He explained the working of the apparatus. The acetylene lamp faced one
-end of a long tube, which pierced the outer wall of the house.  By means
-of a delicate mechanism the position of the tube could be altered by
-millimetres.  The length of the tube prevented the rays from converging
-like the rays of a searchlight, so that the light, directed eastward,
-was not likely to be seen except by a person at an equal height.
-
-"I have no doubt at all," said the captain, "that some miles away in the
-German lines there is an operator with a similar lamp, at the same
-height and in the same straight line with this.  We have kept a look-out
-but seen nothing; no doubt the cessation of the flashing gave them
-warning.  To them the light would appear like a star on the horizon, and
-the alternate exposure and dousing of it by means of the disc made the
-signals.  No wonder we've got it unexpectedly hot sometimes."
-
-Here Ginger came in.
-
-"Stoneway's got away, sir," he reported. "I guess the old woman gave him
-the tip."
-
-"Poor wretch!  He can't get far.  I'll circulate the news at once and
-he'll be hunted down.  Now get to your billets, men; I shall want your
-evidence in the morning."
-
-As they were returning through the silent streets, talking over the
-exciting incidents of the night, Kenneth suddenly exclaimed:
-
-"By George!  I remember now.  That fellow was the man I saw talking
-French to Stoneway at St. Pancras station."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XXI
-
-                              MARKED DOWN
-
-
-About four o'clock on the following afternoon, an old French peasant was
-walking along a road some fifteen miles to the west of the village in
-and around which the Rutlands were billeted.  His lean form was bent,
-wisps of white hair straggled from beneath his broad soft hat, his legs
-dragged themselves along.  There was no one else upon the road, which
-was remote from the main highways that had been for nine months streams
-of traffic; but the old man glanced continually right and left, before
-and behind, as if searching for something with his shrewd bright eyes.
-
-He came to a wood abutting on the road, and, after another look round,
-disappeared among the trees.  A few minutes later he halted, then took a
-few slow careful steps forward, and stopped again, looking down with a
-curious eagerness.  There, stretched on the fresh springing grass of a
-glade spangled with bright spots of sunlight, lay a man asleep.  He was
-clad in the uniform of a British soldier, without a belt.  His cap had
-fallen off, his arms were thrown out, his face was half turned to the
-ground. Perhaps the Frenchman noticed that the regimental badge was
-missing from his cap, the regimental letters from his shoulders.
-
-After standing for a few moments contemplating the prostrate form, he
-bent down and touched the man's shoulder. The soldier started up
-instantly; the expression of his eyes might have betokened anxiety or
-fear; but it changed when he saw that his disturber was just a simple
-old Frenchman, with mildness written all over his brown ruddy face,
-withered like an apple long laid by.
-
-"Bon soir, monsieur," said the Frenchman. "It is a hot sun, to be sure,
-but monsieur l'Anglais will catch a chill if he remains here asleep."
-
-"Ah yes, I must be going," said the soldier, in French surprisingly good
-for an English private.  "I have lost my regiment.  I fell lame and
-dropped behind. Can you get me anything to eat?"
-
-"Why yes, if you will be content with simple fare.  These are hard
-times, monsieur.  But who would not suffer for France? Come to my
-cottage hard by; I can at least give you a crust and a mouthful of wine.
-We French and you English are comrades, to be sure."
-
-"Is your cottage far?"
-
-"A few steps only; it is quite by itself. You would get better food in
-the village, but that is two miles away."
-
-"I'll get a good meal when I rejoin my regiment.  All I want now is a
-little to help me on my way."
-
-"Yes, yes, I understand.  Come then; it is only a few steps."
-
-He set off through the wood, the soldier limping by his side, crossed
-the road, and came within a few minutes to a little timber cabin.  There
-the soldier, sitting on a low stool, ate ravenously the bread and strong
-cheese given him, and drank deep draughts of the thin red wine.  The old
-man watched him benignantly, thinking perhaps that he ate as though
-seeing no near prospect of a full meal.
-
-"You haven't seen my regiment, I suppose?" said the soldier.
-
-"How can I tell?" replied the Frenchman, lifting his hands.  "I have
-seen many regiments; whether yours was among them I do not know."
-
-The soldier noticed a glance towards his shoulders.
-
-"I gave my badges away to the French girls," he said lightly.  "They
-clamoured for souvenirs....  There's no chance of my running into the
-Germans?"
-
-"God forbid!" said the old man.  "They are a little nearer, it is said;
-they are using poisonous gas against our brave men.  But we do not lose
-heart.  They will never beat us, never.  When I look at the mists on
-yonder hills every evening----"
-
-"Mists, are there?"
-
-"Why yes: they creep over the hills at sunset; one can hardly see a
-dozen metres ahead.  They say the Germans crept up a night or two ago in
-the mist, and took an English trench."
-
-"Ah! well now, my regiment was marching to Violaines; you can put me in
-the way?  I must find them before night."
-
-"To be sure."
-
-He went with him to the door, and pointed out the direction.  The
-soldier offered to pay for his food, but the old man, with many
-gestures, refused to accept a sou.  He bade his guest good-bye, returned
-to his cabin and shut the door.  In his eyes was a look of satisfaction
-mingled with a strange eagerness. He hurried to the little window facing
-the road, and looked out from behind the curtain.  The soldier was
-limping along in the direction his host had indicated.  But presently he
-stopped and threw a furtive glance backward towards the cabin, another
-up and down the road, then walked on again.  His lameness had been
-suddenly cured; his gait was even and agile.  And instead of continuing
-in the way shown him, he turned off abruptly and re-entered the wood.
-Beyond it lay those hills which night clothed with mist.
-
-The old man waited a little, then issued from his cabin, trotted to the
-road, and, he also, re-entered the wood.  In a few minutes he was back
-again, and set off at the best speed of his aged legs for the village
-two miles away.  Arriving there, he went straight to the mairie, and
-peered through the wire frame on the door, within which a notice in
-large handwriting was posted.  It was headed in big letters,
-
-                            SOLDAT ANGLAIS,
-
-and beneath was a methodical description, in numbered sentences, of the
-deserter for whose discovery a reward was offered.  The old man ticked
-off the details one by one; then, his bright little eyes gleaming, he
-knocked at the door.
-
-It was a small and unimportant village. The maire was of scarcely higher
-social standing than his visitor.  He had no gendarmes at his disposal:
-all the able-bodied men were in the ranks.
-
-"He is a big man, Jacquou?" he said.
-
-"He!  Big, brawny, a regular beef-eater."
-
-"Then we will telegraph.  The English must arrest him.  For us it would
-be dangerous. But what if they delay, and he escapes? There would go
-that fine reward, Jacquou, like the maid's chickens."
-
-"Ah!  Trust me for that, monsieur le maire, trust me for that," said the
-old man as he hobbled away.
-
-Something less than two hours later the soldier emerged from his
-hiding-place in the wood, at a point at some little distance from the
-road.  He came out slowly, nervously, glancing around and behind him.
-There was in his eyes that look of anxiety and fear which had appeared
-in them at the moment of his being roused by the old man. It was like
-the look of a hunted animal. He gazed towards the hills.  Their ridges
-were sharp and clear against the sky.  He looked up, and behind.  Shafts
-of sunlight were still piercing the foliage.  He glanced at the watch on
-his wrist, appeared to make a mental comparison between the time
-indicated and the position of the sun, made restless movements, then
-went a few steps back among the trees.  From his pocket he took a map,
-and spreading it on a trunk, in a sunbeam, he studied it anxiously.
-
-Just as he was folding it up, he heard a low throbbing hum far away to
-the south. Hurriedly replacing the map in his pocket, he went to the
-edge of the wood, and peered into the southern sky.  The sound was
-faint; no speck dotted the cloudless blue. But the hum was drawing
-nearer.  He dropped his eyes, and scanned as much of the road as he
-could see.  Nothing was in sight.  His mouth worked; a furrow between
-his eyes deepened; he rubbed his hand across his brow, and shuddered to
-see how damp it was.  Again he looked along the road.  That humming made
-him impatient: was it really growing louder, or were his nerves
-redoubling the sound in his ears?
-
-At length, with the suddenness of one tired of waiting, he turned his
-back on the sound, and plunged into the depths of the wood northward.
-He had gone but a hundred yards when he stopped with a start, chilled to
-the marrow.  Somebody was there, close by.  He stared; his breath came
-and went in pants; but after a moment he went on with a smothered laugh
-that was like a groan.  It was only a peasant boy whittling a stick.
-The boy looked up as he passed, idly, vacantly.  The solitary British
-soldier apparently did not interest him.  He dropped his eyes again,
-fell again to his whittling, and softly hummed the air of "Au clair de
-la lune."
-
-The soldier went on among the trees.  He was not startled when he caught
-sight of another boy collecting twigs blown down by the gales of early
-spring.  He had even so far recovered as to throw a pleasant "Bon soir!"
-to the boy as he passed.  The boy looked up; he gave no response, not so
-much as a smile.  Were the boys hereabouts deaf, or silly, or what?  The
-man looked back; the boy, on one knee, an arm stretched out as with
-arrested movement, was watching him.
-
-On again.  Insensibly his pace was quickening. At the sight of a third
-boy away to his left, apparently doing nothing, he felt unreasonably
-angry.  Was the wood full of boys?  Why had he not seen them before? Why
-were they so quiet?  Himmel!  Was he being watched?  He would soon stop
-that.  He turned about, glowering, to scare away these disturbers of his
-peace of mind. They had vanished.  Relieved, almost amused at his
-nervousness, he strode on, glancing up at the waning sunlight through
-the trees to make sure of his direction.
-
-Suddenly, a little ahead on his right, he saw the flicker of a boy's
-white blouse amid the undergrowth.  With a muttered execration he
-slanted towards it, but was checked by a slight rustle on his left.
-Swinging round, he caught a glimpse of a small figure flitting among the
-trees.  He stopped.  His limbs were shaking; streams of perspiration
-trickled down his face.  Now at last he knew the meaning of these
-stealthy movements, this sinister silence.  The boys had been set to dog
-him.  The certainty appeared to paralyse him.  He stood swaying on his
-feet, glancing around for a means of escape from the toils that he felt
-closing about him.  Mechanically he raised his hand and dashed from his
-face the rolling beads.
-
-The spell was broken by the sound of a motor cycle and shouts behind.
-As though galvanised, he made a sudden break at full speed ahead, in a
-line between the two boys he had last seen.  Looking neither to right
-nor to left he pounded on until he was breathless.  Then he paused to
-listen.  Had he shaken off the trackers?  The whirr had ceased, the
-shouts were fainter; he was beginning to think that he had gained a few
-minutes when a small figure scurried through the undergrowth in front of
-him.  He started again, bearing to the left.  A glint of white amid the
-green intensified his terror.  He lost command of himself.  No longer
-did he take the dying sunlight as his guide. Blindly, desperately he
-struggled on, every moment changing his course.  The sounds had ceased;
-there was not even a rustle to warn him.
-
-Presently he stopped, aghast.  Before him was the patch of grass which
-his weight had flattened.  He had been moving in a circle. Then a gleam
-of hope lit the darkness of his despair.  He was now near the road;
-perhaps his pursuers had penetrated far into the wood.  He pushed on,
-staggering, came to a sunken track, and, supporting himself against a
-tree trunk, looked fearfully around. There, to the left, at the side of
-the track, were two motor bicycles.  The old Frenchman was keeping
-guard.  No one else was in sight.  Gathering his strength, he rushed
-headlong towards his last hope.
-
-The old man heard his footsteps, looked up, and raised his feeble voice
-in a quavering shout.  There was no time for a second. The soldier
-hurled himself upon the aged peasant, felled him with one blow, sprang
-to one of the bicycles, started the engine, ran the machine a few yards
-and leapt into the saddle.  With every jolt as the bicycle gained speed
-on the rough track his heart grew more elate.  Whither the track led he
-neither knew nor cared; his whole soul was in the present.
-
-Right and left of him were the trees.  He had ridden perhaps thirty
-yards when, from the right, a khaki-clad figure dashed into the track
-just ahead.  The fugitive increased his speed and rode straight on.  If
-the man stood in his way, so much the worse for him. Then, in a moment,
-Atropos cut the thread. As the bicycle was whizzing by, the man flung
-himself bodily upon it.  There was a crash, a thud, then silence.
-
-A few minutes later, Kenneth and Harry came hurrying to the scene.
-
-"Is he killed?" asked the latter, as Kenneth stooped over the body lying
-on the machine.
-
-"No, he's alive," replied Kenneth, after thrusting his hand into the
-man's tunic.
-
-He unscrewed the stopper of his flask, and poured weak spirit into the
-unconscious man's mouth.  Not until Ginger had recovered consciousness
-did they turn their attention to the other man, whose case, indeed, they
-had recognised at the first glance as hopeless.  When he was hurled from
-the machine, his head had struck a tree trunk on the opposite side of
-the track. Stoneway was dead.
-
-Yet he had survived his partners.  Perhaps half-an-hour before, Obernai
-and the rest of the gang, after a drumhead court-martial, had paid the
-last penalty.  Spying, at the best, is ignoble work; and when it is
-accompanied, as in Obernai's case, with the treacherous abuse of
-hospitality and the betrayal of trusting folk, the spy's doom awakens no
-sympathy.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XXII
-
-                             "RECOMMENDED"
-
-
-"A fig for reasons!" exclaimed Madame Bonnard.  "We women can do without
-them.  Monsieur Amory will bear me witness; I said that wretch Obernai
-was a villain."
-
-"Pardon, mon amie," said her good man, mildly: "you said you did not
-like his voice."
-
-"Well, was not that enough?  I did not like his voice: therefore he was
-a villain. It is plain."
-
-"The Kaiser is said to have a very pleasant voice," remarked Kenneth,
-slily.
-
-He was sitting in the Bonnards' kitchen, awaiting the return of his
-comrades for supper.
-
-"I should like to ask his wife what she thinks of it," said Madame
-Bonnard.  "Poor woman! what a terrible thing it will be for her when she
-goes with him into banishment, and she has to listen to him all day
-long!"
-
-"Think you they will banish him, monsieur?" asked Bonnard.
-
-"Who can tell?" Kenneth replied.  "We have got to catch him first."
-
-"Ah!" sighed Madame.  "It is terrible. The end is so far off.  Every day
-I dread to hear bad news of my poor boys.  And to think that there are
-millions of poor women whose hearts are bleeding through that wicked
-man!  What punishment is great enough for him?  I should like to think
-of him worn and hungry, roaming the world like the Wandering Jew, with
-no rest for his feet, always seeing with his mind's eye the burning
-cottages, the maimed children, the weeping mothers, the poor lads he has
-massacred."
-
-"Is it fair to put it all down to the Kaiser?" said Kenneth.
-
-"Yes, it is fair," cried the good woman, vehemently.  "Poor people copy
-their betters.  His soldiers do what they know will please him.  Has he
-said one word of blame for all the dreadful things they have done?  Like
-master, like man."
-
-"I say, old man, here's the post," shouted Harry, bursting in at the
-door.  "Two letters and a thumping parcel for you; nothing but a
-newspaper for me....  Good heavens!"
-
-"What is it?"
-
-"The curs have sunk the Lusitania.... Oh! this is too awful.  That gas
-they are using--the poor fellows die in agony.  It is sheer murder."
-
-Kenneth read the paragraphs Harry indicated. The Bonnards had left the
-room.
-
-"We must just stick it," said Kenneth, handing the paper back.  "Nothing
-but a thorough thrashing will bring them to their senses.  And there are
-silly stay-at-home people who talk of not humiliating them! The Germans
-are doing their best to show that the world would gain if the whole race
-were wiped out."
-
-"Are there no decent people among them at all?"
-
-"Of course there are, and they'll be horrified when they learn the
-truth.  There's my partner, Finkelstein, as good-hearted a man as ever
-breathed.  He'd never believe the brutes capable of the crimes they are
-committing.  But the people are being fed with lies.  I can't but think
-a lot of them will sicken with disgust by and by."
-
-"I only wish we could hurry it up.... Hullo, here's Ginger!  I didn't
-expect to see you, old man."
-
-"I'm going home, boys!" cried Ginger, with a smiling face.  His arm was
-in a sling.  "Doctor says I'll be no good for three months.  Shoulder
-dislocated!  My word! he did give me beans when he jerked it into place.
-But I'm going home, home!  Fancy how the missus and kids will jump!  Not
-but what I'm sorry to leave you."
-
-"I don't grudge you a rest, old chap," said Harry, "but we shall want
-you back again.  Listen to this."
-
-He read parts of the newspaper paragraphs. Ginger swore.
-
-"I tell you what," he cried.  "I'm not going home to do nothing.  I'm
-going recruiting.  That's what I am.  I've spouted a lot of rot in my
-time; they'll hear some hard sense now.  By George! and if I don't have
-at least a score of recruities to my name, call me a Dutchman.  But I've
-got some news for you--better than those horrible things in the paper."
-
-"What's that?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"Well, you see, Colonel sent for me, and we had a talk, man to man;
-Colonel's a white man, that's what he is.  As a matter of fact, I've
-done a bit of spouting this evening.  But the chaps didn't want much
-talking to; they're all right.  Verdict unanimous this time.  To cut it
-short, that promise of yours is off.  The chaps say they're quite
-satisfied with their job.  Not one of 'em wants to go back to the works
-until they've seen the Kaiser get his deserts. And Colonel is writing
-home to say he wants commissions for you in the Rutlands."
-
-"You mean it, Ginger?"
-
-"That's just what I do mean.  When I come back, you'll be officers.
-There's just one thing.  If I should happen at first to forget to
-salute----"
-
-"Oh, rot, man!" cried Harry.  "You're a good sort."
-
-"You'll thank them all for us?" said Kenneth.  "I'm afraid we shan't be
-allowed to stay with the Rutlands, though.  Army rules are against it.
-But we'll see.  Now, come and have some supper.  Bonnard will give us
-something to celebrate the occasion."
-
-"Can't," said Ginger.  "I'm under orders to start in half an hour.
-Going back with a batch of crocks.  It's good-bye.  But I hope I'll see
-you again."
-
-He shook hands with them warmly.  They were all moved.  Each felt that
-in the chances of war they might never meet again. But, in the British
-way, they hid their feelings.  Only as Ginger went out he turned in the
-doorway and said:
-
-"Mind you keep your heads down in the trenches."
-
-Kenneth and Harry were silent for a while as they ate their supper.
-
-"Well, old boy?" said Harry presently.
-
-"Yes.  It's good, isn't it?"
-
-"The governor will be happy....  I say, Ken!"
-
-"Well!"
-
-"I can't make you out.  You remember when I met you at Kishimaru's.
-Well, you seemed jolly casual--not a bit keen.  Yet it was you who set
-the ball rolling at the works, and you've been keen enough since."
-
-"Oh well!" was Kenneth's indefinite response.
-
-"Really, I couldn't help thinking you were hanging back.  It was because
-you'd been seedy, I suppose."
-
-"Perhaps."
-
-"What was wrong with you?  German measles?"
-
-"Not so unpatriotic, my son.  A trifle run down, that's all."
-
-"Wanted a holiday, I suppose.  The war scrapped holidays for most
-people."
-
-"I daresay."
-
-"Hang it all!  What's the mystery? What do you mean by 'daresay' and
-'perhaps' and so on and so forth?  What had you been doing?"
-
-"You're a persistent wretch, Randy. Well, I don't mind telling you now.
-I was in Cologne when war was declared, and I had a pretty strenuous
-time for a fortnight."
-
-And he proceeded to outline the adventures which the present writer has
-related elsewhere.
-
-"Well I'm jiggered!" exclaimed Harry. "Why on earth didn't you tell me?"
-
-"Well, you see, you as good as told me I was slacking."
-
-"What's that to do with it?  All the more reason to open up."
-
-"Give me a cigarette, old chap; it's all right now."
-
-A bugle called them to their feet.  They flung on their equipment and
-hurried out. The battalion was assembling in the market place.
-
-"The trenches again?" asked Kenneth of a sergeant.
-
-"No.  We're ordered north."
-
-"Advancing at last?"
-
-"Let's hope so.  Fall in!"
-
-
-
-
-                                THE END
-
-
-
-
-                      PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
-                     RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
-                   BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E.,
-                          AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
-
-
-
-
-           *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
-
-
-
-
-                      HERBERT STRANG'S WAR STORIES
-
-
-A HERO OF LI�GE: A STORY OF THE GREAT WAR.
-
-SULTAN JIM: A STORY OF GERMAN AGGRESSION.
-
-THE AIR SCOUT: A STORY OF HOME DEFENCE.
-
-THE AIR PATROL: A STORY OF THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER.
-
-ROB THE RANGER: A STORY OF THE GREAT FIGHT FOR CANADA.
-
-ONE OF CLIVE'S HEROES: A STORY OF THE GREAT FIGHT FOR INDIA.
-
-BARCLAY OF THE GUIDES: A STORY OF THE INDIAN MUTINY.
-
-THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY ROCHESTER: A STORY OF MARLBOROUGH'S CAMPAIGNS.
-
-BOYS OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE: A STORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.
-
-KOBO: A STORY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
-
-BROWN OF MOUKDEN: A STORY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING WITH FRENCH ***
-
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+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 39801 ***</div>
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-.. -*- encoding: utf-8 -*-

-

-.. meta::

-   :PG.Id: 39801

-   :PG.Title: Fighting with French

-   :PG.Released: 2013-06-01

-   :PG.Rights: Public Domain

-   :PG.Producer: Al Haines

-   :DC.Creator: Herbert Strang

-   :MARCREL.ill: Cyrus Cuneo

-   :DC.Title: Fighting with French

-              A Tale of the New Army

-   :DC.Language: en

-   :DC.Created: 1915

-   :coverpage: images/img-cover.jpg

-

-====================

-FIGHTING WITH FRENCH

-====================

-

-.. clearpage::

-

-.. pgheader::

-

-.. container:: coverpage

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. _`Cover`:

-

-   .. figure:: images/img-cover.jpg

-      :align: center

-      :alt: Cover

-

-      Cover

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. container:: frontispiece

-

-   .. _`A FOUL BLOW`:

-

-   .. figure:: images/img-front.jpg

-      :align: center

-      :alt: A FOUL BLOW (*See p*. 52.)

-

-      A FOUL BLOW (*See p*. `52`_.)

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. container:: titlepage center white-space-pre-line

-

-   .. class:: x-large

-

-      FIGHTING

-      WITH FRENCH

-

-   .. class:: large

-

-      *A TALE OF THE NEW ARMY*

-

-   .. vspace:: 2

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      BY

-      HERBERT STRANG

-

-   .. vspace:: 3

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      *WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY CYRUS CUNEO*

-

-   .. class:: medium

-

-      LONDON

-      HENRY FROWDE

-      HODDER AND STOUGHTON

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. container:: verso center white-space-pre-line

-

-   .. class:: small

-

-      *First published in* 1915

-

-   .. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   PREFACE

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-In these days one would rather fight than

-write; and those of us whom inexorable

-Time has superannuated can but envy and

-admire.

-

-Seven years ago the father of two boys

-at Rugby asked me to write a story on the

-German peril, and the necessity of closing

-our ranks against a possible invasion.  After

-some hesitation I decided to decline the

-suggestion, anxious not to insinuate in young

-minds a suspicion of Germany which might

-prove to be ill-founded.  Two years later,

-when the subject was again pressed upon me,

-I felt bound to attempt some little service

-in the cause of national defence; but again I

-avoided any direct implication of Germany,

-imagining an invasion of Australia by an

-aggressive China.  In two or three books I

-had poked a little fun at German foibles, how

-harmlessly and inoffensively may be known

-by the fact that one of these books was

-translated into German.  The course of

-events, the horrors of the present war, show

-how needless were my scruples.  Germany

-has come out in her true colours, and the

-mildest of pacifists feels a stirring of the

-blood.

-

-In *A Hero of Liége* I wove a little romance

-upon the early events of the war, when we

-were still under the shock of surprise and

-information was scanty.  The present story

-has been written under more favourable

-conditions.  A good deal of it springs from

-personal knowledge of the training of the

-New Army.  The "Rutland Light Infantry"

-exists, under another name, and one or two

-of the characters may perhaps be recognised

-by their friends.  But I should point out

-that a story is not a history.  The history

-of this great struggle must be sought

-elsewhere.  The romancer is satisfied if he is

-reasonably true to facts and probabilities,

-and more than happy if his fictions, while

-amusing an idle hour, have also anything

-of stimulus and encouragement.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-HERBERT STRANG.

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CONTENTS

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent small

-

-   CHAP.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent medium white-space-pre-line

-

-I  `A CHANCE MEETING`_

-II  `SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE`_

-III  `STONEWAY ENLISTS`_

-IV  `THREE ROUNDS`_

-V  `THE BACK OF THE FRONT`_

-VI  `BAGGING A SNIPER`_

-VII  `IN THE ENEMY'S LINES`_

-VIII  `SKY HIGH`_

-IX  `D.C.M.`_

-X  `HOT WORK`_

-XI  `THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GINGER`_

-XII  `DOGGED`_

-XIII  `THE FIGHT FOR THE VILLAGE`_

-XIV  `THE HIKIOTOSHI`_

-XV  `THE OBSERVATION POST`_

-XVI  `EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY`_

-XVII  `STRATEGY`_

-XVIII  `USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY`_

-XIX  `SUSPICIONS`_

-XX  `MONSIEUR OBERNAI'S ATTIC`_

-XXI  `MARKED DOWN`_

-XXII  `'RECOMMENDED'`_

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-   `A FOUL BLOW`_ . . . . . . *Frontispiece* (*see page* `52`_)

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-   `"HANDS UP!"`_

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-   `A LONG WAY BACK`_

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-   `THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI`_

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`A CHANCE MEETING`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER I

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   A CHANCE MEETING

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Mr. Kishimaru smiled, and rubbed his

-long lean hands gently the one over the

-other.

-

-"Yes, Mr. Amory, you make great

-progress," he said, in low smooth tones, and

-with the careful enunciation of one speaking

-a foreign tongue.  "You will be an artist.

-Yes, I assure you: jujutsu is a fine art;

-more than that, it is an application of pure

-science.  I say that, and I know.  Compare

-it with boxing, that which your grandfathers

-called the noble art.  Rapidity of

-movement, yes; quickness of eye and judgment,

-yes; but delicacy of touch--ah! jujutsu

-has it, boxing no.  There is nothing

-brutal about jujutsu."

-

-Kenneth Amory smiled back at the

-enthusiastic little Japanese, and rubbed his

-left shoulder.

-

-"Nothing brutal, I agree," he said.  "But

-it has been a dry summer, Mr. Kishimaru."

-

-"A dry summer?" the Japanese repeated,

-still smiling, but with an air of puzzlement.

-

-"Yes; the turf's uncommonly hard, and I

-came down a pretty good whack that last time."

-

-"I am sorry.  You have not quite

-recovered your strength yet, or you would not

-have fallen so heavily.  But you do well;

-it is good exercise, for body and mind too.

-A little rest, and we will try another throw."

-

-Kenneth Amory was seated on a bench on

-the lawn where, in summer, Mr. Kishimaru

-instructed his pupils in the fine art of

-jujutsu.  He wore a loose white belted tunic

-and shorts: head and legs were bare.

-Mr. Kishimaru, a wiry little Japanese of

-about thirty-five, similarly clad, walked up

-and down, expounding the principles of his art.

-

-A bell rang in the house.  The garden

-door opened, and a tall young fellow of some

-twenty years came with quick step on to the

-lawn.

-

-"Hullo, Kishimaru!" he cried.  "How

-do?  Have you got a minute?"  He glanced

-towards the figure on the bench, but did

-not wait for an answer.  "Just back from

-Canada--to enlist.  Got to smash the

-Germans, you know.  But look here; just

-spare a minute to show me the Koshinage,

-will you?  I was in a lumber camp, you know,

-out west; lumbering's hard work; no cricket

-or anything else; had to do something;

-taught 'em jujutsu, odd times, you know.

-But the Koshinage--I fairly came to grief

-over that: tried it on a big chap, and came

-a regular cropper.  Made me look pretty

-small; I'd been explaining that I'd throw

-any fellow, no matter how big.  Somehow it

-didn't come off: must have forgotten

-something, I suppose.  I've only got a few

-minutes; have to catch the 4.30 at

-St. Pancras; just put me through it once or

-twice, there's a good chap."

-

-Mr. Kishimaru rubbed his hands all

-through this impetuous address.  He was

-always pleased to see an old pupil, and

-Harry Randall, voluble, always in a hurry,

-had been one of his best pupils a year or two

-before.

-

-"I am delighted to see you, Mr. Randall,"

-he said.  "If you will change----"

-

-"No time for that.  I'll strip to my shirt,

-be ready in a winking."

-

-He threw off coat and waistcoat, wrenched

-off his collar, with some peril to the stud,

-and knotting his braces about his waist,

-stood ready.  Meanwhile Mr. Kishimaru

-had stepped to the bench.

-

-"The Koshinage is the exercise we have

-been practising, Mr. Amory," he said.

-"Perhaps you will be good enough to go through

-it with Mr. Randall, an old pupil.  I will

-watch, and criticise if necessary."

-

-Amory sprang up.  In the newcomer he

-had at once recognised a schoolfellow--Randy,

-they used to call him; a fellow

-everybody liked; impulsive, generous,

-easy-going, always in scrapes, always ready to

-argue with boys or masters.  They had

-left school at the same time, and had not

-seen each other since.

-

-Mr. Kishimaru explained to Randall that

-his pupil would practise the exercise with

-him, and was about to introduce the two

-formally.  But Randall anticipated him.

-

-"Hullo, Amory!" he cried.  "It's you.

-Didn't recognise you.  Come on; no time

-to spare."

-

-Without more ado they took up position

-for the exercise, holding each other as

-though they were going to waltz.  Then they

-made one or two rapid steps, Mr. Kishimaru

-skipping round them, intently watching

-their movements.  With a sudden turning

-on his toes and bending of the knees, Amory

-dragged Randall from behind on to his right

-hip.  A jerk of the left arm and the straightening

-of the knees lifted Randall's feet from

-the ground, and in another moment he

-was hoisted over Amory's hip to his left

-front and deposited on his back.

-

-"Excellent!  Excellent!" cried Mr. Kishimaru.

-

-"Just what I tried to do with big Heneky,

-and came bash to the ground with him on

-top of me," said Randall.  "But it's knack,

-not strength.  I'm heavier than Amory.

-Show me the trick."

-

-Mr. Kishimaru placed them again in

-position, showed Randall how to get advantage

-in the preliminary grip, and left them.

-In a few seconds Amory was thrown.

-

-"You have it, Mr. Randall," said the

-Japanese, rubbing his hands with pleasure.

-"It is like a problem in chess: white to play

-and mate in three moves.  It is inevitable,

-given the position; it is mathematics,

-mechanics, applied to the muscular human

-frame..."

-

-"That's all right, old chap," interrupted

-Randall.  "Knack, I call it.  Once more,

-Amory, then I must be off."

-

-But at the third attempt he failed, and he

-would not be satisfied until he had performed

-the feat three times in succession.  Then,

-looking at his watch, he found that he was

-too late for his train.

-

-"Can't be helped," he said.  "I'll go

-down to-morrow.  Come along to my hotel,

-Amory: haven't said how-de-do yet.  We'll

-have some grub and a talk.  But you've got

-to change.  Can't wait.  I'll do some

-shopping and wire home to the governor; you'll

-find me at the Arundel.  Dinner seven

-sharp: don't be late."

-

-"The same old Randy!" thought Amory,

-smiling as he went into the house to change.

-

-At seven o'clock he found Randall walking

-restlessly up and down in front of the hotel.

-

-"Here you are.  I've bagged a table.

-It's jolly to see you again after--how long is

-it?  Remember Shovel?  He's got a

-commission in the Fusiliers.  Give me your hat.

-Want a wash?  I landed yesterday; come

-6000 miles, by Jove!"

-

-And so, darting from one subject to

-another, he led the way to the coffee-room.

-Before the soup arrived he started again.

-

-"Heard the news right away in the

-backwoods.  Lot of Germans and Austrians in

-the camp.  They began to crow.  I slipped

-away; had to tramp ten days to the rail.

-Gave a hint to the police, and hope all those

-aliens are now in gaol.  Extraordinary

-enthusiasm in Canada, old chap.  They wanted

-me to join their contingent, but I'd already

-applied for a commission at home.  People

-here seem to take things very coolly.  It'll

-be a bigger thing than they realise.  And

-this rot in the papers about the Germans'

-funk--running away, crying their eyes out!

-Stupid nonsense, believe me.  Had a letter

-in New York from my governor.  Jolly

-exciting voyage, I can tell you.  All lights

-out; wireless going constantly; alarm one

-night: German cruiser fifty miles away.

-We all crowded on deck.  By and by lookout

-signalled a vessel.  We held our breath:

-turned out to be a British cruiser.  Captain

-gave our skipper instructions for the course.

-We took ten days instead of five.  What'll

-you drink?"

-

-Amory having intimated his modest choice

-Randall went on:

-

-"Things'll have to wake up here.  My

-governor's men are a lot of rotters.  Wrote

-me that out of five hundred or so only about

-a dozen had 'listed.  Disgraceful, I call it.

-I'd sack 'em, but I know the governor

-won't; he's against compulsion.  I'm going

-down to-morrow to stir 'em up.  Haven't

-come 6000 miles for nothing.  By the way,

-what are you doing?  You were a sergeant

-in the O.T.C.  Of course you'd get a

-commission right away.  I shall never forget

-your cheek.  Nearly died of laughing when

-you went up to the O.C. and asked him to

-make you a corporal.  'What for?' says

-he.  'I've been a private long enough, sir,'

-says you, as cool as you please.  But I say,

-what are you doing?"

-

-"I've been rather seedy," said Amory,

-amused at his friend's chatter, but not yet

-disposed to tell him that he had already seen

-service in Belgium.

-

-"But you're fit now, eh?  You'll apply?"

-

-"Yes, I suppose I shall."

-

-"Why, hang it all, man, why suppose?

-They're awfully slow at the War Office.  I

-applied at once; passed the doctor and all

-that.  I shan't wait much longer.  There's

-a Public School Corps forming; I shall join

-that.  I daresay they'll give me a platoon.

-I say, why not join too?  We're sure to

-find a lot of our old fellows in it; we might

-make up a company.  I hate waiting about.

-What do you say?"

-

-"I'll think it over."

-

-"Oh, I say, man, what rot!  I tell you

-I've come 6000 miles to join.  You used to

-be keen enough."  A cloud of disappointment,

-almost of affront, hovered upon his

-face.  Then suddenly he flashed a look of

-mingled horror and disgust at his friend.

-"You don't tell me you're a professional

-footballer?" he muttered.

-

-"No, no," replied Amory with a laugh.

-"Don't be alarmed, Randy; I shan't sit at

-home and read the papers."

-

-"That's all right, then.  But do make up

-your mind, there's a good chap.  I tell you

-what, what's your address?  I'll wire you

-to-morrow when I've had a go at the

-governor's men.  Twelve out of five hundred!--no

-wonder the poor old governor is biffy.

-It's a disgrace.  Well, I'll wire you; let you

-know how I get on as a recruiting officer.

-Then we'll meet somewhere.  Find out the

-headquarters of the Public School Corps,

-will you? and make up your mind to join

-that with me.  It won't spoil your chance of

-a commission--perhaps hurry it up.

-Anyway, it will be jolly to be together....

-Waiter, bring me some more of that soufflé.

-You don't get things like that in the

-backwoods, Amory."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER II

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Kenneth on his way home looked in at

-the doctor's.  An attack of influenza after

-his return from Belgium had pulled him

-down, and he had put off joining the army

-until assured of his complete recovery.  As

-he put it to the doctor: "A crock would be

-no use to K. of K."

-

-"You'll do," said the doctor after

-thoroughly overhauling him.  "All you want is

-a little hardening up.  I'll give you a

-prescription.  The open-air life of the army will

-do you good.  And I wish you luck."

-

-Thus fortified, as soon as he got home he

-posted an application for a commission in

-the Flying Corps.

-

-Next day, soon after lunch, he received a

-telegram from Randall.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: small

-

-"No go.  Slackers.  Mules.  Governor mad.

-Come and lend a hand."

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-He handed the telegram to his mother.

-

-"What does it mean?" she asked.

-"Your friend must be rather a curious person."

-

-"Oh, it's just Randy," said Kenneth, who

-had told his mother of his meeting with

-Randall on the previous day.  "At school

-he always wanted to lug everybody with him.

-I don't see what I can do.  I'll wire him."

-

-He wrote on the reply-paid form:

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: small

-

-"Sorry.  Not my line."

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-Within a couple of hours came a second telegram.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: small

-

-"Rotter.  Writing."

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-Next morning's post brought the letter.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: small

-

-"You simply must come.  What do you mean,

-not your line?  How do you know till you try?

-Here I've come 6000 miles--but I told you that

-before.  This is the situation.  The governor is

-raving: never saw him so biffy.  He got a spouter

-down from London, who lectured the men in the

-dinner-hour, waved a flag and all that.  The men

-only jeered.  Governor says I'll only make them

-worse if I try; calls me a scatter-brain; I assure

-you he's in a deuce of a wax.  Used to be as meek

-as Moses; wouldn't hear of compulsion; he's turned

-completely over, talks of sacking the men, closing

-the works, conscription, and so on and so forth.

-Something must be done.  You were always a cool

-hand; come and let's talk things over, at any

-rate: smooth the governor down; he won't listen

-to a word from me, and in my opinion goes the

-wrong way to work.  I told him I was inviting

-you; best pal at school, cock of the House, going

-to join with me: so on and so forth.  He'll be

-glad to see you."

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-"A very strange person," remarked

-Mrs. Amory when she had read the letter.

-

-"Perhaps I had better go," said Kenneth.

-"Of course I can't do any good with the

-men, but it will please Randy, and my being

-on the spot may prevent him and his father

-from coming to loggerheads.  They're both

-peppery, evidently."

-

-Accordingly, Kenneth travelled by the

-10.30 from St. Pancras, and reached the

-small midland town in time for lunch.  He

-saw at once that Mr. Randall himself was

-at any rate partly responsible for this

-trouble.  A prosperous manufacturer, he was

-inclined to be dictatorial and was certainly

-no diplomatist.  Full of patriotic zeal

-himself, deploring the fact that he was too old

-for active service, a special constable, an

-energetic member of the local home defence

-corps, he had expected all his able-bodied

-men to rush to the colours, promised to keep

-their places for them, and to make up their

-pay for the sake of their dependents.  The

-paltry response filled him with fury.

-Without taking the trouble to discover the cause

-of the general reluctance he poured scorn

-upon the skulkers, talked of the white

-feather, tried to dragoon them into

-volunteering, threatened to sack them or close

-the works, with the result that the men

-stiffened their backs and defied him.  Clearly

-he did not know how to handle men in an

-emergency like the present.

-

-At lunch Kenneth tactfully listened to

-his host's outpourings, without offering any

-criticism or suggestion.

-

-"Good man!" said Randall, when he and

-Kenneth were alone.  "Let him blow off!

-That's the way."

-

-"What have you done?" asked Kenneth.

-

-"Not much.  I wanted to make a speech

-to the men, but the governor wouldn't let

-me.  Now, am I a scatter-brain?  D'you

-think that's fair?  Anyway, I'm his son!

-But I spoke to old Griggs, our foreman;

-asked him why the men won't enlist.  ''Cos

-they're Englishmen,' says he.  'What's the

-meaning of that?' says I.  'Won't be

-druv,' says he.  'Rather be led by the nose,'

-says he."

-

-"What did he mean?"

-

-"Well, it appears that the fellows take

-their cue from two ringleaders.  One of

-them's a man named Stoneway, only been

-here about six months: I don't know him.

-But I know the other chap--a carrot-headed

-fellow named Murgatroyd; Yorkshire, I

-suppose: the men call him Ginger.  He's

-been with us years: came as a boy.  A rough

-customer, I can tell you: a jolly good

-workman, but a regular demon for mischief.

-All the same, you can't help liking him.

-He's a sportsman, too: good at boxing, a

-first-class forward, just the fellow you'd

-expect to be the first to go.  Griggs told

-me he didn't expect to see him back after

-his week's holiday in August: but he turned

-up a day or two late, and backed up

-Stoneway against the governor.  He'll be sacked

-at the end of the week, sure as a gun."

-

-"Those two are the men you must tackle,

-then," said Kenneth.  "Bring them round,

-and the rest will follow like sheep--or

-donkeys, 'led by the nose,' as your Griggs

-says."

-

-"By the way, he told me the men are

-having a meeting in the yard at tea-time to

-discuss the governor's threats.  Shall we

-slip down and hear what they have to say?"

-

-"Our appearance might shut them up."

-

-"Not if I know our men--free and

-independent, don't care a rap for anyone: you

-know the sort.  They'd take a huge delight

-in letting us hear a few things about

-ourselves--idle rich, bloated capitalists and

-so on: which reminds me that I've got

-about twopence halfpenny.  We'll hear them

-spout, and tackle Stoneway and Ginger

-quietly afterwards."

-

-Shortly after four o'clock the two friends

-strolled into the works yard.  Several

-hundreds of hands were there assembled, from

-engine boys and apprentices to grey seasoned

-veterans.  The most of them had tea cans,

-some were smoking.  At one end of the yard,

-standing on a tub, a stoutly built man of

-about thirty, with close cropped hair and

-thick brown beard and moustache, was

-haranguing the mob.

-

-Randall was recognised by some of the

-men, whose grins of greeting he

-acknowledged with nods.  A whisper ran round:

-"The young governor!"  It caught the

-ears of the man on the tub, who broke

-off his speech for a moment and glanced

-sharply at the two tall figures on the

-outskirts of the crowd.  Then he resumed

-what was evidently a studied peroration.

-

-"Is this a free country, or is it not, mates?"

-he cried, with a sweeping arm.  "If a

-man wants to fight, let him; I won't say

-a word against it.  But when it comes to

-forcing him, then I say he's a slave, and all

-the talk about Britons never will be slaves

-is blankety rot, and I say that when an

-employer threatens to sack us or close the

-works because we don't feel called on to turn

-ourselves into gun-fodder, I say he's a

-nigger-driver and a tyrant.  And what's it

-for?  Are we invaded?  I'd defend my own

-home with any man.  But what do we pay

-the navy for?  That's their job.  What I say

-is, let the French and the Russians do their

-own fighting.  It's no business of ours."

-

-"What about Belgium?" cried one of the boys.

-

-"'What about Belgium?' says the nipper.

-What has Belgium done for us?  Perhaps

-the nipper will tell us.  Speak up....  Not

-a word, and why?  Because Belgium has

-done nothing for us.  Then I ask you in the

-name of common sense why on earth we

-should do anything for Belgium?  Belgium

-has only herself to thank.  The Germans

-have promised to leave Belgium as soon as

-they have settled with the French, and even

-if they don't----"

-

-"Way there!" shouted Randall, elbowing

-his way through the crowd.  Cries of "Way

-for the young governor!" drowned the

-speaker's voice.  "Time's up, Stoneway!"

-sang out the boy who had questioned him.

-Kenneth followed his friend, hoping that he

-would be discreet.

-

-Stoneway descended from the tub, Randall

-mounted in his place.

-

-"Look here, men," he cried, "I came to

-listen, to get at your ideas, not to speak, but

-I can't keep quiet when I hear such stuff.

-We're free men: that's all right; but we're

-men of our word.  An Englishman's word:

-you know what people say about that.

-We've given our word to Belgium: if we

-break it we're mean skunks, we're disgraced

-for ever.  Besides, every decent chap loathes

-a bully, and Germany's just a great hulking

-bully.  If you see a big chap hurting a little

-'un, you want to knock him down.  My

-father tells me that only about a dozen of

-you have enlisted.  What's the reason of it?

-You'd feel jolly well insulted if I called you

-cowards.  Are all you hundreds going to

-skulk at home while your mates do the

-fighting for you?  What'll you feel like

-in ten years' time?  You won't be able to

-look 'em in the face.  Here I've come 6000

-miles to do my bit; buck up and show what

-you're made of."

-

-Randall's words tumbled out in a boiling

-flood.  There was some cheering, mingled

-with cries of "Ginger!" which grew in

-volume until the din was deafening.

-Presently there edged his way through the

-crowd a thin lank fellow with lean

-clean-shaven cheeks, deeply furrowed, and a

-touzled mop of reddish hair.  A red scarf

-was knotted about his neck.  He slouched

-forward, hands in pockets, murmured

-"Afternoon, Mr. Harry," as he passed Randall,

-mounted the tub, hitched up his breeches,

-drew the back of his hand across his mouth,

-and looked round, with a grin, upon his

-shouting fellow-workmen.  The noise

-subsided, and the crowd gazed expectantly up

-into their favourite's face.

-

-"We're all glad to see the young governor,

-mates," he said, in the broad accents of a

-north-countryman.  There was a volley of

-cheers.  "But we don't hold with him--and

-no offence.  I hold with Stoneway--every

-word of it."  He thumped the air.

-"Who made this war?  Not us: we wasn't

-consulted.  No: it was the nobs done it.

-Are we going to let 'em force us into

-it?"  (Shouts of "No!")  "We won't be druv.

-It's all very well for the officers: they get a

-comfortable billet and good pay.  Tommy

-gets the kicks and Percy gets the

-ha'pence."  ("Go it, Ginger!")  "Now, Mr. Harry,

-you've come 6000 miles--what for, sir? an

-officer's job, I take my oath."

-

-"That's true," said Randall.  "I've

-applied.  But----"

-

-"Hold on, sir.  There you are!  Just

-what I thought.  Well, I ain't got no

-personal objection to having a smack at the

-Germans; never seen a German yet but

-what I'd give him one on the boko, and if

-Lord Kitchener'd make me a lootenant or

-a capting in the Coldstream Guards, with a

-sword and eppylets and ten bob a day--well,

-I don't say I wouldn't consider it."  ("Bravo,

-Ginger!")  "But as it is, to be a

-private on one bob a day, and dock

-threepence or more, they tell me, for the missus

-and kids--I'm not having any."

-

-When the cheers that hailed his assertion

-had fallen away, Kenneth said quietly:

-

-"You forget that thousands of men have

-thrown up good jobs and sacrificed big

-incomes to join the ranks."

-

-"Not in these parts, governor.  Down here

-they give their subscriptions to this, that,

-and the other, and reduce their men's wages,

-if they don't sack 'em.  And if it comes to

-that, what have *you* done?"

-

-A breathless silence settled upon the crowd.

-All eyes were fixed on the young governor's

-friend, awaiting his reply to this poser.

-Kenneth had an inspiration.

-

-"It doesn't matter what I've done," he

-said, quietly, but in a tone that carried his

-words to the corners of the yard.  "But I'll

-tell you what I'll do, and if I know my friend

-Mr. Randall, he'll do the same.  If you men

-will enlist, we'll enlist with you, and share

-and share alike."

-

-The man was taken aback.  He looked

-from Kenneth to Randall: his mates watched

-him curiously.  "One for you, Ginger!"

-cried the irrepressible boy.

-

-"D'you mean that, sir?" asked the man.

-

-"Certainly," said Kenneth.

-

-"It's a firm offer, Ginger," added Randall.

-

-"Privates--no kid?"

-

-"A bob a day," said Kenneth.

-

-For a half-minute or so Ginger had the air

-of one who is caught out.  He looked round

-among his mates, grinning awkwardly, avoiding

-their eyes.  They were silent, watching

-him.  All at once he burst into a guffaw, wiped

-his mouth, and with frank good-humour cried:

-

-"Well, hanged if you ain't good sports.

-Come on, mates.  Who's for Kitchener's

-army and a smack at the Germans?  I'm

-number one."

-

-The crowd was captured by the sporting

-spirit.  Striking while the iron was hot,

-Randall and Kenneth headed a procession

-to the recruiting office.  Mr. Randall, called

-to his window by the tramp of many feet

-and the strains of "It's a long long way

-to Tipperary," was amazed to see hundreds

-of his young workmen marching with linked

-arms behind the two young fellows.  He

-rang for Griggs.

-

-"What does this mean, Griggs?" he asked.

-

-"Gone to enlist, sir.  We shall be very short-handed."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`STONEWAY ENLISTS`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER III

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   STONEWAY ENLISTS

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Mr. Randall pulled a wry face when he

-heard of Kenneth's impulsive action.  At

-the dinner-table he spoke his mind.

-

-"This won't do, you know.  You are

-both certain to obtain commissions.  I don't

-object to your serving as Tommies for a

-week or two, for the sake of example, you

-know; but I'm not going to allow you to

-let yourself down permanently, Harry.  Your

-friend, of course, can do as he pleases."

-

-"I've promised, Father," said Harry.

-

-"Promised what, may I ask?"

-

-"To share and share alike with the men."

-

-"Fiddlesticks!  It won't do.  Good

-gracious, what are we coming to?  The

-whole social order will be destroyed.  You'll

-succeed me at the head of this business,

-when you've settled down and are a trifle

-less scatter-brained than you are now.  How

-in the world do you expect to maintain the

-proper relation between employer and

-employed if you put yourself on a level with

-the hands?  Look at it logically.  Take it

-that I myself had been idiot enough to do

-as you've done, and put myself in the

-position to be ordered about by some factory

-hand who happened to be a sergeant, or

-some young whipper-snapper fresh from

-school who happened to have got a

-commission: what would become of my

-authority, I should like to know?  How could

-I maintain control over my workmen?  Do

-look at it reasonably.  It's preposterous."

-

-The idea of portly Mr. Randall as a Tommy

-was almost too much for the boys' gravity.

-But Harry answered meekly:

-

-"Well, we've enlisted over a hundred

-men, and there'll be more to-morrow.  That's

-what you wanted, Dad, isn't it?  You won't

-have to close down now."

-

-"But I didn't want my son to consort

-with a lot of roughs--socialists, too, to a

-man, by gad!  You can't associate with

-such fellows without getting coarsened, and

-besides, as I said before, it's the principle

-of the thing--the principle of social order,

-caste, call it what you like.  Destroy caste,

-and you ruin old England.  Come now, I'll

-see the colonel, and he'll arrange to get you

-gazetted to the regiment.  You'll then be

-in a natural position of authority over my

-men, and I'll be proud to think that my

-works has furnished a contingent to the

-New Army, with my own son as one of the

-officers."

-

-"You ought to have lived in the middle

-ages, Dad," said Harry, admiringly.  "What

-a jolly old feudal chief you'd have been!

-But it can't be done.  Amory and I have

-thrown in our lot with the men, and we'll

-stick it: we can't go back on our word."

-

-"I'll see that you have proper

-under-clothing, my dear," said Mrs. Randall.

-"I'm told that some of the poor men have

-only one shirt."

-

-"Shirts!" cried Mr. Randall.  "Oh, I'm

-out of all patience with you.  Do as you

-please, do as you please.  I wash my hands

-of it.  Don't expect any sympathy from me

-if you are disgusted, horrified, in a week."

-

-As Harry had said, more than a hundred

-of the men had already given in their names.

-Next day a still larger number volunteered,

-and when the medical tests had been applied,

-it was found that the recruits from the

-Randall works were enough to form a

-company.  This accordingly was scheduled as

-No. 3 Company in the 17th Service Battalion

-of a regiment which, for reasons which will

-appear in the course of this narrative, we

-shall know as the Rutland Light Infantry.

-

-Colonel Appleton, the officer commanding,

-sent for Harry and Kenneth in the course

-of the day.

-

-"Look here, young fellows," he said,

-"you're both O.T.C. men, aren't you?"

-

-They confessed that they were.

-

-"Well, I'm short of officers.  They've

-sent me several boys without any experience

-at all, who'll want a thundering lot of licking

-into shape.  I'll put you both down, glad

-to have somebody who knows something

-about company drill."

-

-"Thank you, sir," said Harry, "but we

-only got the men to enlist by promising to

-go in with them."

-

-"That's all very well, but nobody can

-object to promotion.  The men will think

-it the most natural thing in the world for

-you to officer them."

-

-The boys, however, persisted in their refusal.

-

-"Nonsense," said the colonel.  "I'll give

-you twenty-four hours' leave to think it

-over.  There'll be nothing doing for a day

-or two.  It's chaos at present: no uniforms,

-no boots, no earthly thing.  Come and see

-me this time to-morrow, and tell me you've

-changed your mind."

-

-As they left, they saw Ginger and two or

-three other men on the opposite side of the

-street, evidently on the watch for them.

-Ginger took his hands out of his pockets,

-wiped his mouth, and came across the road.

-

-"Beg pardon, sir," he said to Harry,

-"but we only want to know where we are.

-The question is, have we got to salute you,

-or ain't we?"

-

-"Of course not.  That's a silly question.

-We're all Tommies together."

-

-"There you are, now, what did I say?"

-Ginger called to his mates.  "Unbelieving

-Jews they are," he added, addressing Harry.

-"Said it was all kid, and you'd come out

-majors or lootenants or something.  I

-knowed better."

-

-"Make your minds easy on that score,

-Ginger.  We've given our word."

-

-"That's a bob lost to Stoneway."

-

-"By the way, Stoneway hasn't enlisted,

-of course."

-

-"Not him!  He bet you'd get yourselves

-turned into officers as soon as you'd raked

-us in.  That's a day's pay extra for me."

-

-"That fellow Stoneway is a bit of a

-riddle," said Kenneth as they passed on.

-"Judging by his speech the other day, he's

-better educated than most--a Scot perhaps;

-there's a sort of burr in his accent."

-

-"I daresay," replied his friend.  "A

-fellow who likes the sound of his own voice,

-I fancy.  Cantankerous: always agin the

-Government; you know the sort."

-

-"Well, old chap, as we've got twenty-four

-hours' leave I'll run up to town and

-explain things to the mater, make a few

-business arrangements and so on.  I'll be

-back to lunch to-morrow."

-

-"All right.  I suppose they'll put us in

-billets for the present, so I'll arrange to have

-you billeted on the governor.  He'll get seven

-bob a day for the two of us; rather a rag, eh?"

-

-Kenneth was early at the station on his

-return journey next morning.  The platform

-was crowded, a good sprinkling of men in

-khaki mingling with the civilian passengers

-always to be seen before the departure of a

-north-going express.

-

-Standing at the bookstall, deliberating

-on a choice of something to read, Kenneth

-heard behind him the accents of a voice

-which he had heard so recently as to

-recognise it at once, though the few words he

-caught were French.  He glanced over his

-shoulder and was not surprised to see Stoneway,

-the orator of Mr. Randall's yard.  The

-man was walking up the platform beside a

-companion somewhat older than himself,

-upon whose arm he rested his hand as he

-spoke earnestly to him.

-

-"A French Socialist, I suppose," thought

-Kenneth.  "One of the anti-war people.

-Well, war is horrible, and I don't know I

-wouldn't agree with them if they had the

-power to put a stop to it altogether.  But

-they haven't, and that French fellow had

-better realise that we've got to lick the

-Germans first.  I was evidently right about

-Stoneway: he's better educated than most

-working men."

-

-He bought a magazine, and thought no

-more of the matter, seeing nothing further

-of the two men.  As he stepped into a

-first-class compartment he smiled at the

-thought that it was probably the last time

-for many a long day.  Henceforth he was

-to be a "Tommy."

-

-Harry met him at the station.

-

-"Billets no go, old chap," was his greeting.

-"We're quartered in an old factory--beastly

-hole.  But I've told the colonel we're

-going to stick it.  Come along.  They're

-going to serve out uniforms this afternoon;

-no fitting required!  You'll be rather

-difficult: average chest but extra long arms.

-I suppose we might buy our own, but we'd

-better make shift with the rest.  And I say,

-who do you think we've got for one of our

-officers?"

-

-"Who?"

-

-"You remember that squirt, Dick Kennedy?"

-

-"You don't say so!"

-

-"That's just what I do say.  I was

-loafing about the barracks when he came

-up to me, fresh as paint in his new uniform.

-'What O, Randall!' says he.  'You here,

-too?  Ordered your kit, I suppose?'  'I

-believe it's on order,' said I, and I saluted,

-just for the fun of the thing.  'Oh, I say,

-we don't do that to each other,' says he;

-'we don't salute anyone under a major,

-do we?'  'I don't want a dose of

-clink--already,' said I.  'What on earth do you

-mean?' says he.  Then I told him, and you

-should have seen his face!  He wouldn't

-believe me at first, and went as red as a

-turkey-cock when I said I wouldn't mind

-earning half-a-crown extra a week as his

-servant."

-

-"I always thought him a bit of an ass

-at school," said Kenneth, "but a genial ass,

-you know.  He wasn't in the O.T.C., and

-I expect we shall have some sport with him."

-

-They went on to the large disused factory

-which had been turned into barracks for

-the occasion.  The quartermaster was

-superintending the allocation of uniforms, and

-they were in due course fitted more or less

-with khaki and boots.  As yet there were

-no belts, bandoliers or rifles.

-

-The basement of the factory consisted of

-two large halls with bare brick walls and

-concrete floors.  One of them, to be used

-as a drill hall, was empty.  The other was

-fitted up with wooden frames to serve as

-sleeping bunks.  At one end was a

-platform on which stood a piano, and one of

-the recruits was laboriously thumping out

-a rag-time.  Another was playing a different

-tune on a penny whistle.  At one corner four

-men were absorbed in halfpenny nap;

-elsewhere groups were amusing themselves in

-various ways.

-

-Kenneth and his friend joined one of

-these.  There was a little stiffness at first.

-The workmen, ranging in years from nineteen

-to thirty-five or so, were a little shy

-and subdued in the company of the "young

-governor."  But the ice was broken when

-Ginger came up, his square mouth broadened

-in a grin.  He was about to touch his cap

-to Harry, but altered his mind when he

-remembered the situation, and wiped his

-lips instead.

-

-"Bet you don't never guess," he said.

-

-"What's up, Ginger?" asked his mates in chorus.

-

-"Why, Stoneway--he's been and gone

-and done it."

-

-"What's he been and gone and done?

-Not done himself in?"

-

-"Course not!  Think he's broke his heart

-'cause of losing us, then?  No fear!  He's

-'listed, that's what he's done."

-

-"Garn!"

-

-"True as I'm standing here.  He's 'listed

-right enough.  He's got a chest on him

-too; forty inches, doctor said.  He's been

-and got shaved; he'll be along here

-presently.  His beard, that is.  We can let

-our moustaches grow now, if we like."  He

-rubbed his upper lip.  "Hair-brush, that's

-what it is.  Bet a penny it's as good as

-Stoneway's under six weeks."

-

-"But what's he 'listed for, after all his

-jaw?" asked one of the men.

-

-"Converted, that's what he is," Ginger

-replied.  "Seen the error of his ways, or

-else he's so sweet on me he couldn't bear

-the parting.  'You made me love you, I

-didn't want to do it,'" he hummed.  "This

-here khaki looks all right, mates, don't it?

-Matches my hair.  Here, old cockalorum,"

-he shouted to the man at the piano, "we've

-had enough of that there funeral march.

-Play more cheerful, or we'll all be swimming

-in our tears."

-

-Ginger's high spirits were infectious, and

-the group of which Kenneth and Harry

-formed a part chatted and laughed away

-the afternoon.

-

-Just before ten o'clock they were arranging

-their simple beds on the frames when a

-chorus of yells, cat-calls, whistles, and other

-discordant noises caused them to look around

-the hall.  Stoneway had just made his

-appearance.  It was a different Stoneway.

-The brown beard was gone, the long and

-flourishing moustache had been clipped to

-bristly stiffness, revealing heavy lips and

-a full round chin.  The man bore his

-uproarious greeting with a defiant glare, and

-only looked annoyed when Ginger shouted:

-

-"Smart, ain't he?  Doesn't look so much

-like a blinky German, does he?"

-

-The bugle sounded the Last Post, the

-electric light was switched off, and the five

-hundred men of the 17th Rutland Light

-Infantry clambered into their bunks and

-sought repose.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`THREE ROUNDS`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER IV

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   THREE ROUNDS

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-At six o'clock next morning sergeant-majors

-and corporals went round the hall

-stirring up the sleepers.  There were groans

-and grumbles, but the men turned out, and

-there was a general dash for the washing

-basins--one among twenty men--and a free

-fight for the razors.  Our two friends had

-brought their own safeties and pocket mirrors,

-and when they had finished operating upon

-their downy cheeks there was a competition

-among their new messmates for the loan of

-those indispensable articles.

-

-"Your bristles will ruin a blade in no

-time, Ginger," said Harry, as he handed over

-the razor, somewhat ruefully.

-

-"Perseverance, that's all you want," replied

-Ginger, through the lather.  "Yours 'll

-be as hard as mine in time."

-

-At half-past six each man seized a mug

-and rushed off to the cook-house across the

-yard for cocoa.  They sat about the hall,

-swilling the morning beverage, grumbling

-at the blankets, asking one another who'd

-be a soldier; then they rubbed up their

-boots and made their beds, and were ready

-for the seven o'clock parade.

-

-Dressed only in their shirts and slacks

-they formed up in the drill-hall.  There was

-a good deal of disorder, and the N.C.O.'s,

-in early-morning temper, roared above the

-din.  It happened that Dick Kennedy was

-orderly officer for the week.  When the men

-were at last ranged in ranks, dressed, and

-numbered by the sergeants, he posted

-himself in front and, with a nervous twitching

-of the lips, said gently--

-

-"Battalion, 'shun!"

-

-"Louder, louder!" whispered a fellow-officer

-who had come up behind him.  "This

-isn't a mothers' meeting."

-

-The second lieutenant tried again.

-

-"Battalion, 'shun!  Advance in fours from

-the right.  Form fours!"

-

-Some of the men knew what to do, but

-many of the new recruits looked about them

-blankly.

-

-"You don't know the movements?" said

-the lieutenant.  "Well, when I say 'form

-fours,' even numbers take one pace to the

-left with the left foot and one pace to the

-right with the right.  Now, form fours!"

-

-The result was disorder--jostling in the

-ranks, cries of "Who're you a-shoving of!"

-

-"Sorry!  My mistake!" said Kennedy,

-with a smile.  "We'll try again.  I should

-have said, 'one pace to the rear with the

-left foot.'  Now then, form fours!"

-

-His cheerfulness won the men's sympathy,

-and the order being now correctly

-carried out, one or two of them cheered.

-

-"Silence in the ranks!" roared Kennedy.

-"Right!  Quick march!" and the battalion

-marched off.

-

-The day's work began with a run for

-three-quarters of an hour, to the bank of

-a river some two miles away.  A "run" so

-called, for it consisted of slow and quick

-march and doubling in turn.  At eight

-o'clock they were back in the hall for

-breakfast: tea, bread and bacon, sausage or cheese.

-The provisions were good, the men had

-healthy appetites, and at 9.15, when the

-battalion orders of the day were read, they

-were contented and cheerful.

-

-Marching out to the parade ground, a

-field in the neighbourhood, they spent an

-hour in physical drill under experienced

-N.C.O. instructors, and then a couple of

-hours in company drill.  Dismissed at 12.15,

-they met again for dinner at 1, a plentiful

-meal of meat pie and vegetables.  Then

-came a route march and extended order

-drill, tea at 4.30, with jam and tinned fruits,

-and at 5.30 company lectures.

-

-"It'll be rummy to hear Kennedy lecture,"

-said Harry, sitting beside Kenneth

-on the form.  "I wonder what he'll spout about."

-

-"Poor chap!" said Kenneth.  "I'm beginning

-to think the Tommies haven't the

-worst of it.  Keep a straight face whatever

-he says."

-

-Somewhat to his surprise, when Kennedy

-appeared the men were at once silent.  The

-habit of discipline was strong in those who

-had already served in the Regulars or the

-Territorials; the recruits were interested in

-the novel circumstances, and subdued by the

-indefinable influence of constituted authority.

-

-"Now, men," began Kennedy, unfolding

-his notes and studiously avoiding the eyes

-of his old school-fellows, "I'm going to say

-a few words to you on Feet."

-

-"My poor tootsies!" murmured one of the men.

-

-"We have all got feet," Kennedy went

-on, "but do we all know how to use them?"

-

-"Give us a ball and we'll show you,

-sir," cried a voice.

-

-"Well, I hope we'll have some footer by

-and by, but that's not the present question.

-We have just done a ten-mile walk.  Two

-or three of you fell out, two or three were

-limping before we got back.  Why was that?"

-

-"'Cos we ain't used to it, sir," said one

-of the unlucky ones.

-

-"Ate too much pie and 'taters, sir," cried

-another.

-

-"Got a corn inside o' my toe," said a third.

-

-"Well, we'll leave out greediness for the

-present: that's a moral defect which

-perhaps one of the senior officers will deal with.

-We'll confine our attention to the proper

-care of the feet."

-

-And he went on to give some simple and

-practical advice as to bathing, greasing,

-methods of hardening, until six o'clock

-struck, and the men were dismissed until

-first post at 9.30.

-

-"Call that a lecture!" scoffed Stoneway,

-when the officer had gone.  "Does he take

-us for an infant school?  Giving us pap like

-that!"

-

-"You shut your face!" said Ginger.

-"The young feller spoke downright good

-common sense, much better 'n you'd expect

-from a chap as went to one of them there

-public schools.  He said a thing or two I

-didn't know, nor you either, Stoneway.

-'Course he didn't go to the root of it; dursn't

-cry stinking fish.  What's the root?  Why,

-boots.  These 'ere things they've gi'en us,

-they're no good.  They're made to raise

-blisters, they are, and they'll just mash

-when we get the rain."

-

-"They're only temporary, I believe," said

-Kenneth, "till the factories can turn out

-army boots in sufficient quantities."

-

-"That's the English Government all over,"

-said Stoneway, with a sneer.  "Nothing

-ready: no boots, no rifles----"

-

-"Oh, stow it!" cried Ginger.  "What

-did you 'list for if you're going to grouse

-all the time?  The worst of it is, you can't

-resign: we shall have to put up with you,

-I s'pose, unless you mutiny, or strike your

-superior officer, or do something else to get

-dismissed the army.  Come on, boys; let's

-go and see the pictures.  We'll be back in

-time to draw some soup from the cook-house,

-8.30 to 9."

-

-That is a fair sample of the day's work

-during the next two or three months.  It

-was monotonous, but, during the dry

-autumn, healthy.  When the rainy weather

-set in, hardship began to be felt.  The

-men often got drenched to the skin; their

-temporary boots, as Ginger had foretold,

-became pulp.  The factory was bleak and

-draughty, in spite of its gas stoves.  There

-was a certain amount of sickness, and an

-increase in the number of offenders to be

-dealt with every morning by the colonel.

-But the men were well fed, and cheered by

-presents of tobacco and cigarettes from

-kindly townsfolk; and many wet, dull

-evenings were enlivened by concerts and

-entertainments got up by friends of the officers.

-

-Kenneth and Harry steadfastly declined

-offers of promotion as N.C.O.'s, but owing

-to their knowledge of drill they were made

-right and left guides of their platoon.  They

-bought a football, and got up inter-company

-matches in which No. 3 Company distinguished

-itself.  Indeed, both in work and

-play No. 3 Company became the crack

-company of the battalion.  The captain,

-an old army man who had been retired some

-years and was some little time picking up

-the details of the new drill, was a good

-sportsman and a hard worker, and by the

-end of January the company was thoroughly

-efficient and knit together by that esprit

-de corps which is the soul of fighting men.

-

-Then came vaccination and inoculation.

-Stoneway was the ringleader of a little

-group that declined the doctor's attentions,

-to the disgust of Ginger and the majority.

-

-"You're a traitor, that's what you are,"

-said Ginger to Stoneway when the latter

-flatly declined to be poisoned, as he put it.

-"You'll go and catch some rotten disease

-or other and give it to us."

-

-"This is a free country," retorted

-Stoneway.  "And as to you, you're a turncoat.

-Weren't you always spouting against the

-war?  Didn't I back you up?  Who caved

-in as meek as a lamb?"

-

-"Well, you followed along with the other

-sheep, didn't you?  What you joined for

-goodness only knows.  You're always

-grousing about something or other.  Bacon's too

-fat, then it's too lean; cheese is dry, then

-it's damp; you pick out little bits of lead

-out of the pear gravy, and spread 'em round

-your plate and put on a face like a holy

-martyr.  You sit at lecture with a snigger

-on your ugly mug; the pianner's out of

-tune; nobody can sing for nuts; *you* take

-jolly good care you don't do nothing to

-amuse the company.  Nothing's right; you

-always know better 'n anyone else; lummy,

-I believe you think you ought to be capting,

-if not commander-in-chief.  What did you

-join for, that's what I want to know.  I tell

-you straight, we've had enough of your

-grousing.  Why don't you take your grumbles

-to the officers?  'Any complaints?' says

-they when they come round inspecting;

-why don't you speak up like a man?  No

-fear; you ain't got a word to say.  All

-you can do is to growl when they ain't

-by, and try to make yourself big before

-all the dirty swipes of the regiment.  Why,

-look at the other night, when they gave the

-alarm, and we was all confined to barricks:

-what did you do then?  When all those nice

-young ladies came with their fiddles and

-things and sang and played to us proper,

-gave us fags all round, too, you must get

-up in a corner with your dirty lot and make

-such a deuce of a row we couldn't hear a

-word of 'Dolly Grey'--my favourite song,

-too!  If I'd been colonel I'd have given

-you a good dose of clink straight away, and

-so now you know it."

-

-Ginger had fairly let himself go, and the

-applause that followed his speech showed

-that he voiced the opinion of the majority.

-Stoneway made no reply, but gradually

-edged away.

-

-This was the culmination of an

-estrangement which had been developing between

-the two men ever since the company was

-formed.  Whatever had brought them

-together previously, their enlistment had

-sundered them completely.  Ginger, whose

-backing Stoneway had been wont to count

-on in any attack on authority, was now

-the most orderly as well as the cheeriest

-man in the company.  He passed off with a

-jest every hardship of that trying winter.

-"Think of those poor chaps in the trenches,"

-he would say, if someone complained of the

-cold or a wetting.  Stoneway clearly resented

-his change of spirit, though it was a puzzle

-to the better disposed among the men why

-he could have expected a display of

-insubordination from these enthusiastic recruits

-in the New Army.

-

-It must be admitted that Ginger took no

-pains to conciliate his old companion.  He

-did not launch out again into invective, but

-assumed the still more irritating airs of a

-humorous observer.  From time to time he

-let fall a jesting word that had a sting, and

-took a delight in chaffing Stoneway in the

-presence of other men.  And since Stoneway

-himself turned out to be no match for

-Ginger in these little bouts of wordy war,

-and Ginger always managed to keep his

-temper, Stoneway became more and more

-furious, and fell to meditating reprisals.

-

-One Saturday afternoon, after a more

-than usually smart exchange of banter on

-the one hand and abuse on the other, Ginger

-was sent by the quartermaster to a farm

-some two miles away to fetch the balance

-of a quantity of butter which had not been

-completely delivered.

-

-"Just my luck!" said Ginger, in the

-hearing of a group that included Kenneth

-and Harry.  "It won't break my back, but

-I'd rather carry it two yards than two miles.

-However!"

-

-"I'm off duty presently," said Kenneth,

-"and I'll come part of the way to meet you

-and lend you a hand."

-

-"You're a white man," said Ginger.

-"Well, so long."

-

-Some little while afterwards Kenneth and

-Harry started together by a footpath across

-fields to the farmhouse.  They had not gone

-far when they caught sight of a figure in

-khaki about half a mile ahead, going in the

-same direction as themselves.  It was soon

-lost to sight behind a hedge.

-

-The path led over a hill that descended

-steeply on the farther side.  On reaching

-the top they saw two men in khaki at

-the foot of the slope below them.  One

-of them was Ginger, who had dropped his

-wicker basket on the grass and stood with

-arms akimbo facing the other man, now

-recognisable by his burly frame as Stoneway.

-Ginger, slim and wiry, looked insignificant by

-comparison.

-

-Just as Kenneth and Harry caught sight

-of the men, Stoneway lifted his fist and with

-a sudden swift blow that took Ginger

-unawares sent him head over heels.  Ginger

-was up in an instant, and after skipping about

-on his short legs for a few moments, made a

-rush at his opponent.  Stoneway staggered,

-but recovered himself immediately, clinched,

-and profiting by his superior height and

-weight threw Ginger heavily, and not being

-able to disengage himself, fell with him.

-The two men heaved and twisted in a fierce

-struggle on the ground.  Then Stoneway

-dragged himself away, rose, and Kenneth,

-now running down the hill, saw him

-deliberately kick the prostrate body of his

-apparently senseless comrade.

-

-.. _`52`:

-

-"You cad!" shouted Kenneth, with

-Harry hard on his heels; "what do you mean

-by that foul play?"

-

-Stoneway, too much preoccupied to be

-aware of the approach of observers, growled

-something under his breath, and was making

-off sullenly.

-

-"No you don't!" cried Kenneth, seizing

-him.  "Just have a look at Ginger," he

-added to Harry.

-

-Ginger, pale and shaken, sat up and smiled

-feebly.

-

-"Time?" he said.  "I'll have another round."

-

-"Not a bit of it," said Harry.  "He

-kicked you on the ground.  Didn't you know?

-It was foul play.  What was it all about?"

-

-"I didn't kick him," muttered Stoneway.

-

-"That's a lie.  I saw you do it," said

-Kenneth.  "What's the row, Ginger?"

-

-"Well, what you may call a bit of a

-shindy," Ginger replied.  "Just between

-ourselves, like.  I'm ready for another go."

-

-"No.  Come, out with it, man."

-

-"Well, I was traipsing along with that

-there basket on my head when up he comes

-and starts rounding on me for chipping him.

-'I'm not having any truck with grousers,'

-says I.  Then we had a few words, and he got

-me one afore I was ready, that I own.  But

-I can't hardly believe he kicked me when I

-was down, and a bit dazed like."

-

-"He did.  You take a rest and recover:

-we'll settle with him."

-

-"What are you talking about?" Stoneway

-blustered.

-

-"Giving you a hiding.  Off with your coat,"

-said Kenneth.  "You'll see fair play, Harry."

-

-"I say, this is my job," said Harry.

-"You've been on the sick list."

-

-"I'm all right."

-

-"No, really."

-

-"Well, don't let's waste time.  I'll toss

-you for it."

-

-And while Stoneway looked on in amazement,

-Kenneth spun a coin, won, stripped

-off his tunic and rolled up his shirt sleeves.

-

-"Two to one against the big 'un," cried

-Ginger, with a grin of delight.

-

-Seeing there was no help for it, Stoneway

-slowly took off his tunic.

-

-"And mind you fight fair," Harry warned

-him, "or I promise you I'll take a hand

-myself."

-

-The two men faced each other.  They

-presented a striking contrast.  Stoneway

-was slightly the taller and much the heavier;

-his big chest bulged under his shirt, and

-his biceps were thick.  But Harry, scanning

-him keenly, noting his fleshiness, decided

-that his muscles were rather flabby than

-hard; and observing Kenneth's slighter

-but well-knit frame, and remembering his

-promise as a boxer at school, felt pretty

-confident of the result.

-

-After the first few exchanges he was more

-doubtful.  Stoneway had a longer reach,

-and was clearly accustomed to the use of his

-fists.  At the start he forced the fighting,

-trying to get a knock-out blow, and Kenneth

-needed all his skill to meet his bull-like rushes

-and sledge-hammer strokes.  He managed

-to land one punishing body-blow that would

-have shaken up a smaller man, but Stoneway

-recovered himself quickly, and the first round

-ended with little damage on either side

-except that Stoneway found himself

-somewhat winded.

-

-The combatants had now taken each

-other's measure.  In the second round

-Kenneth in his turn adopted forcing tactics,

-bewildering his opponent by the whirlwind

-rapidity of his attack and his elusiveness

-in defence.  Stoneway began to realise that

-he had met more than his match.  He

-breathed heavily; his fat cheeks took on a

-yellowish tinge; and the end of the round

-found him with a bigger nose and a bump

-over his right eye, and greatly distressed in

-wind.

-

-"Next round finishes him," whispered

-Harry, as he wiped Kenneth's face.

-

-The third round was in fact conclusive.

-Stoneway made a desperate rush, stopped

-by a neat upper cut, and before he could

-recover he was hurled to the ground by a

-blow above the heart that might have

-finished a professional pugilist.

-

-"Now you'll apologise to Ginger," said

-Kenneth, as Stoneway slowly picked himself up.

-

-But Stoneway scowled out of his damaged

-brows, put on his tunic in silence, and walked

-away without uttering a word.

-

-It was much to Ginger's credit that not

-a man in the battalion ever discovered how

-Stoneway had come by his bruises.  There

-was an end alike to his grumbling and to

-Ginger's rough banter.  But there was an

-end, too, to all show of friendliness between

-them.  They never spoke to each other,

-and Stoneway was always careful to keep

-out of Kenneth's way.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`THE BACK OF THE FRONT`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER V

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   THE BACK OF THE FRONT

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The slow wet winter dragged itself out.

-The training went on, fair weather or foul.

-The 17th Rutland Light Infantry got their

-service boots in due time, but other details

-of their equipment were slow to arrive.

-Presently they received enough rifles and

-entrenching tools for half the battalion, and

-the ordinary drill and physical exercises,

-which Kennedy had privately confided to

-Amory "bored him stiff," was varied with

-musketry practice and digging trenches.

-There were long marches, semaphore

-practice, sham fights, night operations; day by

-day the men gained new knowledge of their

-trade.  More rifles came, this time with

-bayonets; bayonet exercise and practice

-in attack gave further variety to their work.

-At last, towards the end of February, the

-whole battalion was fully equipped, and the

-men grew excited at the prospect of going

-to the front.

-

-It was a great moment when the colonel

-gave them a few hours' notice of entrainment.

-Lusty cheers broke from a thousand

-throats; the longed-for day had come at

-last.  Crowds of townsfolk assembled at the

-station to see them off, but they were quiet,

-serious crowds, the women's faces tense with

-anxiety, the children unwontedly subdued.

-It was no picnic for which these sturdy

-Englishmen were setting out.  Everybody

-was now aware of the greatness of the

-struggle, the bravery and tenacity of the

-enemy, the scientific skill and terrible

-thoroughness with which the Germans had

-prepared through many years for this

-attempt to seize the mastery of the world.

-Hearts were full as the men stepped blithely

-into the long train; how many of them would

-return, and of these, how many would be

-sound and strong?

-

-Their immediate destination was known

-to none except the commanding officer.

-When, after a tiring journey, with much

-shunting and side-tracking, the men were

-finally detrained at a small station in the

-south of England, with no sign of sea or

-transports, there was a general feeling of

-surprise and disappointment.  They were

-marched to a wide barren plain, peppered

-with tents and huts, and here, it became

-known by and by, they were to spend a

-month or more in further training.

-

-Even Ginger for once became a grouser.

-

-"I've had about enough of this," he

-growled.  "What's the good of it all?"

-

-"Discipline, Ginger," said Kenneth.

-

-"Discipline!  That's obedience, ain't it?

-Well, I ask you, don't we do as we're told

-like a lot of school kids?  I'm sure I'm as

-meek as Moses.  Never thought I could be

-so tame.  I've quite lost my character, and

-if ever I get back to the works I'll have to

-go a regular buster, or else I'll be one of the

-downtrodden slaves of the capitalist."

-

-"I don't think so badly of you," said

-Kenneth, with a smile.  "But discipline is

-more than obedience.  Between you and

-me, I think this extra training is as much

-for the officers' sake as ours.  The British

-officer leads, you see.  He knows we'll obey

-orders; he has to make sure that he gives

-the right orders.  If he didn't there'd be an

-unholy mess: we should lose confidence in

-him, and the game would be up.  We've

-got to work together like a football team,

-every man trusting every other; and that's

-what all this drilling and training is for."

-

-"I daresay you're in the right," said

-Ginger.  "I wasn't thinking of them young

-officers!  They're a good lot, though, ain't

-they?  I don't know what it is, but there's

-something about 'em--why, Mr. Kennedy

-now, he's ten years younger than me, and

-yet somehow or other he manages me like

-as if I was a baby.  And no bounce about it

-either; I wouldn't stand bounce from any

-man, officer or not.  But he don't bounce;

-he speaks as quiet as a district visitor; but

-somehow--well, you feel you've just *got*

-to do what he says, and you'd be a skunk

-if you didn't.  I don't understand it, I tell

-you straight."

-

-Kenneth did not speak the thought that

-arose in his mind, but he warmed to this

-testimonial from the British working-man

-to the British public-school boy.

-

-There came a day, about the middle of

-March, when the battalion was once more

-entrained.  This time the men took it more

-quietly: the first disappointment forbade

-them to set their hopes too high.  It was

-dark when the train reached its destination;

-the lights on the platform were dim; but

-one of the men shouted, "A ship, boys!"

-as he got out of his compartment, and a

-thrill of excitement ran through the crowd.

-

-They were in fact at the dock station at

-Southampton, and a big transport vessel

-lay alongside.  Many of the men had never

-been on the sea before.  Ginger looked a

-little careworn, and confessed to Kenneth

-that he felt certain he was going to be sick.

-The night was nearly gone when all the men

-were aboard.  Some lay down in their

-overcoats; others remained on deck, irked by

-the impossibility of satisfying their curiosity

-about the vessel.

-

-At daybreak the ship cast off and steamed

-slowly through the fairway of Southampton

-Water towards the open sea.  It was a bright

-calm morning, and the men watched with

-fascinated eyes the ripples glistening in the

-sunlight, the various shipping, the shores

-receding behind them.  And presently, when

-they had rounded the north-east corner of

-the Isle of Wight, and the course was

-headed southward across the Channel, they

-burst into cheers when they caught sight of

-the low lean shapes of destroyers on either

-side of them.

-

-"What price submarines to-day!" cried

-one of the men.

-

-"Ain't got an earthly," remarked another.

-

-"Don't believe there are none," said a

-third.  "Our men in blue have sunk 'em

-all long ago."

-

-"How are you getting on, Ginger?" asked Kenneth.

-

-Ginger was half lying on his back, gripping

-a stanchion, and looking straight ahead with

-nervous anticipation.

-

-"Is it much farther?" he asked.

-

-"Nothing to speak of.  The Channel's

-as calm as a millpond."

-

-"It may be, but the ship ain't.  She's

-very lively.  All of a shake, she is.  Takes

-a lurch for'ard, then backs a bit, seemingly,

-then another lurch.  It ain't what I'm used

-to.  It worries the inside of me.  I want to

-say 'Whoa, steady!' like I do to the

-donkeys at fair time.  And it gives me the

-needle to see that there Stoneway sticking

-hisself out as if he was driving the bally

-ship.  It don't seem fair, a big chap like

-him taking it so easy when he's got twice

-as much as me to lose."

-

-"Well, you won't lose much if you keep

-still," said Harry, laughing at the man's

-woe-begone face.  "It's quite certain you

-couldn't have a calmer crossing."

-

-Ginger's alarms were needless.  When the

-cliffs of France hove in sight he got up and

-leant over the rail, eagerly watching the

-advancing coast-line.

-

-"That's France, is it?" he remarked.

-"I don't see much difference.  I can't

-understand why the folks over there don't

-speak English, when they live so close.  I

-reckon we'll learn 'em afore we get back."

-

-The red and blue roofs of Boulogne became

-distinct.  Presently the vessel rounded the

-breakwater and manoeuvred herself alongside

-the quay.  There was scarcely anything

-to show that the men had actually arrived

-in France.  Khaki predominated on the

-quay; an English voice hailed the skipper

-through a megaphone; a blue-grey motor

-omnibus with the windows boarded up and

-the words "Kaiser's coffin" chalked on the

-sides stood on the road.

-

-No time was lost in disembarkation.  The

-men were marched across the railway lines

-to a train in waiting.  Ginger, with Kenneth,

-Harry, and half a dozen more, got into a

-compartment labelled "Défense de fumer,"

-and started lighting up at once.

-

-"We'll defend it all right," said Ginger,

-"but the rest is spelt wrong."

-

-"It means you mustn't smoke," said Kenneth.

-

-"Well, that's a good 'un!  What do they

-take us for?  Any gentleman object?"

-

-"No!" yelled in chorus.

-

-"I didn't half think so."

-

-The train rumbled away eastward, and

-the men scanned the bare country from the

-windows, remarking on its dreary character,

-scarcely relieved by the pollard willows that

-raised their naked boughs against the grey

-sky.  By and by they got out at a small

-station, and marched along a straight road

-between rows of trees to a country village.

-They kept to the right side; the other was

-busy with empty supply wagons, lorries of

-familiar appearance, now and then a

-mud-caked motor car.

-

-Some officers had gone on ahead to arrange

-billets.  Arriving at the village, the majority

-of the men were accommodated in the barn

-and outbuildings of a large farm, a few in

-separate cottages.  Kenneth, with Harry

-and Ginger and other men of their platoon

-found themselves allotted to a labourer's

-cottage, where shake-downs of clean straw

-had been laid on the floors of a couple of

-rooms.  A road divided their billet from the

-garden of a good-sized house, in which

-quarters had been found for two or three of

-the officers.

-

-Apart from the traffic on the road there was

-as yet no sign of war.  No sound of guns

-broke the stillness of the spring afternoon.

-But it had become known that the firing line

-was only a few miles ahead, and the men were

-all agog with expectation of an early call to

-the trenches.

-

-It soon appeared, however, that they were

-not yet to enter upon the real work of war.

-Rumour had it that Sir John French was

-waiting for further reinforcements before

-pursuing the forward movement recently

-started at Neuve Chapelle.  Day after day

-passed in exercising, marching, practising

-operations in the field.  Word came of other

-regiments pouring across the Channel and

-occupying other villages and towns behind

-the firing line.  All day long they heard the

-distant bark of guns, and saw too frequently

-the swift passage of motor ambulances

-conveying their sad burdens to the coast.

-When off duty they strolled about the

-village, making friends of the hospitable

-villagers, romping with the children, playing

-football, cheerful, light-hearted, scarcely

-alive to the actualities of the desperate work

-in which they were so eager to engage.

-

-One day a trifling incident occupied

-Kenneth's attention for a moment.  He

-happened to have gone into a little shop to

-buy cakes for the children of the good people

-upon whom he was billeted.  Several of the

-men were there making purchases, and one

-of them was vainly trying to explain his

-wants to the shopkeeper.  Stoneway was

-standing by.  Kenneth translated for his

-baffled comrade; then, suddenly remembering

-what he had overheard on the platform

-at St. Pancras station, he said to him:

-

-"Why didn't you ask Stoneway to help

-you?  He speaks French."

-

-Stoneway looked astonished and startled,

-but said at once:

-

-"Me!  I know a word or two, but you

-can't call it speaking French.  I couldn't

-do it."

-

-Kenneth said no more, though his recollection

-of the energetic conversation at the

-station was very clear, and he wondered why

-the man had denied his accomplishment.

-

-There was only one opinion of the kindness

-and hospitality of the villagers, and the

-men were particularly enthusiastic about the

-owner of the house across the road.  Far

-from limiting himself to the sumptuous

-entertainment of the officers billeted on

-him, he went out of his way to lavish

-attentions on the soldiers, making them

-presents of cigarettes, and treating them to

-the wine of the country.  The village had

-not suffered from the ravages of war, though

-the Germans had occupied it for a few days

-during their rush towards Calais; but it

-harboured many refugees from towns and

-villages farther eastward, and these were

-supported by the benevolent owner of the

-large house, who maintained a sort of soup

-kitchen where the homeless people could

-obtain free rations.

-

-One evening, when Kenneth and his comrades

-were at supper in their host's capacious

-kitchen, the talk turned on Monsieur Obernai,

-"the mounseer over the way," as Ginger

-called him, "one of the best."  Jean

-Bonnard, the cottager, and his wife took their

-meals with their guests, and chatted freely

-to Kenneth and Harry, the only men who

-knew enough French to understand them.

-Kenneth repeated in French what Ginger had said.

-

-"Ah yes, monsieur," said Bonnard.

-"Monsieur Obernai is a good man.  You see,

-he is from Alsace, and has reason to hate the

-Germans."

-

-"All the same, I don't like him," said his

-wife, pressing her lips together.

-

-"That is a point on which we don't agree,"

-said Bonnard, with a smile.  "Just like a

-woman!  She doesn't like him, but she can't

-say why."

-

-"You hear him!" said madame.  "Just

-like a woman!  As if a woman was not

-always right!"

-

-"But you have a reason, madame?" said Harry.

-

-"Bah!  I leave reasons to men; I have

-my feelings."

-

-Bonnard shrugged his shoulders.

-

-"Well, mon amie," he said, "I can put

-my reasons into words, see you.  Monsieur

-Obernai came here from Alsace five or six

-years ago.  He could not stand the Germans,

-so he sold his property and came and settled

-here, and he has been a good friend to the

-village, that you cannot deny.  A very

-quiet man, too; he lives all alone with an

-old housekeeper and a couple of servants, and

-makes himself very pleasant.  When our

-two boys went off to the war, didn't he give

-them warm vests and stuff their haversacks

-with cigarettes?"

-

-"Yes, he was good to our poor boys,"

-admitted the good woman grudgingly, "but

-I don't like him all the same.  I don't like

-his voice; it makes me shrivel."

-

-"A man speaks with the voice God gave

-him," said her husband.  "As for me, I

-look at what a man does, and don't trouble

-myself about his voice.  And after all, it is

-not a bad voice."

-

-"Smooth as butter," rejoined the woman.

-"But there, we shall never agree, mon ami.

-Get on with your soup."

-

-After supper, some of the men settled

-down to write home.  The postal regulations

-annoyed Ginger.

-

-"I'm a poor hand at writing," he said,

-"and I don't see why I shouldn't send my

-love to my wife and kids on one of these here

-postcards.  It ain't enough for a letter; yet

-if I put it on the postcard they'd destroy it,

-they say.  What for, I'd like to know?"

-

-"It does seem hard lines," said Kenneth,

-"but I suppose it's to ease the censors' work.

-They've an enormous number of cards to

-look over, and they'd never get done if they

-had to read a lot of stuff."

-

-"'Love' 's a little word; that wouldn't

-hurt 'em.  Still, rules is rules, no doubt."

-

-He proceeded to cross out several sentences

-on the official postcard provided, leaving only

-"I am quite well" and adding his signature

-and the date.

-

-Presently the post corporal came to collect

-the letters and cards.

-

-"Captain wants you, Murgatroyd," he said.

-

-"Going to give you your stripe at last,

-Ginger," said Harry.

-

-"I shouldn't wonder," said Ginger, grinning

-as he went out.

-

-When he returned, twenty minutes later,

-the expression on his face checked the

-congratulations that rose to his comrades' lips.

-His features were grimly set, and he went

-to his place by the fire without uttering a

-word.

-

-"No luck, Ginger?" said one of the men

-indiscreetly.

-

-"Shut up!" growled Ginger, lighting his pipe.

-

-Nothing would induce him to explain why

-he had been sent for, or the reason of his

-annoyance.  He was one of the best-behaved

-men in the company, and it seemed unlikely

-that he had got into trouble without the

-knowledge of the others.  Wisely, they did

-not press him with questions, expecting that

-he would tell them all in good time.

-

-Ginger's interview with Captain Adams

-had been a surprising one.

-

-"You know the post regulations, Murgatroyd?"

-said the captain.

-

-"Yes, sir."

-

-"Well, look at this postcard.  Is that

-your signature?"

-

-"D. Murgatroyd; that's me, sir," said

-Ginger, after a glance at the pencilled name.

-

-"What do you mean by writing the name

-of the place in invisible ink?"

-

-"Never did such a thing, sir.  Don't

-know anything about invisible ink."

-

-"Well, how do you explain it, then?  This

-card had the name written in invisible ink.

-It was discovered by the Post Office in

-London, and they've returned it for

-inquiries.  What have you to say?"

-

-"What I said before, sir: I didn't do it."

-

-"You write to Henry Smith, 563 Pentonville

-Road?"

-

-"Never heard of him, sir."

-

-"What's the game, then?  Go and fetch

-the post corporal," he said to his servant.

-

-The man came in with a bundle of recently

-collected cards in his hand.

-

-"Look at this," said the captain, showing

-him the card in question.  "Did you get

-that from Murgatroyd?"

-

-"I couldn't say, sir; I get such a lot."

-

-"But you know his signature?"

-

-"I can't say I do, sir; but he has just

-written a card; perhaps you would like to

-have a look at it."

-

-He searched his bundle, found the card

-and handed it to the captain, who compared

-the two signatures.

-

-"This is very odd," he said.  "They are

-very much alike, but there's a slight

-difference in the shape of the y.  It looks as

-though some one were imitating your fist,

-Murgatroyd."

-

-"Yes, sir," said Ginger, stiffly.  "I'd

-like to punch his head, sir," he added, as

-the baseness of the trick struck him.

-

-"Well, we must find out who it is.  Keep

-this to yourselves, men; he may try it

-again and give us a chance to catch him.

-Not a word to anyone, mind."

-

-Ginger saluted and returned to his billet,

-his indignation growing at every step.

-

-The incident was discussed at the officers'

-mess that night.

-

-"Murgatroyd is straight enough," said

-Kennedy.  "He's one of the best men in my

-platoon.  It's rather a mean trick."

-

-"And a senseless one," said the captain.

-"I'm inclined to think one of the men must

-owe him a grudge, and want to get him into

-trouble."

-

-"What about the addressee?" asked

-another officer.  "Who is Henry Smith,

-of 563 Pentonville Road?"

-

-"The London people will keep him under

-observation, no doubt," said the captain.

-"I told the post corporal to examine every

-batch carefully, and see if there are any

-more addressed to the same person."

-

-Three days passed.  No letters or cards

-addressed to Henry Smith were discovered.

-On the third day a telegram from London

-was delivered to the colonel.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: small

-

-"Henry Smith gone, leaving no address.  Report

-result of enquiry."

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-After consulting Captain Adams the

-colonel telegraphed in reply that

-Murgatroyd's signature appeared to have been

-forged, probably with the intention of getting

-him into trouble, and that he was keeping a

-careful watch on the correspondence.  Ginger

-meanwhile had recovered his spirits.  He had

-been made a lance-corporal, and sewed the

-stripe on his sleeve with ingenuous

-satisfaction.  At the back of his mind was a

-suspicion that Stoneway might have sought a

-mean revenge for his thrashing by this use

-of invisible ink; but since the scheme had

-failed, he resolved not to trouble his head

-about it.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`BAGGING A SNIPER`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER VI

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   BAGGING A SNIPER

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The village being within easy range of

-the German guns, its immunity from

-bombardment struck the officers of the battalion

-as rather strange.  For a few days, it is

-true, the enemy might have been unaware

-that British troops were in occupation; but

-a German aeroplane, a dove-winged Taube,

-had been observed to fly over the place, and

-it could hardly be doubted that information

-of their presence had been carried to

-headquarters.  All that the soldiers knew of

-warfare for two or three weeks was the dull

-boom of distant guns, the passage of

-ambulances occasionally and of supply wagons

-frequently, and the passing of railway trains

-conveying new howitzers and field guns along

-the line a mile or two away.

-

-The call to action came unexpectedly.

-One evening, just after supper, the men

-were ordered to parade in full marching

-kit.  They overflowed from the little market

-square into the adjacent streets, and there

-they were inspected by the colonel, who

-passed up and down the ranks with an

-orderly carrying a lantern.

-

-When the inspection was finished, the

-colonel posted himself on a tub in the

-middle of the square.  It was a dark night,

-and the flickering light of the lantern

-illuminated only the lower part of the

-colonel's body, leaving his face in shade.

-

-"Now, men," he said, "we are going to

-take a spell in the trenches.  We have

-several miles to march; there must be no

-straggling, or you'll pitch into Jack Johnson

-holes in the road.  No talking, no smoking.

-I know you'll give a good account of

-yourselves.  We're a new battalion; we've got

-to make our name; and by George, we'll do it!"

-

-The platoon commanders stifled an

-incipient cheer, and the battalion marched off

-into the night.

-

-Along the dark straight road they tramped,

-between lines of tall poplars that raised

-their skeleton shapes against the sky.  For

-a mile or two nothing impeded their

-progress; then the advance guard came upon

-a deep cavity extending half across the road,

-and two men were told off to warn the

-succeeding ranks of the danger.  Presently

-they passed through a hamlet which had

-been shattered by the German artillery.

-The sides of the road were heaped with

-bricks and blackened rafters, behind which

-were the jagged walls of roofless cottages.

-

-A little beyond this they were met by a

-staff officer, come to guide them to the

-trenches.  Then they had to ease off to one

-side to allow the passage of the weary men

-they were relieving.  At length they came

-to a small clump of woodland, and learnt

-that the trenches were on the further side

-of it.  Section by section they passed into

-the shelter of the trees, stepping across

-trunks felled and split by shells, and slid

-noiselessly into the narrow zig-zag ditches

-where they were to eat and sleep and spend

-weary days and nights.

-

-Kennedy and his platoon, among whom

-were Kenneth, Harry, Ginger, and their pals,

-found themselves in a narrow passage about

-4 ft. 6 in. deep, with a loopholed parapet

-facing eastward, and here and there little

-cabins dug out in the banks, boarded, strewn

-with straw, warm and stuffy.  In the

-darkness it was impossible to take complete

-stock of their surroundings, but learning

-that in a dug-out it was safe to strike a light,

-Kenneth lit a candle-end, and was amused

-to see that his predecessor in the little cabin

-to which he had come had chalked up

-"Ritz Hotel" on the boarding.

-

-The men were too much excited to think

-of sleeping.  They had learnt on the way

-up that the position they were to hold was

-rather a hot place.  The Germans in their

-front, only a few hundred yards away, were

-very active and full of tricks.  They watched

-the British trenches with lynx eyes, and so

-sure as the top of a cap showed above the

-parapet it became the mark for a dozen rifles.

-There were night snipers, too, somewhere

-in the neighbourhood, constantly dropping

-bullets on their invisible target.  The men

-who had just left the trenches had been

-much worried by these snipers, whom they

-had failed to locate; but they had reason

-to believe that the pestilent marksmen were

-hidden somewhere behind the lines.

-

-"You're safe enough so long as you keep

-your heads down," said the officer who

-directed Kennedy to his position.  "Except

-for the snipers we have had little trouble

-lately; and I hope you'll have a good time."

-

-Kennedy told off his men to keep watch

-in turn through the night.  While off duty

-they sat in the dug-outs chatting quietly,

-listening for sounds from the enemy's

-trenches, wondering what was in store for

-them when daylight came.  Fortunately the

-wet weather had ceased; the bottom of the

-trench was still sticky, but the March winds

-were rapidly drying the ground.  The night

-was cold, but there was a brazier in each

-dug-out, and the men, crouching over these

-in their great-coats, contrived to keep warm

-and comfortable.

-

-They watched eagerly for daylight.  At

-the first peep of dawn some of the men were

-told off to the loopholes.  About thirty yards

-in front there stretched a wire entanglement,

-with small cans dangling from it here and

-there.  Two or three hundred yards beyond

-this they saw the similar entanglement of

-the Germans.  For about a hundred yards

-of the line this wire was more remote, and

-the men learnt afterwards that a pond of

-that breadth filled a declivity in the ground.

-Here and there, all round the position at

-varying distances, stood isolated farmhouses,

-trees, and patches of woodland.  All was

-peaceful; no sound of war broke the stillness

-of the fair March morning.

-

-They had their breakfast of cocoa and

-bread and jam.  Towards noon two men

-from each section were told off to go back

-to a farm house behind the lines for the

-day's rations.  They hurried along the trench

-in a crouching posture, struck into a

-communicating trench leading to the rear, and

-emerged on the outskirts of the wood.

-There was instantly the crack of a rifle.  A

-sniper had begun his day's work.  The men

-waited uneasily, clutching their rifles,

-wondering if any of their comrades had been

-hit.  Kennedy posted his men a yard apart

-along the trench, ready to fire at the first

-sign of movement among the enemy.  The

-zig-zag formation of the trench prevented

-any man from seeing more than the men of

-his own section, and there came upon them a

-feeling of loneliness and almost individual

-responsibility.

-

-In about an hour's time Kenneth and his

-comrades were relieved to see their

-food-carriers returning with steaming pails.

-These contained a sort of hash mixed with

-beans and potatoes.  The men poured this

-into their billies, warmed them at the

-braziers, and acknowledged that their dinner

-of Irish stew à la Française wasn't half bad.

-After that food was carried up only at night.

-

-The day passed uneventfully.  A

-rifle-shot was heard now and then; from a

-distant part of the line came the continual

-rumble of artillery-fire; once they caught

-sight of a British aeroplane far away to the

-north-east, with little patches of white smoke

-following it, hugging it.  There was nothing

-to do except to keep a continual look-out.

-

-But at dusk the reality of their danger was

-brought home to them.  Cramped with the

-fatigue of maintaining a bending-posture

-one of the men got up to stretch himself.

-"Keep down!" shouted Kennedy, but it

-was too late.  There was a slight whizz; the

-man fell headlong.  Kenneth ran to him,

-as the crack of the rifle was heard.  Nothing

-could be done.  The bullet had pierced the

-man's brain.

-

-When it was dark Kenneth and Ginger

-carried their dead comrade through the

-trenches to the wood, and buried him there

-among the trees.  They returned in silence

-to their post.

-

-"You'll write to his mother," said Ginger,

-as they got back.  "She'll like to know as

-how poor Dick has been put away decent."

-

-"Yes, I'll write," said Kenneth.  "He

-felt no pain."

-

-"War's a cursed thing," Ginger broke

-out.  "What call have these Kaisers and

-people to murder young chaps like Dick,

-all for their own selfishness?--that's what

-it comes to.  It didn't ought to be, and 'pon

-my soul, it beats me why us millions of

-working men don't put a stop to it.  We're

-in it now; I'll do my bit; but seems to me

-the world would be all the better if they'd

-just string up a few of the emperors and

-such, them as thinks war's such a mighty

-fine thing."

-

-Their first loss threw a cloud upon the

-spirits of the men.  But it did not lessen

-their resolution.  Direct knowledge, slight

-though it was at present, of the grim realities

-of war braced their courage.  Already they

-had a comrade's death to avenge.  To the

-more thoughtful of them the dead man

-represented a blow struck at their country,

-and they saw more clearly than before that

-it was their country's service that had called

-them here.

-

-Their spell in the trenches was to last

-two days.  They were days of inaction,

-discomfort, tedium.  Apart from

-intermittent sniping the Germans made no

-movement.  The Rutlands kept incessant watch

-on them, with no relaxation until the fall

-of night.  Even then they were not at ease.

-Sniping was kept up fitfully through the

-night, and they learnt that even in the

-darkness there was peril is rising to stretch

-their cramped limbs.  At dusk on the first

-day a man was slightly wounded.  These

-sneaking tactics, as they considered them,

-on the part of an unseen enemy worried and

-irritated the men.  Whenever a shot was

-heard, they tried to estimate its direction,

-but their guesses were so contradictory that

-no definite opinion could be arrived at.  On

-one occasion Kenneth tried to calculate the

-distance of the marksman by noting the

-interval that elapsed between the whistling

-sound of the bullet and the subsequent

-report of the rifle; but neither his data nor

-his watch were sufficiently accurate to give

-him much satisfaction.  The one thing that

-seemed certain was that the night sniping

-was done somewhere behind the lines.

-

-When the battalion was relieved, and

-returned to billets for a couple of days' rest,

-officers and men talked of little but the

-sniping.  They thought that nothing could

-be more demoralising, having as yet had no

-experience of heavy gun-fire.  The officers

-discussed the possibility of getting hold of

-the snipers, and determined to take serious

-steps to that end on their next turn of duty

-at the trenches.

-

-An opportunity seemed to offer itself on

-their second day back.  There had been a

-good deal of sniping overnight, and in the

-morning Kenneth happened to notice what

-appeared to be a bullet-hole on the inner side

-of the parapet.  He at once called Captain

-Adams' attention to it.

-

-"That's proof positive," said the captain.

-"The sniper is behind us."

-

-"It seems odd that he should fire on the

-mere chance of hitting somebody, for of

-course he can't take aim in the dark," said

-Kenneth.

-

-"He's got our range, of course, knows

-we've no rear parapet yet, and guesses that

-we move about more freely after dark.  But

-we ought to be able to locate him now.

-Stick your bayonet carefully into the hole,

-Amory; we'll get a hint of the direction of

-the bullet's flight."

-

-The bullet had penetrated some little

-distance into the earth.  Kenneth probed

-the hole with his bayonet, and it seemed

-pretty certain that the shot had been fired

-from the left rear, and, judging by the angle

-of incidence, from a considerable distance,

-probably not less than a mile.

-

-Captain Adams scanned the ground in

-that direction through his field glasses.

-About a mile to the left rear stood a small

-copse.  Slanting a rifle towards it, and

-comparing the angle with that of the hole

-made by the bullet, the captain decided

-that the copse was too far to the right, and

-swept his glasses towards the left.  The

-only other likely spot was the ruins of a farm,

-but that seemed too far to the left.  Between

-farm and copse ran a low railway

-embankment, which appeared almost exactly to

-meet the conditions.

-

-"The sniper is there or thereabouts,"

-said the captain.  "Are you game to do a

-little scouting to-night, Amory?"

-

-"Anything you like, sir," Kenneth replied.

-

-"Well, creep out to-night and see if you

-can make anything of it.  It would be safer

-to go alone, perhaps, but on the other hand

-a little support may be useful, so you had

-better take another man--Murgatroyd, say:

-he's an active man, and not too tall.  You

-must have your wits about you."

-

-Ginger was delighted at the chance of

-doing something.  The other men envied

-him, and Harry looked a trifle sulky.

-

-"Cheer up, old man," said Kenneth.

-"Your turn will come some day."

-

-At dusk Kenneth and Ginger, the former

-carrying a revolver supplied by the captain,

-the latter armed only with his bayonet,

-made their way through the communication

-trenches to the second line of entrenchments

-and thence to the road leading to the village.

-They waited until complete darkness had

-fallen before stepping openly on to the road.

-The Germans had the range of it, and

-knowing that it was used after dark by British

-troops moving to and from the trenches,

-they might start shelling at any moment.

-

-"We'll leave the road as soon as possible,"

-said Kenneth, as they set off, "and bear

-away to the left."

-

-"The right, you mean," said Ginger.

-

-"No, the left, and work our way round.

-We'll take a leaf out of the Germans' book;

-they prefer flank attacks to front.  We've

-plenty of time."

-

-It was very dark.  They struck off to

-the left across fields, and picked their way

-as well as they could, stumbling now and

-then into holes and over broken relics of

-former engagements.  They could only guess

-distance.  Kenneth took the time by his

-luminous watch, and allowing for the detour,

-when they had walked for twenty minutes

-he bore to the right, crossed the deserted

-road, and peered through the darkness for

-the ruined farm and the railway embankment.

-No trains had run beyond the village

-for a considerable time, and it was known

-that the permanent way had been cut up by

-German shells.

-

-Moving purely by guesswork they failed

-to find the farm, but after a time came

-suddenly upon the embankment, and halted.

-

-"Right or left?" whispered Kenneth.

-

-"The farm?" returned Ginger.

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Right, I should say."

-

-At this moment a shell burst in the air

-some distance to their right, whether from

-a British or a German gun they could not

-tell.  It lit up the country momentarily like

-a flash of lightning, and as the two men

-instinctively flung themselves down, they

-caught sight of the ruins some distance on

-their right hand.  The illumination was

-over in a second, leaving the sky blacker

-than before.

-

-They waited a little, wondering whether

-the shell was herald of a night attack.  But

-the shot was not repeated.  The country

-was silent.

-

-"Just to let us know they ain't gone home

-yet," Ginger whispered.

-

-"We'll make for the farm," said Kenneth

-in equally low tones.  "The sniper hasn't

-begun work yet; I haven't heard any rifle

-shots about here.  We'll separate when we

-get to the place, and approach it from

-opposite sides."

-

-Very cautiously they groped their way

-across the open field towards the farm house,

-and when they caught sight of it, bent down

-under cover of a hedge, and crept on almost

-by inches.  Then, leaving Ginger near the

-broken gate of the farmyard, Kenneth stole

-away to make a complete circuit of the place.

-

-In ten minutes he returned.

-

-"It's a mere shell," he whispered.  "The

-roof is gone, except in one corner; there are

-heaps of rubble everywhere, rafters lying

-at all angles, and furniture smashed to

-splinters."

-

-"Did you go inside?"

-

-"No, but I think we might risk it.  Look

-out you don't get a sprained ankle."

-

-They crept through the yard, over the

-rubbish, and into what had been the house.

-Kenneth had an electric torch, but dared

-not use it.  They halted frequently to peer

-and listen, then went on again, doing their

-utmost to avoid any disturbance of the

-broken masonry and woodwork.  Before

-they had completed their examination of

-the premises, the crack of a rifle at no great

-distance away caused them to abandon the

-search and hurry into the open again.

-

-Outside, they waited for a repetition of

-the shot to give them a clue.  It was some

-time before it came.  At length there was

-a dull rumble of distant artillery, and in the

-midst of it a sound like a muffled rifle-shot

-from the direction of the railway.

-

-"He's a clever chap," whispered Kenneth.

-"I hadn't noticed it before, but I think he

-waits for the sound of firing elsewhere before

-he fires himself--a precaution against being

-spotted.  Let us wait for the next."

-

-Presently there was the rattle of musketry

-from the trenches far to the left.  Before it

-had died away, a single rifle cracked much

-nearer at hand.

-

-"From the railway, sure enough," said

-Ginger.  "We'll cop him."

-

-They hurried across the field to the

-embankment, crawled up it, and when their

-eyes reached the level of the track, they

-peered up and down the line.  They could

-see only a few yards, so dark was the night.

-There was no glint even from the rails,

-which were rusty from disuse.  After

-listening a while, they crept up on to the track,

-and waited for another shot to guide them.

-

-It was long in coming.  To move before

-knowing the direction would be useless and

-might be dangerous, so, curbing their

-impatience, they lay on the slope of the

-embankment.

-

-At last they heard the whirr of an

-aeroplane.  Having learnt to expect a shot from

-the sniper when it was masked by some

-other sound, they sprang up.  The humming

-drew nearer; then came the single sharp

-rifle crack.

-

-"Behind us!" whispered Kenneth.

-

-With great caution the two men moved

-along the track, stepping over sleepers and

-rails torn up, and skirting deep holes made by

-shells.  Every now and again they stopped

-to listen.  Presently they were brought to

-a sudden halt by the sound of a rifle-shot

-apparently almost beneath them.  Dropping

-to the ground, they peeped over the

-embankment.  At this spot there had been a

-landslip, evidently caused by a heavy shell.

-At the foot of the embankment lay a pool

-of water, extending for some twenty yards.

-Except for these nothing was to be seen.

-

-They felt rather uncomfortable.  On this

-bare embankment, rising from an equally

-bare plain, there seemed to be no cover of

-any kind.  Yet it was certain that a sniper

-was within a few yards of them, perhaps

-within a few feet.  They lay perfectly

-still, watching, waiting for another shot.  It

-did not come.  Kenneth began to wonder

-whether the sniper had seen or heard them,

-and stolen away.  Or perhaps he was stalking

-them.  At this thought Kenneth gripped

-his revolver.

-

-What was to be done?  To prowl about

-in the darkness on the chance of discovering

-the marksman would be mere foolhardiness.

-He hoped on for another shot, not daring

-even to whisper to Ginger.  The minutes

-lengthened into hours; the two men were

-cramped with cold; but as if by mutual

-consent they lay where they were.  Neither

-was willing to go back and report failure.

-Now and again they caught slight sounds

-which they were unable to identify or locate.

-They nibbled some biscuits they had brought

-with them, determined at least to await the

-dawn.  Conscious of discomfort, they had

-no sense of fatigue or sleepiness.  And when

-at length the darkness began to yield, they

-fancied they saw shadowy enemies on the

-misty plain.

-

-When it was light enough to see clearly,

-they looked to right and left, to the front

-and the rear, and discovered no sign of life

-within a mile of them.  The air began to

-fill with the roll of artillery and the rattle of

-rifle-shots.  Here and there in the distance

-they saw columns of black smoke.  Two

-aeroplanes passed overhead towards the

-German lines, and shrapnel shells strewed

-white puffs around and below them.  But

-on the embankment all was quiet.

-

-"He must have got away in the darkness,"

-Kenneth ventured to whisper at last.

-

-"Can't make it out," murmured Ginger

-in return.

-

-How the sniper could have escaped unseen

-was a mystery.  Daylight revealed the

-bareness of the plain.  Only a few low hedges

-divided the fields.  One such, bordered by

-a narrow ditch, ran northward from the

-railway within a few yards of them.  But

-this could be of no use to a sniper, for it

-was on the wrong side of the embankment,

-towards the north.

-

-After a murmured consultation they rose

-to examine the embankment more closely,

-in the hope of finding tracks of the sniper.

-As they did so, a number of bullets whistled

-around them; their figures had been seen

-on the skyline by the Germans.  Dropping

-instantly to the ground, they crawled along,

-skirting the hole made by the shell, and

-taking care not to slide down in the loose

-earth that had been displaced.  They covered

-thus a hundred yards or so in each direction,

-up and down the line, without discovering

-anything.

-

-"We must give it up," said Kenneth at

-last.  "I don't like to, but I see nothing else

-for it."

-

-"Our chaps are in billets to-day," said

-Ginger.  "I'm game to stay till to-night if

-you are."

-

-"All right.  We've got our emergency

-rations.  We may as well lie up in the farm,

-and take turns to sleep."

-

-They crawled across the track to the

-British side of the embankment, slid down

-the slope, and being now safe from German

-shots began to walk erect along the bottom,

-following a slight curve in the direction of

-the farm.  The less of open field they had to

-cross, the better.

-

-They had taken only a few steps along

-the base of the embankment when Ginger,

-a little in advance of Kenneth, stopped

-suddenly, and stooped.  Then he turned his

-head quickly, putting his finger to his lips.

-Kenneth hurried up.  Ginger pointed to a

-slight track in the grass, leading round the

-low hedge before mentioned.  Without

-hesitation they began to follow it up, moving

-with infinite precaution, and bending under

-cover of the hedge.

-

-Running straight for some distance, the

-track at last made a sharp bend to the right,

-then skirting another hedge parallel with the

-embankment.  The two men were on the

-point of turning with it when Kenneth, in

-the rear, happening to look behind him over

-the hedge, caught sight of a man about half

-a mile away, coming apparently from the

-direction of the village where the Rutlands

-were billeted.  Ginger came back at a low

-call from his companion, and they stood

-together at the hedge, watching the stranger,

-careful to keep out of sight themselves.

-

-The man drew nearer.  He was old and

-shabbily dressed.  A small basket was slung

-on his back.  Every now and again he

-looked behind as if fearful of being followed.

-They watched him eagerly, surprised, full

-of curiosity and suspicion.  His path ran

-along the hedge parallel with the railway,

-and he was screened by it from the British

-lines.

-

-He came on until he had almost reached

-the hedge behind which the two Englishmen

-were posted.  At this point there was a

-wide gap in the hedge that covered him,

-and he turned off sharply at right angles

-towards the railway.  Kenneth instantly

-guessed that he had done this to avoid

-observation through the gap, that he would

-pass round the end of the hedge near the

-embankment, and follow the track by which

-Ginger and he had recently come.

-

-As the man turned, Ginger caught Kenneth

-by the sleeve.  His eyes were bright with

-excitement.  He seemed about to speak,

-but Kenneth hastily clapped a hand over

-his mouth.  Watching the man until he was

-on the point of turning the corner, Kenneth

-drew Ginger through a small gap in the hedge

-parallel with the railway, and they waited

-there until the stranger came up to it on the

-track they had just left, and began to walk

-towards another hedge at right angles to it,

-which led back to the embankment almost

-at the spot where they had watched through

-the night.

-

-They followed him quietly.  He was on

-the inner side of the hedge, they on the outer.

-They saw that he was wading along the

-ditch towards the railway.  At the end of

-the hedge they stooped and peeped through

-a gap, to see what was going on within a

-few feet of them.  They heard a low whistle,

-and were just in time to catch sight of the

-man disappearing into a culvert that carried

-the ditch under the embankment.

-

-Allowing him time to get through, they

-crawled through the hedge, up the

-embankment, over the line, and approaching the

-culvert from above, established themselves

-on top of the brickwork at the entrance.

-They heard voices from below, within the

-culvert.  Kenneth held his revolver ready,

-Ginger gripped his bayonet.  And there

-they waited for one or other of the men

-inside to come out.

-

-They had not long to wait.  The mumble

-of voices came nearer.  Kenneth listened

-intently, but could not distinguish the words

-until, just beneath him, he heard "Auf

-Wiedersehen!"  Immediately afterwards the

-man they had followed waded out through

-the shallow water at the bottom of the

-culvert, bending almost double to avoid the

-arch.  His basket was gone.  Just as he

-was about to straighten himself, Kenneth

-called sternly, "Hands up!"  The man

-swung round, saw a revolver pointed at his

-head, and instantly threw up his hands, at

-the same time glancing right and left as if

-seeking some way of escape.

-

-.. _`"HANDS UP!"`:

-

-.. figure:: images/img-094.jpg

-   :align: center

-   :alt: "HANDS UP!"

-

-   "HANDS UP!"

-

-What were they to do with him?  Within

-a few feet of them, in the culvert, was the

-sniper, a man of courage and daring, or he

-would not have elected or been chosen for

-this particular means of serving his country.

-Luckily Kenneth was a man of quick decision.

-

-"Collar that fellow while I keep an eye

-below," he said.  "Take care you don't

-show against the opening."

-

-Ginger sprang down the embankment,

-and approached the captive, whom Kenneth

-covered with his revolver, at the same time

-keeping an eye on the arch below.  In a few

-seconds Ginger had made the man pull off

-his coat and waistcoat, and unfasten his

-braces, and with these he tied him hand and

-foot.

-

-"You'll be safe there for a bit," he said,

-laying the man at the foot of the

-embankment.  Then he rejoined his companion.

-

-Meanwhile Kenneth had been considering

-how to get the sniper out.  There had been

-no sound from the culvert, but the German

-must be well aware of what had happened.

-That he had not attempted to escape by the

-other end was probably explained by his

-ignorance of the number of men he had to

-do with.  Armed with his rifle, he might

-have thought himself pretty safe in the

-narrow culvert, where he could take heavy

-toll of any assailants who should attempt a

-direct attack.

-

-"We'll have to smoke him out," whispered

-Kenneth, as Ginger joined him.  "There's

-some straw in the farmhouse; cut back

-quickly and bring as much as you can carry."

-

-In ten minutes Ginger returned with two

-large bundles which he had himself trussed.

-He kindled one of the trusses, and placed it

-at the rear end of the culvert, the quarter

-from which a slight breeze was blowing.

-Kenneth meanwhile kept watch above the

-brick arch at the other end.

-

-The straw was somewhat damp, and made

-as much smoke as they could have wished.

-Carried by the breeze through the culvert,

-it floated out beneath Kenneth, tickling

-his throat and causing his eyes to smart.

-Every moment he expected the sniper to

-make a rush from his unendurable position.

-When a minute or two had passed without

-any sign of the man he was surprised: was

-insensibility to smoke one of the German

-superiorities?

-

-"Any more straw, Ginger?" he asked.

-

-"Another bundle," Ginger replied, and

-returned to the farther end to light it.

-

-He had only just disappeared over the

-edge of the embankment when Kenneth,

-who had been straining his ears for sounds of

-movements below, heard a slight

-displacement of ballast on the line above him.

-Glancing up, he found himself looking straight

-at the barrel of a rifle, behind which was a

-head surmounted by a German helmet.

-

-For half a second he was paralysed with

-astonishment.  Then a click galvanised him

-into activity.  Realising that the rifle had

-missed fire, forgetting--like an idiot, as he

-afterwards confessed--that he had a revolver,

-he made a spring and with his left hand seized

-the muzzle a few feet above him.  The

-German held fast; there was a momentary

-tug of war; then the German lost his footing

-on the slippery earth, fell suddenly to a

-sitting posture, and slid down the

-embankment helplessly, driving Kenneth under

-him into the shallow pool of water at the foot.

-

-Kenneth was a thought quicker than the

-German in recovering his wits.  Wriggling

-sideways, he flung his arm over the man,

-spluttering out a mouthful of muddy water,

-and grappled him.  For a few seconds they

-heaved and writhed like grampuses.  Then

-Ginger, drawn by the splash, came running

-across the line, saw the struggling figures,

-sprang down the embankment, and dashed

-his fist in the German's face.  In another

-moment he had dragged the man out of the

-water and a foot or two up the embankment,

-and held him down until Kenneth had shaken

-himself and come to his side.

-

-"This beats cockfighting," he said.

-"Where did the beggar come from?"

-

-"Don't know," said Kenneth.  "We'll

-see presently.  I'm nearly choked with mud.

-We'll have to use his braces too."

-

-When they had tied the man securely,

-they got up to investigate.  What they

-discovered was a proof of the ingenuity

-which the Germans exhibit in all their

-undertakings.  The landslide, a little to the

-right of the culvert, formed a sort of boss on

-the embankment.  At the farther extremity

-of this, out of sight from the spot where

-Kenneth had stood, the German had forced

-his way up from a small chamber excavated

-in the base of the embankment, where he

-had a folding chair, a rug, a tin plate and

-mug, a supply of ammunition, and the

-basket which the visitor had carried.  It

-was full of food.  There were two or three

-inconspicuous openings for the admission

-of air, and, towards the British trenches, a

-small tube, and an arrangement by which

-the rifle could be clamped.  Evidently the

-sniper took his sights in the daytime, and

-set the rifle in such a position in the tube

-that he could fire directly on the trenches

-with the certainty of having the correct aim.

-

-"Up to snuff, ain't they, not half," said

-Ginger, with unwilling admiration.  "But

-how did you come to be wallowing in that

-there puddle?"

-

-Kenneth explained.

-

-"My word! a lucky missfire," said Ginger.

-

-"Lucky indeed!" replied Kenneth.

-"And we can't discover the cause of it;

-the rifle's in the mud."

-

-"Never mind about the cause of it.

-We've bagged our first prisoners; that's

-one to us and the Rutlands."

-

-But Kenneth was never satisfied to leave

-a problem unsolved.  Thinking over the

-matter constantly during the next few days,

-unwilling to ascribe to luck something that

-must have a sufficient cause, he came to

-the conclusion that the breech of the rifle

-had become clogged with earth as the sniper

-forced his way up through the landslide.

-

-They marched their prisoners back to

-headquarters in the village, keeping the

-embankment between them and the enemy

-as long as possible.

-

-"I've often seen this old rascal about

-the village," said Ginger, referring to the

-civilian.  "He's a spy, that's what he is.

-They'll shoot him, won't they?"

-

-"The colonel will hold an enquiry, no

-doubt.  By George!  I shall be glad to get

-back and dry my things and have a good feed."

-

-They received an enthusiastic welcome

-from their comrades, and Colonel Appleton

-commended them for their successful work.

-The sniper was sent to the rear as a prisoner

-of war.  An investigation was held.  It

-came out that the civilian who supplied him

-with food was a supposed refugee, and one

-of the pensioners of Monsieur Obernai.  That

-gentleman was summoned to the court of

-inquiry, and was overcome with horror on

-learning that one of the men whom he had

-assisted was a spy.

-

-"It is heart-breaking," he said.  "It is

-enough to make one hard.  Besides, it might

-throw suspicion on me.  Still, it would not

-be just to abandon my humble efforts to

-alleviate distress because one man has

-deceived me.  But in future I shall make

-the most careful inquiries before I assist a

-stranger."

-

-The spy was shot, and thereafter there

-was no more trouble from night snipers at

-that part of the lines.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`IN THE ENEMY'S LINES`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER VII

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   IN THE ENEMY'S LINES

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It was during their next spell in the

-trenches that the Rutlands had their first

-taste of artillery fire.  They were not

-systematically bombarded: there was no

-indication of infantry attack; but at irregular

-intervals shells from field guns burst over

-or behind the trenches, doing very little

-damage, but making the men nervous and

-irritable.  When the ominous tearing sound

-was heard as a shell flew through the air,

-the men winced and cowered, and at the

-explosion they looked fearfully around,

-sometimes through a shower of earth, wondering

-to find themselves still alive.

-

-"You'll get used to it by and by," said

-Captain Adams to the men of his company.

-"The bark is worse than the bite at present.

-It's really very kind of the Bosches to let

-you get accustomed to them gradually."

-

-After a day or two the bombardment

-became heavier and more persistent.  Two

-or three batteries were located, either by

-officers in observation posts or by British

-airmen, and the British gunners replied to

-them, not without success.  But presently

-the trenches were shelled at night by heavier

-guns which it seemed impossible to place.

-The position of the guns appeared to vary.

-Sometimes the reports came from the

-south-east, sometimes from the east, sometimes

-from the north-east; and in general they

-were louder than those of the guns which

-had been definitely located, though this fact,

-in the opinion of some of the men, was due

-to the stillness of the night air.  They began

-to suspect that the Germans were bringing

-up more guns to various parts of their line,

-with the idea of discouraging any attempt

-to break through at this point.

-

-All this made the Rutlands eager to come

-to grips with the enemy, and the prolonged

-inaction tried them sorely.  To amuse them

-during the long weary evenings in the

-trenches the colonel sent for a number of

-mouth organs, and some of the officers read

-to them in the dug-outs by candle light.

-One evening the men of Kennedy's platoon

-pricked up their ears when they heard the

-plaintive notes of a flute from a short distance

-on their left.

-

-"Who's playing?" they asked.

-

-Word was passed along the trench that

-it was Stoneway, who had bought a flute in

-the village.

-

-"There's a chap for you!" said Ginger.

-"All the months we were training the

-beggar never did a thing, playing or singing.

-Seems to me he can play, too.  But he didn't

-ought to play 'Home, sweet Home.'  Gives

-you a lump in your throat.  Pass the word

-along for 'Dolly Grey,' will you, mates?"

-

-Stoneway's unsuspected musical accomplishments

-raised him in the estimation of

-his comrades.  Every night there were calls

-for him.  He knew a great number of their

-favourite tunes, and was always ready to

-play them.  He would usually begin by

-running up and down the scale, and practising

-tuneless exercises; and sometimes, when

-these preliminary flourishes were rather

-prolonged, the men called to him to "cut it"

-and come to the real thing.

-

-As time went on, the shelling became more

-frequent.  It soon became clear that the

-Germans were working from definite

-knowledge of what was going on behind the

-British lines.  The bombardment often took

-place when parties were relieving one another

-in the trenches, though this was always done

-in darkness.  And one day, when the general

-commanding the division came to the village

-to inspect the battalion, a particularly brisk

-shelling caused a stampede of the people,

-who had come to regard themselves as safe.

-Several cottages were damaged, several

-civilians as well as soldiers were killed or

-wounded, and a heavy shell excavated a

-deep hole in the garden of Monsieur Obernai's

-house.

-

-One morning the trenches were subjected

-for the first time to the fire of a heavy

-howitzer.  A peculiar low drone, rapidly

-increasing in loudness, was heard.

-

-"'Ware Jack Johnson!" cried Captain

-Adams, and the men crouched in the

-trenches, holding their breath.

-

-The first shell fell some distance behind

-the lines.  They heard a terrific crash, and

-saw a column of thick smoke.  The second

-shell, about a minute after the first, fell far

-too short, plunging into the ground just in

-front of the German trenches, and bespattering

-them with earth.  The third exploded in

-the pond between the lines, and sent a wave

-into the German trench at the side.  During

-the next half hour the ground in front of the

-pond between the opposing forces was pitted

-with holes made by the heavy shells.

-

-"There's something wrong with the

-range-finding or the charges," remarked Harry.

-

-"Lucky for us," said Kenneth, brushing

-from his coat some dust cast up by one of

-the shells.  "The smell is bad enough."

-

-After half an hour the shelling ceased, and

-the men wondered what purpose the Germans

-could have had in such an apparently

-motiveless bombardment.  Captain Adams

-suspected that something was going on in the

-German lines, and remembering the success

-of Kenneth and Ginger in discovering the

-sniper, he decided to send them out that

-night as a listening patrol.  Harry begged to

-be allowed to go with them.

-

-"Very well," said the captain.  "If

-you're successful we'll try a whole section

-another time.  It's a ticklish job, you

-understand.  You'll crawl over to the German

-trenches, and listen.  You know German,

-Amory, I believe.  You'll do the listening,

-then; you others keep on the watch.  Don't

-lose your way.  I'll take care that the men

-here don't fire on you as you come back;

-but if you stray too far to right or left you

-may find yourselves in hot water."

-

-"You've no special instructions, sir?"

-asked Kenneth.

-

-"No: you must work out the details

-yourselves.  You're not puppets on the end

-of a string."

-

-"Nor yet monkeys on a stick," Ginger

-murmured when the captain had gone.

-"What did Capting mean by that?"

-

-"He meant that we're not machine made,

-as the Germans are, by all accounts," replied

-Harry.  "I say, I'm jolly glad he let me

-go too: I'm getting quite fat with doing

-nothing."

-

-They talked over their plans together.

-Obviously the safest direction in which to

-approach the enemy was towards the large

-pond.  This was an irregular oval in shape,

-and the Germans had not closely followed

-its curve in cutting their trenches, for, if they

-had done so, it would have exposed them

-to enfilading fire from the British.  They

-had carried their advanced trench close up

-to the border of the pond on each side, then

-run communicating trenches at right angles

-from front to rear, and there dug a straight

-trench along the breadth of the pond, about

-a hundred yards in the rear of their first

-alignment.  The wire entanglements in front

-of the pond, facing the British, were not so

-elaborate as on the rest of their line, from

-which the inference was that the water was

-too deep to be waded.

-

-Just before midnight the three men crept

-stealthily out of their trench, armed only

-with their bayonets, crawled under the

-barbed wire, and wriggled forward towards

-the pond.  It was slow and tiring work, for

-the ground was much cut up by shell fire,

-and littered with fragments of shells, empty

-tins, and other rubbish.  There was a certain

-advantage in the unevenness, in that it gave

-cover; but it also contained an element of

-danger, because there was a risk of their

-displacing something as they proceeded, and

-they knew that the slightest noise would

-provoke a fusillade from the enemy.

-

-The moon was not up, but the sky was

-spangled with stars, by whose feeble light

-they were able to distinguish objects on the

-ground within ten or a dozen paces.  They

-heard the Germans talking and laughing in

-their trenches, and here and there a slight

-radiance marked the places where they had

-candles or lamps.  Foot by foot they crawled

-on, Kenneth leading the way towards the

-angle of the trenches on the left.

-

-At last he came to a stop within a few feet

-of the parapet.  The three men lay flat on

-the ground.  For some moments Kenneth

-was not able to distinguish anything from the

-general murmur, but presently he realised

-that one man was reading aloud to the rest

-from a German newspaper.  "The blockade

-of England.  Great German success in the

-North Sea.  An English merchantman of

-245 tons laden with bricks was torpedoed in

-the North Sea yesterday, and seriously

-damaged.  The starvation of England

-proceeds satisfactorily."

-

-"What, do the English eat bricks?" asked

-one simple soul.

-

-There was a laugh.

-

-"They have good teeth!  Look at this

-picture," said another.

-

-"If the English bricks are harder than our

-war bread I pity them," said a third.  "We

-needn't cry 'God punish England' any more."

-

-"Is there any news of sinking a grain

-ship?" asked a voice.

-

-"No," replied the reader.  "Grain comes

-in big vessels; I expect the Americans won't

-let their ships sail.  We shall have America

-on our side soon."

-

-"Anything to shorten the war," said a man.

-"I'm tired of it.  I want to get home to

-Anna and the children.  The General said

-it would be all over by Christmas."

-

-"So it will, by next Christmas.  I want

-to get back to the Savoy: I made £10 there

-the Christmas before last."

-

-"You won't make it again.  The English

-won't have any money after this."

-

-Signing to the others to remain where

-they were, Kenneth crept still farther

-forward until he came below the parapet.

-From the direction of the voices he guessed

-that the trench was unoccupied at the

-angle; the men who should be there were

-gathered around the man who had the paper.

-Cautiously raising himself, he peeped first

-through a loophole, then over the crown of the

-parapet.  Here he was able to look along

-both the main trench and the communicating

-trench at right angles to it.  In the former,

-about a dozen yards away, he saw a group of

-men at the entrance of a dug-out, from which

-a glow shone forth.  It was here, evidently,

-that the man was reading.  He discovered

-the reason why, apart from the attraction

-of the newspaper, this part of the trench was

-empty.  The stars were reflected in water

-that lay along the bottom.  There was

-evidently a considerable leakage from the

-pond.  On the right hand the communication

-trench was quite dark.  Apparently it

-was not manned at all.

-

-Kenneth dropped down again, and

-remained for a short time listening.  The

-conversation had changed: instead of

-discussing the war, the Germans were talking of

-domestic matters; the ex-waiter of the Savoy

-Hotel described his little house and garden

-at Peckham, and told how he had happened

-to meet in London a girl from his own

-village in Wurtemburg, who was now his wife.

-Luckily he had saved enough money to keep

-her and his children for a year or two.

-

-Finding that he was not likely to gain

-any important information, Kenneth crawled

-back to his companions, and they made their

-wriggling way to their trench without being

-discovered.  Captain Adams was a little

-disappointed at the meagre result of their

-reconnaissance.  The only valuable piece

-of news was that the communication trench

-was empty and the angle flooded.

-

-Shortly after their return the mysterious

-gun again opened fire.  Several men were

-wounded by splinters of shells, one so

-seriously that, in spite of the risk, he had to

-be carried at once to the rear.

-

-Next day Kenneth said to Harry:

-

-"Look here, last night's business has

-whetted my appetite.  Why shouldn't we

-get behind the German lines and see if we

-can locate that gun?  Every day we lose

-a man or two without being able to retaliate,

-and it's quite time to put a stop to it."

-

-"Will the captain let us?"

-

-"Adams wouldn't object, I think; but

-I'm afraid we should have to get the colonel's

-leave for this.  I'll take the first opportunity

-of speaking to the captain.  It would be a

-pity not to make some use of the little

-information we were able to pick up."

-

-Captain Adams, when the proposal was

-put to him, at once said, as Kenneth had

-expected, that he must ask the colonel's

-permission.

-

-"It's a good deal more dangerous than

-last night's affair, you see.  You'll be shot

-out of hand if you're caught."

-

-"But it's worth trying, sir, if we can find

-that gun.  Apart from our losses, it's making

-the men jumpy."

-

-"That's all very well, but I don't want to

-lose two useful men.  Still, I'll see what the

-colonel says."

-

-Later in the day he sent for them.

-

-"I've seen the colonel," he said.  "He

-was at first dead against it, but I did my best

-for you.  He agrees, provided you come back

-at once if you find things too unhealthy:

-that is to say, you are not to go on if you come

-up against any considerable body of the

-enemy.  And keep the matter to yourselves.

-You'll be supposed to be going out again as

-a listening patrol.  I shall tell only

-Mr. Kennedy and your sergeant.  No one else

-is to know what has become of you, and they

-will be on the look-out for your return."

-

-He gave them a large-scale map of the

-district behind the German lines, and

-recommended them to study it carefully during

-the day.  The railway seemed likely to be

-their best landmark.  It ran almost due

-north-east.  About four miles away it passed

-over a canal running north and south.  With

-these two fixed lines and a pocket luminous

-compass they should not wander far afield

-in ignorance of their general position.  Much

-nearer to the British trenches, and almost

-directly in their front, was a ruined church,

-the spire of which, used by the Germans as

-an observation post, had been shot away

-some time before the Rutlands arrived at the

-front.

-

-Their diligence in conning the map aroused

-the curiosity of their comrades, but they

-laughed off enquiries, and gave the map back

-to the captain.

-

-They decided to start, carrying revolvers,

-soon after dark, at the time when the Germans

-might be supposed to be taking their evening

-meal.  With some difficulty they managed

-to slip away unnoticed by the other men.

-Moving with even more caution than on the

-previous night, they crawled over the ground

-until they reached the angle of the trenches

-abutting on the pond.  It was quite dark;

-the moon, in its third quarter, was, as they

-had learnt from the almanac, not due to rise

-for some hours.

-

-Peering down into the firing trench, they

-neither saw nor heard any sign of occupants

-in the space immediately below them; but

-they heard voices from a traverse a few yards

-away.  Then Harry caught sight of three or

-four men coming down the communication

-trench, and from their gait concluded that

-they were bringing food.  The two dropped

-down below the parapet and lay motionless:

-it was clear that they had started a little

-too early.

-

-They waited until they heard the men pass

-back along the communication trench; then,

-after a short interval, rose to carry out the

-plan previously agreed upon for descending

-into the trench.  The principal danger was

-a fall of loose earth from the parapet or a

-splash in the water at the bottom.  Kenneth

-cautiously clambered up the earthwork, lay

-flat on top of the parapet, then backed until

-his legs hung over inside.  To avoid slipping

-he held Harry's hands, and so lowered

-himself until he stood on the banquette, which

-was an inch or two under water.  Pressing

-himself close against the earthen wall, he

-steadied Harry in his descent: both stood

-in the trench.  They were panting with

-excitement.

-

-From their left came the sounds of

-conversation; the speakers were invisible.

-They were just about to start down the

-communication trench when they heard

-footsteps approaching from the farther end.

-Flattening themselves into the angle they

-waited breathlessly.  The corner was so

-dark that they hoped to escape detection;

-but their hearts leapt to their mouths when

-they saw the flash of an electric torch some

-distance away in the communication trench.

-Escape was impossible.  If the light was

-shown as the men approached the corner

-discovery was certain.

-

-"Don't waste the light," Kenneth heard

-one of the men say.  "We are running short

-of batteries.  You can see the turn by

-looking up.  Watch the stars."

-

-The light was switched off.  Holding their

-breath the Englishmen waited.  Two

-Germans drew nearer, splashed through the

-water, and turned into the firing trench.

-As soon as they had disappeared, Kenneth

-and Harry started to go down the communication

-trench, stepping very slowly through

-the water, and halting every now and again

-to listen.  Presently they were startled by

-hearing voices behind them.  The Germans

-apparently were returning.  To retreat now

-was impossible.  Whatever danger might lie

-ahead, they must go on.

-

-By this time they had quitted the water.

-Seemingly they had passed beyond the pond.

-But the bottom of the trench was sticky with

-mud; walking was difficult.  And the men

-behind were gaining on them.  Suddenly

-they came to a trench at right angles--no

-doubt the trench at the rear of the pond.

-Scarcely daring to look along it, they went

-straight on.

-

-"Anything doing?" asked a voice close by.

-

-"All's quiet," replied Kenneth in German.

-

-Another hundred yards brought them to a

-third trench.  It appeared to be unoccupied.

-After listening intently for a few moments

-they decided to trust their luck down this

-trench rather than continue along the

-communication trench, in which they could still

-hear the footsteps and voices of the men

-following them.  Others might be coming

-towards them.  Striking to the left, they

-went along the trench for a few yards;

-then, coming upon another communication

-trench at right angles, they stopped

-to consult in murmurs.  They decided that

-the trenches were more dangerous than

-the open ground.  Retracing their steps for

-some little distance, they waited a moment

-or two.  All was silent.  Cautiously they

-clambered up and lay, breathing hard, upon

-the grass.

-

-A little ahead of them was the ruined

-church standing black and gaunt in the

-starlight.

-

-"We go past that," whispered Kenneth,

-"then strike off to the north-east.  We'll try

-that direction first, at any rate.  Most of the

-shots appear to come from there."

-

-"About how far away?"

-

-"Two or three miles, I think."

-

-"I say----"

-

-"Well?"

-

-"Oh nothing!--only I feel sort of empty inside."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`SKY HIGH`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER VIII

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   SKY HIGH

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Harry's feeling of emptiness simply

-meant that he was only now beginning to

-realise the difficulty of the task undertaken

-so lightheartedly by himself and his friend.

-They had come only about a fourth of the

-distance they expected to cover, and it was

-the easiest portion, for after all there was

-much less chance of meeting enemies in the

-quiet communication trenches than behind

-the lines, where movement was unconstrained,

-and a German might lurk behind every tree.

-

-They lay for a few minutes, peering into

-the darkness, listening, thinking out their

-course.  Somewhere to the left they heard

-the rumble of carts, the clatter of motor

-cars, the voices of men.  Similar sounds,

-but fainter, came from the right.  On either

-hand there was a road to avoid.  No doubt

-there was a path running from the church to

-one or other of these roads.  Their best plan

-seemed to be to creep along by the churchyard

-wall and strike across the fields, taking

-what cover the hedges, ditches, and isolated

-trees afforded.  There was no definite clue to

-their direction.  The gun they had come to

-seek had not yet begun its nightly work.

-

-Assuring themselves that there were no

-sounds in their immediate neighbourhood,

-they got up and stole towards the tree-lined

-wall of the churchyard.  The wall was

-broken in many places; trees had been

-split and felled and tombstones shattered

-by gunfire.  They moved very cautiously

-along the wall towards the open fields.

-Suddenly they both halted and crouched.

-High up in the ruined tower a light had

-flashed for a moment.  From the same place

-came faint sounds which they soon

-recognised as the murmur of voices.  The light

-again shone forth, and again disappeared.

-It came and went at intervals, now long,

-now short, and in a few minutes they

-realised that the men in the tower were

-signalling.

-

-The light showed in the direction of the

-trenches.  They had never noticed it in

-their night watches there; presumably the

-signallers were at work for the first time, or

-perhaps the direct rays were masked, and

-the light was visible only at a higher

-elevation.  Beyond doubt the signallers were

-Germans; no British soldiers, or natives in

-collusion with them, would have chosen a

-spot within the German lines, and so near

-the trenches--a spot where the glow of the

-lamp could be so clearly distinguished.

-

-But it was puzzling.  Why should the

-Germans signal towards their own trenches?

-Was it possible that they were communicating

-with somebody behind the British lines?

-

-The two Englishmen crouched below the wall.

-

-"Shall we take a look-in at the tower?"

-asked Harry in a whisper.

-

-"It's not our present job," returned

-Kenneth.  "We're out to find the gun.

-Perhaps afterwards--at any rate we'll report

-it.  The men up there have got a good view

-over the fields; we shall be lucky to get

-away without being discovered."

-

-Bent double, they hurried along the wall,

-and when it came to an end, crept on under

-cover of a hedge across a field.  Descending

-into a shallow hollow, they sprang across a

-brook, and made for a small clump of trees

-on rising ground in front of them.  The

-ground was rough and stubbly; walking

-was difficult and fatiguing.  They passed

-through the skirt of the wood, crossed more

-fields, taking to the ditches where the ground

-rose, and quickening their pace through the

-depressions.  Kenneth frequently consulted

-his compass and watch, the dials of which

-were faintly luminous.

-

-At length he announced that they must

-have come about three miles from the trenches.

-

-"It's no good going farther at present,"

-he said.  "All we can do is to wait until we

-hear the discharge of the gun, perhaps see

-its flash.  And it will be just our luck if

-they don't fire it to-night."

-

-"How long shall we wait?"

-

-"That's the problem!  If we wait too

-long we shan't get back to-night, and that

-means hiding up all to-morrow.  We can't

-possibly return in daylight.  But it's no

-good talking.  Let's make ourselves as

-comfortable as we can in the shade of this

-hedge.  And for goodness' sake don't let

-me fall asleep."

-

-"Not much chance of that if you feel like

-me.  I couldn't sleep a wink, though I'm

-tired enough."

-

-They sat down, took some chocolate from

-their tins, and prepared for their vigil.  All

-was silent around them.  There were no

-longer sounds of traffic; the roads had

-apparently diverged.  The whole countryside

-lay peaceful under the silent stars.

-

-Time went on.  The air was cold.  Now

-and then they got up and tramped to and

-fro to stir their chilled blood.  Ten o'clock:

-eleven: no sound.  Kenneth looked at his

-watch at ever shorter intervals.  He was

-becoming restless.  Had they adventured

-on a vain quest?  The moon crept above

-the horizon, dimly illuminating the

-landscape, showing here a dark rounded mass

-that must be a wooded hill, there the white

-walls of a solitary farmhouse.

-

-"There's no getting back to-night,"

-thought Kenneth, as the light increased.

-

-It was just past midnight.  They were

-sitting side by side, silent, disappointed,

-depressed.

-

-"Hark!" said Harry suddenly.

-

-There was a low continuous rumble in the

-distance.  It grew louder.  They rose to

-their feet, and looked across the fields

-eastward.  The ground stretched away in

-undulations, alternate dark and light bands

-in the moonshine.  They could see nothing

-to explain the sound.  It came from their

-right, increasing in volume as it approached,

-then diminishing as it passed away to the

-left, finally ceasing.

-

-"Sounded like a railway truck," said Harry.

-

-"There's no line there," replied Kenneth.

-"The only line shown on the map is the one

-running through the village almost due east;

-it turns to the north-east after cutting the

-German lines.  It must be a good three

-or four miles from here.  That sound went

-right across our front, from south to north,

-and couldn't have been more than half a

-mile away."

-

-"Well, it's stopped now.  We needn't

-bother about it.  Quite certainly it wasn't

-made by the guns, and that's the only

-riddle we're called on to solve.  I'm fed up

-with this, Ken."

-

-"So am I.  The idea of a whole day here

-is sickening.  Still, it can't be helped."

-

-They sat down again, each thinking his

-own thoughts.

-

-Suddenly there was a momentary flash,

-instantly followed by a terrific roar.

-

-"The gun!" exclaimed Kenneth, springing up.

-

-"And jolly close, too," said Harry,

-looking across the fields.  "Which side of us?"

-

-"I don't know.  We must wait for the

-next.  This is getting exciting."

-

-Within a minute or two they saw the

-flash again, lighting up the sky behind a

-low ridge on their left front.  The noise of

-the discharge reverberated and died away.

-

-"Come on!" whispered Kenneth.

-

-They crept along the hedge in the direction

-of the ridge.  A third report rent the air;

-then, after a minute's silence, they were

-surprised to hear a renewed rumbling, which

-passed across their front nearer than they

-had heard it before, and receded towards

-the south.

-

-"'Pon my word, it seems to have some

-connection with the gun after all,"

-murmured Kenneth.

-

-They went on, as fast as they could with

-caution.  Crawling up the ridge, they peered

-over.  Nothing was to be seen in either

-direction.  They crawled down the other

-slope, and came to what appeared to be a

-sunken grass road.  It was shadowed by

-the ridge.  Looking to right and left, and

-discovering nothing, they got up and began

-to walk across the road.  Suddenly Harry

-stumbled, and uttered a low exclamation.

-

-"A whack on the toe," he murmured.

-

-"By George!" whispered Kenneth behind

-him.  He had stooped to look at the

-obstruction.

-

-Harry turned.  The obstacle was a rail.

-There was no glint from it; apparently it

-was rusty.  But it was sticky to the touch.

-Kenneth held his fingers to his nose.  They

-smelt of tar.

-

-Beside the rail there was a layer of loose

-grass, twigs, rubbish of all sorts, and beyond

-this, five feet away, a parallel rail.

-

-"We have come on a single-track railway,"

-said Kenneth.  "It's not marked on the

-map; must have been recently laid.  Let

-us go on a little, and examine it."

-

-In a few minutes their discovery was

-confirmed.  The seeming grass road was a

-roughly laid track.  But the rails had been

-painted over with tar, and the sleepers and

-permanent way were hidden under low heaps

-of litter.

-

-"They're clever beasts," said Kenneth.

-"D'you see the trick?  No airman would

-ever guess this to be a railway.  The rails

-are quite dark."

-

-"But what's it for?"

-

-At this moment came the report of the

-gun, some distance to the south.

-

-"That's what we are going to find out,"

-said Kenneth.

-

-They made their way stealthily along the

-track between the rails in the direction of

-the sound.  Presently, at a gentle curve,

-they came to a white post with a small

-square platform in front of it, abutting on

-the railway.  Wondering what it was for,

-they went on, and in a few moments heard

-the rumble of an approaching train.  They

-scrambled up the ridge on their right, threw

-themselves flat on the ground and watched.

-

-In a few minutes an engine and two

-trucks glided into view, making

-extraordinarily little noise.  They passed slowly

-below the watchers.  There was no smoke

-from the engine; perhaps it was electric.

-The first truck carried a heavy gun; the

-other, containing men, was like an ordinary

-railway wagon, but apparently better sprung,

-for it moved with only the low rumble which

-the watchers had already heard.  The effect

-of the train gliding past, dark, almost

-without sound, was mysteriously strange.

-

-When the train had passed, they hastened

-after it, walking just below the crest of the

-ridge.  They had scarcely started when

-they heard a low screeching of brakes.

-Stealing on a few steps, and peering over,

-they saw that the train had stopped opposite

-the small platform.  The men had got out

-of their truck, and were moving noiselessly

-but quickly about the truck containing the

-gun.  Orders were given in a low voice.

-There was a slight grating of machinery

-and creaking of timber.  The recoil cradle

-of the gun, which still remained on the

-truck, was being placed on the platform;

-the gun itself was being loaded.  Its muzzle

-pointed over the railway line towards the

-trenches.

-

-Stuffing up their ears, Kenneth and Harry

-waited.  The gun was fired.  They heard

-the heavy projectile whizz over their heads.

-Three times the gun spoke; then it was

-swung round on the truck, and the train

-moved on to the north-east.

-

-Dazed and deafened by the tremendous

-noise, the watchers followed it along the

-line.  Here was a discovery indeed.  It was

-no wonder that the gun had never been

-located.  But what they had already learnt

-made them eager to learn more.  Where

-was the gun kept when not in use?  Where

-was the headquarters of the men?  If they

-could find out this, they would have

-information of real value to carry back with

-them.

-

-They went cautiously along the line, on

-the look-out for sentries.  But the line was

-not guarded.  Its existence was probably

-known only to the German staff, and it was

-evidently used only for the gun train.

-

-About half a mile beyond the platform,

-the train came to rest at another.  Again

-the gun was fired: then the train rumbled

-back.  The two men hid until it had passed,

-then continued along the line in the opposite

-direction.  During its absence they would

-seize the opportunity to survey this part of

-the line.

-

-Some ten minutes after the train had

-passed they caught sight of low buildings

-ahead on the east side of the track, and a

-dim light.  In case there might be Germans

-on the spot, they left the rails, walked

-across a field under cover of the hedge, and

-approached the buildings from the east.

-These, they found, were three low wooden

-sheds, near the opening of a large quarry,

-which Kenneth remembered having seen

-marked on the map.  The sheds were in ill

-repair: there were many chinks and gaps

-in their boarded walls.  Apparently the

-quarry and its appurtenances had been for

-some time disused.  The light which they

-had seen from the railway line proceeded

-from one of the sheds, from the interior

-of which they now heard guttural voices.

-Peeping through a chink in its wall, they saw

-four Germans smoking, drinking, and playing

-cards by the light of oil lamps.  There were

-narrow beds ranged along the opposite wall,

-some of which were occupied.  Helmets and

-tunics hung from pegs.  In one corner rifles

-were piled.  In another stood a cooking

-stove, its iron chimney passing out through

-the roof.  It was evident that the shed was

-continuously occupied.  At the end nearest

-the line the door was open, and a sentry

-paced to and fro.

-

-While the Englishmen were taking stock

-of all this, they heard the drone of an

-aeroplane approaching.  The four men at the

-table sprang up, turned down the lamps,

-seized their rifles and ran to the door.

-Kenneth stole a few yards along the wall

-until he came within earshot of them.  He

-was on the shaded side of the shed; there

-was nothing but miscellaneous litter on the

-ground, so that it seemed unlikely that the

-Germans would come in this direction.

-

-"Is it one of ours?" asked one of the men,

-as the drone grew louder.

-

-"I can't see," replied another.  "It

-sounds like an English machine."

-

-"Well, they won't spot us.  They haven't

-done it by daylight, so they won't now."

-

-"They're flying rather low.  We could

-easily hit them."

-

-"But that would be to give ourselves

-away.  They have gone past.  It's all right."

-

-The aeroplane disappeared.  But the men

-had no sooner re-entered the shed than its

-drone was heard again.  They hastened out.

-

-"It's coming round in a circle," said a

-voice.  "The cursed Englishmen seem suspicious."

-

-"They're hunting for the gun, of course.

-But it has been quiet lately.  The captain

-heard the sound in time.  And there's

-nothing bright about the gun.  The English

-are dished."

-

-"They're no good, the stupid English.

-They've no chance against German brains."

-

-The aeroplane finally vanished, and the

-men returned to their cards, turning up the

-lamps again.  Some ten minutes later the

-report of the gun was heard.  It was fired

-at intervals for an hour, at varying distances;

-then the low rumble of the train approached.

-The watchers heard the door of the second

-shed creak.  In a few minutes the train

-glided up, and entered the shed, into which,

-it being the middle one of the three, the

-Englishmen could not see from their present

-position.  After a while the door was closed,

-and the gun crew joined their comrades.

-They were not accompanied by their officer,

-who had no doubt gone to more select and

-comfortable quarters elsewhere.  After

-exchanging a few words with the cardplayers,

-the newcomers threw off their clothes and

-got into bed.

-

-"I should like to have a look into the

-other sheds," whispered Harry.  "But the

-moon lights up the other side; and the----"

-

-"Don't talk here," said Kenneth.  "Come

-round to the back."

-

-Taking care not to displace loose stones,

-they crept along the wall and some distance

-into the quarry.

-

-"They can't hear us here," said Kenneth,

-still, however, speaking in whispers.  "I

-think we've found out enough.  The place

-is marked on the map.  Our gunners can

-shell it by map measurement."

-

-"Yes, but let's have a look at the other

-sheds before we go.  It won't be safe to go

-into the moonlight, perhaps; but couldn't

-we take a peep from the rear?"

-

-"The sheds are built right against the

-quarry wall.  But we'll go and see."

-

-They stole across the litter until they

-came to the back of the sheds.  There they

-found that there was some chance of

-achieving their purpose.  The wall of the quarry

-was very uneven, just as it had been hewn

-out.  Consequently the back walls of the

-sheds did not fit flush against it; there was

-a space of varying width, but at its narrowest

-part wide enough to admit a man.  Into

-this they crept.

-

-They discovered that this end of the sheds

-was in worse repair than the side they had

-already seen.  Protected from the weather

-by the wall of the quarry, the timber had

-not been renewed.  There were many gaps,

-and when they touched the wood, its crumbling

-gave signs of dry rot.  But the interiors

-of the second and third sheds were quite

-dark: it was impossible to distinguish

-anything within.

-

-Harry broke off several fragments of the

-dry wood without making any sound.

-

-"We can get in," he whispered.

-

-Kenneth hesitated.  They had learnt

-enough for their purpose; it would be a

-pity to risk the failure of the whole

-enterprise.  But youth is adventurous and

-confident.  The voices of the men in the first

-shed would smother any slight sounds they

-might make; the sentry was at least a

-hundred and fifty feet away.

-

-"All right," he murmured.

-

-With their clasp knives they cautiously

-attacked the boards in the wall of the third

-shed, stopping every now and again to

-listen.  After a while they were able to

-remove two of the boards, leaving an opening

-large enough to admit them.  Very carefully

-they climbed in.  Dark as the interior

-had appeared from the outside, they found

-when they were inside that there was just

-light enough, filtering through cracks in the

-wall, to reveal the contents of the shed.

-The whole interior, except for narrow

-gangways, was packed with shells and cases of

-high explosives.  Near the door there were

-shells for field guns and howitzers, and a

-certain quantity of small arms ammunition.

-It was clear that the shed was an ammunition

-depot.

-

-Creeping carefully back, they replaced the

-boards, and went to the middle shed, which

-they managed to enter in the same way,

-after the exercise of greater patience, owing

-to the more constricted space between the

-shed and the wall of the quarry.  Here they

-found the gun train, and a number of petrol

-tins: evidently the engine was petrol driven.

-While Kenneth examined the engine as well

-as he could in the still dimmer light, wishing

-he dared to use his electric torch, Harry

-stole to the front of the shed, and watched

-the sentry through a crack in the badly

-fitting folding doors.  Kenneth followed him.

-

-"Let me know when the sentry's back is

-turned," he whispered.  "I'll use my torch then."

-

-Harry gave the sign by a scarcely audible

-hiss.  Kenneth made the best use of the

-few seconds afforded him at intervals.  His

-experience of motor engines had taught him

-exactly what to look for.  And he was

-prompted, not by mere curiosity, but by a

-sudden idea which had occurred to him,

-but which he had not yet mentioned to his

-companion.  The engine was still warm.

-He knew that it ran very smoothly; it was

-provided with a very efficient silencer, or

-he would not have mistaken it for an electric

-engine.  With their customary thoroughness,

-the Germans had ensured that the

-movements of their gun train should lack

-nothing in secrecy.

-

-The mechanism was simple, similar to

-that of an ordinary touring car, except that

-there were only two speeds and reverse.

-

-"Well," he thought, "why not run off

-with the train, gun and all?"

-

-The train had backed into the shed

-trucks first.  They were still coupled to

-the engine.  The load was very heavy;

-the question was whether he could get up

-speed in time to escape.  Some of the

-Germans were awake: the sentry was at

-the door; the feat seemed impossible, and

-Kenneth dismissed the idea, feeling glad

-that he had not suggested it to Harry.  But

-before leaving the engine he looked into

-the tank, and saw that it was half full of petrol.

-

-A hiss called him to the door.  The

-sentry was being changed.  The new man

-was grumbling at having had to leave his

-bed.  The voices in the further shed had ceased.

-

-"All gone to bed?" asked the sentry

-who was being relieved.

-

-"Yes," replied the other, yawning.

-

-"Schneider won five marks of me this

-afternoon.  He said he'd give me my

-revenge.  Well, I'll beat him to-morrow."

-

-He went into the shed: there was a

-rustling for a few moments: then all was

-silent, except for the heavy tramp of the

-sentry as he paced slowly up and down.

-

-The two Englishmen went back to the

-quarry wall, and were replacing the boards.

-

-"I say!" whispered Harry.

-

-"What is it?"

-

-"It's mad, perhaps; but I wondered if

-we couldn't run off with the train."

-

-"Absurd!" replied Kenneth.

-

-"But----"

-

-"Hush! we'll talk presently."

-

-They returned to their former position

-across the quarry.

-

-"I daresay you are right," said Harry,

-"but I wish we could collar that gun."

-

-"It's impossible," said Kenneth, arguing

-against his own inclination.  "We couldn't

-open the door without being seen."

-

-"But it's so ramshackle that it would

-burst at a touch."

-

-"Then we'd make a row starting the

-engine, and before we had any speed on

-they'd be at us."

-

-"I don't know.  They've got to wake

-up, and dress----"

-

-"Why waste time dressing?"

-

-"Well, is a German a soldier without his

-uniform?  Anyhow, they would be too sleepy

-for a few seconds to understand what was

-going on.  It might just give us time to

-get off."

-

-"I don't mind telling you that the idea

-occurred to me, but I gave it up."

-

-"Oh, do let us try it.  It's a sporting

-chance.  They feel perfectly secure; that's

-so much in our favour.  They'll be struck

-all of a heap, and you know what confusion

-there is when fellows are taken by surprise."

-

-"You've the tongue of the old Serpent,

-Harry.  With a little luck--ah! while we're

-about it, oughtn't we to blow up the ammunition?"

-

-"That means blowing up the men too."

-

-"Well?  We can't take 'em prisoners.

-And when you remember that every shell

-in the shed may kill or maim a lot more

-Englishmen or Frenchmen than there are

-Germans in the shed, you'll see that it's

-our duty.  War's war, more's the pity.

-There are some fuses near the door."

-

-"Come on, then."

-

-They stole back.  Kenneth crept into the

-ammunition shed, and started a time fuse

-while Harry removed the boards from the

-wall of the engine shed.  Just as Kenneth,

-returning, had almost reached the opening,

-in his haste he displaced a shell that was

-standing insecurely.  It toppled over with

-a heavy thud.  He sprang through the gap.

-

-"Touch and go now!" he panted.  "We

-haven't a second to lose."

-

-There was no time to replace the boards.

-They slipped into the engine shed, hearing

-the sentry call to his comrades and run

-towards the ammunition shed.  In a few

-moments he would discover the gap in the

-wall, and the Germans would be scouring

-the place.

-

-The Englishmen ran to the engine.

-

-"Jump in!" gasped Kenneth.

-

-He stooped down to find the starting

-handle, in the agitation of the moment

-forgetting that, when examining the engine, he

-had noticed the push that indicated a

-self-starter.  There was no crank, but only the

-shaft on which it should fit.  For the

-moment his brain ceased to work; he was

-conscious only of the noise of shouts and

-hurrying footsteps dinning in his ears.  Then

-recollection came in a flash.  He raised

-himself, sprang into the cab of the engine,

-and simultaneously released the brake and

-pressed the button of the starting

-mechanism.  Beneath his feet there was a welcome

-whirr; he threw the engine into gear, and

-the heavy machine, with the heavier trucks

-behind, lurched forward.

-

-The folding door was only eight or nine

-feet away--little enough space to allow for

-momentum.  It was neck or nothing.  At

-the first movement Kenneth threw out the

-clutch, racing the engine; then he let it in,

-and the train jerked itself forward in a way

-that alarmed him for the couplings.  The

-manoeuvre succeeded.  The engine crashed

-into the crazy door; it was shattered and

-partly wrenched off the hinges; and the train

-glided out, rounded the curve, and ran with

-increasing speed into the straight towards

-the south.

-

-All this had occupied only a few moments.

-Meanwhile, what of the Germans?  At the

-thud of the falling shell the sentry was at the

-farther end of his beat.  He hastened

-towards the ammunition shed, calling to his

-comrades as he passed their door.  Some

-sprang up, others only turned in their beds.

-The former, as Harry had foretold, began

-to throw on their uniforms.  There was no

-sound from outside to alarm them.  But a

-second cry from the sentry caused them to

-seize their rifles and rush out as they were.

-They followed him into the ammunition shed,

-where he showed them, by the light of an

-electric torch, the hole in the wall.  They

-poked their heads through, and seeing

-nothing, were beginning to ask each other

-what they had better do when they heard

-through the shed wall the whirr of the starting

-engine.  Shouting, they hurried back,

-overturning shells and bruising their toes, heard

-the crash of the door, and reached the

-entrance in time to see the train lumbering

-round the curve to their left.

-

-One or two rifle shots rang out.  Kenneth

-and Harry heard for a minute or two, above

-the purring of the engine, shouts as if the

-Germans were pursuing them on foot.  And

-then there was a terrific roar; the sky was

-lit up by a flash that blinded the pale moon,

-and fragments of metal fell in a thick shower

-upon the train, inflicting sharp blows upon

-the Englishmen, of which their hands and

-faces bore signs for several days.

-

-"What double asses we were!" gasped

-Kenneth.  "The row will bring the Bosches

-swarming about us."

-

-"They'll make for the sheds.  By George! what

-a blaze!  Lucky we're running in a

-hollow.  Where does the line lead to?"

-

-"Don't know.  Be ready to jump.  We're

-going nearly thirty miles an hour now; I'll

-slow down in a minute or two.  We must

-get away from the line and hide up."

-

-In a few minutes he slackened speed to

-about five miles.

-

-"Drop off!" he said.

-

-Harry leapt out.  Kenneth opened the

-throttle to the utmost, put the engine into

-top, and jumped clear as it gathered way.

-By the time he had picked himself up the

-train had disappeared.  Clambering up the

-western bank, the two men, bending low,

-raced as fast as they could towards a small

-clump of trees that stood up dark in the

-moonlight.  They were but halfway across

-the field when there was a tremendous crash

-somewhere to their left rear, a sound of

-tearing and rending, then silence.

-

-"It's run off the line or something,"

-Kenneth panted.  "Hope the old gun is

-smashed."

-

-It was weeks before they knew what had

-happened.  Then, passing over the ground

-in the course of a general advance of the

-British forces, they saw the debris of the

-train, engine, gun, and trucks, lying amid

-shattered masonry in and beside a shallow

-brook.  The engine had failed to take a

-sharp curve and dashed into and through

-the parapet of the bridge.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`D.C.M.`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER IX

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   D.C.M.

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The two men had almost reached the

-clump of trees when they heard the thud

-of horses' hoofs approaching them from the

-front.  They instantly dropped flat into one

-of the furrows of the stubble field.  Two

-horsemen galloped round the corner of the

-clump, and rode down towards the railway,

-passing within twenty yards of the fugitives.

-

-Waiting breathlessly until the horsemen

-had gone out of hearing, the two got up, and,

-still bending low, hurried over the few yards

-between them and the clump and plunged

-among the trees.

-

-"We shall have to get back to-night,

-by hook or crook," whispered Kenneth.

-"They'll track us down as soon as it is

-light....  Listen!"

-

-From beyond the clump came the steady

-tramp of a considerable body of men.  Was

-it possible that the Germans were on their

-track already?  For a few moments they

-were unable to decide in what direction the

-men were going.  The sounds became

-gradually fainter, receding towards the railway.

-Apparently a detachment had been

-dispatched towards the scene of the conflagration.

-

-They stole towards the western side of

-the clump, and, standing within the shadow

-of the trees, looked out across the country.

-The moon was still up, obscured at moments

-by drifting clouds.  Far ahead, a little to

-their left, they could just distinguish the

-tower of the ruined church.  Still farther

-to the left the moonbeams revealed the roofs

-of the small village which the church served,

-and in which, no doubt, German soldiers

-were billeted.  Lying on the eastern slope

-of a low hill, it was invisible from the British

-lines, but Kenneth remembered having seen

-its position marked on the map.

-

-"It's past two o'clock," said Kenneth,

-glancing at his watch.  "The moon won't go

-down for hours, and it will be light by six.

-We simply must get back before sunrise.  All

-we can do is to creep along the shady side

-of the hedges and take our chance."

-

-After a good look round, they left the

-trees and hurried to the shelter of the nearest

-hedge.  Being now on lower ground, they

-could no longer see the church: but they

-judged their general direction by the

-compass, and made their best speed.  Once they

-found themselves in a field completely

-surrounded by a hedge.  Forcing their way

-through at the cost of many scratches, they

-fell some five feet into a ditch that the hedge

-concealed, and sank over their ankles in

-slimy mud.  They scrambled up the other

-side, the brambles tearing their skin and

-clothes, and tramped on again.

-

-It was nearly an hour before they came

-once more in sight of the church, farther to

-the left than they had expected.  Their best

-course seemed to be to try to find the

-communication trench by which they had come.

-Keeping always on the shady side of the

-hedges, they paused only to glance towards

-the tower, to see if the light was still

-showing, then turned their backs on it and

-hurried on.

-

-They came to a stretch of open ground

-on which there was no cover of any kind, and

-knew that they were now near the trenches.

-The most nerve-racking portion of their

-journey was before them.  They dared not

-go erect, in the moonlight.  If they should

-stumble unawares upon an occupied trench

-it was all up with them.  Throwing

-themselves on the ground, they crawled forward

-by painful inches, stopping every few seconds

-to listen.  Once the scurry of some wild

-creature across their front tightened their

-hearts and sent a cold thrill along their

-spines.  Presently they heard the murmur

-of voices on their right, and instantly edged

-to the left, only to be brought to a check

-after a few minutes by voices in that

-direction also.  Had the rearmost trenches been

-manned during their absence?

-

-Aching in every limb, they crawled still

-more slowly over the ground.  At last they

-encountered a ridge of broken earth, and

-stopped, holding their breath.  There was

-no sound near them; faint murmurs came

-from a distance.  Harry cautiously raised

-his head, crept forward a few inches, and

-whispered--

-

-"A trench!"

-

-They peered over.  The trench was empty.

-Sliding into it, they ran along to the left,

-and presently struck a trench at right

-angles.  This too was empty.  They halted

-at the corner to listen, then hurried along

-until they had almost reached the second

-trench.  A man, by his figure an officer,

-turned from it into the communication

-trench, and walked rapidly towards the

-firing line.  They pressed themselves against

-the wall.

-

-"Making his rounds," whispered Kenneth.

-"Our best chance is to follow him."

-

-"We've come right," said Harry.

-"There's the water."

-

-A bank of cloud veiled the moon.  They

-hoped it would not pass for the few minutes

-during which darkness would be so precious

-a boon.  They heard the officer splashing

-through the water at the further end of the

-trench, and crept after him as rapidly as

-they dared.  He turned into the firing

-trench.  Voices were heard.  There was

-great risk in crossing the trench, and it

-occurred to Harry that it would be less

-dangerous to clamber over the embankment

-on their left and wade through a few yards

-of the pond, which could not be very deep

-thereabout.  If the moon remained in cloud,

-they would not be seen from the trench

-behind the pond.  Accordingly, two or three

-yards from the angle of the trenches, they

-swarmed up the bank, and began to let

-themselves down on the other side, clinging

-to the earth so that they should not drop

-heavily.

-

-Then fortune deserted them.  The earth

-crumbled in Kenneth's grasp, and he fell

-into the water with a great splash.  Harry

-at once flung himself face downwards, and

-the two crawled through several inches of

-water towards the dry land.  The light was

-increasing as the thinner end of the cloud

-moved slowly across the moon.  Crushing

-their inclination to jump to their feet and

-sprint over the ground towards their trench,

-they scampered along on all fours.  And

-then the unveiled moon flooded the scene

-with light.

-

-Shouts came from behind them.  Shots

-rang out, and pattered around them.  A

-bullet carried off the heel of Harry's boot.

-Still they wriggled on.  They were conscious

-of sounds in front.  The trench was alive.

-A hand grenade fell just behind them,

-bespattering them with earth.  Yard by

-yard they dragged themselves over the

-ground; here was the wire entanglement.

-As they drew themselves under it, a bullet

-struck one of the tin cans suspended from

-the top.  There were only a few yards now.

-From right and left a hail of bullets flew

-from the British trench.  They reached the

-parapet.

-

-.. _`A LONG WAY BACK`:

-

-.. figure:: images/img-146.jpg

-   :align: center

-   :alt: A LONG WAY BACK

-

-   A LONG WAY BACK

-

-"Steady!" whispered Kennedy.  "Keep

-flat for a moment."

-

-But the caution was vain.  After coming

-a hundred yards under fire they thought of

-nothing but the safety of the trench.  They

-crawled on, over into friendly arms.  Bullets

-sang around them.

-

-"Pipped!" exclaimed Kenneth, as something

-stung his shoulder.

-

-But next moment they were safe, dropping

-exhausted on to the banquette.  And then

-the air was rent by a storm of cheers hurled

-defiantly at the Germans.

-

-"Good men!" said Kennedy, as he helped

-Kenneth to pull off his coat.  "You're a

-lucky fellow, by George!  It's little more

-than a graze.  I didn't expect to see you

-back.  Ah! here's the captain."

-

-Captain Adams came up.

-

-"Amory hurt?  A mere scratch, I see.

-It was a tight moment.  You seemed an

-age crawling up.  But come now, have you

-anything to report?"

-

-"Ammunition depot blown up, sir."

-

-"That was the row we heard, then," the

-captain interrupted.  "We thought it must

-have been an accident, as no firing was

-going on at the time."

-

-"And to the best of our knowledge and

-belief, the gun is done for."

-

-"You don't say so!  Talk, man; a round

-unvarnished tale deliver.  Oh, but this is

-good!"

-

-The captain was evidently excited.

-Kenneth and Harry between them related the

-whole sequence of their adventures, to an

-audience of the captain, two lieutenants,

-and as many men of the platoon as could

-come within earshot.  When the story was

-finished, another roar of cheers burst forth,

-which was taken up along the trench far

-on both sides, though the most of the

-shouting men could not have known as yet

-what they were cheering for.

-

-"A dashed fine piece of work," said the

-captain, warmly.  "It's a feather in the cap

-of No. 3 Company, and certain promotion

-for you two men.  You'll have to see the

-colonel to-morrow, when we get back to

-billets.  Go into the Savoy and sleep; you

-deserve a day's rest, and you shall have it."

-

-When they reappeared among their comrades

-next day a broad grin welcomed them.

-

-"You do look uncommon pretty," said

-Ginger.  "I never see anyone like you

-except once, and that was when a chap I knew

-got drunk at the fair, had a fight with

-another chap, tumbled into a blackberry

-bush on the way home, and was found by

-a copper in the ditch after it had been raining

-all night.  Your best gals would fair scream

-at the sight of you.  'Oh George, dear,

-where did you get them scratches?  You've

-been a-fighting, you horrid creature, you!'  'No,

-Sally, I've had a little bit of misfortune.'  'Rats!

-You won't get over me.

-I'd be ashamed to be seen along of you,

-with a face like that.  I'll walk out with

-Bill next Sunday, so there!'  And off she

-goes, and on Monday morning you get hold

-of Bill and spoil his beauty for him, and

-then there's a pair of you."

-

-Everybody laughed, and the two dirty

-and disfigured objects concerned understood

-that that was Ginger's way of paying a

-compliment.

-

-On returning to the village at the close of

-the day, they had only just washed and got

-rid of some of the mud from their clothes

-when the colonel sent for them.  They had

-to repeat their story.

-

-"I don't happen to have any Iron Crosses,"

-said the colonel, "but I'm going to

-recommend you for commissions.  Officers are

-badly wanted still, and you've got over that

-nonsense of a few months back?"

-

-"Not at all, sir," said Kenneth.  "We're

-bound by our promise."

-

-"Ridiculous!  I don't mean that you

-are ridiculous to keep your word, but to

-give such a promise was a piece of

-confounded stupidity.  Why, goodness alive! after

-what you've done the men would follow

-you anywhere."

-

-"It's very good of you, sir," Kenneth

-replied, "but really we must stick to what

-we said."

-

-"Not that I want to lose you from my

-regiment.  Well, I shall have to get Captain

-Adams to give you your stripes.  You won't

-object to that?"

-

-"I'm afraid we must, sir.  You see, anything

-that gave us a lift over the other men

-would be a breach of the understanding."

-

-"Well, you're a couple of young jackasses.

-I hope I'm a man of my word, but----  Oh

-well, have it your own way!  Virtue

-shall be its own reward.  You've relieved

-the whole battalion of a great worry and

-danger, and I'm uncommonly obliged to you."

-

-It was not until some weeks later that

-the two friends learnt that their names

-had appeared in the *Gazette* among a list

-of men recommended for the distinguished

-conduct medal.  Their refusal of promotion

-had become known to their comrades, and

-it was observed that Ginger and some of

-his friends often had their heads together,

-and appeared to be conducting delicate

-negotiations with the men of the other

-platoons.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`HOT WORK`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER X

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   HOT WORK

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Kenneth had not omitted to report the

-signalling from the church tower.  The light

-had not been seen from the trenches of his

-own battalion, and it was guessed that the

-receiver of the messages was at some other

-point behind the long British front.  But

-on the first night of their return to billets

-it occurred to Harry that the light might

-possibly be visible from some post of equal

-height with the tower in which it shone,

-and he suggested to Kenneth that they

-should go up into the belfry of the church

-in their village.  In order to give no excuse

-for a German bombardment the colonel had

-refrained from making use of this as an

-observation post, which some of his officers

-regarded as an excess of scrupulousness.  It

-would be necessary to get permission now

-before Harry's suggestion could be acted upon.

-

-Harry put the question to Captain Adams.

-He saw the colonel, who in view of the fact

-that the Germans were certainly using a

-church tower a few miles away gave his

-consent.  Finding, therefore, the sacristan,

-Harry and Kenneth got him to take them

-up the belfry at about the same hour as

-they had seen the Germans' lamp.

-

-Furnished with Captain Adams' field-glasses,

-they scanned the country in turns.

-For a long time they had no reward, and

-they were indeed on the point of quitting

-the spot when Kenneth caught sight of a

-twinkle far away to the south-east.  It

-vanished and reappeared at irregular

-intervals, just as the light from the tower

-had done.

-

-"We are not getting the full rays here,"

-said Kenneth, after Harry had taken a

-look.  "But it is clear that they are signalling

-to someone in this direction, more or less."

-

-"Let us go half way down the tower, and

-see if the light is visible there," suggested

-Harry.

-

-But they found that only at the foot of

-the belfry itself could they catch sight of

-the twinkling light.

-

-"It's very cleverly arranged," Harry

-remarked.  "They are not signalling to this

-village, that's clear.  There's certainly no

-observer but ourselves here, and no other

-place is high enough to catch the rays."

-

-"Except Obernai's house," said Kenneth,

-looking round over the village.  Most of the

-roofs were considerably lower than the spot

-on which they stood.  Only the attics of the

-Alsatian philanthropist's house rose above

-that level.  That large building in its

-extensive grounds was about sixty yards to

-their left.  There was a light in one of the

-lower rooms, where Captain Adams and

-several other officers were billeted: the rest

-was dark.

-

-"It's not very likely, after that spy

-business, that any of Obernai's servants is

-in German pay," Kenneth continued.  "Still

-I'll tell the captain what we have seen."

-

-He made his report to Captain Adams

-next morning.  Later in the day the captain

-said to him:

-

-"There's nothing in that matter, Amory.

-I asked Monsieur Obernai whether his

-servants were trustworthy, and he assured me

-that he had had them for years, and could

-answer for them all.  I didn't tell him why

-I had made the enquiry; it's best to keep

-these things as quiet as possible; we don't

-want to make people uneasy.  I've no doubt

-the signals are directed to some place

-farther away on our left, and the colonel

-is sending word along the front, asking them

-to keep a look-out."

-

-Nothing more was heard of the signalling

-for a long time.

-

-When they returned to the trenches, their

-position was somewhat altered.  The

-Rutlands were moved a little to the right, and

-Kennedy's platoon occupied a portion of

-the trench which had formerly been held

-by another platoon.

-

-Kenneth was making himself comfortable

-in a dug-out with Harry and Ginger when

-he picked up, among the various articles

-left by its former occupants, a piece of ruled

-music paper dotted with notes.

-

-"A relic of your friend Stoneway, Ginger,"

-he said with a laugh.  "He's the only

-musician in the company."

-

-"Is he, by George!" cried Harry.  "You

-forget I was in the school choir, old chap."

-

-"So you were!  I remember how the

-mothers used to admire your pretty little

-cherub face when you let off your songs on

-the platform.  'Isn't he sweet, mother?'

-I heard a girl say once.  You remember

-how we rotted you."

-

-"Yes, confound it!  I was jolly glad

-when my voice broke, and I got out of all

-that.  I haven't sung a note since; if I

-try, my voice is like a nutmeg grater."

-

-"You've lost your cherubic mug too, old

-man.  But look here; whistle over this tune;

-let's hear what it is."

-

-Harry took the paper, scanned it for a

-moment or two, then said:

-

-"It's no tune at all.  The notes go up

-and down all anyhow."

-

-He whistled a few notes.

-

-"Oh, for any sake stop it!" implored

-Ginger.  "It's Stoneway's exercises, by the

-sound of it.  Call that music!  It's enough

-to make a cat ill."

-

-"I'll give it back to Stoneway next time

-I see him," said Harry.

-

-"Tear it up," said Ginger.  "If he hasn't

-got it, perhaps he can't----"

-

-A shout interrupted him.

-

-"Stand to!  Here they come!"

-

-They seized their rifles and rushed out

-into the trench, Harry stuffing the paper

-into his pocket.  The men were posting

-themselves a yard apart on the banquette,

-looking excitedly through the loopholes.

-Across the open ground in front the Germans

-were advancing in a serried mass.  It was

-a surprise attack, not heralded, in the

-customary way, by a bombardment.  The

-testing moment had come for the Rutlands

-at last.

-

-They stood at their posts, tense, quiet

-with excitement.  Ginger's features twitched;

-Harry's lips were parted.  With their fingers

-at the triggers they awaited breathlessly the

-order to fire.  On came the dense grey lines.

-The Germans did not fire; with fixed bayonets

-they swarmed forward rapidly.  They came

-to the wire entanglement; with clock-work

-precision every man in the first rank plied

-his nippers, and then, in the trench, Kennedy

-cried in a hoarse whisper:

-

-"Three rounds, rapid!"

-

-All along the line sounded the crackle of

-rifles.  On the right a machine-gun rattled;

-on the left another.  Three times the rifles

-spoke.  Men were shouting, they knew not

-what.  Other sounds mingled with the din:

-yells, groans, guttural orders from the

-German officers; and at the wire entanglement

-lay a long swathe of fallen men.

-

-But behind them another multitude was

-dashing on.  They leapt over their stricken

-comrades, only to drop in their turn before

-the withering volley from their unseen enemy

-in the trench.  Through the gaps poured an

-unending torrent; the grey-clad men were

-drawing nearer to the trench.  The rifle-fire

-was now continuous, but it was of no avail

-to repel this close-packed horde.  There was

-no longer question of taking cover.  The

-Rutlands leapt up to meet the charge.  They

-fired as fast as they could, until their rifles

-were hot.  In spite of their losses the

-Germans pressed on until sheer weight of

-numbers carried them to the edge of the trench.

-

-It is not for us to describe the scene of

-carnage there--the hideous work of the

-bayonets, the cries of the wounded, the

-hoarse shouts of defenders and assailants.

-The Germans fell back.  Kennedy's clear

-voice shouted the order for volley-firing.

-And now came a fierce reply from the

-German ranks.  Then they fell on their knees

-and crawled forward again.  Again they

-were driven back.  They began to retreat.

-And then Kennedy leapt on the parapet

-and gave the command to charge.  The men

-responded with alacrity.  Up they

-scrambled, over the fallen men, and dashed

-forward with exultant shouts.  There was a

-whizz and boom overhead.  The British

-artillery behind was coming into play.  From

-the front came deafening crashes; columns

-of earth and smoke rose into the air.  The

-Rutlands lay on the ground until the guns

-had ceased fire; then dashed on.  They

-plunged into the reek about the German

-trench; they sprang over the parapet and

-drove the Germans out; and a storm of

-cheers acclaimed their victory.

-

-They were preparing to hold the ground

-they had won when word was brought that

-strong reinforcements were hurrying up to

-the Germans from the east.  They had no

-reserve strong enough to hold the new line

-in face of a superior force.  The colonel

-ordered them to evacuate the trench, after

-doing as much damage as was possible in

-the short time available.

-

-The men set to work with their own

-trenching tools and with those abandoned

-by the Germans to hack down the walls of

-the trench.  Kenneth caught up a pick,

-and remembering the pond at the right of

-the communicating trench, he began to cut

-a hole through the three or four feet of

-intervening earth.  Ginger joined him.  In

-a few minutes the water burst through in

-spate, flooding the trenches, and driving the

-Englishmen out pell-mell.

-

-Laughing, singing, throwing jokes one to

-another, they returned to their own trenches.

-They picked up swords, rifles, helmets, and

-other articles of equipment that were

-scattered over the ground, threaded their way

-among the fallen men, stopping here and

-there to assist wounded comrades.

-Meanwhile the British artillery was pounding

-the German lines to discourage a renewed

-attack, and the Red Cross men moved

-swiftly and silently over the field.

-

-Kenneth had not seen Harry for some

-time, and was anxious about him.  But the

-friends met at the edge of their trench.

-Each ran his eyes rapidly over the other;

-their set faces cleared when they recognised

-that neither was hurt.

-

-Settled down once more in their dug-out,

-the three men talked over their experiences.

-

-"I felt my blood run cold," said Harry,

-"but I hadn't time to be afraid.  I feel

-worse now.  Look at my hand shaking."

-

-Ginger, very pale, was mechanically cleaning

-his rifle.  He flung it down with a curse.

-

-"What have they done to me?" he cried.

-"What have they done to me?  I killed an

-officer, a nice young chap as might have been

-your brother.  What for?  What about his

-mother?  And all those poor chaps yonder:

-why can't them as make wars let us alone?

-Men ain't made to kill each other.  What's

-the good of it all?  When the war's over,

-millions dead, millions crippled, millions

-miserable.  It didn't ought to be."

-

-"We're serving our country, Ginger," said

-Kenneth.  "It's not a question of just the

-present moment.  We've got to think of the

-future.  What would life be worth to our

-people at home if the Germans had their

-way?  You can get nothing good without

-paying the price, and it will be good if we

-can teach the Germans and the world that

-force isn't everything, that people have a

-right to live their own lives without being

-bullied.  For every man that dies, whether

-English or German, perhaps thousands may

-have a better time in days to come.  That's

-worth fighting for, and dying for, if need

-be.  We've all got our little part to play.

-It's not a thing you can argue about: you

-feel it.  Look at what Sir Edward Grey

-said: he'd rather cut the old country

-altogether than be obliged to give up our

-good English ways and to put up with

-German tyranny.  Don't you feel like that

-too?  Well, that's why we are fighting;

-we're fighting to call our souls our own, and,

-please God, we'll win."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GINGER`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XI

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GINGER

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-It was when the battalion next returned

-to billets that the meaning of Ginger's

-confabulations with the men of other platoons

-came out.

-

-One evening after supper Kenneth and

-Harry were smoking in the Bonnards'

-kitchen.  They were alone.  Ginger and the

-other members of their billet had left them

-some little while before, and the men's faces

-had worn the sly, conscious look of those

-who are meditating a secret design.

-

-"If I didn't know Ginger, I should think

-they were up to some mischief," Harry had said.

-

-Presently the door opened, and Ginger

-reappeared, at the head of eight or ten men

-from other platoons of No. 3 Company.

-They all looked a little sheepish and

-uncomfortable as they filed into the room.  Some

-hung back and were pushed forward by their

-mates.  Ginger moved to the rear, and was

-instantly seized by several hands and

-expostulated with in fierce whispers.

-

-"Keep your wool on; I'm only going to

-shut the door," said Ginger.

-

-"What's in the wind, you fellows?" said

-Kenneth.  "Why are you hanging about

-the door?  Come round the fire and light up:

-we'll have a smoking concert or something."

-

-There were mutterings among the group.

-Some words reached the ears of the two men

-at the fire-place.

-

-"It's your job: you're a sergeant."

-

-"No fear; you don't catch me..."

-

-"Ginger's the man..."

-

-"Spouts like a M.P...."

-

-At last Ginger was pushed through to the

-front.  He grinned, half turned to protest,

-was swung round again; then he drew his

-hand across his mouth.

-

-"Mr. Harry, and Mr. Amory," he began.

-

-"Oh, come now, no misters here," Harry

-broke in.

-

-"Not in the ordinary way, of course," said

-Ginger, "but this ain't an ordinary occasion.

-The fact is, we're a deputation, that's what

-we are; a deputation from No. 3 Company,

-and the other chaps have made me foreman

-of the jury.  Not as I want to push myself;

-not me.  I consider it's a job for a

-three-stripe man; but Sergeant Colpus here is a

-very bashful and retiring man, though you'd

-never think it to look at him."

-

-"Dry up!" growled the sergeant, turning

-fiery red as the other men sniggered.

-

-"Well, you *would* put it on to me," Ginger

-went on, "and I must do it my own way,

-always respecting my superior officer, of

-course.  Being foreman of the jury, I speak

-for 'em all, got to give the verdict, as you

-may say.  The fact of it is, we men of No. 3

-Company, what you may call the Randall

-Company, ain't easy in our minds at the idea

-of being dogs in the manger like.  We know

-as the colonel wants to make you officers,

-and we think it ain't fair to you or the army

-to keep you in the ranks 'cause of us.  A

-promise is all right, and we take it very kind

-that you've stuck to your guns, in a manner of

-putting it, all these months.  Speaking for

-myself, I didn't expect nothing else.  But

-we think it 'ud be a dirty shame if we held

-you to your promise now, specially when

-every man of us knows you ought to be

-officers, and there's not a man of us but

-would be proud to follow your lead

-anywhere.  And so we've come to say that the

-promise is off, and we don't stand in the way

-of your getting your rights."

-

-There was a chorus of approval as Ginger

-wiped his mouth again and stepped back

-among his comrades.

-

-"It's very good of you, Ginger," said

-Harry, "but I'm sure neither Amory nor

-myself want to leave the ranks."

-

-"Not at all," said Kenneth: "thanks all

-the same."

-

-"But it ain't right," said Ginger, coming

-forward again.  "We've learnt a thing or two

-since we started being soldiers, and we've

-lost a lot of the bally nonsense that used to

-fill our heads, about all men being equal and

-such like.  Mind you, I'm a Socialist, as

-strong as ever I was.  I say now, as I've said

-afore, that there's no call for a man to stick

-himself up and think himself mighty superior

-'cos he's got a quid for every penny I've got.

-And I don't say but what, if we'd had your

-eddication and chances and all that, we

-wouldn't be as good as you.  But that ain't

-the point.  We've got to look at things as

-they are, and be honest about it, and what

-I say is that you've had the training that

-makes officers and we haven't; and besides,

-you were born one way and we were born

-another, and it's no good trying to make out

-that chalk's as good as cheese.  And there's

-another thing.  When we've got a tough job

-afore us like licking the Germans we're

-bound to consider what's best for the

-company and the regiment, and if a man is cut

-out for an officer it's simply silly to keep

-him a private: he ain't in his right place,

-doing his right job.  So we think it's only

-right for us and the army that you should

-do what the colonel wants, and that's the

-size of it."

-

-"Is that what you all think?" asked Kenneth.

-

-"Well, I can't say that; all but one or

-two, and they're a disgrace to the company.

-There's----"

-

-"I don't want to know who they are,"

-said Kenneth, interrupting.  "We're both

-immensely obliged to you for your good-will,

-but we enlisted on certain terms, and I feel

-for my part that we can't break our contract

-without the unanimous consent of the company."

-

-"I agree," said Harry.  "The men

-enlisted on the faith of our promise, and it

-wouldn't be fair to break it without the

-consent of all.  So we'll drop it, Ginger, and

-go on as before."

-

-"It's for you to say, sir," said Ginger.

-"There!  'Sir,' says I.  A slip of the tongue,

-mates; you can't get out of bad habits all

-of a sudden.  Well, I'll say for No. 3

-Company that we'd be sorry to lose such good

-pals, and as there's no chance that St----

-that the pigheaded members of the jury will

-come round to the opinion of the sensible

-ones, we may reckon it as certain that the

-defendants will be condemned to serve as

-Tommies for three years or the duration of

-the war."

-

-"And now we'll discharge the jury," said

-Kenneth, "and have a sing-song until

-'lights out.'  Come on, Ginger; start off

-with 'Dolly Grey.'"

-

-Next afternoon Kenneth was summoned

-to the captain.

-

-"I've a little job for you, Amory.  You

-know how to drive a motor; do you know

-anything about the mechanism?"

-

-"Not much; but Ginger--that is, Murgatroyd,

-sir--is a bit of a mechanic.  Of

-course I'll have a shot at whatever is required."

-

-"Add Randall, and we have the Three

-Musketeers complete.  You didn't know

-that's our name for you, I suppose?  Well,

-it's this.  A motor cyclist came in just now

-with a despatch for the colonel, and reported

-that on the way he had passed a man who'd

-had an accident of some sort with a motor

-lorry, and wanted help.  Just go and see

-what you can do, the three of you.  I don't

-know whether the load is for us; if it is,

-so much the better.  Take my map; the

-breakdown is thereabouts"--he pointed to

-a spot some three miles away--"and be as

-quick as you can."

-

-The three men set out, Ginger carrying a

-bag of tools he had borrowed from the

-village smith.  The place where the accident

-had happened was apparently on a by-road

-about halfway between the village and the

-headquarters of the next regiment on the

-left of the Rutlands.  They followed

-footpaths across the fields, some of which had

-been sown by the inhabitants.  The air was

-very misty, and but for the map they could

-hardly have found their way.  But presently

-they caught sight of a man in khaki sitting

-on the grass at the corner of the main road

-and by-road.  The man bore the badge of

-the Army Service Corps on his sleeve.

-

-"What's wrong?" asked Kenneth, going

-up to him.

-

-"Are you the Wessex?" said the man.

-

-"No, the Rutlands.  You've had a spill

-by the look of you."

-

-"You're right," said the driver with an

-oath.  "And I owe that there parson one.

-It's his fault.  Did that cyclist send you along?"

-

-"No, but the capting did," said Ginger.

-"Where's your lorry?  We'll have a go at it."

-

-"Well, if you two chaps 'll be a pair of

-crutches I'll take you to it.  I'm bruised all

-over, and my ankle's got a twist so that I

-can't hardly walk.  It's about a mile away."

-

-Supported by Kenneth on one side and

-Harry on the other, the man led them slowly

-along the by-road.

-

-"I only came out a week ago, a Carter

-Paterson man I am," he said.  "I was

-driving up a load of grub for the Wessexes,

-and somehow took the wrong turning away

-back there.  I'd drive over London blindfold,

-but I'm new to this job, see.  It came

-over misty, and I got a sort of notion I was

-on the wrong road, and there was nobody

-about to ask the way of, even supposing

-I could have made 'em understand me.

-However, at last I happened to catch sight

-of a fat parson in a long cloak just ahead of

-me.  I pulled up, and pointed to the name

-of the village on my map, for twist my tongue

-to it I couldn't.  'All right, my man,' says

-he, speaking English like a countryman.

-'You take the first turning on the right':

-that's this road we're on now.  That seemed

-about the right direction.  'Good road?'

-says I: 'not too soft for a heavy load?'  'Capital

-road,' says he.  'Go as fast as you

-like, straight through to the road you've left.'

-

-"Well, it seemed all right.  Wasn't a bad

-road for a bit, and I put on speed to make up

-for lost time.  Then, just as I was going

-through an avenue of trees, and what with

-the mist and the shade couldn't see more

-than a few yards ahead, the road took a sharp

-dip, and I throttled down and screwed on

-the brakes; but the road made a sudden

-bend, and before I knew where I was, I was

-chucked in the ditch by the roadside.  I was

-dazed for a bit, and when I come to, there

-was the lorry in the field.  I crawled to it;

-it was stuck fast, and even it if hadn't been

-I couldn't have driven it in the mashed state

-I was in.  A pretty fix to be in, in a strange

-country, with no garage handy.  I didn't

-know what to do.  When I'd recovered a bit,

-I crawled back to see if I could find that

-parson.  It was all his fault, not warning

-me, and he ought to get me out of the mess.

-But I couldn't find him, so all I could do was

-to crawl to the main road, on the chance of

-seeing some of our chaps.  It was hours

-before any one came along; just my luck;

-another time the road would very likely

-have been crowded.  But presently that

-cyclist came up at forty miles an hour.  He

-would have gone past if I hadn't bellowed like

-a bull.  He wouldn't get off his machine to

-take a look at the lorry, but he said he'd

-send help if he could.  And all I want is to

-get hold of that parson; I'd know him again

-in a minute by his size and the wart on his

-nose.  Why, a German couldn't have served

-me a dirtier trick; and he said he knew

-the road....  There's the lorry; I doubt

-whether you'll get it up; and the Wessexes

-howling for their grub, I expect."

-

-The lorry was tilted over to one side, with

-the near front wheel embedded nearly up

-to the axle in the soft earth of the field.

-

-"Got a jack?" asked Ginger.

-

-"You'll find it under the seat."

-

-Ginger fetched it, and with his companions

-tried to jack the wheel up; but the

-tool sank into the earth.

-

-"Let's unload and then see," suggested Kenneth.

-

-It took them half an hour to unload the

-car, working so hard that they were all

-bathed in perspiration.  Again they plied

-the jack, but in vain.

-

-"The only chance is to get something

-solid to put under it," said Ginger.  "There's

-nothing handy hereabouts.  Any houses

-about here?" he asked the driver.

-

-"Hanged if I know.  It was too misty

-to see when I came along.  The parson

-lives somewhere, I suppose."

-

-"I'll run up the hill and take a look

-round," said Harry.

-

-"Take your rifle, man," Kenneth called,

-as Harry was starting without it.

-

-"All right; but we're miles away from

-the German front.  You might have a look

-at the engine while I'm gone."

-

-All this time there had been sounds of

-firing in the distance eastward, with reports

-of British guns at intervals nearer at hand.

-But they were now so familiar with such

-sounds that they scarcely heeded them.

-Guns and gunners were alike out of sight.

-There were few signs of war immediately

-around them; but for the absence of human

-activity on the fields the country might

-have been at peace.

-

-Harry went up the hill and for some

-distance along the road before he discovered

-anything that promised assistance.  A

-slight breeze was dispersing the mist; but

-the sun was already far down in the western

-sky; in an hour or two it would be dark.

-At length, on his right he noticed a rough

-cart track leading to a small farm building

-half hidden in a hollow about half a mile

-away.  He hurried towards it across the

-fields, soon regretting that he had not gone

-by the beaten track, for the soil was soft

-and heavy.

-

-Approaching the building at an angle, he

-saw a man pottering about in the yard.

-While he was still at some distance the man

-happened to glance towards him, then went

-into the house.  Harry quickened his pace,

-and entering the yard, was met at the house

-door by a burly individual who gave a

-somewhat surly response to his salutation.

-In his best French Harry explained the

-circumstances, and asked for the loan of a

-stout board.

-

-"You'll find one in the shed yonder,"

-said the man.  "You'll bring it back?"

-

-"Oh yes," Harry replied, thinking that

-the farmer might at least have offered to

-help.  "By the way, could you lend us a

-horse to pull the lorry on to the roadway

-when we get it up?"

-

-"I haven't got one; all my horses are

-requisitioned."

-

-"That's hard luck.  I hope we'll soon

-clear the country, and there'll be better

-times.  Many thanks: I'll return the board

-presently."

-

-Reflecting on the hardships war inflicted

-on honest country people, Harry trudged

-back with the plank, this time taking the

-cart track.

-

-"Good man!" said Kenneth.  "Where

-did you get it?"

-

-"At a small farm.  The farmer's rather

-a bear, but I suppose the war has pretty

-well ruined him.  Now, Ginger, let's see

-what we can do."

-

-Placing the plank by the embedded wheel,

-they set the jack on it and screwed up the

-axle until they finally succeeded in releasing

-the wheel.

-

-"The lorry isn't damaged, luckily," said

-Kenneth.  "We'll get the wheel on to

-the plank, then I'll start the engine and

-we'll back on to the road.  You fellows shove."

-

-In a few more minutes the lorry stood on

-the road, facing towards its original destination.

-

-"Now for loading up," said Harry.  "This

-is back-aching work; I shouldn't care to be

-a docker."

-

-The three men started to carry the boxes

-and baskets from the field to the lorry, the

-driver sitting on the grass by the roadside.

-They were about halfway through the work

-when they heard the hum of an aeroplane.

-Like the reports of artillery it was so common

-a sound that they paid little attention to it.

-But Kenneth, glancing up as the sound grew

-louder, exclaimed:

-

-"It's a Taube, about 5000 feet up.  I

-fancy.  There'll be a pretty chase presently.

-By Jove! it's dropping.  Something must

-have gone wrong with the engine.  I'll try

-a pot shot at it if you fellows will go on

-loading."

-

-Seizing his rifle, he stood watching the

-aeroplane as it circled above them, gradually

-coming lower.

-

-"Look out!" he cried suddenly.

-

-Almost as soon as he had spoken there

-was a terrific crash on the road about thirty

-yards away, and a shower of earth and

-stones bespattered the lorry and the men.

-Kenneth fired as the Taube made another

-sweep round, still lower.

-

-"Here's another!" he called.  "Down with you."

-

-They all threw themselves flat on their

-faces.  The second bomb exploded farther

-away than the first, doing no damage.

-They sprang to their feet, and all three

-fired at the aeroplane, which was now making

-a vol plané, and would come to earth

-apparently about half a mile away.

-

-"We'll nab them," cried Ginger.  "Come on."

-

-They ran up the hill.  The aeroplane was

-descending on the far side of the farm, near

-a clump of trees.  They rushed across the

-fields, and were just in time to see a man

-leap from the aeroplane and dive into the

-copse.  The farmer joined them as they ran

-past.  They came to the aeroplane.  The

-pilot was *in extremis*.  After the shot had

-struck him he had managed to control the

-machine until it reached earth; he would

-never fly again.

-

-"We must catch the other fellow," said Kenneth.

-

-All three ran into the copse, the farmer

-following them.  Separating, they scoured

-the plantation in all directions without

-finding the fugitive.  After about half an

-hour Kenneth called the others together.

-

-"He seems to have got away," he said.

-"We must give it up.  It'll soon be dark,

-and we've got to get the lorry home.  Ginger,

-will you mount guard over the aeroplane?

-Our fellows are sure to have seen it, and will

-no doubt be coming up shortly.  We'll

-motor back if we can borrow a car."

-

-"Right you are," said Ginger.  "I'll wait

-for you, in any case."

-

-The others left him, returned to the lorry,

-and lifting the driver on to it, drove off

-rapidly towards its destination.  There they

-told their story, and the colonel at once sent

-off a motor omnibus with a number of men

-to secure the aeroplane.  When they

-approached the spot where they had left it

-the machine was gone.

-

-"Somebody must have fetched it already,"

-said Kenneth.  "It's a pity you fellows are

-too late."

-

-They drew up at the rear of the farm.

-Kenneth and Harry sprang out, surprised

-that Ginger was not awaiting them.

-

-"He's inside, perhaps," said Harry.  "He

-makes friends of most people; perhaps he

-has got over the farmer's surliness."

-

-They went through the yard to the house

-door.  The farmer met them on the threshold.

-

-"Ah, messieurs," he said, "this is lamentable."

-

-"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

-

-"Your comrade, messieurs, he is gone.  I

-fear he is a prisoner.  He made signs that

-he was thirsty, and I left him there at the

-aeroplane while I returned here to fetch him

-some little refreshment.  Ma foi!  I was just

-uncorking the bottle when I heard a whirr.

-I rushed out with the bottle in one hand and

-the corkscrew in the other, and voila! there

-was the aeroplane already in the air."

-

-"But how?--what..."

-

-"I do not know," said the farmer, with a

-shrug.  "I only guess.  The man who ran

-away must have hidden until your backs

-were turned, then come back and overpowered

-your comrade and flown away with him."

-

-"That's very rummy," said Kenneth to

-Harry.  "Ginger isn't a man to be caught

-napping easily.  What do you make of it,

-sir?" he asked the lieutenant in charge of

-the omnibus party, who had followed them.

-

-Kenneth repeated the farmer's story.

-

-"Very curious," said the officer quietly.

-"The man wasn't himself a flier, I suppose?"

-

-"No."

-

-"Well, I think we'll run your farmer back

-to headquarters.  It looks rather fishy:

-there are spies all over the place.  You speak

-French?  I don't, more's the pity.  Just

-tell this fellow he's to come with me."

-

-The farmer protested volubly, but the

-officer was inexorable.  The omnibus party

-returned with their prisoner, and Kenneth

-and Harry tramped back in the twilight to

-their village.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`DOGGED`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XII

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   DOGGED

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-There was great indignation among the

-men of No. 3 Company when Ginger's capture

-was reported.  Latterly the German airmen

-had rarely appeared behind the British

-lines; their experiences had usually been

-unfortunate.  "Like their cheek!"

-grumbled one of the men.  "And to carry off

-Ginger, too, after a lucky shot had brought

-'em down.  That farmer chap must have

-been a spy, and I hope they'll give him what

-he deserves over yonder."

-

-The loss of the most popular man in the

-battalion was a blow to the Rutlands.  And

-to be a prisoner they counted the worst of

-luck.  Death they were ready for; to be

-wounded was all in the day's work; there

-was not a man of them but preferred death

-or wounds to captivity, to be the mock and

-sport of a misguided populace, and the

-victim of brutal and barbarous guards.

-

-"And we can't do nothing," growled a

-sergeant.  "Lor bless you, when I think of

-the stories I read as a nipper in the boys'

-papers, daring rescues, hairbreadth escapes

-and all that--what a peck of rubbish I used

-to swallow!  And believe it all too, mind you.

-It all looked so easy.  There was the prison,

-and the jailer's pretty daughter, perhaps a

-file to cut away the bars, or a knife to dig

-a tunnel underground, or a note carried to

-a wonderful clever pal outside, or the prisoner

-dressing up in the gal's clothes: gummy, how

-excited I used to get.  Them chaps that

-write the blood-curdlers don't know nothing

-about the real thing, that's certain."

-

-Kenneth laughed.

-

-"The real thing tops anything ever

-invented, after all," he said.  "You've heard

-of how Latude escaped from the Bastille;

-and how Lord Nithsdale escaped from the

-Tower; and how an English prisoner--I

-forget his name--a hundred years ago made

-a most wonderful escape from the French

-fortress of St. Malo; and only the other day, a

-German prisoner in Dorchester had himself

-screwed into a box and nearly got away."

-

-"Nearly ain't quite, though.  But I never

-heard of those other Johnnies; you might

-tell us about them--if they're true, that is;

-I don't want no fairy tales."

-

-And Kenneth beguiled an evening or two

-by relating all the historical escapes he could

-remember.

-

-Ginger's case, they agreed, was hopeless.

-The papers, it was true, had recorded the

-escape of Major Vandeleur from Crefeld,

-without giving any of the particulars which

-the men were hungry for.  That a British

-lance-corporal could ever escape from a

-German concentration camp was beyond the

-bounds of possibility, and they had to resign

-themselves to the hope of one day, when the

-war was over, seeing Ginger again, perhaps

-half-starved, ill, wretched, a speaking

-monument of German "culture."

-

-The Rutlands were sent into the trenches

-again, where they again endured the tedium

-of watchful inactivity.

-

-One evening, Captain Adams sent Kenneth

-to the village with a message.  The

-telephone between the village and the trenches

-had suddenly failed.  Kenneth found the

-place busier than he had ever known it.  A

-new regiment had arrived.  Officers of all

-ranks were present; despatch riders were

-coming in.  He was asked to wait for a

-return message to the firing line.  While

-waiting he became aware of a considerable

-movement some distance in the rear of the

-British lines.  There were sounds of heavy

-vehicles in motion in several directions.

-Something was clearly in the air.

-

-It was about three hours before he was

-sent for and received a written message from

-a staff-officer.

-

-"What's your name?" he was asked.

-

-"Amory, sir."

-

-"Oh!  You had a hand in destroying that

-German gun the other day?"

-

-"Yes, sir," replied Kenneth, rather taken

-aback to find that his name had become

-known.

-

-"A capital bit of work!  Get on with this

-despatch as quickly as you can.  It's

-important.  And if you have heard anything

-out there"--he pointed to the rear--"you

-needn't say anything about it.  There are

-spies everywhere.  The telephone wire has

-been repaired, by the way; it was cut near

-the village; but we've a reason for not

-using it just at present.  Tell Colonel

-Appleton that, will you?"

-

-The night was very dark, but by this time

-Kenneth knew every inch of the road to the

-trenches.  There was desultory firing, both

-artillery and rifle, for a considerable distance

-along the lines ahead.  As he left the village

-the sounds from the rear grew fainter,

-drowned by the firing and by a moderate

-wind blowing from the direction of the

-enemy's lines.

-

-The road was quite deserted.  All coming

-and going between the trenches and the

-billets had ceased for the night.  But when

-he had walked for about a quarter of a mile

-he was conscious of that strange, often

-unaccountable feeling that sometimes steals

-upon a solitary pedestrian on a lonely road

-at night--the feeling that he was not alone.

-He had heard neither footfall nor whisper;

-the wind sighed through the still almost

-bare branches of the trees.  His feeling, he

-thought, was probably due to mere nervousness

-caused by the knowledge that he was

-carrying an important despatch.  But it

-became so strong that he sat down by the

-roadside and slipped off his boots, slinging

-them round his neck, and walked on heedfully

-in his stockings, keeping a look-out for

-holes in the road, and stretching his ears for

-the slightest unusual sound.

-

-In a moment or two he came to the end

-of the avenue of poplars; those which had

-formerly lined the rest of the road had been

-felled, partly to provide wood for the

-trenches, partly for the sake of the gunners.

-On the left, a few yards from the road, was

-a small plantation.  It had been sadly

-damaged by German shells, but many trees

-still remained.  Just as he came opposite

-to the plantation his ears caught a sound

-which, though indistinguishable in the wind,

-was different from the rustling of branches

-or foliage.  It appeared to come from behind

-him.  He slipped from the road towards the

-clump of trees; then, as it suddenly occurred

-to him that some other person might be

-making for the same place, he reached for

-a branch just above his head, and swung

-himself up with the "upstart" of the

-gymnasium.  It was a frail support, but

-he sat astride the branch near the trunk,

-and there, among the burgeoning twigs,

-he waited.

-

-His senses had not deceived him.  Three

-vague shapes moved out of the blackness,

-and passed almost beneath him.  His ears

-scarcely caught the sound of their

-movements; yet sound there was, a dull muffled

-tread as though their feet were blanketed.

-Who were these nocturnal prowlers?  What

-were they about?  Kenneth wished there

-were no despatch buttoned up in his pocket,

-so that he were free to follow these stealthy

-figures.  He had not been able to determine

-whether they wore uniforms.  If they were

-villagers, they had no right to be hereabouts

-at night.

-

-Peering through the foliage, he was just

-able to discern that the three men had

-halted at the edge of the plantation.  For

-a moment or two there was complete silence.

-He guessed they had stopped to listen.

-Then they spoke in whispers.  A few words

-were carried on the wind to Kenneth's

-attentive ears: "Soeben gehört ... ganz

-nahe ... ja."

-

-"They're after me!" thought Kenneth.

-He had no doubt that it was he whom they

-had referred to as "just heard ... quite

-near."  Spies were everywhere, as the

-staff-officer had said.  These men must have

-learnt in the village that he was carrying a

-despatch.  He wished that he could stalk

-the stalkers, but he dared do nothing that

-would endanger his errand.  One man he

-might have tackled; with three the odds

-were too heavy against him.  And while he

-was still debating the matter with himself

-the three dark shapes had disappeared as

-silently as they had come.

-

-He waited a minute or two.  They had

-apparently gone along the road which he

-himself was to follow.  They might suspect

-that they had outstripped him, and ambush

-him before he reached the trenches.  He

-must dodge them by making a detour.

-Dropping lightly to the ground he skirted

-the northern side of the plantation and

-struck across the ploughed land at what

-seemed a safe distance from the road.  The

-soil was sticky; his progress was slow; and

-he stopped every now and again to listen.

-For some time he heard nothing but the

-wind and the crack of distant rifles or the

-boom of guns.  Presently, as he drew nearer

-to the trenches, there fell faintly on his

-ear the customary sounds of conversation,

-laughter, singing.  At one moment he

-believed he heard the tootle of Stoneway's

-flute.  As these sounds increased in loudness,

-he despaired of recognising the stealthy

-movements of the spies.  He unslung his

-rifle, resolving, if he caught sight of them,

-to fire.  The shot, even if it failed to dispose

-of any of them, would probably bring men

-from the trenches in sufficient numbers to

-deal with them.

-

-He had to guess his course across the fields,

-pushing here through a hedge, there descending

-into a slimy ditch and crawling up the

-further side.  At last he caught sight of a

-landmark: a ruined shed which stood about

-two hundred yards in rear of the trenches.

-To reach the trench in which Colonel Appleton

-had his quarters he must strike across

-to the right, and pass between the shed and

-the road.

-

-There was no sign of the three spies.  The

-fields were quite bare; the shed was the only

-thing that afforded cover.  Instinctively he

-gave it a wide berth, and was leaving it some

-paces on his left when he heard a sudden

-guttural exclamation, and two figures rushed

-from the shed towards him.  There was no

-time to fire.  Uttering a shout he thrust his

-bayonet towards the assailants.  The stock

-of his rifle was seized from behind.  And

-now, at this critical moment, the years of

-training on the football field, in the

-gymnasium, on Mr. Kishimaru's practice lawn,

-bore fruit in instantaneous decision and

-rapid action.  Releasing his rifle suddenly,

-the man behind him fell backward to the

-ground.  At the same moment Kenneth

-stooped, tackled the nearest of the other men,

-and brought him down.  The second man

-toppled over them.  Freeing himself

-instantly, Kenneth sprang up and sprinted

-towards the road, hearing in a moment the

-thud of heavy footsteps behind him.

-

-But there were sounds also in front.  His

-shout had been heard in the trenches, and

-some of the Rutlands were running to meet

-him.  A word from him sent them at a rush

-towards the shed.  Leaving them to hunt

-for the spies, he hurried on and delivered his

-despatch to the colonel, to whom he related

-his adventure.

-

-It was some time before the men returned.

-

-"They got away," said one of them.  "It

-was no good hunting any longer in the dark.

-But we've brought these."

-

-He handed over Kenneth's rifle and a cap

-bearing the badge of a Territorial regiment.

-It was clear that the spies had disguised

-themselves in British uniforms.  The colonel

-telephoned particulars to the village, asking

-that a thorough search should be made; but

-other matters were then engaging attention.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`THE FIGHT FOR THE VILLAGE`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XIII

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   THE FIGHT FOR THE VILLAGE

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-In the darkest hours before the dawn

-the trenches were buzzing with excitement.

-Word had been passed along that next

-morning the Rutlands were to attack.  The long,

-trying period of inaction was over.  Sir

-John French had ordered the capture of the

-village within the German lines.  The hill

-on which it stood commanded a wide stretch

-of open country, and its possession was an

-essential preliminary to the general advance

-which would take place when the weather

-improved and the reserves of ammunition

-were completed.

-

-During these last hours of the night

-sleepy men trudged along the road and across

-the sodden fields towards the firing line.

-Fresh troops, some of whom had never been

-under continuous fire, crowded into the

-trenches.  Some of the men tried to prepare

-breakfast in the constricted space; the most

-of them were too much excited to feel any

-inclination to eat.  The bustle which

-Kenneth had noticed in the village was explained.

-Batteries of heavy artillery had been brought

-up and placed all along the rear of the British

-lines.  The men listened eagerly for the

-boom that would announce the great doings

-of the day, and they gazed up into the inky

-sky, longing for the dawn.

-

-Sitting, sprawling, packed tight in the

-trenches, they waited.  Would morning never

-come?  The darkness thinned; the blackness

-gradually was transformed into ashen

-grey, streaked here and there with silvery

-light.  A gun boomed miles in the rear.

-The men stifled a cheer.  Rifle fire burst

-from the German trenches.  Bullets pinged

-across the breastworks, and some of the

-newcomers involuntarily ducked.  Captain

-Adams passed along the simple orders of the

-day.  "The battalion will advance in line

-of platoons at 7 o'clock."  Another hour to wait!

-

-The men took off their equipment and

-stowed their coats in their packs.  Some

-munched sticks of chocolate, others lighted

-cigarettes but forgot to smoke them.  Boom,

-boom!  The British guns were in full play.

-The German guns were answering.  Shells

-screamed across the trenches in both

-directions.  The din increased moment by

-moment.  The air quivered with the thunderous

-crashes, and sang with the perpetual

-*phwit, phwit* of bullets.  Not a man dared to

-lift his head.  Clouds of earth rose into the

-air before and behind, showering pellets upon

-the waiting soldiers.

-

-Boom and roar and crash!  Presently

-the stream of shells from the Germans

-diminished.  It almost ceased.

-

-"Platoons, get ready!"

-

-"Fix bayonets!"

-

-The men began to swarm up the parapet.

-There was no enemy to be seen.  The wire

-stretched across their front had been battered

-down in many places.

-

-All at once there was a great stillness.  The

-artillery had finished its work.

-

-"Now, men!" shouted Kennedy, commander

-of the leading platoon.

-

-With a cheer the men rushed forward,

-Kenneth on the right, Harry on the left.

-On either side other regiments had already

-deployed and were advancing.  They came

-to the first of the German trenches--empty,

-except for prone and huddled forms in grey,

-and a litter of rifles, helmets, water-bottles,

-mess-tins, equipment of all kinds.  Kenneth

-sprang into the communication trench beside

-the pond, and splashed through the water at

-the bottom, the rest of the platoon after him.

-Where were the Germans?

-

-They came to the second line of trenches,

-floundered through what seemed an endless

-series of mysterious zigzag passages, waded

-through two or three feet of greenish water,

-scrambled up the embankment beyond, and

-raced across the open field, as fast as men

-could race with packs on their backs, full

-haversacks, and rifle and bayonet, over

-ground pitted with holes, heaped with earth

-and stones, scattered with the bodies of men,

-strands of barbed wire, fragments of shells

-and all the dreadful apparatus of warfare.

-Still there were no Germans to be seen, but

-bullets spat and sang among the advancing

-men; here a man fell with a groan, there

-one tumbled upon his face without even a

-murmur, scarcely noticed by his comrades

-pressing on and on with shouts and cheers.

-

-Kennedy's platoon reached the ruined

-church which Kenneth and Harry had passed

-on their memorable night expedition.  With

-shaking limbs and panting lungs they flung

-themselves down behind the wall of the

-churchyard for a brief rest.  The next rush

-towards the village would be across two

-hundred and fifty yards of open ground,

-bare of cover until they came to the gardens

-at the back of the cottages.

-

-The modern battle makes greater demands

-on individual effort and resource than the

-old-time battles on less extensive fields, where

-all the operations were conducted under the

-eye of the commander-in-chief.  Kennedy's

-men knew nothing of what was going on on

-their left and right.  They heard the insistent

-crackle of rifles, the rapid clack-clack

-of machine guns, the whistling of shrapnel.

-They saw the white and yellow puffs, with

-now and then a burst of inky blackness, in

-the sky.  Boom and crash, rattle and crack;

-pale flashes of fire; the ground trembling as

-with an earthquake; all the work of deadly

-destructive machines, operated by some

-unseen agency.  And in a momentary lull

-there came raining down from somewhere in

-the blue the liquid notes of a lark's song.

-

-"Now, men," cried Kennedy, "the last

-rush.  No good stopping or lying down.  On

-to the village.  Stick it, Rutlands!"

-

-The men sprang through the gaps in the

-wall, rushed across the churchyard and into

-the open fields.  From the houses a little

-above them on the hillside broke a withering

-fire.  They pressed on doggedly, stumbling

-in holes and shell pits, scrambling up and

-moving on again, bullets spattering and

-whistling among them, their ears deafened

-by the merciless scream and boom.  On,

-ever on, the gaps in their extended order

-widening as the fatal missiles found their

-mark.  There was no faltering.  A mist

-seemed to hide the houses from view, but

-they were drawing nearer moment by

-moment.  Suddenly there was a tremendous

-detonation in their front; a vast column of

-smoke, earth and brick dust rose in the air,

-and where cottages had been there were now

-only heaps of ruins.  "I hope our own

-gunners won't shell us," thought Kenneth

-on the extreme right, as he dashed towards

-the side street in which the explosion had

-taken place.

-

-And now at last the enemy were seen,

-some on the ground, some fleeing helter

-skelter from the ravaged spot.  The Rutlands

-yelled.  From the further end of the village

-came answering British cheers.  Working

-round the shoulder of the hill another company

-had forced the defences, and the village was won.

-

-With scarcely a moment's delay the men

-set to work to prepare for the inevitable

-counter-attack.  Lieutenant Kennedy was

-not to be seen.  Sergeant Colpus took

-command of his platoon, diminished by nearly

-a half.  Kenneth and Harry, bearing no

-marks of the fight except dirt, had time for

-only a word of mutual congratulation before

-they rushed off to place machine guns at

-the salient angles of the village.  Others

-threw up new entrenchments and barricades,

-utilising the debris of houses and furniture.

-And meanwhile, on the shell-scarred field

-behind, the ambulances and Red Cross men

-were busy.

-

-The village consisted of one principal

-street, with a few streets springing from it

-on either side; crooked and irregular, following

-the contour of the hill.  For a couple of

-hours the men toiled to strengthen the

-position they had carried; then warning of

-the impending attack was given by a shell

-from a German battery miles away to the

-east.  It burst some fifty yards in front of

-the village.  A minute or two later four shells

-plunged among the houses almost at the

-same instant.  The warning had given the

-Rutlands just time enough to evacuate the

-houses and take what shelter was possible.

-An aeroplane soared high over the position

-towards the German lines.  Shrapnel burst

-around it, but it sailed on unperturbed for

-several minutes, then swept round and

-returned.  No visible signal had been observed,

-but almost immediately shells began to

-scream over the village: the British artillery

-had been given the range and had opened

-fire.  For half an hour the German bombardment

-continued, gradually slackening as gun

-after gun was put out of action by the British

-shells from far away.  Finally the German

-batteries were silenced, but the enemy had

-not relinquished his design of a counter-attack.

-In the distance, over a wide front,

-column after column of grey-clad infantry

-was seen advancing in the dense formation

-that had cost countless lives in the early

-months of the war, but which had succeeded

-many times in crushing the defence, even

-though temporarily, by sheer weight of numbers.

-

-The Rutlands manned the houses, the

-ruins, the garden fences, the breastworks

-hastily thrown up.  Other battalions

-occupied the German reserve trenches running

-close beside the church in the rear.  The

-advancing Germans were met with rapid fire

-from rifles and machine guns.  Great gaps

-were cut in their ranks, but they were

-instantly filled up.  Time after time they

-were brought to a halt and showed signs of

-wavering; but in a few minutes their lines

-were steadied and they came on again with

-indomitable courage.  It was soon apparent

-that the German commander was hurling

-immense masses forward with the intention

-of recapturing the village at all costs.  As

-they approached they spread out to right

-and left, attacking the village on three sides.

-The Rutlands and the one company from

-another regiment which held it could look

-for no support, for the men in the trenches

-also were hard beset and unable to leave

-their positions because of the enfilading

-fire of the numerous German machine guns.

-

-Kenneth and Harry, with the other survivors

-of their platoon, occupied two or three

-small houses on the southern slope of the

-hill.  A dozen men held a detached cottage

-some forty yards beyond.  It was on this

-cottage that the huge German wave first

-broke.  Two or three times it was swept

-back; then Captain Adams, recognising the

-hopelessness of attempting to retain this

-isolated outpost, ran into one of the nearest

-houses and called for a volunteer to carry

-the order for its evacuation.  Harry sprang

-forward among the group that instantly

-responded.

-

-"Good, Randall!" said the captain.

-"Bring them back at once.  Look out for cover."

-

-Harry left the house, ran along for a few

-yards sheltered by a brick wall, then with

-lowered head sprinted along the open road

-towards the cottage.  He entered it from the

-back.  Of the dozen men who held it, only

-four or five were now in action.  Two were

-dead; the rest, among whom was Stoneway,

-were wounded.  On receiving the captain's

-order, the men who were unhurt carried out

-those of their comrades who were incapable

-of movement, and began to withdraw.  The

-moment they left their loopholes the Germans

-they had held at bay swarmed up the slope.

-Laden as they were, they could hardly

-escape without assistance.

-

-"Come on, boys!" shouted Kenneth.

-

-Followed by several of his companions he

-dashed out of the house.  At the wall they

-stopped to fire one volley, then with a ringing

-cheer charged with the bayonet.  At the

-sight of cold steel the Germans recoiled, and

-their pause, short as it was, gave Harry time

-to bring the retiring men under cover of the

-wall.  Then the Germans came on again

-in such numbers that Kenneth and his

-party had to fall back, firing as they went,

-and rejoin the men in the house.

-

-For ten minutes more they held their

-position, hurling the grey mass back by the

-rapidity of their fire.  Their rifles were hot

-to the touch.  Still the Germans pressed

-forward, some of them flinging hand grenades,

-which set fire to the houses.  To remain

-longer was to court certain destruction.

-Dashing out at the back, the men rushed

-from garden to garden towards the main

-street, only to find that the enemy had

-already forced their way into that, and were

-pressing hard upon the remnants of two

-platoons that were falling back, disputing

-every yard.

-

-Kenneth glanced round among the men

-who had accompanied him from the houses.

-Neither Sergeant Colpus nor any other

-non-commissioned officer was with them.

-

-"We'll give them a charge, boys," he cried.

-

-Several files of Germans had already passed

-the end of the lane that ran along the rear

-of the gardens into the main street.

-Forming his little party in fours, Kenneth led

-them along the lane.  They swept upon the

-flank of the enemy, their sudden onset

-cutting the column in two.  The eastern

-portion recoiled: the western, caught

-between these new assailants and the Rutlands

-stubbornly retreating up the street, were cut

-to pieces.

-

-"Well done!" cried Captain Adams,

-rushing up at the head of the men upon

-whom the pressure had been relieved,

-"Dash down those walls there."

-

-He pointed to a house that was already

-tottering through the effects of the

-bombardment.  Taking advantage of the enemy's

-confusion, the Rutlands completed the

-demolition of the walls, hurling bricks, plaster,

-rafters, furniture across the street, and

-hastily raising a barricade.  When the

-Germans returned to the charge, they found

-themselves faced by a formidable breastwork,

-from behind which the Rutlands met

-their rush with rifles and machine guns.

-They were thrown back again and again,

-and during every interval the defenders

-ripped up the pave and worked energetically

-at sinking a trench across the whole breadth

-of the street.

-

-"They are checked for the moment," said

-the captain.  "But they'll bring up field

-guns, and splinter the barricade.  We'll

-hold the houses on each side.  I've already

-sent word to the colonel; if we can manage

-to hold our ground for the rest of the day we

-shall get support to-morrow."

-

-It was clear that the attack had been

-checked all along the line.  The Germans

-immediately in front of the village established

-themselves at the foot of the hill facing the

-street, no doubt with the intention of

-renewing the attack after another bombardment.

-During the day the Rutlands were

-not further molested.  Early next morning

-the village was heavily shelled by the German

-batteries, but British artillery had been

-moved up in anticipation of this onslaught,

-and after a hot duel that lasted for nearly an

-hour the Germans were again silenced.  Their

-infantry was observed to be entrenching

-themselves in the fields half a mile away,

-and a certain amount of spasmodic rifle fire

-and sniping went on between the two forces.

-

-The Rutlands were worn out with fatigue

-and hunger.  It had been impossible to

-bring up supplies, and they had only their

-emergency rations and what food they could

-find in the village.  But in the evening two

-fresh battalions came up to relieve them,

-and they were ordered back to their original

-billets.  There the brigadier himself

-complimented them on their success, and promised

-them a well-earned rest.

-

-When the roll was called, it was found

-that the success had been won at a heavy

-cost.  Half the officers and thirty per

-cent. of the men were killed or wounded.  Colonel

-Appleton was slightly injured by a splinter,

-Lieutenant Kennedy had narrowly escaped

-death: a bullet had shattered the wire-nippers

-in his breast pocket, causing lacerations

-of the flesh.  Stoneway's wound turned

-out to be very slight; and some of the men

-who had been with him in the cottage were

-rather aggrieved that he had withdrawn

-from the firing line though not incapacitated.

-Captain Adams, Kenneth and Harry were

-among those who had come through unscathed.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`THE HIKIOTOSHI`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XIV

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   THE HIKIOTOSHI

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The village appeared to be full of wounded.

-Some were being attended to by doctors on

-the spot, others were sent to the rear in

-motor ambulances as fast as these could be

-brought up.  The Rutlands learnt that their

-attack on the village had been only one

-incident in operations that had extended

-for several miles along the front, and which

-had resulted in a certain gain of ground.

-The German trenches had been stormed, and

-the enemy thrown back for a considerable

-distance.

-

-During the morning a motor despatch

-rider came in with a message from the

-general of division.  An immediate answer

-was required, which Colonel Appleton at

-once proceeded to write, while Captain

-Adams questioned the cyclist on what he

-had seen in the course of his ride.  The

-divisional headquarters was at a village some

-fifteen miles to the north-east as the crow

-flies, but the route taken by the cyclist,

-well behind the British lines, was almost

-twice that distance.  He had been instructed

-to return the same way.  It occurred to

-Captain Adams, however, that much time

-would be saved if a more direct route were

-followed, and he suggested that the colonel

-should take advantage of the change in

-position resulting from the forward

-movement and the confusion in the German lines,

-to send his message along a road that ran

-from the captured village in the rear of

-what had been the enemy's trenches.

-

-"That's all very well," said the colonel,

-"but in the first place this man is ordered

-to go back the same way, and in the next

-we have no other cycles or cyclists."

-

-"We have a couple of cycles," said the

-captain.  "Don't you remember, sir, we

-sent a requisition to the base for a couple

-of new machine guns and by some blunder

-or other they sent us two motor cycles

-instead?"

-

-"And we still have them?"

-

-"Oh yes!  We shall have to keep them

-until someone discovers that they are missing

-and ultimately finds out their whereabouts.

-And I've no doubt we've several men who

-can ride."

-

-"There's a further consideration.  The

-road you mention is now between our firing

-line and the enemy's.  It will be decidedly

-unhealthy."

-

-"A little risky, no doubt; but by all

-accounts the Germans have been thrown

-back some distance, and they'll be too busy

-consolidating their new position to be very

-dangerous to-day.  I daresay there'll be

-snipers here and there, but they're not very

-successful at running targets.  I'd suggest

-that you triplicate your despatch: send one

-copy by this man the long way, and two

-at short intervals by the direct road.  You'd

-make sure of it thus."

-

-"Well, I'll 'phone to the front and discover

-how the land lies.  In the meantime see if

-you can find riders.  If it appears reasonably

-safe I'll adopt your suggestion: it will save

-half an hour or more."

-

-The captain at once hurried to the Bonnards'

-cottage.  "Amory's a likely man," he thought.

-

-The upshot was that when the official

-despatch rider was returning to

-headquarters by the long way round, Kenneth

-and Harry were speeding along the road

-north-eastward.  Harry was the first to

-start; Kenneth followed at a minute's

-interval, just keeping his friend in sight.

-Their orders were to let nothing interfere

-with or delay the delivery of the despatch.

-If any accident happened, if either of them

-was hit by a sniper's bullet, there must be

-no question of helping the other.

-

-Before starting they had attentively

-studied a large-scale map of the district.

-The colonel's information had shown the

-impossibility of attempting to reach

-headquarters without leaving the direct road.

-This lay, for about half the distance,

-between the new fronts of the opposing forces,

-but it then crossed the new position which

-the Germans were believed to be entrenching,

-and ran for several miles behind it.  There

-was, however, a by-road forking to the left

-just before the halfway point was reached,

-and this opened into a bridle track leading in

-the right direction.  By making this slight

-detour they would lose a mile or two, but

-they might hope to incur no more danger

-than they were bound to risk in the early

-part of the journey.

-

-"Barring accidents, we shall save a good

-deal more time than the colonel thinks," said

-Kenneth, as he folded the map.  "The way

-the other fellow has gone is sure to be

-congested with traffic: this will be clear."

-

-"I hope so," replied Harry, "but don't

-forget there's been an action.  The road is

-probably half pits.  Well, I go first then;

-if I come a cropper, take warning and scoot."

-

-At the outset the road was not so bad as

-he had expected, and he was able to run the

-machine at a pace of nearly forty miles an

-hour without much risk.  There were few

-marks of gun fire, no doubt because the road

-followed the bottom of an indentation over

-which the shells had passed.  But after a

-time it rose, and the ground fell away on

-each side, and Harry was warned of the

-necessity of reducing speed by a sudden jolt

-that made him bite his tongue.  From that

-moment he had to watch every yard of the

-road.  Sometimes on the left, sometimes in

-the centre, sometimes on the right, yawned

-a shell pit deep enough to bury a wagon.

-Presently he had to pick his way through a

-litter of broken rifles, helmets, haversacks,

-all sorts of articles of equipment, evidently

-dropped or thrown aside by the Germans in

-their disordered flight the day before.  Time

-was so important that, even now, he rode

-at a speed that would have seemed lunacy

-to a motorist with a proper respect for

-springs and bearings, avoiding only dangerous

-holes, and riding over most of the obstacles.

-His progress was a succession of jolts and

-jerks that threatened to dislocate the machine,

-and he afterwards wondered that it had not

-broken down under the strain.

-

-He came into the by-road.  This, being at

-a lower level than the road he had left,

-had not suffered so much from shells; on

-the other hand, it was scored with ruts

-and soft with mud, into which the wheels

-now and then sank several inches.  He was

-beset now by a constant fear of skidding,

-and annoyed by splashes of mud on his face.

-

-"It might be worse," he thought.  "Lucky

-they are not bullets."

-

-So far, it was clear, he had not been seen

-by the snipers whom Captain Adams had

-mentioned as the greatest risk of the journey.

-The ground on either side rolled away in

-gentle undulations.  There was neither house

-nor living creature in sight.  Guns were

-booming in the far distance, but though he

-knew that there were thousands of invisible

-soldiers on each side of him, nothing on the

-face of the country indicated a state of war.

-

-Topping a rise, he came to a ruined hamlet

-in which not a single cottage was whole.

-Beyond this branched the bridle track that

-led to his destination.  It was a lane no

-more than four feet wide, between hedges,

-and thick with slimy mud.  It wound and

-twisted in an erratic and seemingly purposeless

-manner, and but for the evidence of the

-map he had conned Harry would have had

-no confidence in its general direction.

-

-Suddenly he heard the characteristic

-scream of a shell not far ahead.  Immediately

-afterwards the deep boom of a heavy

-gun came from his right.  The German

-gunners had started work.  In a few seconds

-there was rolling thunder on each side of

-him; it was evident that a violent artillery

-duel was in progress.  The hedges prevented

-him from seeing anything; but reflecting

-that the gunners were aiming at each other's

-positions he was not disturbed about his

-own safety.

-

-He had just turned an awkward corner,

-narrowly avoiding a sideslip, and was

-congratulating himself on a few yards of straight

-track and a widening that gave hope of

-reaching an open road, when, amid the sound

-of guns, he caught another sound, which at

-first he mistook for the whirr of an

-aeroplane.  In a moment, however, he recognised

-his error.  It was the purring of a motor

-bicycle, and in front, approaching him.

-Almost as soon as he knew this, the machine

-came in sight at the far corner, perhaps a

-hundred yards away, running at no great

-speed.  At the first glance he saw that the

-rider was a German; at the second that the

-German was not unprepared to meet him.

-He realised afterwards that, the wind being

-with him, the noise of his own swiftly running

-engine must have been heard first.

-

-Each had only a few moments to decide

-what to do.  The German, the instant he

-recognised the approaching rider as a British

-soldier, screwed on his brakes, turned the

-bicycle across the lane, sprang off and drew

-a revolver, no doubt expecting that the

-Englishman would swerve at the obstacle,

-be forced into the hedge, and present an

-easy target.  His reasoning, if such it was,

-would have been sound enough had it not

-proceeded from a faulty estimate of the

-English mind--an error into which the

-Germans have been betrayed many times since

-the Kaiser made his initial blunder in the

-same kind.  The German is a master of the

-obvious, and imagines that what he would

-do is the best thing to be done, and that an

-Englishman will do it badly.

-

-Harry, however, was not committed by

-training or habit to either of the obvious

-courses: to allow himself to be forced into

-the hedge, or to stop dead and fight the

-German on foot.  It seemed to him, in those

-few seconds that he had for deciding, better

-to clear the way for Kenneth, who, no

-doubt, was not far behind.  A spill would

-at any rate not hurt his feelings, as it might

-a German's.  Accordingly, instead of applying

-the brakes, he opened the throttle, and

-bracing himself for the shock, drove his

-machine at ever-increasing speed straight

-for the enemy.

-

-This, of course, from the German point

-of view, was English madness.  Still, it was

-unexpected, and when the German fired, at

-the distance of twenty paces, his aim was

-flurried by his natural surprise, and by the

-sudden realisation that his machine would

-certainly be smashed.  Dropping his

-revolver, and shouting something that was

-far from complimentary, he tried to pull his

-bicycle clear; but his action was not only

-too late; like so many well-meant efforts

-to prevent mischief, it furthered it.  His

-movement of a few inches caused Harry's

-bicycle to strike the hub of the driving

-wheel instead of the middle of the machine,

-for which he was steering.  Harry was flung

-over the handle-bars into the hedge, a few

-feet in advance of the bicycles, which lay

-mangled together, and not quite so far from

-the German, who had very luckily escaped

-being crushed beneath them.

-

-The two men staggered to their feet

-almost at the same moment, bruised and

-shaken, but equally unconscious of their

-hurts.  The German, with his cultivated

-instinct, fumbled for his revolver,

-remembered it was on the ground out of reach,

-and was drawing his sword-bayonet when

-Harry, in the British way, flung himself

-upon him.  And when Kenneth, half a

-minute later, drawn up at speed by the

-sound of the crash, came upon the scene,

-he beheld with mingled amazement and

-concern two military figures, begrimed with

-mud, struggling on the ground.  The figure

-in grey was undermost.

-

-"Go on!" shouted Harry.  "I've got

-the Hikiotoshi on him."

-

-Kenneth had slowed down, but remembering

-the captain's injunction, and seeing

-that his friend was well able to take care of

-himself, he opened out and in a few seconds

-was pushing along at as high a speed as the

-greasy lane permitted.  He could not help

-smiling at the recollection of his own

-bewilderment and naïve indignation when, in

-one of his early lessons in jujutsu from

-Mr. Kishimaru, he had found both legs

-suddenly swept from under him, and heard

-the Japanese, beaming down upon him,

-gently remark:

-

-"That, my dear sir, is the Hikiotoshi."

-

-Kenneth's experiences along the road had

-been identical with Harry's.  But a few

-seconds after he had left the scene of the

-collision he had reason to wonder, for the

-first time, whether he would ever reach his

-destination.  The bridle track opened into

-a road that intersected a stretch of plain.

-It had suffered hardly at all from shells;

-being on a higher level than the bridle

-track it was fairly dry and gave a better

-surface for riding; but it was fully exposed

-on either hand, without protection of hedge

-or dyke; and anyone passing along it must

-be in full view for a considerable distance

-left and right.  And Kenneth found that

-he had run into the very centre of the

-artillery duel the sounds of which he had

-heard for some minutes.  Shells whizzed

-over his head in both directions.  Bang to

-the left of him, boom to the right of him,

-and above him shriek and moan in various

-tones.  And in the midst of the broken

-sounds came the continuous hum of an

-aeroplane somewhere in the neighbourhood.

-

-Neither the German nor the British

-batteries were visible.  Kenneth indeed did

-not look round for their flashes or the

-smoke from the bursting shells.  Bending

-forward over the handle-bars he raced on,

-congratulating himself that, his course being

-probably midway between the distant

-batteries, the gunners on each side were too

-intent on searching the hostile position to

-concern themselves about a solitary cyclist

-careering across their front at a shorter

-range.  But he knew that between him and

-the guns infantry were watching in their

-trenches, perhaps awaiting the order to

-advance, and at any moment he might find

-himself caught between two fires.

-

-He was not long left in doubt whether

-he had been seen.  From the right a bullet

-sang across the road.  It was a single shot,

-from the rifle of some sniper concealed

-somewhere in advance of the German lines.  At

-a speed of fifty miles an hour he must be a

-difficult target even for the most expert of

-marksmen, and he hoped that speed would

-save him.  Another shot whistled by his

-ear; that was a narrow escape, he thought;

-but there had been no volley from the

-German trenches: apparently he had not

-been seen except by the sniper, and it was

-only a stream of shot from rifles or machine

-guns that he had to fear.

-

-Presently, however, he was startled by a

-loud explosion near at hand on his left;

-glancing round, he saw a column of earth

-and smoke rise from the ground.  "That's

-a shell from a field-gun," he thought.  "The

-Germans have spotted me, and are trying

-their hand."  Another shell burst on his

-right, close enough to bespatter him with

-earth.  A few seconds afterwards there was

-a shattering explosion on the same side, of

-such force that the concussion of the air

-alone was sufficient to hurl his machine

-sideways.  Uncontrollably it mounted a low

-bank on the left, jumped a ditch, tore a

-furrow through the heavy soil, then stopped

-slowly and turned over.

-

-Kenneth picked himself up, covered with

-dirt but unharmed.  He looked at the fallen

-machine.  Both wheels were buckled; from

-one the tyre had been ripped off; the bicycle

-was damaged beyond repair.  A shell bursting

-within a hundred yards sent him scrambling

-into a ditch, where he rested for a few moments

-to collect himself.  The German gunners were

-apparently satisfied; the firing ceased.

-

-"Scuppered, and with only a few miles

-to go," he thought.  "Both of us!  The

-long way will prove to be the shortest after

-all."

-

-After a little consideration he came to

-the conclusion that there was still a chance

-of arriving first at headquarters by making

-his way along the ditch parallel with the

-road.  In any case he must attempt it, for

-the third rider might have met with an

-accident: his clear duty was to go on and

-deliver the despatch.  He was farther from

-his destination than he supposed, and it

-would probably have taken him an hour to

-reach it on foot.  But he set off along the

-bottom of the ditch, sinking sometimes over

-his ankles in slime and water.

-

-Some twenty minutes afterwards he was

-surprised to hear another series of explosions

-on the road behind him.  A little later the

-wind carried towards him the purr of a

-motor bicycle.  It was rapidly approaching;

-the crash of bursting shells came nearer and

-nearer.  Was the rider a friend or an

-enemy?  It could not be either Harry or

-the German he had met, for he had seen at

-a glance as he passed by that their machines

-were crippled.  He was bound to be

-discovered; the ditch, while deep enough to

-conceal him from the gunners in the distance,

-would not hide him from anyone passing

-along the road, even if he lay flat in the

-filthy ooze.  He drew the revolver which

-Captain Adams had lent him, resolving to

-get his shot in first.

-

-Only a few seconds elapsed between his

-hearing the sound and the appearance of

-the bicycle round a curve in the road

-behind.  The rider was in khaki; he was flat

-over the handle-bars; the machine seemed

-to leap along the road.  It flashed by, and

-Kenneth, crouching over the ditch, was

-amazed to see that the rider was Harry.

-Whether his friend had recognised him he

-could not tell.  Quite oblivious of the shells

-that were still bursting on and near the

-road, he watched the bicycle's breakneck

-career until it passed under a bank that

-protected it from the German guns, turned

-a corner, and disappeared.  Next moment

-there was a crash behind him; he was

-conscious for the fraction of a second of sharp

-blows on every part of his body; then he

-knew no more.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`THE OBSERVATION POST`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XV

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   THE OBSERVATION POST

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Harry reached the divisional headquarters

-without further mishap, and delivered his

-despatch.  The rider who had come by the

-long way had not arrived.  It was more

-than half an hour later when he at last rode

-in, and explained that he had been delayed

-at several points by congestion of traffic.

-

-Meanwhile Harry had obtained leave to

-ride back and bring in his companion, whom

-he expected to meet within a mile or two.

-Evening was coming on; heavy clouds were

-heaping themselves in the western sky,

-hastening the dark.  Harry had only the

-vaguest idea of the locality of the spot where

-he had caught a momentary glimpse of

-Kenneth, and after riding for some distance,

-untroubled by attentions from the German

-gunners, without meeting him, he began to

-feel uneasy.  The sight of the abandoned

-motor bicycle increased his misgiving.

-Turning at the bridle path he rode back

-very slowly, closely scanning both sides of

-the road.  At length he descried, in the

-failing light, a body lying half in, half out

-of the ditch.  He jumped off his machine

-and hastened to the prostrate form, dreading

-to find that his friend was killed.  But a

-moment's examination sufficed to reassure

-him.  The heart was still beating.  A few

-drops from his flask revived Kenneth, who

-sat up, a deplorable object, caked with mud

-from head to foot.

-

-"How do you feel, old man?" asked

-Harry anxiously.

-

-"Ugh!" grunted Kenneth.  "Is my

-collar-bone broken?"

-

-"Not a bit of it, or you couldn't move

-your neck like that.  Can you get up?"

-

-"Give me a hand."

-

-He rose slowly to his feet.

-

-"Is my skull cracked?" he asked.

-"Where's my cap?"

-

-Harry picked it up, and put it on his

-head after feeling all over the skull.

-

-"Just pinch me up and down the legs,

-will you?" said Kenneth.

-

-"I don't think there's anything wrong,"

-said Harry after pressing all the joints and

-muscles.

-

-"Then I've cost the Germans a good few

-pounds for nothing.  I'm horribly dizzy;

-feel as if a whole rugger team had been over

-me.  You got through to headquarters?"

-

-"Yes.  But look here, I'll tell you about

-it presently.  D'you think you could stick

-on the carrier?  The sooner we get out of

-this the better."

-

-"Let me walk a little first.  I'm rather

-top-heavy at present.  You got there first?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"Good man!  'Fraid we'd both muff

-it....  Is my face as dirty as my hands?"

-

-"My dear child, your face is all right.

-If you talk like that I shall be certain you

-are cracked."

-

-"All right, old man; only I was thinking

-of your face, you know.  I don't mind so

-long as we are both pretty much alike."

-

-"Well now, hop on, and I'll go fairly

-slowly.  If you feel inclined to tumble off,

-sing out and I'll catch you before you fall."

-

-Kenneth, however, managed to maintain

-his seat on the carrier, and the two rode into

-headquarters just before absolute dark.  They

-were given a billet for the night, and told to

-return to their regiment as best they could

-next day.  Luckily able to get a bath, they

-were then provided with supper, and Harry

-had an opportunity of telling at his ease

-how he had managed to save the situation.

-

-"You see, after I had put him down with

-the Hikiotoshi----"

-

-"I nearly rolled off with laughing when

-you sang that out," Kenneth interrupted.

-"How delighted old Kishimaru would be!

-I must write and tell him about it.  Go on."

-

-"Well, I had to lay him out, which wasn't

-very difficult, and for safety's sake I tied

-him up in his own straps.  Then I had a

-look at my machine.  The front wheel was

-hopelessly buckled.  What about the

-German's, I thought.  I found that the engine

-was mere scrap iron; it had got the full

-force of the collision.  But the back wheel

-wasn't hurt a bit.  By good luck it was

-exactly the same size as mine, and as the

-tool bag was there all complete, I set about

-exchanging the wheels--and also more or less

-pleasant remarks with the German, who

-showed a wonderful command of English

-bargee idiom when he recovered his senses.

-I had pulled my old Rover to pieces so often

-at home that I had no trouble, though it

-took me a long time.  When I had finished,

-I wondered whether I could bring in the

-German as a prisoner, but I couldn't very

-well fix him on the carrier without help.

-And besides, the front forks had been so

-strained and twisted that I was afraid the

-whole concern might come to grief.  So I

-went over and bade him a polite good-bye,

-eased his lashings so that he could wriggle

-free with a little exertion, and then set off

-at full speed.  By the way, I had taken the

-liberty of examining his pockets, left him a

-photograph and a few trifles, and took a

-letter and a despatch which I handed to the

-general.  On the whole I think we've done

-a good day's work."

-

-"I rather think we have.  Pity you

-didn't leave the German tied up: we might

-have got him to-morrow on our way back."

-

-"No thank you!  Once running the

-gauntlet of German shells is enough for me.

-We'll go back the long way.  And as we

-shall have only the one machine between us

-I'll take it to the repairing shop and have it

-looked over.  There's not much wrong with

-it, and we'll take turn and turn about on

-the carrier."

-

-They set off in a fine spring dawn, taking

-their midday meal with them.  It was slow

-going on this outer circle.  The road, lying

-well behind the British lines, was

-encumbered with military traffic.  The pave was

-for long stretches occupied by motor

-omnibuses and lorries, carrying men, provisions,

-and ammunition.  Here was a lorry loaded

-with bacon, there one packed with loaves

-of bread from the baking ovens, there

-another heaped with parcels sent out from

-home, another with new uniforms, boots

-and equipment.  Time after time the cyclists

-had to hop off, leave the pave for the

-muddy unpaved border of the road, and

-stand ankle deep in mud until the heavy

-vehicles had passed, exchanging pleasantries

-with the cheerful drivers.

-

-"I say, this is a nuisance," said Harry, at

-one of these stoppages.  "If I'm not

-mistaken, the map showed a cross-road about

-halfway, leading into the road we travelled

-yesterday.  It comes out by that hamlet we

-passed.  I vote we take that and chance it.

-There's no firing at present, and the road is

-less exposed at that end.  Of course there's

-no hurry, but this constant hopping off and

-on is too monotonous for anything."

-

-"We'll have a look at the cross-road when

-we come to it.  It may be too bad for riding."

-

-On reaching the cross-road, they found

-that there was no traffic on it, though there

-were marks of the recent passage of heavy

-vehicles.  It looked fairly easy, so they

-struck into it, and bowled along for a mile

-or two without interruption.  In spite of

-bruises due to their spills on the previous

-day they felt very fit, and the rapid

-movement through the fresh morning air had its

-usual exhilarating effect.

-

-"This is better than the trenches--heaps

-better than hanging about in billets," said

-Kenneth.  "I'd rather like despatch riding."

-

-"So would I," replied Harry.  "But I

-don't regret anything.  All I'm sorry for is

-that poor old Ginger is collared.  I'm afraid

-he's having a rotten time of it."

-

-The road was winding and hilly, running

-through country for the most part bare,

-but dotted with clumps of woodland.  Presently

-they passed a train of artillery transport.

-Shortly afterwards they came in sight

-of a low hill from the further side of which

-they expected to see the ruined hamlet.

-As they rode up the hill they suddenly

-noticed, just below the crown on their left,

-a battery of British field-guns getting into

-position.  The gunners were masking it from

-aerial observation by means of branches of

-trees and shrubs on which the foliage was

-well advanced.  Then a bend of the road

-brought them in sight of a battalion of

-infantry, evidently in support of the guns.

-

-"Halt there!" cried a man, coming towards them.

-

-They slipped off, left the bicycle by the

-side of the road, and accompanied the man

-to the colonel.

-

-"Where are you going?" he asked.

-

-Kenneth mentioned the name of their village.

-

-"You can't go this way," said the colonel.

-"The enemy isn't far on the other side of the

-road this leads to, and I don't want anything

-to attract his attention to this quarter.  Ride

-back, and go along the main road."

-

-"We can't get along very well for the

-traffic, sir," said Kenneth.  "We rode the

-other way yesterday, and know it quite

-well.  It's much shorter, and a good deal

-of it is in a hollow, so that we are not very

-likely to be seen.  Besides, sir, we might

-possibly do a little scouting on the way."

-

-"You're not in a signal company?"

-

-"Not officially, sir, though we carried an

-emergency despatch yesterday."

-

-"Well, I'll let you through on condition

-that you come back at once if you see

-anything worth reporting.  You're a public

-school man, aren't you?"

-

-"Yes, sir.  Haileybury."

-

-"O.T.C.?"

-

-"Yes, sir."

-

-"Couldn't wait for a commission, I

-suppose?  Well, remember your work on field

-days.  I can trust you to use your intelligence."

-

-"Thank you, sir."

-

-"By the way, I must tell you that a

-field telephone has gone ahead.  Look alive;

-the gunners are in a hurry."

-

-They remounted and rode on, passing a

-screen of scouts lying over a wide front

-below the crest of the hill.  As they were

-nearing the foot of the farther slope they

-saw the telephone wagon coming towards

-them.  On meeting it they stopped and asked

-the driver what was going on.

-

-"Nothing yet.  We've laid the wire to a

-cottage you'll see in the distance when you

-get beyond those trees.  There's a

-lieutenant and four men in charge.  You'd

-better hurry up."

-

-"What, are there any Germans in sight?"

-asked Harry.

-

-"No; but there's been a bit of sniping.

-I don't think they could have seen us going

-into the cottage, but they must have caught

-sight of us on the road.  I heard the smack

-of a bullet on the back of the wagon, and was

-thankful when I got under the trees."

-

-They went on.  Beyond the trees the

-road ran straight up a long gradual incline.

-To the left, on the crest, stood a small

-cottage, enclosed, with its garden, within a

-brick wall.  They had ridden only a few

-yards up the ascent when they heard the

-crackle of rifle fire ahead.

-

-"The Germans must have seen or guessed

-that the men went to the cottage," said

-Kenneth.  "We had better leave the machine

-and go up across the field.  The cottage

-and garden wall will give us cover.  It will

-be just as well to learn what's going on."

-

-They left the road and ran up the grassy

-hill towards the cottage.  On nearing the

-crest they became aware that the firing

-they had heard was being directed from the

-front of the cottage.  There was no answering

-fire, but it was clear that the little party

-in the cottage was expecting an attack.

-Being an observation party, to whose success

-secrecy was essential, it was equally clear

-that they would not have fired except from

-urgent necessity.

-

-"Ride back and tell the colonel," said

-Kenneth.  "I'll go on and lend a hand."

-

-At another moment it would have been

-Harry's way to dispute his friend's right to

-the dangerous part, and to settle the matter

-by the spin of a coin.  It might have

-occurred to him, too, that the call for

-support would reach the colonel by telephone

-more quickly than he could convey it on

-the bicycle.  But guessing that the position

-was critical, he turned his back at once,

-ran down the hill, mounted the machine,

-and rode back at his utmost speed.  Kenneth

-meanwhile had vaulted the garden wall, and

-dashed into the cottage through the open

-door at the back.

-

-During the next ten or fifteen minutes

-events crowded one upon another more

-rapidly than can be related, and we must

-pause for a little to make the position clear.

-The cottage stood on a spur projecting

-slightly eastward from the general line of

-the ridge.  Below it the ground sloped

-gently down to the road which Kenneth

-and Harry had travelled on the previous

-day.  Beyond that the country undulated

-for several miles.  About a mile away was

-a young plantation.  The road ran right

-and left, with considerable windings, and a

-mile and a half away, on the right, was the

-ruined hamlet through which the motor

-riders had passed.  A little below the cottage

-a stone wall of no great height stretched

-across the ground, ultimately meeting the

-road.  On the eastern side of it--that is, in

-the direction of the German lines--was a

-ditch, shallow and empty.  During the night

-a full regiment of Germans, reorganised after

-their recent repulse, had occupied the wood

-and the hamlet, the advance guard of a

-large body whose purpose was to carry their

-line forward just as the British on their side

-were doing.  The British engineer party had

-not completed the installation of the

-telephone in the cottage when the lieutenant

-saw the Germans debouching from the wood

-towards the hamlet, and considerable

-movement in the hamlet itself.  Ordering his men

-to cut loopholes in the wall of the front

-room on the upper storey, and to fire if the

-enemy appeared to be advancing on the

-cottage, he worked at the telephone, and

-had almost finished when the German scouts

-were seen creeping up the hill about half a

-mile away.  Below them was a company in

-extended order; below them again a second

-company in support.  They were coming

-straight towards the cottage, and the men,

-in obedience to their officer's orders, had fired.

-

-Kenneth dashed into the cottage.  The

-lower floor was empty.  He rushed up the

-stairs into the only room above.  Four men

-were posted at the loopholes; the lieutenant

-was screwing on the receiver of the telephone.

-He looked up as Kenneth entered.

-

-"Are they coming on already?" he asked.

-

-"No; but a pal of mine has ridden back

-to tell the colonel."

-

-"That's good.  It will be a minute or

-two before this wretched thing is in working

-order."

-

-Just then there was a burst of rifle fire

-from the enemy.  The windows were

-shattered.  One of the men dropped his rifle

-and shouted.

-

-"Get out and back to our lines," called

-the officer, seeing that he was *hors de combat*.

-"Take his rifle, will you?" he added to

-Kenneth.  "For goodness' sake don't go

-near the window."

-

-Kenneth picked up the rifle and hurried

-to a loophole.  From the volume of the

-enemy's fire it was clear that the assailants

-were a very numerous body, and it struck

-him as madness for five men to attempt to

-hold the place.  He ventured to say so.

-

-"Done at last!" said the lieutenant.

-"What was that you said? ... All right"

-(he spoke through the telephone).  "Infantry

-advancing.  No sign of battery....

-Hold it!  Of course we must.  If they get

-here they can see our battery from the

-roof.  Besides, if we can hold them off until

-the battalion comes up we couldn't have a

-better defensive position than the wall and

-ditch in front....  Gad! that's bad."

-

-A shell had burst on the slope between

-the cottage and the road, clear of the

-infantry advancing farther to the right.

-

-"Take my glasses," continued the

-lieutenant, "go well to the left, and see if you

-can spot the direction when the next shell

-comes."  In low distinct tones he spoke

-into the bell of the receiver: "Enemy firing

-line about 700 yards below crest, range say 5200."

-

-Another shell burst about a hundred

-yards to the left of the cottage.

-

-"See the flash?" asked the officer, with

-the receiver at his ear.

-

-"No."

-

-"They're firing at long range....  Yes:

-all right....  They've had to change their

-position--our battery, I mean.  Want

-another five minutes."  He looked at his wrist

-watch.  "By that time the Germans will be

-upon us, even if a lucky shot from one of

-their big guns don't tumble the place about

-our ears.  However!"

-

-Kenneth admired the young officer's

-coolness as, laying down the receiver, he took

-up a rifle and posted himself at a loophole.

-The Germans had stopped firing: bending

-low they were creeping up yard by yard

-towards the wall.

-

-"Are you a good shot?" asked the officer.

-

-"Fair," replied Kenneth.

-

-"Then pick off the men on the flank.  If

-they get across that dyke they'll work round

-to our rear and have cover until they are

-close upon us."

-

-Kenneth, sighting for 500 yards, took aim

-at the man highest up on the enemy's

-extreme left flank.  The man dropped.  Then

-he fired at the next man, and missed.  A

-second shot found its mark.  Meanwhile

-the officer and his three men methodically

-fired, each through his own loophole.  And

-for four crowded minutes they poured their

-bullets into the line of scouts, which thinned

-away until not one was visible on the hillside.

-

-But the company behind was pushing

-steadily on, and now opened fire.  A hail

-of bullets struck the walls of the cottage

-and whistled through the broken windows.

-The officer, creeping across the floor to the

-telephone receiver, was smothered with

-splinters of wood.  One of the men uttered

-an oath and drew his hand across his cheek.

-

-"A free shave, Tom," said the next man

-with a grin.  "Whiskers won't grow there

-no more."

-

-Meanwhile, every twenty or thirty seconds

-a shell burst in the neighbourhood of the

-cottage, every time nearer.  The noise was

-terrific.

-

-"Long time getting the range," said the

-lieutenant, holding the receiver to his ear.

-"Our boys are just going to start....

-Yes; still coming on; range 5000: 400 less

-will smash *me*, so be careful." ...

-

-Almost immediately afterwards a British

-shell burst in front of the cottage.

-

-"Where did it fall?" asked the officer.

-

-"Behind their supports, sir," replied one

-of the men.

-

-"Make it 4800," said the lieutenant

-through the telephone.

-

-The words had scarcely left his lips when

-there was a terrific crash.  For a few seconds

-Kenneth was so dazed as almost to be

-unconscious.  When he regained his wits

-he found himself lying in darkness on the

-floor.  An acrid smell teased his nostrils.

-Wondering where he was, and why he was

-alive, he tried to rise, and knocking his

-head, discovered that he was under a bed.

-He crawled out, over a heap of rubbish,

-and wriggled to a gap in the back wall, and

-into the garden.  And there, emerging from

-the framework of what had been a window,

-was the lieutenant, his face streaming with

-blood.  But he still held the telephone

-receiver, which, by one of the freaks of such

-explosions, had remained undamaged.

-

-"Cottage bashed to bits," he reported

-coolly through the telephone....  "No

-answer.  The line's broken somewhere.

-Wonder whether it was a German shell or

-one of ours.  Hunt about for a rifle.  By

-their howls they're coming on.  We'll creep

-round into the ditch.  I've got my revolver:

-come after me if you can find a rifle."

-

-But Kenneth was diverted from his search

-for a rifle by groans from beneath a heap

-of debris.  Removing it as quickly as

-possible, he released one of the privates, whose

-face was cut and bruised and his arm broken.

-He was wondering whether to look for the

-other men or for a rifle when he saw a

-khaki figure running along by the garden

-wall towards the ditch.  Another followed,

-then another, then groups, all hastening

-quietly in the direction of the firing.  The

-battalion had come up at last.  Kenneth

-continued his search for the men.  One was

-dead; the third badly wounded.

-

-Meanwhile the British soldiers, puffing

-hard with the run up the hill, were filing into

-the ditch, opening fire on the Germans the

-moment they arrived.  The enemy's artillery

-was silent, no doubt for fear of hitting their

-own men.  But British shells were falling

-almost incessantly on the German columns

-down the hill.  Still the enemy advanced,

-losing more and more heavily as the ditch

-filled up.  And presently, unable to endure

-the terrible fire from the British vantage

-position above them, they recoiled and were

-soon in full retreat, with still heavier losses,

-for by the time they reached the road the

-whole of the British battalion was extended

-along the firing line.

-

-The British at once set to work to deepen

-the ditch for a regular trench.  Before long

-the German artillery again began to play,

-the fire becoming more and more accurate

-as the gunners found the range.  The Red

-Cross men were kept busy in tending the

-wounded under cover of the ruined cottage.

-In a short time the British position on the

-ridge was consolidated, and preparations were

-made for a line of trenches, somewhat farther

-back and less exposed, which would become

-the permanent trenches if the Germans were

-in sufficient force to return to the attack.

-

-By force of circumstances Kenneth had

-taken no part in the fight after the collapse

-of the cottage.  But the engineer lieutenant,

-who had retired from the firing line as soon

-as the ditch was manned, and imperturbably

-rummaged among the ruins for the broken

-wire, thanked him for his help.

-

-Kenneth wondered why Harry had not

-returned.  As soon as he had an opportunity

-he enquired about him, and learnt that the

-colonel had sent him to the village with a

-message.  The road by which Kenneth had

-intended to return being closed, he could

-only regain his billet by tramping back

-until he reached the main road.  But Harry

-on the bicycle met him halfway, and they

-reached their quarters in time for dinner.

-And there they learnt that a portion of the

-village which they had captured two days

-before had been won back by the Germans.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XVI

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-In a small room in one of the houses at

-the foot of the hill village, bending over a

-table spread with papers, sat Lieutenant

-Axel von Schwank, an officer of a crack

-Prussian regiment, and a scion of an ancient

-and exalted family.

-

-He had had an excellent dinner, without

-sparing the wine: what need was there to

-do so when so many cases had been

-obtained gratis in Champagne?  He would

-have liked to remain with his brother

-officers, convivially employed in the room

-on the other side of the passage; but his

-colonel had given him some work to do.

-That was the penalty of being a musician.

-

-For Lieutenant Axel von Schwank was

-accomplished in music.  His rendering of

-the Waldstein sonata was wonderful for

-an amateur and a Prussian; he sang "The

-Two Grenadiers" with *éclat*, as his friends

-used to say before the authorities ordered

-the French language to be abolished; and

-he was renowned for his ability to read the

-most difficult score at sight.  With all that

-he was full of martial spirit: his cheeks were

-seamed with no fewer than three scars,

-proud memorials of his student days.

-

-But it was for his musical skill that the

-colonel had selected him for the piece of

-work on which he was now engaged.  It

-was very elementary work for a man who

-could play the Waldstein sonata and read

-a score by Strauss; any school girl could

-have done it; but even the greatest

-philosopher has at times to perform the simple

-operation of washing his face, and the

-lieutenant need not have felt that he was

-demeaning himself by a task so much below

-his powers.  For what Lieutenant Axel von

-Schwank was doing was simply to transcribe

-into musical notation, on a sheet of ruled

-music paper, the two lines of German with

-which the colonel had supplied him.

-

-Surely that is difficult, you say?  He has

-only seven letters, A to G, to employ,

-representing the seven notes of the scale, and the

-German alphabet has twenty-six.  What

-about the v's, and w's, and z's in which the

-German language is so much superior to the

-French?  But in the first place, remember

-that the German musician calls H the note

-which the less accomplished Englishman

-calls B, and in the second place that the

-range of most instruments, including the

-German flute, extends beyond a single octave.

-

-So that if the lieutenant writes this 

-

-.. figure:: images/img-241a.jpg

-   :align: center

-   :alt: [musical note]

-

-   [musical note]

-

-for A, there is nothing to prevent him

-writing 

-

-.. figure:: images/img-241b.jpg

-   :align: center

-   :alt: [musical note]

-

-   [musical note]

-

-for I, and by means of the

-sharps and flats he can even arrive at Z,

-without exceeding the compass of that

-dulcet instrument.

-

-He was busy with his transcription when

-he heard a scuffling of feet and the clank of

-swords in the opposite room.  His fellow

-officers were hurrying to the street door.

-The colonel put his head in.

-

-"We are called to the trenches," he said.

-"Go on with that, and follow us when you

-have done."

-

-The lieutenant had sprung up, turned

-round and saluted.  When his superior was

-gone, he sat down and set to work again.

-After all, he probably reflected, music has

-charms: it would preserve him for a few

-minutes more from the bullets of those

-hateful pigs the English.

-

-The house was in silence.

-

-A little while after the officers had

-departed, a strange, unshaven, unkempt face

-peered round the edge of the door, which

-the colonel had left open.  It was a lined

-and somewhat careworn face; the eyes were

-bright and wild; the hair, very rough and

-tangled, was red.  The face moved slowly

-forward; inch by inch a dirty, tattered

-khaki uniform showed itself; and the rays

-of the lamp on the table glinted on the blade

-of a long carving knife, held in the man's

-right hand.  He wore no boots, and his

-stockings made no sound as he tiptoed

-across the room.

-

-.. _`THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI`:

-

-.. figure:: images/img-242.jpg

-   :align: center

-   :alt: THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI

-

-   THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI

-

-Lieutenant Axel, bending over the table

-with his back to the door, was absorbed in

-his occupation.  But just as the intruder

-reached his chair he seemed to become

-aware that he was not alone.  He turned

-suddenly, his right hand holding the fountain

-pen, his left, by some instinct, crushing the

-papers into his pocket, and found a

-determined face glaring at him, and a carving

-knife pointed at his breast.  Before he

-could collect himself a sinewy hand clutched

-him by the throat, and a voice said in a

-hoarse whisper:

-

-"Make a sound and you're a dead 'un."

-

-Whether a knowledge of English was one

-of Lieutenant Axel's accomplishments or

-not, there was no mistaking the hand, the

-knife, the purport of the words.  He turned

-pale; his eyes searched the room for a

-chance of escape; he was discreetly silent;

-and at a significant movement of the

-offensive blade he raised his hands above his

-head.  A drop of ink fell on his nose.

-

-The captor, in whose expression there was

-eagerness, anxiety, an air of listening, loosed

-his grip on the officer's throat.

-

-"Take off your uniform and 'coutrements,"

-he said, with a jerk of the knife.

-

-Lieutenant Axel hesitated for a moment

-only.  The Englishman's face was not

-pleasant.  Hurriedly he stripped off tunic,

-trousers, belt and boots.

-

-"That'll do," said Ginger, in whose eyes

-the look which the German had mistaken

-for fury really indicated that he was at his

-wits' end to know how to effect the change

-of clothes without putting down the knife

-and giving his captive an opportunity to

-dash for the door.

-

-An idea flashed upon him.  Still pointing

-the knife at the officer, he took up the lamp

-with his left hand, placed it on the chimney

-piece close by, and stripped the cloth from

-the table.

-

-"Put it over your head," he whispered fiercely.

-

-Again a movement of the knife abridged

-the lieutenant's hesitation.  The shrouding

-table-cloth eclipsed the concentrated fury

-of his eyes.  Ginger wasted not a second.

-He shoved the officer into a corner of the

-room, pulled a sofa across to bar him in,

-cut a bell-pull with the knife, and drawing

-the cord over his head, began to tighten it.

-The German began to struggle; for the

-first time he spoke.

-

-"You shtrangle me!" came the muffled words.

-

-"Shut up!" growled Ginger, with a premonitory

-dig of the knife.  "I won't graze

-your skin if you don't make a fuss.  But----"

-

-Lieutenant Axel may have wondered:

-this hateful pig was certainly not expert in

-frightfulness; he was very soft, like all the

-English.  But the struggles ceased; the

-officer was quiet while Ginger knotted the

-cord about his neck.  And he stood there

-in the corner, a statue in table-cloth and

-pants, as Ginger, with a quickness learnt on

-raw mornings in the barracks at home,

-endued himself with the well-tailored

-habiliments of a Prussian officer.  The boots were

-a trifle large for him.

-

-He listened.  All was quiet.  He threw

-a dubious look at the rigid officer.

-

-"Not safe," he muttered.

-

-Hastening to the German, he loosed the

-cord, pulled off the table-cloth, and looking

-into the hot face said:

-

-"You've got to be tied up.  Make a row

-and you know what.  Join your hands

-behind you."

-

-While Ginger was tying his hands, and

-his feet to a leg of the sofa, Lieutenant Axel

-von Schwank cursed him in undertones in

-both English and German.  Ginger made no

-reply.  But as soon as this part of his work

-was finished, he caught up some papers

-from the mantelpiece--they were copies of

-the Hymn of Hate--twisted them together,

-and with a sudden movement thrust them

-into the German's mouth.

-

-"There!  Bite them," he muttered.

-"Such shocking language!"

-

-He once more threw the table-cloth over

-the helpless man's head, put the pickel-haube

-on his own, and quietly left the room.

-Passing the open door opposite he hesitated

-for the fraction of a second, then went in,

-gulped a glass of wine, caught up the frame

-of a chicken from the table, and digging his

-teeth into it ravenously, hurried back, along

-the passage, down a dark flight of steps, and

-out through the back door into the garden.

-He drew quick breaths as he leant against

-the wall, gnawing the carcase.  From

-somewhere on his right came low sounds he had

-learnt to recognise as signs of Germans in

-their trenches.  On the left there was silence.

-In the distance guns boomed.  After a few

-minutes he threw the chicken bones upon

-a neglected garden plot, sighed, drew his

-hand across his lips, and murmured:

-

-"Blowed if I know!"

-

-The village was a mile or more from his old

-trench; he knew that.  It was, he supposed,

-wholly in possession of the Germans.  He

-would have to go through it up the hill, or

-round it, and pass the enemy's trenches

-before he could reach his regiment.  And at

-any moment the German officer might be

-discovered!

-

-"I must skip," he said to himself.

-

-The assuagement of his terrible hunger

-had seemed a necessity beyond all others.

-Now he realised his peril.  Choosing the

-direction that was silent, he stole from

-garden to garden, scaling the fences, and

-presently found himself in a lane.  It was

-uphill to the right: that was his way.  The

-lane ended in a street.  There he turned to

-the left, but had taken only a few steps

-when the tread of feet and the sound of

-guttural voices coming towards him sent

-him back hastily in the opposite direction.

-To his dismay, in a few seconds he heard

-other men approaching.  There was no

-escape.  On one side he was blocked by a

-high wall, on the other a house dimly

-lighted.  The night was dark; he wore a

-German uniform; unless accosted by a real

-officer he might pass safely.  With shrinking

-heart but an assured gait he walked boldly

-on, close to the wall.

-

-Dark though it was, the soldiers returning

-from the trenches recognised the officer's

-uniform and went by stiffly at the salute.

-Ginger was bringing his hand up smartly when

-he remembered that he was an officer, eased

-the movement, and dropped his hand again,

-quaking lest some terrible blunder in the mode

-of his return salute should have betrayed

-him.  But in the darkness it passed muster.

-No doubt the men were tired.  They went

-on.  Ginger, perspiring and limp, leant

-against the wall for a moment or two.

-

-"Oh crumbs!" he murmured as he braced

-himself and set off again.

-

-A few steps brought him to a lane that

-broke the line of houses on his left.  It was

-quiet.  He turned into it.  The ground

-rose somewhat steeply.

-

-"Must be going right," he thought.

-

-Soon the houses were left behind.  The

-lane became a track across even ground,

-with a few trees at the borders.  Suddenly

-the silence was broken by the sharp crackle

-of rifle fire from the upper part of the hill.

-Ginger threw himself down and crouched

-behind a stout trunk.  There was no reply

-from the German trenches, which must be

-somewhere below him, he thought.  He

-waited patiently until the firing died away,

-then rose and crept forward.

-

-His heart sank into his boots when he

-came unawares upon a trench and heard

-the murmur of guttural voices.  Before he

-had time to retreat, a sentinel addressed

-him in German.

-

-"Sssh!" Ginger hissed, sliding into the

-trench a few feet from the dark figure.

-Further down the trench there were dim

-lights.  It was neck or nothing now.

-Stepping on to the banquette he began to clamber

-up to the parapet.  The sentry, no doubt

-believing that the officer was engaged on

-some special scouting duty, came towards

-him, whispering, "Erlauben Sie, Herr

-Leutnant," and gave him a leg-up.

-

-Ginger scrambled over, fell on hands and

-knees, and crawled over the ground.  How

-far ahead were the British trenches he knew

-not; the night was too dark for him to be

-seen, but at the least noise he would

-certainly be taken for a German and become

-the invisible target for a dozen rifles.

-

-While he was slowly wriggling forward he

-heard a commotion far in his rear--shouts,

-the sound of many men on the move.

-Probably the muffled lieutenant had been

-discovered; the men in the trenches would be

-advised of the outrage, and the no man's

-land between the hostile forces might be

-swept by a fusillade.  Crushing himself flat

-he dragged himself on.

-

-Now there were sounds in front of him.

-He stopped, panting, listening.  Yes, they

-were British voices; were they those of his

-own comrades?  What should he do?  If

-he called, he might be riddled with shot.

-So many Germans could speak English.

-The Rutlands would know his voice, but

-what if the men in the trenches were not the

-Rutlands?

-

-For a few moments he lay inert with

-hopelessness.  Then an idea occurred to

-him.  On again, inch by inch, feeling out

-for barbed wire.  There was none; the

-position must have been hurriedly occupied.

-The voices were more distinct; his straining

-cars caught individual words.

-

-"English, I surrender!" he called in a low tone.

-

-The voices were hushed.

-

-"Who goes there?" said a voice.

-

-"Murgatroyd, of the Rutlands," he replied.

-

-"Keep still."

-

-There was a momentary flash of light.

-

-"Don't fire!" called Ginger, instantly

-realising that his uniform must have been

-seen.  "I surrender."

-

-"Hands up and come on."

-

-Ginger was just rising when bullets sang

-over his head from behind.  He dropped

-down again; his last chance was gone; they

-would believe he was tricking them.  But

-he heard an officer give an order.  There was

-no answering fire from the trench in front,

-no repetition of the volley from the rear.

-He crawled on, dimly seeing the parapet a

-few yards away.

-

-"I surrender," he repeated, and crawled

-on, over the sandbags, was seized by rough

-hands, hauled headlong into the trench, and

-held firmly by the neck.

-

-"Got him, sir," said a voice.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`STRATEGY`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XVII

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   STRATEGY

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"Don't throttle me," Ginger murmured,

-scarcely able to speak from physical

-exhaustion and the reaction from mental

-strain.  "Are you the Rutlands?"

-

-"No, we ain't.  Got a special fancy for

-the Rutlands, 'eemingly."

-

-"I'm Murgatroyd, No. 939, 17th battalion,

-3rd company, 1st platoon," said Ginger feebly.

-

-"Oh, we know all about that.  You

-German blighters all speak English, but you

-don't come it over us."

-

-"Silence, Barnet; bring him along,"

-said the officer.

-

-"Yes, sir.  Says he's a Rutland, sir."

-

-Ginger was taken along the dark trench

-to a dug-out lit by a candle-lamp.  The

-lieutenant looked at him.  The uniform was

-German, from helmet to boots: the Iron

-Cross was on his breast; but the dirty,

-lined, unshaven face was not that of a

-German officer.

-

-"Who do you say you are?" said the

-lieutenant, puzzled.

-

-"Murgatroyd, lance-corporal in the 17th

-Rutlands, sir: called Ginger, sir: look at

-my hair."

-

-He removed the helmet.  The lieutenant

-laughed.

-

-"The name suits you," he said.  "But

-what have you been up to?"

-

-"Taking French leave and German toggery,

-sir," said Ginger.  "Beg pardon; could

-you give me a drink?  My mouth's that

-parched.  I'm all of a shake."

-

-Refreshed by a cup of tea, Ginger told his

-story.

-

-"A regular romance," said the lieutenant.

-"You're as plucky as you are lucky.  By

-George!  I should like to have seen the

-German taking off his uniform.  He must

-have been very mad."

-

-"He had a very swanky shirt, sir, but

-I couldn't stop to take that.  Can I get back

-to my billet, sir?"

-

-"Certainly.  I'll send a man with you

-out of the trenches.  You go round by the

-church, you know."

-

-"I'll find my way, sir, never fear.  If

-you'd give me a cigarette or two...."

-

-"But you'll never get through in that

-uniform.  I can't give you a change.  Stay,

-I'll write you a note; don't wear the helmet."

-

-"No, sir: I'll send it home to the kids,

-along with the Iron Cross."

-

-"You've deserved that, at any rate.

-Well, good luck to you.  I wish you were

-one of my men."

-

-"Thank you, sir."

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Somewhere about midnight, Ginger, after

-certain amusing adventures with the sentries,

-knocked at the door of Bonnard's cottage.

-There was some delay: then Bonnard opened

-the door, lifting a lighted candle.

-

-"Bong swar, m'sew," said Ginger.  "What O!"

-

-"Ma foi!" ejaculated the Frenchman,

-throwing up his hands.  "C'est Monsieur

-Ginjaire!"

-

-"Ah, wee, wee!  Large as life!  Give me

-some grub, m'sew: la soupe; more so;

-anything; haven't had a good feed since I

-saw your jolly face last."

-

-"Oll raight!  Mais c'est merveilleux,

-épatant!  Entrez donc, m'sieur Ginjaire;

-'ow d'you do!  Shake 'and!"

-

-"Got the Iron Cross, m'sew," said Ginger

-with a grin, flicking the decoration with his

-finger-nail.

-

-"Par exemple!" cried Bonnard.  "Ah! vous

-avez fait un prisonnier; vous avez pris

-un officier prussien, n'est-ce pas?  Bravo!

-'ip, 'ip, 'ooray!"

-

-There were growls through the closed

-door of the bedroom adjoining.

-

-"Messieurs, messieurs," shouted the

-Frenchman excitedly, "c'est que m'sieur

-Ginjaire est revenu, avec la croix de fer.

-Eveillez-vous, messieurs, pour le voir."

-

-"Shut up; taisez-vous!" called Harry,

-sleepily.

-

-"Let 'em wait till morning," said Ginger.

-"Give me some grub.  Don't want nothing

-else in all this wide world.  I've got a fang,

-as you call it.  J'ai fang, comprenny?"

-

-"Ah oui!  Vous allez manger tout votre

-soûl."

-

-"Cheese'll do for me ... What O!"

-

-The door had opened, and Harry appeared,

-blinking.

-

-"What's all this? ... Great Scot!  Where

-on earth ... I say, Ken, it's Ginger!"

-

-"Shut up and go to sleep."

-

-"It's Ginger, I tell you.  Wake up, man.

-In a German uniform!"

-

-"Ginger, did you say?" cried Kenneth,

-joining him.  "Well, I'm jiggered!"

-

-Ginger, a spoon in one hand, a hunk of

-bread in the other, grinned as they rushed

-to him, clapped him on the back, shook each

-an arm.

-

-"Don't choke me, mates," he spluttered.

-"Let me finish this soup, and I'll tell you a

-story as beats cock-fighting."

-

-"Tuck in.  They starved you, I suppose--the

-brutes!" said Harry.  "Let's get our

-coats, Ken: it's chilly.  Bonnard will make

-up the fire."

-

-Presently, sitting around the fire, they

-listened to Ginger's story.

-

-"I was sitting on the wing of that aeroplane,

-thinking of the missus and kids, when

-all of a sudden I was knocked head over tip

-from behind.  When I came to myself, there

-was I strapped in the aeroplane, going

-through the sky like an express train.  We

-came down in the village over yonder, and

-they lugged me to a colonel, and he asked

-me a heap of questions, and of course I

-wouldn't answer, and then they hauled me

-to a room, took away my belt and bay'net

-and boots, and locked me in.  Here's the

-end of my milingtary career, thinks I, and

-only a lance-corporal!

-

-"They gave me some black bread, like

-gingerbread without the ginger, and some

-slops they called coffee; I called it

-dishwater.  I wondered how long I'd last on

-fare like that.  But just before morning I

-was woke by a touch on my face, thought it

-was a mouse, slapped my hand up, and heard

-a little voice say 'Oh!'  If I could only

-speak French like you!  It was the woman

-of the house.  She let me out and took me

-down to the cellar, and said something which

-I took to mean she'd give me the tip when

-to get away, but it might have been

-something else for all I know.  Anyway, she

-didn't come back."

-

-"A very unsafe place, I should think,

-with Germans," said Kenneth.

-

-"There you're wrong.  For why?  'Cos

-there was no wine there.  The cellar was

-empty.  Hadn't been used for an age, I

-should think.  It was almost pitch dark;

-just a little air through some holes at the

-top of the wall.  Well, there I was.  The

-woman had given me some pang and fromarge,

-and a so of o--rummy lingo the French,

-ain't it?--and for I don't know how long I

-waited, thinking she'd come back and tell

-me the coast was clear.  But she didn't,

-and knowing the Germans were all over the

-village I didn't dare to stir of my own

-accord.  Besides, when you're expecting

-something, you don't trouble for a time.  I

-was so sure the woman would come when she

-could.

-

-"Down there in the dark, of course, I'd

-no notion of how time was going.  I heard

-guns booming every now and again, and

-sounds in the house above, and being pretty

-easy in my mind, as I say, I dropped off to

-sleep.  When I woke I finished off my grub,

-waiting as patient as a monument for the

-word to clear.  Whether it was night or day

-I couldn't tell: there seemed to be someone

-moving about the house all the time.  At

-last I got hungry and mortal sick of being

-alone in the dark, and began to wonder what

-I'd do if she didn't come back.  Thought

-I'd try and have a look round.  I felt my

-way to the door, and came to the bottom of

-the staircase.  It was light up above, and

-I heard the Germans talking overhead, and

-didn't dare go up.  I decided to wait till

-night and try again.  I went to that

-staircase a dozen times, I should think, before

-night; the day seemed extra long; and even

-when night came I was dished, for a lamp

-was burning, and there were more voices

-than ever, and I heard someone playing a

-flute.  I guessed they'd sacked the woman for

-letting me go, and smiled to myself at their

-hunting like mad for me all over the place.

-

-"But it was no smiling matter there, I

-can tell you.  I didn't sleep a wink that

-night, but kept on going to the staircase on

-the chance they were napping above.  Not

-they!  And I was getting hungrier and

-hungrier, and thirsty!--I never knew before

-what thirst was.  I felt seedy, and a banging

-in my head, and couldn't keep still, going

-round and round that cellar till I was nearly mad."

-

-"Why didn't you break out when we

-stormed the village?" asked Kenneth.

-

-"How was I to know about that?"

-

-"There must have been a terrific row,"

-said Harry.  "Close by, too."

-

-"If I'd known I'd have been out like a

-shot, you bet.  But I guess how it was.  I

-must have got fair worn out with traipsing

-round and round, and fallen asleep at last,

-and when you go to sleep like that, nothing

-on earth 'ud wake you.  'Specially being

-used to the sound of guns in the trenches.

-Anyway, when I woke up, I was so mad for

-food that I said to myself I'd get out

-somehow and chance it.  I went to the staircase;

-there was a light above, so I knew it was

-night, and I began to crawl up.  But there

-was a footstep on the passage, and down I

-went again, but not into the cellar; that

-gave me the horrors.  I sat in the dark at

-the foot of the staircase, in the hope there'd

-be quiet above in time.

-

-"Well, I waited hours, it seemed.  I heard

-laughing and talking, and knives and forks

-going, and that made me mad.  I was just

-going to make a dash for it when I heard

-the Germans going along to the door.  I

-didn't hardly dare to hope they'd all clear

-out, but I waited a bit, and all was quite

-still, and I crawled up on hands and knees

-so the stairs shouldn't creak.  What I was

-afraid was that the servants were in the

-kitchen, but there wasn't a sound; and I

-crept along the passage.

-

-"There was two doors, one on each side,

-open.  On the right was the room where

-the officers had been dining.  The sight of

-that table was too much for me, famished as

-I was.  I must eat if I died for it.  I was

-just a-going to begin when a little sound

-almost made me jump out of my skin.  I

-snatched up a carving knife and whipped

-round, and there, across the passage, in the

-room opposite, was an officer writing at a

-table, with his back to me.  Quick as

-lightning I thought if I could only get into

-his uniform I'd have a chance of getting

-through their lines in the dark.  I listened:

-the house was quiet as a graveyard: and

-with the carving knife in my hand I stole

-across the passage."

-

-He described his brief operations with the

-German lieutenant and his subsequent proceedings.

-

-"And all I want now," he concluded, "is

-a photo of that Frenchwoman to send to the

-missus, and I hope she've come to no harm."

-

-"You're a trump, Ginger," cried Harry,

-clapping him on the back.  "You've

-certainly won that Iron Cross."

-

-"It'll do for the kids to play with,"

-remarked Ginger.  "Myself, I wouldn't wear

-the thing the Kaiser gives away by the ton.

-Ah!  I said I only wanted one thing, but

-there's another."

-

-"What's that?"

-

-"Why, to find that farmer that helped

-the German chap to strap me to the

-aeroplane.  And he pretended to help us

-hunt for him.  He's a spy, that's what he is."

-

-"He was taken into our lines.  I don't

-know what became of him," said Kenneth.

-"You must tell the captain to-morrow all

-about it, and he'll make enquiries.  You must

-be fagged; get to bed.  Our men will be

-jolly glad to have you back again."

-

-Ginger's feat made him the hero of the

-battalion.  The colonel promoted him full

-corporal, and sent a messenger at once to

-the Wessex regiment to enquire what had

-become of the farmer.  The reply was that

-the French authorities had nothing against

-the man, who had lived in the neighbourhood

-for years, and he had been allowed to return

-to his farm.  Colonel Appleton at once

-resolved to arrest him.

-

-"We had better do everything in order,"

-he said, to Captain Adams.  "We're in

-France, and the authorities might feel hurt

-if we dispensed with them.  I'll get the

-police commissaire of the district to take the

-matter up as there are no French military

-officers within thirty miles: it will save

-time.  Tell the Three Musketeers to be ready

-to go with him to identify the man."

-

-Later in the day the summons came.

-The three men found Captain Adams in the

-company of a stout little spectacled

-functionary, resplendent in a tri-colour sash,

-and two red-trousered gendarmes.  The

-police commissary not being on the spot,

-the maire of the neighbouring town had

-undertaken the task.  He had been a

-sergeant in the army of 1870, and was full of

-zeal.  A motor-car was in waiting.  Into this

-the party crowded.  Ginger, clad in a new

-uniform with the double stripe on his sleeve,

-fraternised with the gendarmes at once,

-and conversed with them on the back seat

-in a wonderful jargon.  Kenneth and Harry,

-as more accomplished in French, sat with

-the maire in front.

-

-He was a fussy little man, proud of his

-antiquated military experience.  Inclined

-to dilate on the details of his service under

-Mac Mahon, he was adroitly led by Kenneth

-to the business in hand.  Then he was full

-of tactics and strategy.

-

-"We must proceed by surprise, messieurs,"

-he said.  "That is a sound principle.  I

-know the place well.  We will stop at some

-distance from the farm house, and advance

-through the wood in skirmishing order,

-myself in the centre, the gendarmes

-supporting me, and you English gentlemen on

-the flanks.  Thus we will converge upon

-the rear of the farm house, taking care to

-arrive simultaneously, and carry the place

-by a coup de main."

-

-It occurred to Kenneth that there were

-defects in this plan, and that their object

-was to arrest a spy, not to carry a fortress.

-But he deemed it best to say nothing.  The

-maire evidently liked the sound of his own

-voice, and was bursting with elation at

-having the conduct, after forty years, of

-what he regarded as a military operation.

-

-"By this means," he went on, "we shall

-cut off the enemy from his line of retreat,

-which would afford him good cover if he

-could reach it.  That I take to be sound

-tactics, messieurs."

-

-About a mile from the farm house, on a

-hillside above the wood behind it, they

-came upon a shepherd tending two or three

-sheep.  He looked up as the car ran up the

-hill, called out, "Bon soir, monsieur le

-maire!" and watched the car as it

-descended on the other side.  It stopped at

-the foot, the six men got out, and set off

-across the field towards the wood.  The

-shepherd, a big man with a wart on his nose,

-instantly took to his heels, and running

-downhill on the near slope, out of sight of

-the maire's party, made at full speed for

-the wood, about a quarter of a mile from

-the spot where the maire would enter it.

-

-Meanwhile the maire had halted, and was

-impressively declaring his final instructions.

-

-"You will advance cautiously through

-the wood, with the silence of foxes.  Take

-cover, but preserve a good line: that is a

-sound principle.  When you hear my whistle,

-advance at the double, converging on the

-centre--that is myself.  It is well understood?"

-

-Kenneth explained all this to Ginger, who

-rubbed his mouth and said:

-

-"He don't happen to be General Joffre,

-I suppose!  I reckon we three 'ud do better

-without him."

-

-"We're under orders," replied Kenneth.

-"We must look out for our chance.  Of

-course he ought to have sent some of us to

-the other side."

-

-"He ought to have stayed at home to

-mind the baby," growled Ginger.  "However!"

-

-They extended, crept through the wood,

-and at the given signal dashed out upon the

-farm house.  The maire was left far behind.

-The doors were open, back and front.

-Ginger was first in at the front, Harry at

-the back.  The house was deserted.  In the

-kitchen the table was laid for a meal; there

-was hot coffee in a pot: one of the cups was

-half full.  The occupants had evidently left

-in haste: the surprise had failed.

-

-The Englishmen rushed out, and Ginger

-collided with the maire, who was puffing and

-blowing, partly from haste, partly from fury

-at having been outstripped.

-

-"My fault, m'sew," said Ginger, picking

-him up.  "They've bunked."

-

-Kenneth translated, soothingly.

-

-"They must have escaped by the front

-while we approached from the rear," he said.

-

-"My plan was sound.  It would have

-succeeded if they had waited," said the

-maire.  "And we gave them no warning:

-it is incomprehensible."

-

-Meanwhile Harry, Ginger, and the

-gendarmes were scanning the neighbourhood,

-hastening to various points of vantage.

-Suddenly Ginger gave a shout.  Far to the

-right, along the road by which the motor

-lorry had been driven, three cyclists were

-pedalling at full speed away from the farm.

-The rearmost was a big man, like the

-shepherd whom the party had passed on the hill.

-As soon as Harry saw them, he squared his

-elbows and ran towards the motor-car,

-nearly a mile away, shouting to Ginger to

-inform the others.  By the time he drove

-back in the car, the maire had decided on

-pursuit, and was making calculations of

-speed.  In a few moments the car was

-flashing along the road.  But the cyclists

-had had eight or nine minutes' start.  There

-was no sign of them.  They had evidently

-quitted the road and made off by one or

-other of the by-paths on each side, along

-which, even had their tracks been discovered,

-the car could not follow them.

-

-"We're done, all through him!" growled

-Ginger, in high indignation, with a jerk of

-his head towards the maire.

-

-That little man was explaining to Kenneth

-that the soundest principles sometimes fail

-in practice through unforeseen contingencies.

-

-"But they will not dare to return to the

-farm house," he said, "so that we have

-accomplished something."

-

-They returned to the village.  Kenneth

-gave the colonel a faithful report of the

-expedition.  Colonel Appleton let out a hot

-word or two.

-

-"Next time we have an arrest to make

-we'll do it first and consult the police

-afterwards," he said.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XVIII

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-The Rutlands had a somewhat longer

-spell in billets than usual.  They were

-awaiting a draft from the base to make good

-their losses.  The officers and kind friends

-at home had provided books and games as

-a relief from the constant mental strain to

-which modern warfare subjects a man, and

-with these and impromptu smoking concerts

-they beguiled the tedium of inaction.

-

-Monsieur Obernai was very active in

-effort on their behalf.  Speaking English

-with only a trace of foreign accent, he went

-freely about among the men, conversing

-with them about their experiences, retailing

-reminiscences of Alsace, making liberal

-presents of cigarettes.  He was very affable

-with the officers billeted in his house, and

-sometimes joined them in their mess-room.

-On one of these occasions he remarked with

-a smile that but for the incessant booming

-of the guns he would hardly have known

-that war was going on, so little did they talk

-about it.

-

-"Anything but that, monsieur," replied

-Captain Adams.  "'Deeds, not words,' is

-our motto.  The whole thing is so frightful

-that we try to forget all about it at off times."

-

-"It is so different in our army," said

-Monsieur Obernai.  "Our officers are not

-capable of such detachment."

-

-"'A still tongue makes a wise head,'

-monsieur," said the captain.

-

-Monsieur Obernai looked puzzled, but

-smiled amiably.  He had a pleasant smile.

-

-One day the battalion was suddenly

-paraded.  A few minutes afterwards a motor

-car drove up, and the men recognised with

-a thrill that the commander-in-chief had

-come to inspect them.  Sir John French

-passed up and down the lines, addressing a

-man here and there, then made a little speech

-to the battalion as a whole, complimenting

-them on the work they had done and promising

-them stiff work in the future and ultimate

-victory.  After visiting a few slightly injured

-men who remained in the village, the

-field-marshal drove away amid ringing cheers.

-

-The battalion had only just been dismissed

-when the whirr of an aeroplane was

-heard, and a few seconds later a Taube flew

-over the place.

-

-"Look out!" cried somebody.

-

-Some of the men scuttled for cover, others

-looked up nonchalantly into the sky.  The

-aeroplane was out of range.  Suddenly there

-was a terrific explosion.  A column of earth

-and smoke shot up from a field a few hundred

-yards west of the village.  The Taube was

-seen flying back, chased by a couple of

-English aeroplanes.

-

-"It almost looks as if they knew the chief

-was to be here," remarked Colonel Appleton,

-watching the chase among his officers.

-

-"And we only knew it ourselves twenty

-minutes before he arrived," said Captain Adams.

-

-"Well, I knew it last night, but I kept it

-to myself.  Got word by telephone.  They

-may have tapped the wire.  The spies aren't

-all scotched yet, Adams."

-

-"The deuce!" exclaimed the captain.

-"I'd like to catch some of them."

-

-"The Germans have very little for their

-money, though.  Look! our fellows have

-brought the Taube down."

-

-Behind the German lines the aeroplane

-was whirling in precipitous descent from an

-immense height.

-

-"Two more good men lost!" said the

-colonel.  "And the spies will go on spying."

-

-Next night the Rutlands were ordered

-back to the hill village.  The enemy was to

-be turned out at all costs.  Regiments were

-coming up in support, and as soon as a

-sufficient reserve was collected the attack

-was to be driven home.  The men were

-fired with grim resolution.  News had just

-come in of the employment of poisonous gas

-at Ypres, miles away to the north, and as they

-cleaned their bayonets they vowed to avenge

-their fallen comrades from Canada.

-

-The upper part of the hill had been held

-against repeated assaults by the Germans.

-The opposing lines crossed the main street,

-about ninety yards apart.  Between them

-the houses had been demolished by one side

-or the other.  The houses above the British

-trenches, and those below the German, were

-occupied by snipers.  The British snipers

-had an advantage in being above the enemy;

-on the other hand they were more exposed

-to artillery fire, and their positions had been

-a good deal knocked about.  To protect

-themselves from the fire of these snipers the

-Germans had made the parapets of their

-trenches unusually high.  This handicapped

-them to some extent in replying to rifle fire;

-but they had compensated themselves by

-installing a large number of machine guns,

-which were certain to take a heavy toll of

-the attackers when they charged down the hill.

-

-Soon after the Rutlands reached their

-position at the top of the hill, in the dusk,

-a lorry came up from the rear with supplies

-for the next day.  Owing to the rearward

-slope the vehicle could be brought to within

-a few yards of the trenches without being

-seen by the enemy, and since horses were

-employed as less noisy than a motor engine,

-supplies had been regularly brought up in

-this way without the knowledge of the Germans.

-

-Kenneth and Ginger, with other men,

-were unloading the lorry when a second lorry

-appeared near the foot of the hill on the

-British side.  It was heavily laden, and the

-slope proved to be too much for the two

-horses drawing it.

-

-"Old cab horses, they are," said the

-driver of the lorry that was being unloaded.

-"Not fit for this job.  I'll have to go down

-and lend a hand."

-

-Placing a brick under one of the wheels,

-he unharnessed his horses and led them

-down the hill.  Kenneth and Ginger were

-carrying a box between them to the

-communication trench running downwards from

-the crest when a shell came whizzing over from

-the German side and exploded near the lorry

-they had just left, bespattering them with

-earth, felling one or two of their comrades,

-and sending the rest scampering into the

-trench.  The shock of the explosion caused

-Kenneth to drop his end of the box: both

-he and Ginger were dazed for a few seconds.

-When they looked round, they were aghast

-to see the lorry moving backward down the

-hill.  Only half its load had been removed,

-and though its motion was at present slow,

-it would gather speed and, unless it could

-be checked, would crash into the second

-lorry to which the driver was now yoking

-his horses.  For a moment they were

-paralysed by realisation of the frightful danger.

-Men, horses, stores would all be hurled and

-crushed in hideous wreck.  The heavy

-vehicle was already rolling on more quickly

-when with mutual decision they left the

-box and sprinted after it.  The case was

-desperate.  Neither of them had any idea

-how the catastrophe could be averted.  It

-would scarcely be possible to loose the skid

-and throw it into position while the lorry

-was running, faster every moment.

-

-More fleet of foot than Ginger, Kenneth

-rushed ahead, overtook the lorry, and, a

-thought striking him, seized the pole, and

-exerting all the force of which he was

-capable while running at speed, twisted it

-to the left.  The lorry swerved, appeared to

-hesitate, then ran into a shallow ditch at

-the side of the road and turned over.  The

-pole, striking against a tree, snapped off,

-flinging Kenneth to the ground.

-

-"Whew!" gasped Ginger, running down.

-"That was a near thing."

-

-"Twenty yards," said Kenneth, rising

-and rubbing his elbow.

-

-"George! that was a near 'un!" panted

-the driver, who had hastened up.  His face

-was very pale.  "I owe you one, mate.

-Nothing else would have saved us.  Hope

-you ain't hurt."

-

-"Nothing to speak of.  The lorry has

-come off the worst."

-

-"George! you're right!  It's what you

-may call snookered.  Done for, that's what

-it is.  We'll have to shove it out of the way

-before I can bring my horses up, and leave

-it.  What you say, Bill?"

-

-"Can't do nothing with it," said the

-driver of the second lorry.

-

-"Take my tip, and put the skid on when

-you get yourn up, mate.  George! it give

-me a fright and no mistake."

-

-They drove the second lorry to the summit,

-leaving Kenneth and Ginger to carry up the

-spilled load.

-

-"The lorry isn't so badly damaged as he

-thinks," said Kenneth.  "The brake is bent,

-and a good deal of wood is chipped off, but

-the thing will run all right."

-

-He so informed the driver when he met him.

-

-"All the same, you don't catch me driving

-it back to-night," said the man.  "It's

-nearly dark, the road's bad enough when

-you're too complay, as the Frenchies say.

-I'll leave it to the morning at any rate."

-

-It was dark when Kenneth and Ginger

-had finished their task.  They took their

-places with their platoon in the firing

-trench.

-

-"Think they'll have any gas for us

-to-morrow?" said Ginger.

-

-"It's not very likely," said Kenneth.

-"The gas the Germans have been using lies

-low; it would be more useful to us."

-

-"Well, why shouldn't we use it too?

-What's the odds whether you're killed with

-gas or shrapnel?  Gas don't hurt, I expect,

-and it's a deal cleaner."

-

-"Upon my word I don't know," Kenneth

-replied.  "There's no logic in it.  But

-somehow it goes against the grain.  You poison

-dogs with gas, not men."

-

-"Besides, it's taking an unfair advantage,"

-said Harry.  "It depends on the wind--and

-there's no crossing over at half-time."

-

-The notes of a flute came along the trench

-from the left.

-

-"Stoneway's at it again," said Ginger.

-

-"The fellow can play," remarked Harry.

-"Good stuff, too.  He doesn't confine

-himself to the trumpery tunes of the musical

-comedies.  That's a bit of Mozart."

-

-"I've heard that tune somewhere," said

-Ginger reflectively.  "I haven't got much

-of an ear for music, but I know them

-twiddles.  Why, hang me, I heard 'em when

-I was in that cellar.  Somebody was playing

-'em upstairs."

-

-"It's a concerto every flautist knows,"

-said Harry.  "The Germans certainly lick

-us in music."

-

-"A pity they're not satisfied with that,"

-said Kenneth.

-

-They listened in silence till the conclusion

-of the piece, and joined in the general

-applause.  After a short interval the

-performer began again, now, however, playing

-detached notes that had neither time nor tune.

-

-"Those exercises, again!" said Ginger.

-"That's the worst of music.  My little

-Sally is learning the pianner, and she makes

-me mad sometimes with what she calls the

-five-finger exercises.  'For mercy's sake

-play us a tune,' says I.  'I've got to practise

-this, Dad,' says she.  'What's the good of

-it?' says I.  'Teacher says it's to get my

-fingers in order,' says she.  Anybody'd think

-her fingers weren't the same as other people's;

-they're all right; a very pretty hand she's

-got....  He's stopped, thank goodness!

-Pass up the word for 'Dolly Grey,' mates."

-

-Silence presently reigned.  The men

-reclined, dozing.

-

-"I say, Harry," said Kenneth.

-

-"What is it?" replied Harry sleepily.

-

-"I've been thinking.  We might make

-good use of that lorry."

-

-"How?"

-

-"Let it loose on the Germans."

-

-"Send it down-hill, you mean?"

-

-"Yes."

-

-"What's the good?  They'd hear it

-coming and clear out of the way.  It might

-break their wire and a bit of the parapet--hardly

-enough damage to be worth the fag."

-

-Kenneth was silent for a little.  Then he

-roused Harry again.  There ensued a long

-conversation between them, at the conclusion

-of which Kenneth crept along the trench

-to find Captain Adams.  It was some time

-before he returned.

-

-"The colonel agrees," he said in some

-excitement.  "There's no time to lose.  We've

-got to attack at four o'clock.  Wake up,

-Ginger."

-

-Ginger having been informed of what was

-intended, he and Kenneth stole from the

-trench, up the communication trench, and

-set off at a trot towards their billets.  Two

-hours later they returned in a motor car,

-which halted at the eastern foot of the hill.

-They carried up a large rectangular object,

-and at a second journey a number of bolts

-and a heavy hammer.  Soon the men in the

-trenches heard the clank of hammering, and

-Harry suggested that the lorry was being

-repaired.

-

-His comrades were in fact at work on the

-lorry.  The object which they had brought

-up consisted of several sheets of corrugated

-zinc which Ginger, a skilled mechanic, had

-bolted together in the village.  This he was

-now fixing upright over the rear axle of the

-lorry, so that it overlapped the body of the

-vehicle on each side.  With the assistance

-of Kenneth and the driver of the car he was

-turning the lorry into an armoured car, of

-unusual form, it is true, but likely, they

-thought, to serve its purpose.  When the

-zinc was in position, they filled up the

-space between the sheets with sand, and so

-completed a bullet-proof screen about nine

-feet wide.  Then, going into one of the

-half-ruined houses, they brought out a number

-of planks and carried them to the centre of

-the firing trench.  There, over a space of

-about ten feet, the parapet was quickly

-demolished, and the planks were laid across

-side by side, forming a bridge.  The men of

-the platoon had meanwhile been taken into

-their confidence, and when Captain Adams

-called for volunteers to cut the wire

-immediately in front, several men crawled out and

-did the work without being detected.

-

-These preparations having been completed,

-half a dozen men quickly pushed the lorry

-over the crest of the hill to within a few

-yards of the trench.  Favoured by pitch

-darkness, and moving with the utmost

-quietness, they had everything in readiness by

-three o'clock, without the knowledge of the

-Germans, and even of the more distant

-platoons of their own battalion.

-

-The orders of the day were already known

-along the British line.  They were to attack

-just before dawn.  The hill was to be

-cleared of Germans.  It was a task for

-rifles, bayonets, and hand grenades.  They

-could expect no help from artillery, so narrow

-was the space dividing the lines.

-

-At the appointed moment, twenty men of

-the 1st platoon formed up in file behind the

-lorry, each carrying a hand grenade in

-addition to his rifle.  The word was given.

-They pushed the lorry off; on each side the

-other men scrambled out of the trenches;

-some crawled forward and cut the wire on

-either side.  Then, without uttering a sound,

-they charged down the hill.

-

-The lorry rumbled slowly over the plank

-bridge, on to the road, and gathered way as

-it bumped and jolted down towards the

-German trenches, the twenty men running

-behind it.  When it had covered a dozen

-yards it was greeted with rapid rifle fire

-from the German sentries.  There were

-shouts from below, but before the enemy

-realised the manoeuvre, a shower of hand

-grenades fell among them, the lorry crashed

-through the wire entanglement, broke through

-the parapet, and turned a somersault over

-the trench.

-

-Then a yell burst from the throats of the

-Rutlands, and the air was rent by the

-crackle of rifles all along the line except at

-the spot where the lorry had fallen.  There

-Kenneth and his companions sprang into

-the trench, and pushing along to right and

-left, cleared it with the bayonet, the

-panic-stricken Germans fleeing before them or

-flinging up their hands in token of surrender.

-Confusion spread along the whole line.  The

-British arrangements had been thoroughly

-made.  While the Rutlands charged down

-the main street, other regiments were

-sweeping through the streets and alleys on either

-side, raking them with fire from machine

-guns, flinging bombs into the occupied

-houses, chasing the Germans at the point of

-the bayonet.  Here and there were furious

-hand to hand encounters; at one point a

-mass of the enemy's reserves surged forward

-and gained ground, only to be borne back

-in turn by the irresistible dash of British

-supports.  In half an hour the streets were

-cleared, and while some of the British

-blocked up the captured trenches against

-counter-attack, others rushed the houses to

-which the enemy still clung, and stormed

-them one after another.

-

-All this had happened in the grey chill

-dawn.  By the time the sun's rim appeared

-over the distant horizon the position was

-completely won, at comparatively slight

-cost.  More than two hundred prisoners

-remained in British hands, and among them

-Ginger, who had escaped with a few bruises,

-recognised the lieutenant to whom he had

-been indebted for a uniform.

-

-When the roll was called, it was found

-that of the twenty men who had followed the

-lorry only one had been wounded.

-

-"A capital idea of yours, Amory," said

-Captain Adams.  "It's a pity we can't

-always be going down-hill behind screens.

-There's a fortune awaiting the man who

-invents a bullet-proof protection for infantry

-in the field."

-

-"Wouldn't that result in stale-mate, sir?"

-

-"Well, if it put an end to warfare by

-machinery it would give us a chance for our

-fists!  Men will fight, I suppose, to the

-crack of doom.  It would be much healthier

-if we could fight out our quarrels without

-killing one another."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`SUSPICIONS`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XIX

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   SUSPICIONS

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-Next day fresh regiments were moved up,

-and the Rutlands, who had twice borne the

-brunt of the struggle for the hill, were sent

-into reserve and promised a long rest.  They

-went back to their old quarters, now a good

-deal farther behind the firing line.

-

-One night, when Kenneth was returning

-alone to his billet, he heard the thin squeak

-of a bat, and glanced up, though it was so

-dark that he could scarcely expect to see

-the animal.  To his surprise, he caught a

-momentary glimpse of it as it flew across

-the lane.  It was as though a moonbeam

-had flashed upon the wings for the fraction

-of a second.  But the moon was not up.

-The sky was clouded; only one or two stars

-were visible; and the rays of a star were

-too feeble to light up the flittering wings.

-

-Kenneth was puzzled.  He stood still,

-looking up, waiting for the bat to reappear.

-It was circling somewhere above him; he

-could still hear it faintly squeaking; but it

-did not again come within view, and after a

-while the sound ceased.

-

-"Extraordinary!" thought Kenneth.

-

-He was about to move on when he heard

-the grating of a key in a lock, so slight that

-it might have passed unnoticed had he not

-been listening intently for the bat.  In this

-quiet lane, with trees on one side and a

-garden wall on the other, the sound

-challenged curiosity.  The villagers were

-forbidden to leave their cottages after dark;

-Kenneth himself had only chosen this route

-as a short cut to his billet; he could not help

-suspecting that one of the inhabitants was

-breaking rules and entering his house by a

-back way to avoid detection.

-

-It was no part of his duty to play the

-policeman, and he would have gone on his

-way if he had not at this moment heard

-a light, hasty footfall, as of one walking

-quickly but cautiously.  Instinctively he

-remained still, keeping close to a tree trunk.

-A man passed him, moving very quietly,

-almost touching him.  He appeared to be

-in uniform.  A second later he heard the

-key again.  Then all was silent.

-

-He was now interested, suspicious.  The

-man was going in the direction from which

-he had come.  Who was he?  What was he

-doing at this late hour?  For a moment he

-thought of following him; but he was averse

-to getting a man into trouble for what was

-perhaps a harmless escapade, and he decided

-to proceed.

-

-A few steps brought him to a door in the

-wall.  The man must have been silently let

-out, and must have left without a word, the

-door being then as quietly closed and locked

-behind him.  The wall, as Kenneth knew,

-bounded the gardens of two or three of the

-larger houses.  It might perhaps be worth

-while to find out from which house this

-nocturnal visitor had departed so stealthily.

-It was too dark to see; Last Post would be

-sounded in a few minutes; all that he could

-do was to put a mark upon the door which he

-could identify next day.  He scratched a

-cross with his pocket-knife on the right side

-of the door, on a level with the keyhole,

-which was on the left, and went on, treading

-lightly by instinct.

-

-So soon as he could get off next day, he

-returned to the lane.  The door he had

-scratched was one of three.  Two were

-close together.  The wall was too high for

-him to look over; he could only discover

-the house to which his door belonged by

-going to the end of the lane, and round to

-the front of the houses.  The gardens were

-large; it meant a walk of some considerable

-distance.  His most certain course was to

-number his paces along the lane, and take

-an equal number along the street which the

-houses faced.  He went along with even

-stride, and in the lane counted 239 steps.

-In the street the 237th pace brought him to

-the front gate of Monsieur Obernai.  This

-must be the house.  His paces had probably

-differed a little, or the street and the lane

-were not quite parallel.

-

-"It's all right," he thought.  "The man

-was one of the officers' servants, perhaps,

-sent out on some late errand."

-

-But as he went away, this explanation

-did not appear quite convincing.  A servant

-sent on an errand by one of the officers

-quartered in Monsieur Obernai's house would

-not have been let out stealthily, and locked

-out.  Furtiveness implied an uneasy

-conscience.  Upon this thought came a sudden

-recollection of Madame Bonnard's dislike of

-the Alsatian.  He had seldom himself come

-into contact with the village philanthropist;

-it seemed to him now that he had even

-avoided him.  "It never struck me before,"

-he thought, "but I haven't felt the least

-inclination to meet him.  Yet some of the

-men are quite keen on him."

-

-On the previous night he had not

-mentioned the incident to his comrades.  It was

-not in Kenneth's nature to be expansive.

-He had told them about the sudden

-appearance and disappearance of the bat, which,

-however, they, not having seen it, had not

-regarded as extraordinary.  But now, a

-little uneasy, he decided to tell them

-everything.  He felt the need of talking it over.

-

-"Capting wants you," said Ginger, meeting

-him at the door of Bonnard's cottage.

-

-"What's it about?" he asked.

-

-"That uniform I borrowed; they found

-some papers in the pockets, in German,

-seemingly, and Capting wants you to read 'em."

-

-Kenneth went back to Monsieur Obernai's

-house, was admitted, and found Captain

-Adams with other officers in the mess-room.

-

-"Ah, Amory, we want you," said the

-captain.  "You know German.  What do

-you make of that?"

-

-He handed him a scrap of paper, straightened

-out after having been crumpled, on

-which were written two lines in German.

-

-"Tell our friend it is now due east,"

-Kenneth translated.

-

-"That's what I told you, Adams," said

-one of the lieutenants.  "There's nothing

-in it."

-

-"Well, look at these, Amory."

-

-He handed to him the contents of

-Lieutenant Axel von Schwank's pocket-book.

-Kenneth looked them over: a copy of the

-Hymn of Hate, a cutting from the *Cologne

-Gazette* announcing the blowing up of

-Woolwich Arsenal, some letters from members of

-the Schwank family, one or two memoranda

-of no importance.  He translated them aloud

-one by one.

-

-"Nothing of any value to us," said the

-captain.  "I think we might give the letters

-back to the prisoner.  His people idolise

-him, evidently.  Well, the only thing left

-is this."  He took up a crumpled piece of

-music paper.  "Schwank seems to write

-music in his spare time--a setting of the

-Hymn of Hate perhaps.  Our find is no

-use.  Very good, Amory, that's all."

-

-But Kenneth, rendered suspicious of everything

-by his recent discoveries, remembered

-that he had found a similar piece of music

-paper in the trench some weeks before.

-

-"Before you tear that up, sir," he said,

-"I think I'd let Randall have a look at it.

-We found a paper like it in our trench."

-

-"You think there may be something in it?"

-

-"I'm rather suspicious, sir, but I'd rather

-say no more until Randall has seen it."

-

-The captain sent a man to find Harry.

-When he arrived, Kenneth asked him whether

-he still had the piece of music paper he had

-found.  After rummaging in his pocket Harry

-drew the paper out.  The two pieces were

-laid side by side.

-

-"Well?" said the captain, when Harry

-had examined them for a few moments.

-The other officers crowded round in an

-interested group.

-

-"They are not alike except in one

-particular," said Harry: "that neither is a

-recognisable tune."

-

-He whistled the notes.

-

-"Very ugly, certainly," said the captain.

-"Any further suggestion, Amory?"

-

-"What do you call that note in music?"

-Kenneth asked Harry, pointing to the first

-note on Stoneway's paper.

-

-"B flat," said Harry.

-

-"And the next?"

-

-"E, then D, then E again; the next is

-A sharp above the stave."

-

-"What are you driving at, Amory?"

-asked the captain.

-

-"I was wondering if I could make a word

-out of it, but *bedea* doesn't begin any word

-either in English or German that I know of.

-Try the other paper."

-

-"F sharp, A, G, E," said Harry.

-

-"It's the sharps and flats that bother

-me," said Kenneth.  "Do they ever call

-them anything else?"

-

-"No ... Wait a bit.  The Germans call

-B flat B, and B natural H.  I remember

-toiling away at a fugue on the name BACH

-years ago.  I say, give me a minute.  I've

-got a notion."

-

-He sat down at the table, took out

-pencil and began to write the names of the

-notes on the lines and spaces, beginning

-with A on the second leger line below the

-stave.  Having written H on the third line,

-instead of writing A on the second space he

-wrote I, and on the third space J.  Then he

-paused, looking reflectively at the notes

-originally written.  Except in the case of

-B flat, all the accidentals were sharps.

-

-"We'll try this," he said.

-

-On the third space he wrote C sharp, and

-called it K, and so proceeding, completed

-the alphabet by writing two notes, the second

-sharpened, on each line and space.  Z fell

-on the third space above the stave.

-

-"Now try again," he said to Kenneth.

-

-Kenneth took up von Schwank's paper,

-and read off the names of the notes in this

-new notation.  The first four letters were

-*Sage*.

-

-"That's good German," he said.

-

-"Go on," said the captain.  "This is

-very interesting."

-

-Kenneth wrote down the letters as he

-read them.

-

-"By George!" he cried.  "In English

-it reads: 'Tell our friend it is now due

-east.'"

-

-"What's due east?" Captain Adams

-exclaimed.  "Try the other paper."

-

-"The first word is *bedeutend*, 'considerable,'"

-said Kenneth, writing.  "The

-English of it all is, 'Considerable movement

-in the rear.'"

-

-The officers glanced at one another.

-

-"We've had a spy among us, then," said

-the captain quietly.  "Where did you get

-this, Randall?"

-

-Harry explained, without however naming

-the man whom, in common with Kenneth,

-he now suspected.  But his reticence was

-unnecessary.

-

-"It's that fellow Stoneway, without a

-doubt," said one of the lieutenants.  "He

-makes the most weird sounds on his flute.

-You'll arrest him, Adams?"

-

-"Wait a little.  There's a deep-laid

-scheme here.  There's more than one man

-involved.  Who is 'our friend'?"

-

-"I must tell you what I saw last night,

-sir," said Kenneth.

-

-He described the stealthy exit from the

-gate in the lane, and the discovery that it

-led from Monsieur Obernai's garden--behind

-the house in which they were then assembled.

-Captain Adams whistled under his breath.

-

-"Rather serious for our polite Alsatian

-host," he said.  "We must get to the

-bottom of this.  It won't do to act too

-hastily.  We must catch the fellow at it."

-

-"But hang it all, we can't stop here under

-the roof of a spy," said a lieutenant.

-

-"If I may suggest, sir," said Kenneth,

-"do nothing yet.  Nobody knows about

-this except ourselves.  If you leave the

-house or show any sign of suspicion, those

-who are involved will smell a rat, and we

-shall perhaps fail to learn all there is to be

-learnt.  Wouldn't it be better if you go on as

-usual, and let Randall and me, and perhaps

-Murgatroyd, keep a watch on the lane?"

-

-"But Obernai won't appear in the lane,"

-said the captain.

-

-"Very likely not, sir.  I believe his work

-is done in the house.  You remember the

-lamp signalling we saw in the church tower."

-

-"That's in our hands now."

-

-"Yes, and the light now comes from due east."

-

-"You think that's it?  Have you seen a light?"

-

-"No, sir; but last night I caught a

-sudden glimpse of a bat flying above my

-head in the lane; it was for only the tenth

-of a second, just as if the bat had crossed a

-pencil of light.  But I was puzzled, because

-there was no light visible.  I can't help

-thinking that it has some connection with

-this discovery, and if you'll give us leave

-to keep a look-out at night, we may make

-sure of it and give you positive grounds for

-taking action."

-

-"What about Stoneway?  Hadn't we

-better keep him under observation?"

-

-"Leave him to us, sir.  I'd give him

-plenty of rope."

-

-"And keep enough to hang him afterwards,"

-said the lieutenant of his platoon.

-

-"Very well, Amory," said the captain.

-"You'll of course say nothing to any one

-else.  We'll do our best to keep up

-appearances before Obernai, though upon my word

-it will tax our histrionic powers.  If you

-make any discovery, don't come to the

-house; report to me elsewhere."

-

-"If we can collar the men, sir?"

-

-"Oh, in that case do so, and put them

-under lock and key.  But don't attempt too

-much: it's of great importance to get hold

-of the whole gang, for I imagine that we've

-been unawares in a wasps' nest all this time.

-We must scotch them all."

-

-"One thing, sir, before we go: will you

-tell us the arrangement of the house?"

-

-"So far as I know it.  Our billets are all

-in the front.  Obernai and his servants live

-at the back.  On this floor there's a long

-passage between us.  Upstairs there's no

-communication between back and front:

-the doors are blocked up, to secure our

-privacy, Obernai said."

-

-"There's a back staircase, then?"

-

-"No doubt."

-

-"How many servants are there, sir?"

-

-"Two men, whom Obernai brought with

-him from Alsace, he says.  I've caught a

-glimpse of an old woman, too, but she rarely

-leaves the back premises."

-

-With this information Kenneth and Harry

-left the house, and returned to their billet to

-consult Ginger.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`MONSIEUR OBERNAI's ATTIC`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XX

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   MONSIEUR OBERNAI's ATTIC

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"I can't hardly believe it," said Ginger,

-when Kenneth recounted the facts and his

-inferences.  "Never thought Stoneway had

-the pluck."

-

-"A man without pluck is no good as a

-spy," Harry remarked.

-

-"True.  He must have had an awful

-time of it, always wondering if he'd be

-found out, or copped by a German bullet."

-

-"What strikes me most forcibly is the

-thoroughness of the German organisation,"

-said Kenneth.  "You'll always find

-individuals ready to take their lives in their

-hands, for patriotism or pay; but you

-won't always find things so perfectly

-organised.  If we're right, Stoneway must have

-been employed first as an anti-recruiting

-agent, with orders to enlist and act as spy

-within our ranks if that seemed feasible."

-

-"I see through that post-card business

-now," said Ginger.  "He gave our address

-to some pal in London so that the Germans

-should know where he was, and make use of

-him.  And then to put it on to me!--a dirty

-trick.  But what can you expect when the

-Kaiser lets his men do dirty tricks and

-gives 'em Iron Crosses for it?  Whatever

-he is, Bill is no gentleman."

-

-"Stoneway is a German, I suppose?"

-said Harry.

-

-"Steinweg--not an uncommon German

-name," replied Kenneth.  "But now, how

-are we going to set about our job?"

-

-"What was that you said about a bat?"

-said Harry.  "I didn't pay much heed."

-

-Kenneth again described the curious

-phenomenon, adding:

-

-"That's why I want to do something

-more than watch the lane.  If the man I

-saw was Stoneway, we might catch him

-again, but give time for Obernai to clear

-away anything suspicious.  It seems to me

-that what we have to do is to get into the

-house, and have a look at the back premises."

-

-"That means we should have to get in at

-the back secretly?"

-

-"Yes; if we went to the front openly we

-shouldn't get farther than the lobby."

-

-"Suppose it turns out that we are quite

-wrong, wouldn't it be rather a serious matter

-to break into a French house?  Obernai is

-popular: it might not be easy to persuade

-the French authorities that we were not

-burglars."

-

-"Let's chance that," said Ginger.  "For

-any sake don't let the police know beforehand,

-or the whole thing will be messed up like

-it was with that maire.  Besides, if it comes

-to that, we've got the capting behind us."

-

-"I quite agree," said Kenneth.  "We'll

-risk it.  Well now, judging by the length

-of the side garden wall, the house is about

-sixty yards from the lane.  With these

-mysterious comings and goings the back

-gate will very likely be watched; at any

-rate there'll be somebody about to let

-visitors in and out.  I vote we get into the

-next garden, and clamber over the wall into

-Obernai's.  We shall have to wait until the

-people in the next house are asleep--say

-eleven o'clock to-night."

-

-About half-past ten, when the village was

-dark and silent, the three men left their

-billet and, to avoid detection, took a

-round-about route to the lane.  The air was rather

-chill, and a light mist hung low over the

-ground.  Each of the three carried a revolver,

-and they had agreed not to speak except in

-case of necessity, and then only in whispers.

-

-Creeping along softly under cover of the

-trees that lined one side of the lane, they

-passed Obernai's door, and halted opposite

-the door of the next house, a few yards

-beyond.  Here they waited, listening.  All

-was silent.  Then Kenneth tiptoed across

-the lane and quietly tried the door of

-Obernai's garden.  It was bolted.  The next

-door opened to his touch.  Joined by his

-companions, he entered and found himself

-in a garden much overgrown with weeds.

-They stole along by the side wall, and

-halted under it about fifty feet from the house.

-

-"Give me a leg-up," Kenneth whispered.

-

-In a few seconds he was down again.  The

-top of the wall was spiked with glass.

-Stripping off his overcoat, he mounted again,

-laid the coat over the glass, and dropped

-lightly to the ground, after listening awhile

-to make sure that nobody was about.  The

-others followed him in turn.

-

-The back of the house was quite dark.

-There was no sound within or without.

-Through the mist they could just distinguish

-the path leading to the back door.  Kenneth

-crossed the grass to it, stole along, and

-cautiously turned the door handle.  The

-door resisted his slight pressure: it was

-locked or bolted.  He looked up the wall.

-The windows were out of reach.  It seemed

-that the house could only be entered forcibly.

-

-He was returning to consult his

-companions when he suddenly heard behind

-him a sound like the ringing of a muffled

-electric bell inside the house.  Hurrying on,

-he crouched with the other two at the foot

-of the wall and waited.  In a few moments

-they heard a bolt drawn.  They could see

-nothing, but apparently the door was being

-opened.  Then from the doorway came a

-low whisper: "Geben Sie Acht," followed,

-as by an instantaneous after-thought, by

-the French words, "Prenez garde."  There

-was no reply, but a slight rustle approached,

-and the three watchers, peering over the

-bushes, saw a woman passing in almost

-absolute silence down the path to the back wall.

-

-Had she left the door open?  Kenneth

-was thinking of stealing up to it to find out

-when it occurred to him that the woman had

-perhaps gone to let in a visitor.  It would

-be well to wait a little.  Very soon he was

-justified.  The figure of the woman, scarcely

-distinguishable in the gloom, reappeared.

-At her heels was a man.  They passed along

-the path within twenty feet of the lurking

-watchers; neither spoke a word.  Presently

-came the sound of a bolt gently shot, then

-all was silent again.

-

-It was pretty clear that the bell had been

-rung from an electric push in the garden

-door.  Kenneth had seen none; it was

-probably concealed.

-

-"Shall I find it, and get the door opened?"

-he whispered to his companions.

-

-"That would give the whole show away,"

-said Harry.  "We don't want to raise an alarm."

-

-"Then I don't see that we can do anything.

-The only thing is to tell the captain

-to-morrow, and he'll arrest the lot."

-

-"Why not?" said Ginger.  "If they're

-innocent, they won't mind--not much."

-

-"But we shan't catch them at it.  You

-may be sure there's nothing suspicious to

-be found in the daytime.  We've got very

-artful men to deal with."

-

-They were still discussing their course of

-action when they heard the bolt drawn

-again.  Next moment there was a perpendicular

-streak of dim light, which widened

-rapidly.  The door was open; the room or

-lobby behind was now lit by a small oil

-lamp, turned very low.  Through the illuminated

-rectangle of the doorway came a man

-and a woman.  The man was in a British

-uniform.  They stepped down to the path.

-

-"Stoneway!" whispered Ginger.

-

-Pressing themselves almost flat on the

-ground they watched the two figures walking

-down the path, the end of which, towards the

-garden wall, was scarcely reached by the

-feeble rays from the doorway.

-

-"Now!" murmured Kenneth.

-

-Bending double, they hastened across the

-grass, and slipped in through the doorway.

-They were in a lobby.  At the further end

-of it was a closed door.  There were doors

-on both sides, one of them slightly open.  In

-the corner on the right was the staircase

-leading to the upper floor, and on the

-square-topped newel-post stood the small oil lamp.

-

-Taking in all this at a glance, Kenneth

-peered through the open door on the left.

-The room was dark and untenanted.  He

-beckoned to his companions.  They followed

-him into the room.  In less than a minute

-the woman returned from the garden, closed

-and bolted the door, and was moving along

-the lobby when the stairs creaked slightly,

-and an old man came tottering down.

-

-"Bier, noch Bier," he said in low tones to

-the woman.

-

-The woman muttered something, took the

-lamp from its place, and accompanied by the

-old man went into one of the rooms off

-the lobby on the opposite side from the three

-watchers.  They were heard clumping down

-wooden steps, no doubt leading to the cellars.

-

-"Now's our chance," Kenneth whispered.

-

-The three stole out of the room into the

-dark lobby, and crept on hands and knees

-up the staircase.  The landing above was

-equally dark, except in the far corner on the

-right, where light came through a door

-slightly ajar.  The three men tiptoed to it.

-Kenneth peeped in.  The room was apparently

-Obernai's bedroom.  No one was in it;

-the bed had not been disturbed.  A candle

-was burning on the dressing-table.  Pieces

-of heavy French furniture afforded means of

-concealment.

-

-"You stay here," whispered Kenneth.

-"I'll go on."

-

-He slipped off his boots, blew out the

-candle, and crept out.  There was no sound

-from below.  On the opposite side of the

-landing was a narrow staircase, leading, he

-presumed, to the attics.  Up this he groped

-his way.  At the top there was a passage,

-at the end of which, on the right, was a

-streak of light on the floor.  Feeling his

-way along, he felt two other doors, the

-handles of which he turned in succession,

-hoping to slip into a dark room as he had

-done below.  Both doors were locked.  At

-this moment, hearing the footsteps of the old

-man coming slowly up the bottom flight of

-stairs, he slipped back to the dark end of the

-passage and stood watching there.

-

-The old man mounted the upper flight.

-A can clinked against the post as he turned

-to the right towards the door beneath which

-the light shone.  He tapped on the door;

-it was opened; the man passed in.  Kenneth

-heard a guttural voice say: "Zwei Batterien

-heute morgen----"  The remainder of the

-sentence was cut off by the closing of the

-door.  In a few moments it opened again;

-the old man came out, closed it behind him,

-and sat down on a stool at the end of the

-passage, either as sentry, or to be at hand if

-more beer was required.

-

-Kenneth scarcely dared to breathe.  What

-was going on in that room?  What could he

-do?  After several uncomfortable minutes

-the door suddenly opened--too wide for his

-comfort--and a voice said:

-

-"Frisch auf!  Die Lampe ist beinahe erlöscht."

-

-The door was shut.  The old man rose

-wearily and hobbled downstairs, no doubt

-to fetch oil or whatever was used for the lamp.

-

-Kenneth felt that the time had come for

-action.  The mention of the lamp left no

-doubt in his mind of the work on which the

-occupants of the room were engaged.  Waiting

-until the old man had reached the foot

-of the lower staircase, he stole down to the

-room where he had left his companions and

-told them in a few whispered words what he

-had discovered.  They removed their boots

-and stood behind the door, prepared to

-follow the man when he came up again.

-

-In a few minutes he returned.  They

-waited until he had ascended the upper

-staircase, then followed him noiselessly, saw

-him enter the room, and crept along to the

-door, drawing their revolvers.  From within

-the room came the smell of acetylene gas.

-Standing back against the wall, they waited

-for the reopening of the door.  As soon as

-the old man reappeared, they started forward,

-pointing their revolvers at him, pushed

-him before them and entered the room.

-

-There was an exclamation, a moment of

-confusion.

-

-"Hands up, or I fire!" cried Kenneth in German.

-

-There were four men in the room, three

-seated at a table drinking beer, the fourth

-occupied with a steel lever operating a disc

-that worked from side to side in front of a

-bright bull's-eye lamp.  Kenneth's warning

-had checked a movement on the part of two

-of the seated men towards their coat pockets.

-The man at the lamp, who had faced round

-at the sudden intrusion, was quicker than

-his companions, and drew his revolver at

-the moment of turning.  But as he was

-raising his hand Harry fired.  His revolver

-fell to the floor with a crash, and with a curse

-he clasped his broken wrist with the other hand.

-

-The three others had fallen back into their

-chairs.  A stream of beer from an overturned

-mug trickled from the table to the

-floor, for one tense moment the only sound

-in the room.  The men's faces were pale

-and contorted with fear.  They sat, limp,

-with no spirit for resistance, recognizing

-that the game was up.

-

-Kenneth and Harry glowed with a quiet

-satisfaction.  Ginger was more demonstrative.

-

-"Blest if I haven't got him at last!" he

-exclaimed, smiling triumphantly at one of

-the prisoners.  "It's the chap that downed

-me when I was sitting on that aeroplane."

-

-"Monsieur Obernai is unfortunate in his

-friends," said Kenneth.

-

-Obernai glared at him; it was not the

-expression of a bland philanthropist.  One

-of his companions, a big man with a wart on

-his nose, did not wear the look of pious

-resignation that might have been expected

-from a man dressed in a cure's soutane.  The

-features of the fourth man seemed familiar

-to Kenneth, though at the moment he could

-not recall the time or place of his seeing him

-before.

-

-"We'll just hand these men over to the

-captain," said Kenneth.  "Then we'll deal

-with Stoneway."

-

-After ordering the men to empty their

-pockets, they marched them downstairs,

-and through the door connecting the back

-part of the house with the officers' billets.

-Captain Adams, like the others, had gone

-to bed.  He came to the door of his room

-in his pyjamas.

-

-"We've caught Obernai and three others

-signalling with a lamp, sir," said Kenneth.

-

-"You don't say so!  What have you

-done with them?"

-

-"They are below, sir."

-

-"Take them off to the provost-marshal:

-I don't want to see them."

-

-"Stoneway is in it, sir, I am sorry to say."

-

-"Arrest him, as quickly as you can.

-Then come back and tell me all about it."

-

-The spies were marched off to prison.

-Then Ginger with a corporal's guard went

-to the cottage where Stoneway was billeted.

-Stoneway was not there.  Enquiry and search

-were alike fruitless.  It was not until an

-hour later that Ginger hit on a possible

-explanation of his absence.

-

-"By jinks!" he exclaimed, with a gesture

-of vexation.  "I forgot the old woman."

-

-He hastened back to Obernai's house.

-The old woman had disappeared.

-

-On returning to the house some time

-before, Kenneth and Harry found the officers,

-all in their night attire, examining the

-signalling apparatus in the upper room.

-

-"They are all safely locked up, sir,"

-Kenneth reported.

-

-"That's well.  How did you catch them?"

-

-Kenneth gave an account of the night's work.

-

-"You did very well, Amory," said the

-captain.  "The battalion is lucky in

-having the Three Musketeers.  And the whole

-brigade is indebted to you.  This is a

-fiendishly ingenious arrangement."

-

-He explained the working of the apparatus.

-The acetylene lamp faced one end of a long

-tube, which pierced the outer wall of the

-house.  By means of a delicate mechanism

-the position of the tube could be altered by

-millimetres.  The length of the tube

-prevented the rays from converging like the

-rays of a searchlight, so that the light,

-directed eastward, was not likely to be seen

-except by a person at an equal height.

-

-"I have no doubt at all," said the captain,

-"that some miles away in the German lines

-there is an operator with a similar lamp, at

-the same height and in the same straight

-line with this.  We have kept a look-out

-but seen nothing; no doubt the cessation

-of the flashing gave them warning.  To

-them the light would appear like a star on

-the horizon, and the alternate exposure and

-dousing of it by means of the disc made the

-signals.  No wonder we've got it unexpectedly

-hot sometimes."

-

-Here Ginger came in.

-

-"Stoneway's got away, sir," he reported.

-"I guess the old woman gave him the tip."

-

-"Poor wretch!  He can't get far.  I'll

-circulate the news at once and he'll be

-hunted down.  Now get to your billets,

-men; I shall want your evidence in the

-morning."

-

-As they were returning through the silent

-streets, talking over the exciting incidents of

-the night, Kenneth suddenly exclaimed:

-

-"By George!  I remember now.  That

-fellow was the man I saw talking French to

-Stoneway at St. Pancras station."

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`MARKED DOWN`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XXI

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   MARKED DOWN

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-About four o'clock on the following

-afternoon, an old French peasant was walking

-along a road some fifteen miles to the west

-of the village in and around which the

-Rutlands were billeted.  His lean form was

-bent, wisps of white hair straggled from

-beneath his broad soft hat, his legs dragged

-themselves along.  There was no one else

-upon the road, which was remote from the

-main highways that had been for nine

-months streams of traffic; but the old man

-glanced continually right and left, before

-and behind, as if searching for something

-with his shrewd bright eyes.

-

-He came to a wood abutting on the road,

-and, after another look round, disappeared

-among the trees.  A few minutes later he

-halted, then took a few slow careful steps

-forward, and stopped again, looking down

-with a curious eagerness.  There, stretched

-on the fresh springing grass of a glade

-spangled with bright spots of sunlight, lay

-a man asleep.  He was clad in the uniform

-of a British soldier, without a belt.  His

-cap had fallen off, his arms were thrown out,

-his face was half turned to the ground.

-Perhaps the Frenchman noticed that the

-regimental badge was missing from his cap,

-the regimental letters from his shoulders.

-

-After standing for a few moments

-contemplating the prostrate form, he bent

-down and touched the man's shoulder.

-The soldier started up instantly; the

-expression of his eyes might have betokened

-anxiety or fear; but it changed when he

-saw that his disturber was just a simple

-old Frenchman, with mildness written all

-over his brown ruddy face, withered like an

-apple long laid by.

-

-"Bon soir, monsieur," said the Frenchman.

-"It is a hot sun, to be sure, but

-monsieur l'Anglais will catch a chill if he

-remains here asleep."

-

-"Ah yes, I must be going," said the

-soldier, in French surprisingly good for an

-English private.  "I have lost my

-regiment.  I fell lame and dropped behind.

-Can you get me anything to eat?"

-

-"Why yes, if you will be content with

-simple fare.  These are hard times,

-monsieur.  But who would not suffer for France?

-Come to my cottage hard by; I can at least

-give you a crust and a mouthful of wine.

-We French and you English are comrades,

-to be sure."

-

-"Is your cottage far?"

-

-"A few steps only; it is quite by itself.

-You would get better food in the village,

-but that is two miles away."

-

-"I'll get a good meal when I rejoin my

-regiment.  All I want now is a little to help

-me on my way."

-

-"Yes, yes, I understand.  Come then; it

-is only a few steps."

-

-He set off through the wood, the soldier

-limping by his side, crossed the road, and

-came within a few minutes to a little timber

-cabin.  There the soldier, sitting on a low

-stool, ate ravenously the bread and strong

-cheese given him, and drank deep draughts

-of the thin red wine.  The old man watched

-him benignantly, thinking perhaps that he

-ate as though seeing no near prospect of a

-full meal.

-

-"You haven't seen my regiment, I

-suppose?" said the soldier.

-

-"How can I tell?" replied the Frenchman,

-lifting his hands.  "I have seen many

-regiments; whether yours was among them

-I do not know."

-

-The soldier noticed a glance towards his

-shoulders.

-

-"I gave my badges away to the French

-girls," he said lightly.  "They clamoured

-for souvenirs....  There's no chance of my

-running into the Germans?"

-

-"God forbid!" said the old man.  "They

-are a little nearer, it is said; they are using

-poisonous gas against our brave men.  But

-we do not lose heart.  They will never beat

-us, never.  When I look at the mists on

-yonder hills every evening----"

-

-"Mists, are there?"

-

-"Why yes: they creep over the hills at

-sunset; one can hardly see a dozen metres

-ahead.  They say the Germans crept up a

-night or two ago in the mist, and took an

-English trench."

-

-"Ah! well now, my regiment was marching

-to Violaines; you can put me in the

-way?  I must find them before night."

-

-"To be sure."

-

-He went with him to the door, and pointed

-out the direction.  The soldier offered to

-pay for his food, but the old man, with many

-gestures, refused to accept a sou.  He bade

-his guest good-bye, returned to his cabin and

-shut the door.  In his eyes was a look of

-satisfaction mingled with a strange eagerness.

-He hurried to the little window facing

-the road, and looked out from behind the

-curtain.  The soldier was limping along in

-the direction his host had indicated.  But

-presently he stopped and threw a furtive

-glance backward towards the cabin, another

-up and down the road, then walked on

-again.  His lameness had been suddenly

-cured; his gait was even and agile.  And

-instead of continuing in the way shown him,

-he turned off abruptly and re-entered the

-wood.  Beyond it lay those hills which

-night clothed with mist.

-

-The old man waited a little, then issued

-from his cabin, trotted to the road, and, he

-also, re-entered the wood.  In a few minutes

-he was back again, and set off at the best

-speed of his aged legs for the village two

-miles away.  Arriving there, he went straight

-to the mairie, and peered through the wire

-frame on the door, within which a notice in

-large handwriting was posted.  It was headed

-in big letters,

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   SOLDAT ANGLAIS,

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-and beneath was a methodical description,

-in numbered sentences, of the deserter for

-whose discovery a reward was offered.  The

-old man ticked off the details one by one;

-then, his bright little eyes gleaming, he

-knocked at the door.

-

-It was a small and unimportant village.

-The maire was of scarcely higher social

-standing than his visitor.  He had no

-gendarmes at his disposal: all the able-bodied

-men were in the ranks.

-

-"He is a big man, Jacquou?" he said.

-

-"He!  Big, brawny, a regular beef-eater."

-

-"Then we will telegraph.  The English

-must arrest him.  For us it would be dangerous.

-But what if they delay, and he escapes?

-There would go that fine reward, Jacquou,

-like the maid's chickens."

-

-"Ah!  Trust me for that, monsieur le

-maire, trust me for that," said the old man

-as he hobbled away.

-

-Something less than two hours later the

-soldier emerged from his hiding-place in the

-wood, at a point at some little distance from

-the road.  He came out slowly, nervously,

-glancing around and behind him.  There

-was in his eyes that look of anxiety and

-fear which had appeared in them at the

-moment of his being roused by the old man.

-It was like the look of a hunted animal.

-He gazed towards the hills.  Their ridges

-were sharp and clear against the sky.  He

-looked up, and behind.  Shafts of sunlight

-were still piercing the foliage.  He glanced

-at the watch on his wrist, appeared to make

-a mental comparison between the time

-indicated and the position of the sun, made

-restless movements, then went a few steps

-back among the trees.  From his pocket

-he took a map, and spreading it on a trunk,

-in a sunbeam, he studied it anxiously.

-

-Just as he was folding it up, he heard a

-low throbbing hum far away to the south.

-Hurriedly replacing the map in his pocket,

-he went to the edge of the wood, and peered

-into the southern sky.  The sound was

-faint; no speck dotted the cloudless blue.

-But the hum was drawing nearer.  He

-dropped his eyes, and scanned as much of

-the road as he could see.  Nothing was in

-sight.  His mouth worked; a furrow

-between his eyes deepened; he rubbed his

-hand across his brow, and shuddered to

-see how damp it was.  Again he looked

-along the road.  That humming made him

-impatient: was it really growing louder, or

-were his nerves redoubling the sound in his ears?

-

-At length, with the suddenness of one

-tired of waiting, he turned his back on the

-sound, and plunged into the depths of the

-wood northward.  He had gone but a

-hundred yards when he stopped with a

-start, chilled to the marrow.  Somebody

-was there, close by.  He stared; his breath

-came and went in pants; but after a moment

-he went on with a smothered laugh that was

-like a groan.  It was only a peasant boy

-whittling a stick.  The boy looked up as he

-passed, idly, vacantly.  The solitary British

-soldier apparently did not interest him.  He

-dropped his eyes again, fell again to his

-whittling, and softly hummed the air of

-"Au clair de la lune."

-

-The soldier went on among the trees.  He

-was not startled when he caught sight of

-another boy collecting twigs blown down

-by the gales of early spring.  He had even

-so far recovered as to throw a pleasant

-"Bon soir!" to the boy as he passed.  The

-boy looked up; he gave no response, not so

-much as a smile.  Were the boys hereabouts

-deaf, or silly, or what?  The man looked

-back; the boy, on one knee, an arm stretched

-out as with arrested movement, was watching him.

-

-On again.  Insensibly his pace was quickening.

-At the sight of a third boy away to

-his left, apparently doing nothing, he felt

-unreasonably angry.  Was the wood full of

-boys?  Why had he not seen them before?

-Why were they so quiet?  Himmel!  Was

-he being watched?  He would soon stop

-that.  He turned about, glowering, to scare

-away these disturbers of his peace of mind.

-They had vanished.  Relieved, almost amused

-at his nervousness, he strode on, glancing up

-at the waning sunlight through the trees to

-make sure of his direction.

-

-Suddenly, a little ahead on his right, he saw

-the flicker of a boy's white blouse amid the

-undergrowth.  With a muttered execration

-he slanted towards it, but was checked by

-a slight rustle on his left.  Swinging round,

-he caught a glimpse of a small figure flitting

-among the trees.  He stopped.  His limbs

-were shaking; streams of perspiration

-trickled down his face.  Now at last he

-knew the meaning of these stealthy

-movements, this sinister silence.  The boys had

-been set to dog him.  The certainty

-appeared to paralyse him.  He stood swaying

-on his feet, glancing around for a means of

-escape from the toils that he felt closing

-about him.  Mechanically he raised his

-hand and dashed from his face the rolling beads.

-

-The spell was broken by the sound of a

-motor cycle and shouts behind.  As though

-galvanised, he made a sudden break at full

-speed ahead, in a line between the two boys

-he had last seen.  Looking neither to right

-nor to left he pounded on until he was

-breathless.  Then he paused to listen.  Had

-he shaken off the trackers?  The whirr had

-ceased, the shouts were fainter; he was

-beginning to think that he had gained a few

-minutes when a small figure scurried through

-the undergrowth in front of him.  He started

-again, bearing to the left.  A glint of white

-amid the green intensified his terror.  He

-lost command of himself.  No longer did

-he take the dying sunlight as his guide.

-Blindly, desperately he struggled on, every

-moment changing his course.  The sounds

-had ceased; there was not even a rustle to

-warn him.

-

-Presently he stopped, aghast.  Before him

-was the patch of grass which his weight had

-flattened.  He had been moving in a circle.

-Then a gleam of hope lit the darkness of his

-despair.  He was now near the road;

-perhaps his pursuers had penetrated far into

-the wood.  He pushed on, staggering, came

-to a sunken track, and, supporting himself

-against a tree trunk, looked fearfully around.

-There, to the left, at the side of the track,

-were two motor bicycles.  The old Frenchman

-was keeping guard.  No one else was

-in sight.  Gathering his strength, he rushed

-headlong towards his last hope.

-

-The old man heard his footsteps, looked

-up, and raised his feeble voice in a quavering

-shout.  There was no time for a second.

-The soldier hurled himself upon the aged

-peasant, felled him with one blow, sprang

-to one of the bicycles, started the engine, ran

-the machine a few yards and leapt into the

-saddle.  With every jolt as the bicycle

-gained speed on the rough track his heart

-grew more elate.  Whither the track led he

-neither knew nor cared; his whole soul was

-in the present.

-

-Right and left of him were the trees.  He

-had ridden perhaps thirty yards when, from

-the right, a khaki-clad figure dashed into the

-track just ahead.  The fugitive increased his

-speed and rode straight on.  If the man

-stood in his way, so much the worse for him.

-Then, in a moment, Atropos cut the thread.

-As the bicycle was whizzing by, the man

-flung himself bodily upon it.  There was a

-crash, a thud, then silence.

-

-A few minutes later, Kenneth and Harry

-came hurrying to the scene.

-

-"Is he killed?" asked the latter, as

-Kenneth stooped over the body lying on the

-machine.

-

-"No, he's alive," replied Kenneth, after

-thrusting his hand into the man's tunic.

-

-He unscrewed the stopper of his flask, and

-poured weak spirit into the unconscious

-man's mouth.  Not until Ginger had

-recovered consciousness did they turn their

-attention to the other man, whose case,

-indeed, they had recognised at the first

-glance as hopeless.  When he was hurled

-from the machine, his head had struck a

-tree trunk on the opposite side of the track.

-Stoneway was dead.

-

-Yet he had survived his partners.  Perhaps

-half-an-hour before, Obernai and the rest of

-the gang, after a drumhead court-martial,

-had paid the last penalty.  Spying, at the

-best, is ignoble work; and when it is

-accompanied, as in Obernai's case, with the

-treacherous abuse of hospitality and the

-betrayal of trusting folk, the spy's doom

-awakens no sympathy.

-

-

-

-

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. _`'RECOMMENDED'`:

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   CHAPTER XXII

-

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-   "RECOMMENDED"

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-"A fig for reasons!" exclaimed Madame

-Bonnard.  "We women can do without

-them.  Monsieur Amory will bear me witness;

-I said that wretch Obernai was a villain."

-

-"Pardon, mon amie," said her good man,

-mildly: "you said you did not like his voice."

-

-"Well, was not that enough?  I did not

-like his voice: therefore he was a villain.

-It is plain."

-

-"The Kaiser is said to have a very

-pleasant voice," remarked Kenneth, slily.

-

-He was sitting in the Bonnards' kitchen,

-awaiting the return of his comrades for supper.

-

-"I should like to ask his wife what she

-thinks of it," said Madame Bonnard.  "Poor

-woman! what a terrible thing it will be

-for her when she goes with him into banishment,

-and she has to listen to him all day long!"

-

-"Think you they will banish him, monsieur?"

-asked Bonnard.

-

-"Who can tell?" Kenneth replied.  "We

-have got to catch him first."

-

-"Ah!" sighed Madame.  "It is terrible.

-The end is so far off.  Every day I dread to

-hear bad news of my poor boys.  And to

-think that there are millions of poor women

-whose hearts are bleeding through that

-wicked man!  What punishment is great

-enough for him?  I should like to think

-of him worn and hungry, roaming the world

-like the Wandering Jew, with no rest for

-his feet, always seeing with his mind's eye

-the burning cottages, the maimed children,

-the weeping mothers, the poor lads he has

-massacred."

-

-"Is it fair to put it all down to the

-Kaiser?" said Kenneth.

-

-"Yes, it is fair," cried the good woman,

-vehemently.  "Poor people copy their

-betters.  His soldiers do what they know

-will please him.  Has he said one word of

-blame for all the dreadful things they have

-done?  Like master, like man."

-

-"I say, old man, here's the post," shouted

-Harry, bursting in at the door.  "Two letters

-and a thumping parcel for you; nothing but

-a newspaper for me....  Good heavens!"

-

-"What is it?"

-

-"The curs have sunk the Lusitania....

-Oh! this is too awful.  That gas they are

-using--the poor fellows die in agony.  It is

-sheer murder."

-

-Kenneth read the paragraphs Harry indicated.

-The Bonnards had left the room.

-

-"We must just stick it," said Kenneth,

-handing the paper back.  "Nothing but a

-thorough thrashing will bring them to their

-senses.  And there are silly stay-at-home

-people who talk of not humiliating them!

-The Germans are doing their best to show

-that the world would gain if the whole race

-were wiped out."

-

-"Are there no decent people among them at all?"

-

-"Of course there are, and they'll be

-horrified when they learn the truth.  There's

-my partner, Finkelstein, as good-hearted a

-man as ever breathed.  He'd never believe

-the brutes capable of the crimes they are

-committing.  But the people are being fed

-with lies.  I can't but think a lot of them

-will sicken with disgust by and by."

-

-"I only wish we could hurry it up....

-Hullo, here's Ginger!  I didn't expect to

-see you, old man."

-

-"I'm going home, boys!" cried Ginger,

-with a smiling face.  His arm was in a

-sling.  "Doctor says I'll be no good for

-three months.  Shoulder dislocated!  My

-word! he did give me beans when he

-jerked it into place.  But I'm going home,

-home!  Fancy how the missus and kids

-will jump!  Not but what I'm sorry to

-leave you."

-

-"I don't grudge you a rest, old chap,"

-said Harry, "but we shall want you back

-again.  Listen to this."

-

-He read parts of the newspaper paragraphs.

-Ginger swore.

-

-"I tell you what," he cried.  "I'm not

-going home to do nothing.  I'm going

-recruiting.  That's what I am.  I've spouted

-a lot of rot in my time; they'll hear some

-hard sense now.  By George! and if I don't

-have at least a score of recruities to my

-name, call me a Dutchman.  But I've got

-some news for you--better than those horrible

-things in the paper."

-

-"What's that?" asked Kenneth.

-

-"Well, you see, Colonel sent for me, and

-we had a talk, man to man; Colonel's a

-white man, that's what he is.  As a matter

-of fact, I've done a bit of spouting this

-evening.  But the chaps didn't want much

-talking to; they're all right.  Verdict

-unanimous this time.  To cut it short, that

-promise of yours is off.  The chaps say

-they're quite satisfied with their job.  Not

-one of 'em wants to go back to the works

-until they've seen the Kaiser get his deserts.

-And Colonel is writing home to say he wants

-commissions for you in the Rutlands."

-

-"You mean it, Ginger?"

-

-"That's just what I do mean.  When I

-come back, you'll be officers.  There's just

-one thing.  If I should happen at first to

-forget to salute----"

-

-"Oh, rot, man!" cried Harry.  "You're

-a good sort."

-

-"You'll thank them all for us?" said

-Kenneth.  "I'm afraid we shan't be allowed

-to stay with the Rutlands, though.  Army

-rules are against it.  But we'll see.  Now,

-come and have some supper.  Bonnard

-will give us something to celebrate the

-occasion."

-

-"Can't," said Ginger.  "I'm under orders

-to start in half an hour.  Going back with

-a batch of crocks.  It's good-bye.  But I

-hope I'll see you again."

-

-He shook hands with them warmly.  They

-were all moved.  Each felt that in the

-chances of war they might never meet again.

-But, in the British way, they hid their

-feelings.  Only as Ginger went out he turned

-in the doorway and said:

-

-"Mind you keep your heads down in the trenches."

-

-Kenneth and Harry were silent for a while

-as they ate their supper.

-

-"Well, old boy?" said Harry presently.

-

-"Yes.  It's good, isn't it?"

-

-"The governor will be happy....  I say, Ken!"

-

-"Well!"

-

-"I can't make you out.  You remember

-when I met you at Kishimaru's.  Well, you

-seemed jolly casual--not a bit keen.  Yet

-it was you who set the ball rolling at the

-works, and you've been keen enough since."

-

-"Oh well!" was Kenneth's indefinite response.

-

-"Really, I couldn't help thinking you

-were hanging back.  It was because you'd

-been seedy, I suppose."

-

-"Perhaps."

-

-"What was wrong with you?  German measles?"

-

-"Not so unpatriotic, my son.  A trifle

-run down, that's all."

-

-"Wanted a holiday, I suppose.  The war

-scrapped holidays for most people."

-

-"I daresay."

-

-"Hang it all!  What's the mystery?

-What do you mean by 'daresay' and

-'perhaps' and so on and so forth?  What had

-you been doing?"

-

-"You're a persistent wretch, Randy.

-Well, I don't mind telling you now.  I was

-in Cologne when war was declared, and I

-had a pretty strenuous time for a fortnight."

-

-And he proceeded to outline the adventures

-which the present writer has related elsewhere.

-

-"Well I'm jiggered!" exclaimed Harry.

-"Why on earth didn't you tell me?"

-

-"Well, you see, you as good as told me

-I was slacking."

-

-"What's that to do with it?  All the

-more reason to open up."

-

-"Give me a cigarette, old chap; it's all

-right now."

-

-A bugle called them to their feet.  They

-flung on their equipment and hurried out.

-The battalion was assembling in the market place.

-

-"The trenches again?" asked Kenneth

-of a sergeant.

-

-"No.  We're ordered north."

-

-"Advancing at last?"

-

-"Let's hope so.  Fall in!"

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center medium

-

-THE END

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center small white-space-pre-line

-

-PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY

-RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,

-BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E.,

-AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center white-space-pre-line

-

-   \*      \*      \*      \*      \*      \*      \*      \*

-

-.. vspace:: 4

-

-.. class:: center large

-

-   HERBERT STRANG'S WAR STORIES

-

-.. vspace:: 2

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-A HERO OF LIÉGE: A STORY OF THE GREAT WAR.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-SULTAN JIM: A STORY OF GERMAN AGGRESSION.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-THE AIR SCOUT: A STORY OF HOME DEFENCE.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-THE AIR PATROL: A STORY OF THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-ROB THE RANGER: A STORY OF THE GREAT

-FIGHT FOR CANADA.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-ONE OF CLIVE'S HEROES: A STORY OF

-THE GREAT FIGHT FOR INDIA.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-BARCLAY OF THE GUIDES: A STORY OF

-THE INDIAN MUTINY.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY ROCHESTER:

-A STORY OF MARLBOROUGH'S CAMPAIGNS.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-BOYS OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE: A STORY

-OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-KOBO: A STORY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.

-

-.. vspace:: 1

-

-.. class:: noindent

-

-BROWN OF MOUKDEN: A STORY OF THE

-RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.

-

-.. vspace:: 6

-

-.. pgfooter::

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-                          FIGHTING WITH FRENCH
-
-
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost
-no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-
-
-Title: Fighting with French
-       A Tale of the New Army
-Author: Herbert Strang
-Release Date: June 01, 2013 [EBook #39801]
-Language: English
-Character set encoding: US-ASCII
-
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING WITH FRENCH ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Al Haines.
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: Cover]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: A FOUL BLOW (_See p_. 52.)]
-
-
-
-
-                                FIGHTING
-                              WITH FRENCH
-
-                        _A TALE OF THE NEW ARMY_
-
-
-                                   BY
-                             HERBERT STRANG
-
-
-
-             _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR BY CYRUS CUNEO_
-
-                                 LONDON
-                              HENRY FROWDE
-                          HODDER AND STOUGHTON
-
-
-
-
-                       _First published in_ 1915
-
-
-
-
-                                PREFACE
-
-
-In these days one would rather fight than write; and those of us whom
-inexorable Time has superannuated can but envy and admire.
-
-Seven years ago the father of two boys at Rugby asked me to write a
-story on the German peril, and the necessity of closing our ranks
-against a possible invasion.  After some hesitation I decided to decline
-the suggestion, anxious not to insinuate in young minds a suspicion of
-Germany which might prove to be ill-founded.  Two years later, when the
-subject was again pressed upon me, I felt bound to attempt some little
-service in the cause of national defence; but again I avoided any direct
-implication of Germany, imagining an invasion of Australia by an
-aggressive China.  In two or three books I had poked a little fun at
-German foibles, how harmlessly and inoffensively may be known by the
-fact that one of these books was translated into German.  The course of
-events, the horrors of the present war, show how needless were my
-scruples.  Germany has come out in her true colours, and the mildest of
-pacifists feels a stirring of the blood.
-
-In _A Hero of Liege_ I wove a little romance upon the early events of
-the war, when we were still under the shock of surprise and information
-was scanty.  The present story has been written under more favourable
-conditions.  A good deal of it springs from personal knowledge of the
-training of the New Army.  The "Rutland Light Infantry" exists, under
-another name, and one or two of the characters may perhaps be recognised
-by their friends.  But I should point out that a story is not a history.
-The history of this great struggle must be sought elsewhere.  The
-romancer is satisfied if he is reasonably true to facts and
-probabilities, and more than happy if his fictions, while amusing an
-idle hour, have also anything of stimulus and encouragement.
-
-HERBERT STRANG.
-
-
-
-
-                                CONTENTS
-
-CHAP.
-
-I  A CHANCE MEETING
-II  SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE
-III  STONEWAY ENLISTS
-IV  THREE ROUNDS
-V  THE BACK OF THE FRONT
-VI  BAGGING A SNIPER
-VII  IN THE ENEMY'S LINES
-VIII  SKY HIGH
-IX  D.C.M.
-X  HOT WORK
-XI  THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GINGER
-XII  DOGGED
-XIII  THE FIGHT FOR THE VILLAGE
-XIV  THE HIKIOTOSHI
-XV  THE OBSERVATION POST
-XVI  EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY
-XVII  STRATEGY
-XVIII  USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY
-XIX  SUSPICIONS
-XX  MONSIEUR OBERNAI'S ATTIC
-XXI  MARKED DOWN
-XXII  'RECOMMENDED'
-
-
-
-
-                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-A FOUL BLOW . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ (_see page_ 52)
-
-"HANDS UP!"
-
-A LONG WAY BACK
-
-THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I
-
-                            A CHANCE MEETING
-
-
-Mr. Kishimaru smiled, and rubbed his long lean hands gently the one over
-the other.
-
-"Yes, Mr. Amory, you make great progress," he said, in low smooth tones,
-and with the careful enunciation of one speaking a foreign tongue.  "You
-will be an artist. Yes, I assure you: jujutsu is a fine art; more than
-that, it is an application of pure science.  I say that, and I know.
-Compare it with boxing, that which your grandfathers called the noble
-art.  Rapidity of movement, yes; quickness of eye and judgment, yes; but
-delicacy of touch--ah! jujutsu has it, boxing no.  There is nothing
-brutal about jujutsu."
-
-Kenneth Amory smiled back at the enthusiastic little Japanese, and
-rubbed his left shoulder.
-
-"Nothing brutal, I agree," he said.  "But it has been a dry summer, Mr.
-Kishimaru."
-
-"A dry summer?" the Japanese repeated, still smiling, but with an air of
-puzzlement.
-
-"Yes; the turf's uncommonly hard, and I came down a pretty good whack
-that last time."
-
-"I am sorry.  You have not quite recovered your strength yet, or you
-would not have fallen so heavily.  But you do well; it is good exercise,
-for body and mind too. A little rest, and we will try another throw."
-
-Kenneth Amory was seated on a bench on the lawn where, in summer, Mr.
-Kishimaru instructed his pupils in the fine art of jujutsu.  He wore a
-loose white belted tunic and shorts: head and legs were bare. Mr.
-Kishimaru, a wiry little Japanese of about thirty-five, similarly clad,
-walked up and down, expounding the principles of his art.
-
-A bell rang in the house.  The garden door opened, and a tall young
-fellow of some twenty years came with quick step on to the lawn.
-
-"Hullo, Kishimaru!" he cried.  "How do?  Have you got a minute?"  He
-glanced towards the figure on the bench, but did not wait for an answer.
-"Just back from Canada--to enlist.  Got to smash the Germans, you know.
-But look here; just spare a minute to show me the Koshinage, will you?
-I was in a lumber camp, you know, out west; lumbering's hard work; no
-cricket or anything else; had to do something; taught 'em jujutsu, odd
-times, you know. But the Koshinage--I fairly came to grief over that:
-tried it on a big chap, and came a regular cropper.  Made me look pretty
-small; I'd been explaining that I'd throw any fellow, no matter how big.
-Somehow it didn't come off: must have forgotten something, I suppose.
-I've only got a few minutes; have to catch the 4.30 at St. Pancras; just
-put me through it once or twice, there's a good chap."
-
-Mr. Kishimaru rubbed his hands all through this impetuous address.  He
-was always pleased to see an old pupil, and Harry Randall, voluble,
-always in a hurry, had been one of his best pupils a year or two before.
-
-"I am delighted to see you, Mr. Randall," he said.  "If you will
-change----"
-
-"No time for that.  I'll strip to my shirt, be ready in a winking."
-
-He threw off coat and waistcoat, wrenched off his collar, with some
-peril to the stud, and knotting his braces about his waist, stood ready.
-Meanwhile Mr. Kishimaru had stepped to the bench.
-
-"The Koshinage is the exercise we have been practising, Mr. Amory," he
-said. "Perhaps you will be good enough to go through it with Mr.
-Randall, an old pupil.  I will watch, and criticise if necessary."
-
-Amory sprang up.  In the newcomer he had at once recognised a
-schoolfellow--Randy, they used to call him; a fellow everybody liked;
-impulsive, generous, easy-going, always in scrapes, always ready to
-argue with boys or masters.  They had left school at the same time, and
-had not seen each other since.
-
-Mr. Kishimaru explained to Randall that his pupil would practise the
-exercise with him, and was about to introduce the two formally.  But
-Randall anticipated him.
-
-"Hullo, Amory!" he cried.  "It's you. Didn't recognise you.  Come on; no
-time to spare."
-
-Without more ado they took up position for the exercise, holding each
-other as though they were going to waltz.  Then they made one or two
-rapid steps, Mr. Kishimaru skipping round them, intently watching their
-movements.  With a sudden turning on his toes and bending of the knees,
-Amory dragged Randall from behind on to his right hip.  A jerk of the
-left arm and the straightening of the knees lifted Randall's feet from
-the ground, and in another moment he was hoisted over Amory's hip to his
-left front and deposited on his back.
-
-"Excellent!  Excellent!" cried Mr. Kishimaru.
-
-"Just what I tried to do with big Heneky, and came bash to the ground
-with him on top of me," said Randall.  "But it's knack, not strength.
-I'm heavier than Amory. Show me the trick."
-
-Mr. Kishimaru placed them again in position, showed Randall how to get
-advantage in the preliminary grip, and left them. In a few seconds Amory
-was thrown.
-
-"You have it, Mr. Randall," said the Japanese, rubbing his hands with
-pleasure. "It is like a problem in chess: white to play and mate in
-three moves.  It is inevitable, given the position; it is mathematics,
-mechanics, applied to the muscular human frame..."
-
-"That's all right, old chap," interrupted Randall.  "Knack, I call it.
-Once more, Amory, then I must be off."
-
-But at the third attempt he failed, and he would not be satisfied until
-he had performed the feat three times in succession.  Then, looking at
-his watch, he found that he was too late for his train.
-
-"Can't be helped," he said.  "I'll go down to-morrow.  Come along to my
-hotel, Amory: haven't said how-de-do yet.  We'll have some grub and a
-talk.  But you've got to change.  Can't wait.  I'll do some shopping and
-wire home to the governor; you'll find me at the Arundel.  Dinner seven
-sharp: don't be late."
-
-"The same old Randy!" thought Amory, smiling as he went into the house
-to change.
-
-At seven o'clock he found Randall walking restlessly up and down in
-front of the hotel.
-
-"Here you are.  I've bagged a table. It's jolly to see you again
-after--how long is it?  Remember Shovel?  He's got a commission in the
-Fusiliers.  Give me your hat. Want a wash?  I landed yesterday; come
-6000 miles, by Jove!"
-
-And so, darting from one subject to another, he led the way to the
-coffee-room. Before the soup arrived he started again.
-
-"Heard the news right away in the backwoods.  Lot of Germans and
-Austrians in the camp.  They began to crow.  I slipped away; had to
-tramp ten days to the rail. Gave a hint to the police, and hope all
-those aliens are now in gaol.  Extraordinary enthusiasm in Canada, old
-chap.  They wanted me to join their contingent, but I'd already applied
-for a commission at home.  People here seem to take things very coolly.
-It'll be a bigger thing than they realise.  And this rot in the papers
-about the Germans' funk--running away, crying their eyes out! Stupid
-nonsense, believe me.  Had a letter in New York from my governor.  Jolly
-exciting voyage, I can tell you.  All lights out; wireless going
-constantly; alarm one night: German cruiser fifty miles away. We all
-crowded on deck.  By and by lookout signalled a vessel.  We held our
-breath: turned out to be a British cruiser.  Captain gave our skipper
-instructions for the course. We took ten days instead of five.  What'll
-you drink?"
-
-Amory having intimated his modest choice Randall went on:
-
-"Things'll have to wake up here.  My governor's men are a lot of
-rotters.  Wrote me that out of five hundred or so only about a dozen had
-'listed.  Disgraceful, I call it. I'd sack 'em, but I know the governor
-won't; he's against compulsion.  I'm going down to-morrow to stir 'em
-up.  Haven't come 6000 miles for nothing.  By the way, what are you
-doing?  You were a sergeant in the O.T.C.  Of course you'd get a
-commission right away.  I shall never forget your cheek.  Nearly died of
-laughing when you went up to the O.C. and asked him to make you a
-corporal.  'What for?' says he.  'I've been a private long enough, sir,'
-says you, as cool as you please.  But I say, what are you doing?"
-
-"I've been rather seedy," said Amory, amused at his friend's chatter,
-but not yet disposed to tell him that he had already seen service in
-Belgium.
-
-"But you're fit now, eh?  You'll apply?"
-
-"Yes, I suppose I shall."
-
-"Why, hang it all, man, why suppose? They're awfully slow at the War
-Office.  I applied at once; passed the doctor and all that.  I shan't
-wait much longer.  There's a Public School Corps forming; I shall join
-that.  I daresay they'll give me a platoon. I say, why not join too?
-We're sure to find a lot of our old fellows in it; we might make up a
-company.  I hate waiting about. What do you say?"
-
-"I'll think it over."
-
-"Oh, I say, man, what rot!  I tell you I've come 6000 miles to join.
-You used to be keen enough."  A cloud of disappointment, almost of
-affront, hovered upon his face.  Then suddenly he flashed a look of
-mingled horror and disgust at his friend. "You don't tell me you're a
-professional footballer?" he muttered.
-
-"No, no," replied Amory with a laugh. "Don't be alarmed, Randy; I shan't
-sit at home and read the papers."
-
-"That's all right, then.  But do make up your mind, there's a good chap.
-I tell you what, what's your address?  I'll wire you to-morrow when I've
-had a go at the governor's men.  Twelve out of five hundred!--no wonder
-the poor old governor is biffy. It's a disgrace.  Well, I'll wire you;
-let you know how I get on as a recruiting officer. Then we'll meet
-somewhere.  Find out the headquarters of the Public School Corps, will
-you? and make up your mind to join that with me.  It won't spoil your
-chance of a commission--perhaps hurry it up. Anyway, it will be jolly to
-be together.... Waiter, bring me some more of that souffle. You don't
-get things like that in the backwoods, Amory."
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER II
-
-                         SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE
-
-
-Kenneth on his way home looked in at the doctor's.  An attack of
-influenza after his return from Belgium had pulled him down, and he had
-put off joining the army until assured of his complete recovery.  As he
-put it to the doctor: "A crock would be no use to K. of K."
-
-"You'll do," said the doctor after thoroughly overhauling him.  "All you
-want is a little hardening up.  I'll give you a prescription.  The
-open-air life of the army will do you good.  And I wish you luck."
-
-Thus fortified, as soon as he got home he posted an application for a
-commission in the Flying Corps.
-
-Next day, soon after lunch, he received a telegram from Randall.
-
-"No go.  Slackers.  Mules.  Governor mad. Come and lend a hand."
-
-He handed the telegram to his mother.
-
-"What does it mean?" she asked. "Your friend must be rather a curious
-person."
-
-"Oh, it's just Randy," said Kenneth, who had told his mother of his
-meeting with Randall on the previous day.  "At school he always wanted
-to lug everybody with him. I don't see what I can do.  I'll wire him."
-
-He wrote on the reply-paid form:
-
-"Sorry.  Not my line."
-
-Within a couple of hours came a second telegram.
-
-"Rotter.  Writing."
-
-Next morning's post brought the letter.
-
-"You simply must come.  What do you mean, not your line?  How do you
-know till you try? Here I've come 6000 miles--but I told you that
-before.  This is the situation.  The governor is raving: never saw him
-so biffy.  He got a spouter down from London, who lectured the men in
-the dinner-hour, waved a flag and all that.  The men only jeered.
-Governor says I'll only make them worse if I try; calls me a
-scatter-brain; I assure you he's in a deuce of a wax.  Used to be as
-meek as Moses; wouldn't hear of compulsion; he's turned completely over,
-talks of sacking the men, closing the works, conscription, and so on and
-so forth. Something must be done.  You were always a cool hand; come and
-let's talk things over, at any rate: smooth the governor down; he won't
-listen to a word from me, and in my opinion goes the wrong way to work.
-I told him I was inviting you; best pal at school, cock of the House,
-going to join with me: so on and so forth.  He'll be glad to see you."
-
-"A very strange person," remarked Mrs. Amory when she had read the
-letter.
-
-"Perhaps I had better go," said Kenneth. "Of course I can't do any good
-with the men, but it will please Randy, and my being on the spot may
-prevent him and his father from coming to loggerheads.  They're both
-peppery, evidently."
-
-Accordingly, Kenneth travelled by the 10.30 from St. Pancras, and
-reached the small midland town in time for lunch.  He saw at once that
-Mr. Randall himself was at any rate partly responsible for this trouble.
-A prosperous manufacturer, he was inclined to be dictatorial and was
-certainly no diplomatist.  Full of patriotic zeal himself, deploring the
-fact that he was too old for active service, a special constable, an
-energetic member of the local home defence corps, he had expected all
-his able-bodied men to rush to the colours, promised to keep their
-places for them, and to make up their pay for the sake of their
-dependents.  The paltry response filled him with fury. Without taking
-the trouble to discover the cause of the general reluctance he poured
-scorn upon the skulkers, talked of the white feather, tried to dragoon
-them into volunteering, threatened to sack them or close the works, with
-the result that the men stiffened their backs and defied him.  Clearly
-he did not know how to handle men in an emergency like the present.
-
-At lunch Kenneth tactfully listened to his host's outpourings, without
-offering any criticism or suggestion.
-
-"Good man!" said Randall, when he and Kenneth were alone.  "Let him blow
-off! That's the way."
-
-"What have you done?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"Not much.  I wanted to make a speech to the men, but the governor
-wouldn't let me.  Now, am I a scatter-brain?  D'you think that's fair?
-Anyway, I'm his son! But I spoke to old Griggs, our foreman; asked him
-why the men won't enlist.  ''Cos they're Englishmen,' says he.  'What's
-the meaning of that?' says I.  'Won't be druv,' says he.  'Rather be led
-by the nose,' says he."
-
-"What did he mean?"
-
-"Well, it appears that the fellows take their cue from two ringleaders.
-One of them's a man named Stoneway, only been here about six months: I
-don't know him. But I know the other chap--a carrot-headed fellow named
-Murgatroyd; Yorkshire, I suppose: the men call him Ginger.  He's been
-with us years: came as a boy.  A rough customer, I can tell you: a jolly
-good workman, but a regular demon for mischief. All the same, you can't
-help liking him. He's a sportsman, too: good at boxing, a first-class
-forward, just the fellow you'd expect to be the first to go.  Griggs
-told me he didn't expect to see him back after his week's holiday in
-August: but he turned up a day or two late, and backed up Stoneway
-against the governor.  He'll be sacked at the end of the week, sure as a
-gun."
-
-"Those two are the men you must tackle, then," said Kenneth.  "Bring
-them round, and the rest will follow like sheep--or donkeys, 'led by the
-nose,' as your Griggs says."
-
-"By the way, he told me the men are having a meeting in the yard at
-tea-time to discuss the governor's threats.  Shall we slip down and hear
-what they have to say?"
-
-"Our appearance might shut them up."
-
-"Not if I know our men--free and independent, don't care a rap for
-anyone: you know the sort.  They'd take a huge delight in letting us
-hear a few things about ourselves--idle rich, bloated capitalists and so
-on: which reminds me that I've got about twopence halfpenny.  We'll hear
-them spout, and tackle Stoneway and Ginger quietly afterwards."
-
-Shortly after four o'clock the two friends strolled into the works yard.
-Several hundreds of hands were there assembled, from engine boys and
-apprentices to grey seasoned veterans.  The most of them had tea cans,
-some were smoking.  At one end of the yard, standing on a tub, a stoutly
-built man of about thirty, with close cropped hair and thick brown beard
-and moustache, was haranguing the mob.
-
-Randall was recognised by some of the men, whose grins of greeting he
-acknowledged with nods.  A whisper ran round: "The young governor!"  It
-caught the ears of the man on the tub, who broke off his speech for a
-moment and glanced sharply at the two tall figures on the outskirts of
-the crowd.  Then he resumed what was evidently a studied peroration.
-
-"Is this a free country, or is it not, mates?" he cried, with a sweeping
-arm.  "If a man wants to fight, let him; I won't say a word against it.
-But when it comes to forcing him, then I say he's a slave, and all the
-talk about Britons never will be slaves is blankety rot, and I say that
-when an employer threatens to sack us or close the works because we
-don't feel called on to turn ourselves into gun-fodder, I say he's a
-nigger-driver and a tyrant.  And what's it for?  Are we invaded?  I'd
-defend my own home with any man.  But what do we pay the navy for?
-That's their job.  What I say is, let the French and the Russians do
-their own fighting.  It's no business of ours."
-
-"What about Belgium?" cried one of the boys.
-
-"'What about Belgium?' says the nipper. What has Belgium done for us?
-Perhaps the nipper will tell us.  Speak up....  Not a word, and why?
-Because Belgium has done nothing for us.  Then I ask you in the name of
-common sense why on earth we should do anything for Belgium?  Belgium
-has only herself to thank.  The Germans have promised to leave Belgium
-as soon as they have settled with the French, and even if they
-don't----"
-
-"Way there!" shouted Randall, elbowing his way through the crowd.  Cries
-of "Way for the young governor!" drowned the speaker's voice.  "Time's
-up, Stoneway!" sang out the boy who had questioned him. Kenneth followed
-his friend, hoping that he would be discreet.
-
-Stoneway descended from the tub, Randall mounted in his place.
-
-"Look here, men," he cried, "I came to listen, to get at your ideas, not
-to speak, but I can't keep quiet when I hear such stuff. We're free men:
-that's all right; but we're men of our word.  An Englishman's word: you
-know what people say about that. We've given our word to Belgium: if we
-break it we're mean skunks, we're disgraced for ever.  Besides, every
-decent chap loathes a bully, and Germany's just a great hulking bully.
-If you see a big chap hurting a little 'un, you want to knock him down.
-My father tells me that only about a dozen of you have enlisted.  What's
-the reason of it? You'd feel jolly well insulted if I called you
-cowards.  Are all you hundreds going to skulk at home while your mates
-do the fighting for you?  What'll you feel like in ten years' time?  You
-won't be able to look 'em in the face.  Here I've come 6000 miles to do
-my bit; buck up and show what you're made of."
-
-Randall's words tumbled out in a boiling flood.  There was some
-cheering, mingled with cries of "Ginger!" which grew in volume until the
-din was deafening. Presently there edged his way through the crowd a
-thin lank fellow with lean clean-shaven cheeks, deeply furrowed, and a
-touzled mop of reddish hair.  A red scarf was knotted about his neck.
-He slouched forward, hands in pockets, murmured "Afternoon, Mr. Harry,"
-as he passed Randall, mounted the tub, hitched up his breeches, drew the
-back of his hand across his mouth, and looked round, with a grin, upon
-his shouting fellow-workmen.  The noise subsided, and the crowd gazed
-expectantly up into their favourite's face.
-
-"We're all glad to see the young governor, mates," he said, in the broad
-accents of a north-countryman.  There was a volley of cheers.  "But we
-don't hold with him--and no offence.  I hold with Stoneway--every word
-of it."  He thumped the air. "Who made this war?  Not us: we wasn't
-consulted.  No: it was the nobs done it. Are we going to let 'em force
-us into it?"  (Shouts of "No!")  "We won't be druv. It's all very well
-for the officers: they get a comfortable billet and good pay.  Tommy
-gets the kicks and Percy gets the ha'pence."  ("Go it, Ginger!")  "Now,
-Mr. Harry, you've come 6000 miles--what for, sir? an officer's job, I
-take my oath."
-
-"That's true," said Randall.  "I've applied.  But----"
-
-"Hold on, sir.  There you are!  Just what I thought.  Well, I ain't got
-no personal objection to having a smack at the Germans; never seen a
-German yet but what I'd give him one on the boko, and if Lord
-Kitchener'd make me a lootenant or a capting in the Coldstream Guards,
-with a sword and eppylets and ten bob a day--well, I don't say I
-wouldn't consider it."  ("Bravo, Ginger!")  "But as it is, to be a
-private on one bob a day, and dock threepence or more, they tell me, for
-the missus and kids--I'm not having any."
-
-When the cheers that hailed his assertion had fallen away, Kenneth said
-quietly:
-
-"You forget that thousands of men have thrown up good jobs and
-sacrificed big incomes to join the ranks."
-
-"Not in these parts, governor.  Down here they give their subscriptions
-to this, that, and the other, and reduce their men's wages, if they
-don't sack 'em.  And if it comes to that, what have _you_ done?"
-
-A breathless silence settled upon the crowd. All eyes were fixed on the
-young governor's friend, awaiting his reply to this poser. Kenneth had
-an inspiration.
-
-"It doesn't matter what I've done," he said, quietly, but in a tone that
-carried his words to the corners of the yard.  "But I'll tell you what
-I'll do, and if I know my friend Mr. Randall, he'll do the same.  If you
-men will enlist, we'll enlist with you, and share and share alike."
-
-The man was taken aback.  He looked from Kenneth to Randall: his mates
-watched him curiously.  "One for you, Ginger!" cried the irrepressible
-boy.
-
-"D'you mean that, sir?" asked the man.
-
-"Certainly," said Kenneth.
-
-"It's a firm offer, Ginger," added Randall.
-
-"Privates--no kid?"
-
-"A bob a day," said Kenneth.
-
-For a half-minute or so Ginger had the air of one who is caught out.  He
-looked round among his mates, grinning awkwardly, avoiding their eyes.
-They were silent, watching him.  All at once he burst into a guffaw,
-wiped his mouth, and with frank good-humour cried:
-
-"Well, hanged if you ain't good sports. Come on, mates.  Who's for
-Kitchener's army and a smack at the Germans?  I'm number one."
-
-The crowd was captured by the sporting spirit.  Striking while the iron
-was hot, Randall and Kenneth headed a procession to the recruiting
-office.  Mr. Randall, called to his window by the tramp of many feet and
-the strains of "It's a long long way to Tipperary," was amazed to see
-hundreds of his young workmen marching with linked arms behind the two
-young fellows.  He rang for Griggs.
-
-"What does this mean, Griggs?" he asked.
-
-"Gone to enlist, sir.  We shall be very short-handed."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III
-
-                            STONEWAY ENLISTS
-
-
-Mr. Randall pulled a wry face when he heard of Kenneth's impulsive
-action.  At the dinner-table he spoke his mind.
-
-"This won't do, you know.  You are both certain to obtain commissions.
-I don't object to your serving as Tommies for a week or two, for the
-sake of example, you know; but I'm not going to allow you to let
-yourself down permanently, Harry.  Your friend, of course, can do as he
-pleases."
-
-"I've promised, Father," said Harry.
-
-"Promised what, may I ask?"
-
-"To share and share alike with the men."
-
-"Fiddlesticks!  It won't do.  Good gracious, what are we coming to?  The
-whole social order will be destroyed.  You'll succeed me at the head of
-this business, when you've settled down and are a trifle less
-scatter-brained than you are now.  How in the world do you expect to
-maintain the proper relation between employer and employed if you put
-yourself on a level with the hands?  Look at it logically.  Take it that
-I myself had been idiot enough to do as you've done, and put myself in
-the position to be ordered about by some factory hand who happened to be
-a sergeant, or some young whipper-snapper fresh from school who happened
-to have got a commission: what would become of my authority, I should
-like to know?  How could I maintain control over my workmen?  Do look at
-it reasonably.  It's preposterous."
-
-The idea of portly Mr. Randall as a Tommy was almost too much for the
-boys' gravity. But Harry answered meekly:
-
-"Well, we've enlisted over a hundred men, and there'll be more
-to-morrow.  That's what you wanted, Dad, isn't it?  You won't have to
-close down now."
-
-"But I didn't want my son to consort with a lot of roughs--socialists,
-too, to a man, by gad!  You can't associate with such fellows without
-getting coarsened, and besides, as I said before, it's the principle of
-the thing--the principle of social order, caste, call it what you like.
-Destroy caste, and you ruin old England.  Come now, I'll see the
-colonel, and he'll arrange to get you gazetted to the regiment.  You'll
-then be in a natural position of authority over my men, and I'll be
-proud to think that my works has furnished a contingent to the New Army,
-with my own son as one of the officers."
-
-"You ought to have lived in the middle ages, Dad," said Harry,
-admiringly.  "What a jolly old feudal chief you'd have been! But it
-can't be done.  Amory and I have thrown in our lot with the men, and
-we'll stick it: we can't go back on our word."
-
-"I'll see that you have proper under-clothing, my dear," said Mrs.
-Randall. "I'm told that some of the poor men have only one shirt."
-
-"Shirts!" cried Mr. Randall.  "Oh, I'm out of all patience with you.  Do
-as you please, do as you please.  I wash my hands of it.  Don't expect
-any sympathy from me if you are disgusted, horrified, in a week."
-
-As Harry had said, more than a hundred of the men had already given in
-their names. Next day a still larger number volunteered, and when the
-medical tests had been applied, it was found that the recruits from the
-Randall works were enough to form a company.  This accordingly was
-scheduled as No. 3 Company in the 17th Service Battalion of a regiment
-which, for reasons which will appear in the course of this narrative, we
-shall know as the Rutland Light Infantry.
-
-Colonel Appleton, the officer commanding, sent for Harry and Kenneth in
-the course of the day.
-
-"Look here, young fellows," he said, "you're both O.T.C. men, aren't
-you?"
-
-They confessed that they were.
-
-"Well, I'm short of officers.  They've sent me several boys without any
-experience at all, who'll want a thundering lot of licking into shape.
-I'll put you both down, glad to have somebody who knows something about
-company drill."
-
-"Thank you, sir," said Harry, "but we only got the men to enlist by
-promising to go in with them."
-
-"That's all very well, but nobody can object to promotion.  The men will
-think it the most natural thing in the world for you to officer them."
-
-The boys, however, persisted in their refusal.
-
-"Nonsense," said the colonel.  "I'll give you twenty-four hours' leave
-to think it over.  There'll be nothing doing for a day or two.  It's
-chaos at present: no uniforms, no boots, no earthly thing.  Come and see
-me this time to-morrow, and tell me you've changed your mind."
-
-As they left, they saw Ginger and two or three other men on the opposite
-side of the street, evidently on the watch for them. Ginger took his
-hands out of his pockets, wiped his mouth, and came across the road.
-
-"Beg pardon, sir," he said to Harry, "but we only want to know where we
-are. The question is, have we got to salute you, or ain't we?"
-
-"Of course not.  That's a silly question. We're all Tommies together."
-
-"There you are, now, what did I say?" Ginger called to his mates.
-"Unbelieving Jews they are," he added, addressing Harry. "Said it was
-all kid, and you'd come out majors or lootenants or something.  I knowed
-better."
-
-"Make your minds easy on that score, Ginger.  We've given our word."
-
-"That's a bob lost to Stoneway."
-
-"By the way, Stoneway hasn't enlisted, of course."
-
-"Not him!  He bet you'd get yourselves turned into officers as soon as
-you'd raked us in.  That's a day's pay extra for me."
-
-"That fellow Stoneway is a bit of a riddle," said Kenneth as they passed
-on. "Judging by his speech the other day, he's better educated than
-most--a Scot perhaps; there's a sort of burr in his accent."
-
-"I daresay," replied his friend.  "A fellow who likes the sound of his
-own voice, I fancy.  Cantankerous: always agin the Government; you know
-the sort."
-
-"Well, old chap, as we've got twenty-four hours' leave I'll run up to
-town and explain things to the mater, make a few business arrangements
-and so on.  I'll be back to lunch to-morrow."
-
-"All right.  I suppose they'll put us in billets for the present, so
-I'll arrange to have you billeted on the governor.  He'll get seven bob
-a day for the two of us; rather a rag, eh?"
-
-Kenneth was early at the station on his return journey next morning.
-The platform was crowded, a good sprinkling of men in khaki mingling
-with the civilian passengers always to be seen before the departure of a
-north-going express.
-
-Standing at the bookstall, deliberating on a choice of something to
-read, Kenneth heard behind him the accents of a voice which he had heard
-so recently as to recognise it at once, though the few words he caught
-were French.  He glanced over his shoulder and was not surprised to see
-Stoneway, the orator of Mr. Randall's yard.  The man was walking up the
-platform beside a companion somewhat older than himself, upon whose arm
-he rested his hand as he spoke earnestly to him.
-
-"A French Socialist, I suppose," thought Kenneth.  "One of the anti-war
-people. Well, war is horrible, and I don't know I wouldn't agree with
-them if they had the power to put a stop to it altogether.  But they
-haven't, and that French fellow had better realise that we've got to
-lick the Germans first.  I was evidently right about Stoneway: he's
-better educated than most working men."
-
-He bought a magazine, and thought no more of the matter, seeing nothing
-further of the two men.  As he stepped into a first-class compartment he
-smiled at the thought that it was probably the last time for many a long
-day.  Henceforth he was to be a "Tommy."
-
-Harry met him at the station.
-
-"Billets no go, old chap," was his greeting. "We're quartered in an old
-factory--beastly hole.  But I've told the colonel we're going to stick
-it.  Come along.  They're going to serve out uniforms this afternoon; no
-fitting required!  You'll be rather difficult: average chest but extra
-long arms. I suppose we might buy our own, but we'd better make shift
-with the rest.  And I say, who do you think we've got for one of our
-officers?"
-
-"Who?"
-
-"You remember that squirt, Dick Kennedy?"
-
-"You don't say so!"
-
-"That's just what I do say.  I was loafing about the barracks when he
-came up to me, fresh as paint in his new uniform. 'What O, Randall!'
-says he.  'You here, too?  Ordered your kit, I suppose?'  'I believe
-it's on order,' said I, and I saluted, just for the fun of the thing.
-'Oh, I say, we don't do that to each other,' says he; 'we don't salute
-anyone under a major, do we?'  'I don't want a dose of clink--already,'
-said I.  'What on earth do you mean?' says he.  Then I told him, and you
-should have seen his face!  He wouldn't believe me at first, and went as
-red as a turkey-cock when I said I wouldn't mind earning half-a-crown
-extra a week as his servant."
-
-"I always thought him a bit of an ass at school," said Kenneth, "but a
-genial ass, you know.  He wasn't in the O.T.C., and I expect we shall
-have some sport with him."
-
-They went on to the large disused factory which had been turned into
-barracks for the occasion.  The quartermaster was superintending the
-allocation of uniforms, and they were in due course fitted more or less
-with khaki and boots.  As yet there were no belts, bandoliers or rifles.
-
-The basement of the factory consisted of two large halls with bare brick
-walls and concrete floors.  One of them, to be used as a drill hall, was
-empty.  The other was fitted up with wooden frames to serve as sleeping
-bunks.  At one end was a platform on which stood a piano, and one of the
-recruits was laboriously thumping out a rag-time.  Another was playing a
-different tune on a penny whistle.  At one corner four men were absorbed
-in halfpenny nap; elsewhere groups were amusing themselves in various
-ways.
-
-Kenneth and his friend joined one of these.  There was a little
-stiffness at first. The workmen, ranging in years from nineteen to
-thirty-five or so, were a little shy and subdued in the company of the
-"young governor."  But the ice was broken when Ginger came up, his
-square mouth broadened in a grin.  He was about to touch his cap to
-Harry, but altered his mind when he remembered the situation, and wiped
-his lips instead.
-
-"Bet you don't never guess," he said.
-
-"What's up, Ginger?" asked his mates in chorus.
-
-"Why, Stoneway--he's been and gone and done it."
-
-"What's he been and gone and done? Not done himself in?"
-
-"Course not!  Think he's broke his heart 'cause of losing us, then?  No
-fear!  He's 'listed, that's what he's done."
-
-"Garn!"
-
-"True as I'm standing here.  He's 'listed right enough.  He's got a
-chest on him too; forty inches, doctor said.  He's been and got shaved;
-he'll be along here presently.  His beard, that is.  We can let our
-moustaches grow now, if we like."  He rubbed his upper lip.
-"Hair-brush, that's what it is.  Bet a penny it's as good as Stoneway's
-under six weeks."
-
-"But what's he 'listed for, after all his jaw?" asked one of the men.
-
-"Converted, that's what he is," Ginger replied.  "Seen the error of his
-ways, or else he's so sweet on me he couldn't bear the parting.  'You
-made me love you, I didn't want to do it,'" he hummed.  "This here khaki
-looks all right, mates, don't it? Matches my hair.  Here, old
-cockalorum," he shouted to the man at the piano, "we've had enough of
-that there funeral march. Play more cheerful, or we'll all be swimming
-in our tears."
-
-Ginger's high spirits were infectious, and the group of which Kenneth
-and Harry formed a part chatted and laughed away the afternoon.
-
-Just before ten o'clock they were arranging their simple beds on the
-frames when a chorus of yells, cat-calls, whistles, and other discordant
-noises caused them to look around the hall.  Stoneway had just made his
-appearance.  It was a different Stoneway. The brown beard was gone, the
-long and flourishing moustache had been clipped to bristly stiffness,
-revealing heavy lips and a full round chin.  The man bore his uproarious
-greeting with a defiant glare, and only looked annoyed when Ginger
-shouted:
-
-"Smart, ain't he?  Doesn't look so much like a blinky German, does he?"
-
-The bugle sounded the Last Post, the electric light was switched off,
-and the five hundred men of the 17th Rutland Light Infantry clambered
-into their bunks and sought repose.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IV
-
-                              THREE ROUNDS
-
-
-At six o'clock next morning sergeant-majors and corporals went round the
-hall stirring up the sleepers.  There were groans and grumbles, but the
-men turned out, and there was a general dash for the washing basins--one
-among twenty men--and a free fight for the razors.  Our two friends had
-brought their own safeties and pocket mirrors, and when they had
-finished operating upon their downy cheeks there was a competition among
-their new messmates for the loan of those indispensable articles.
-
-"Your bristles will ruin a blade in no time, Ginger," said Harry, as he
-handed over the razor, somewhat ruefully.
-
-"Perseverance, that's all you want," replied Ginger, through the lather.
-"Yours 'll be as hard as mine in time."
-
-At half-past six each man seized a mug and rushed off to the cook-house
-across the yard for cocoa.  They sat about the hall, swilling the
-morning beverage, grumbling at the blankets, asking one another who'd be
-a soldier; then they rubbed up their boots and made their beds, and were
-ready for the seven o'clock parade.
-
-Dressed only in their shirts and slacks they formed up in the
-drill-hall.  There was a good deal of disorder, and the N.C.O.'s, in
-early-morning temper, roared above the din.  It happened that Dick
-Kennedy was orderly officer for the week.  When the men were at last
-ranged in ranks, dressed, and numbered by the sergeants, he posted
-himself in front and, with a nervous twitching of the lips, said
-gently--
-
-"Battalion, 'shun!"
-
-"Louder, louder!" whispered a fellow-officer who had come up behind him.
-"This isn't a mothers' meeting."
-
-The second lieutenant tried again.
-
-"Battalion, 'shun!  Advance in fours from the right.  Form fours!"
-
-Some of the men knew what to do, but many of the new recruits looked
-about them blankly.
-
-"You don't know the movements?" said the lieutenant.  "Well, when I say
-'form fours,' even numbers take one pace to the left with the left foot
-and one pace to the right with the right.  Now, form fours!"
-
-The result was disorder--jostling in the ranks, cries of "Who're you
-a-shoving of!"
-
-"Sorry!  My mistake!" said Kennedy, with a smile.  "We'll try again.  I
-should have said, 'one pace to the rear with the left foot.'  Now then,
-form fours!"
-
-His cheerfulness won the men's sympathy, and the order being now
-correctly carried out, one or two of them cheered.
-
-"Silence in the ranks!" roared Kennedy. "Right!  Quick march!" and the
-battalion marched off.
-
-The day's work began with a run for three-quarters of an hour, to the
-bank of a river some two miles away.  A "run" so called, for it
-consisted of slow and quick march and doubling in turn.  At eight
-o'clock they were back in the hall for breakfast: tea, bread and bacon,
-sausage or cheese. The provisions were good, the men had healthy
-appetites, and at 9.15, when the battalion orders of the day were read,
-they were contented and cheerful.
-
-Marching out to the parade ground, a field in the neighbourhood, they
-spent an hour in physical drill under experienced N.C.O. instructors,
-and then a couple of hours in company drill.  Dismissed at 12.15, they
-met again for dinner at 1, a plentiful meal of meat pie and vegetables.
-Then came a route march and extended order drill, tea at 4.30, with jam
-and tinned fruits, and at 5.30 company lectures.
-
-"It'll be rummy to hear Kennedy lecture," said Harry, sitting beside
-Kenneth on the form.  "I wonder what he'll spout about."
-
-"Poor chap!" said Kenneth.  "I'm beginning to think the Tommies haven't
-the worst of it.  Keep a straight face whatever he says."
-
-Somewhat to his surprise, when Kennedy appeared the men were at once
-silent.  The habit of discipline was strong in those who had already
-served in the Regulars or the Territorials; the recruits were interested
-in the novel circumstances, and subdued by the indefinable influence of
-constituted authority.
-
-"Now, men," began Kennedy, unfolding his notes and studiously avoiding
-the eyes of his old school-fellows, "I'm going to say a few words to you
-on Feet."
-
-"My poor tootsies!" murmured one of the men.
-
-"We have all got feet," Kennedy went on, "but do we all know how to use
-them?"
-
-"Give us a ball and we'll show you, sir," cried a voice.
-
-"Well, I hope we'll have some footer by and by, but that's not the
-present question. We have just done a ten-mile walk.  Two or three of
-you fell out, two or three were limping before we got back.  Why was
-that?"
-
-"'Cos we ain't used to it, sir," said one of the unlucky ones.
-
-"Ate too much pie and 'taters, sir," cried another.
-
-"Got a corn inside o' my toe," said a third.
-
-"Well, we'll leave out greediness for the present: that's a moral defect
-which perhaps one of the senior officers will deal with. We'll confine
-our attention to the proper care of the feet."
-
-And he went on to give some simple and practical advice as to bathing,
-greasing, methods of hardening, until six o'clock struck, and the men
-were dismissed until first post at 9.30.
-
-"Call that a lecture!" scoffed Stoneway, when the officer had gone.
-"Does he take us for an infant school?  Giving us pap like that!"
-
-"You shut your face!" said Ginger. "The young feller spoke downright
-good common sense, much better 'n you'd expect from a chap as went to
-one of them there public schools.  He said a thing or two I didn't know,
-nor you either, Stoneway. 'Course he didn't go to the root of it;
-dursn't cry stinking fish.  What's the root?  Why, boots.  These 'ere
-things they've gi'en us, they're no good.  They're made to raise
-blisters, they are, and they'll just mash when we get the rain."
-
-"They're only temporary, I believe," said Kenneth, "till the factories
-can turn out army boots in sufficient quantities."
-
-"That's the English Government all over," said Stoneway, with a sneer.
-"Nothing ready: no boots, no rifles----"
-
-"Oh, stow it!" cried Ginger.  "What did you 'list for if you're going to
-grouse all the time?  The worst of it is, you can't resign: we shall
-have to put up with you, I s'pose, unless you mutiny, or strike your
-superior officer, or do something else to get dismissed the army.  Come
-on, boys; let's go and see the pictures.  We'll be back in time to draw
-some soup from the cook-house, 8.30 to 9."
-
-That is a fair sample of the day's work during the next two or three
-months.  It was monotonous, but, during the dry autumn, healthy.  When
-the rainy weather set in, hardship began to be felt.  The men often got
-drenched to the skin; their temporary boots, as Ginger had foretold,
-became pulp.  The factory was bleak and draughty, in spite of its gas
-stoves.  There was a certain amount of sickness, and an increase in the
-number of offenders to be dealt with every morning by the colonel. But
-the men were well fed, and cheered by presents of tobacco and cigarettes
-from kindly townsfolk; and many wet, dull evenings were enlivened by
-concerts and entertainments got up by friends of the officers.
-
-Kenneth and Harry steadfastly declined offers of promotion as N.C.O.'s,
-but owing to their knowledge of drill they were made right and left
-guides of their platoon.  They bought a football, and got up
-inter-company matches in which No. 3 Company distinguished itself.
-Indeed, both in work and play No. 3 Company became the crack company of
-the battalion.  The captain, an old army man who had been retired some
-years and was some little time picking up the details of the new drill,
-was a good sportsman and a hard worker, and by the end of January the
-company was thoroughly efficient and knit together by that esprit de
-corps which is the soul of fighting men.
-
-Then came vaccination and inoculation. Stoneway was the ringleader of a
-little group that declined the doctor's attentions, to the disgust of
-Ginger and the majority.
-
-"You're a traitor, that's what you are," said Ginger to Stoneway when
-the latter flatly declined to be poisoned, as he put it. "You'll go and
-catch some rotten disease or other and give it to us."
-
-"This is a free country," retorted Stoneway.  "And as to you, you're a
-turncoat. Weren't you always spouting against the war?  Didn't I back
-you up?  Who caved in as meek as a lamb?"
-
-"Well, you followed along with the other sheep, didn't you?  What you
-joined for goodness only knows.  You're always grousing about something
-or other.  Bacon's too fat, then it's too lean; cheese is dry, then it's
-damp; you pick out little bits of lead out of the pear gravy, and spread
-'em round your plate and put on a face like a holy martyr.  You sit at
-lecture with a snigger on your ugly mug; the pianner's out of tune;
-nobody can sing for nuts; _you_ take jolly good care you don't do
-nothing to amuse the company.  Nothing's right; you always know better
-'n anyone else; lummy, I believe you think you ought to be capting, if
-not commander-in-chief.  What did you join for, that's what I want to
-know.  I tell you straight, we've had enough of your grousing.  Why
-don't you take your grumbles to the officers?  'Any complaints?' says
-they when they come round inspecting; why don't you speak up like a man?
-No fear; you ain't got a word to say.  All you can do is to growl when
-they ain't by, and try to make yourself big before all the dirty swipes
-of the regiment.  Why, look at the other night, when they gave the
-alarm, and we was all confined to barricks: what did you do then?  When
-all those nice young ladies came with their fiddles and things and sang
-and played to us proper, gave us fags all round, too, you must get up in
-a corner with your dirty lot and make such a deuce of a row we couldn't
-hear a word of 'Dolly Grey'--my favourite song, too!  If I'd been
-colonel I'd have given you a good dose of clink straight away, and so
-now you know it."
-
-Ginger had fairly let himself go, and the applause that followed his
-speech showed that he voiced the opinion of the majority. Stoneway made
-no reply, but gradually edged away.
-
-This was the culmination of an estrangement which had been developing
-between the two men ever since the company was formed.  Whatever had
-brought them together previously, their enlistment had sundered them
-completely.  Ginger, whose backing Stoneway had been wont to count on in
-any attack on authority, was now the most orderly as well as the
-cheeriest man in the company.  He passed off with a jest every hardship
-of that trying winter. "Think of those poor chaps in the trenches," he
-would say, if someone complained of the cold or a wetting.  Stoneway
-clearly resented his change of spirit, though it was a puzzle to the
-better disposed among the men why he could have expected a display of
-insubordination from these enthusiastic recruits in the New Army.
-
-It must be admitted that Ginger took no pains to conciliate his old
-companion.  He did not launch out again into invective, but assumed the
-still more irritating airs of a humorous observer.  From time to time he
-let fall a jesting word that had a sting, and took a delight in chaffing
-Stoneway in the presence of other men.  And since Stoneway himself
-turned out to be no match for Ginger in these little bouts of wordy war,
-and Ginger always managed to keep his temper, Stoneway became more and
-more furious, and fell to meditating reprisals.
-
-One Saturday afternoon, after a more than usually smart exchange of
-banter on the one hand and abuse on the other, Ginger was sent by the
-quartermaster to a farm some two miles away to fetch the balance of a
-quantity of butter which had not been completely delivered.
-
-"Just my luck!" said Ginger, in the hearing of a group that included
-Kenneth and Harry.  "It won't break my back, but I'd rather carry it two
-yards than two miles. However!"
-
-"I'm off duty presently," said Kenneth, "and I'll come part of the way
-to meet you and lend you a hand."
-
-"You're a white man," said Ginger. "Well, so long."
-
-Some little while afterwards Kenneth and Harry started together by a
-footpath across fields to the farmhouse.  They had not gone far when
-they caught sight of a figure in khaki about half a mile ahead, going in
-the same direction as themselves.  It was soon lost to sight behind a
-hedge.
-
-The path led over a hill that descended steeply on the farther side.  On
-reaching the top they saw two men in khaki at the foot of the slope
-below them.  One of them was Ginger, who had dropped his wicker basket
-on the grass and stood with arms akimbo facing the other man, now
-recognisable by his burly frame as Stoneway. Ginger, slim and wiry,
-looked insignificant by comparison.
-
-Just as Kenneth and Harry caught sight of the men, Stoneway lifted his
-fist and with a sudden swift blow that took Ginger unawares sent him
-head over heels.  Ginger was up in an instant, and after skipping about
-on his short legs for a few moments, made a rush at his opponent.
-Stoneway staggered, but recovered himself immediately, clinched, and
-profiting by his superior height and weight threw Ginger heavily, and
-not being able to disengage himself, fell with him. The two men heaved
-and twisted in a fierce struggle on the ground.  Then Stoneway dragged
-himself away, rose, and Kenneth, now running down the hill, saw him
-deliberately kick the prostrate body of his apparently senseless
-comrade.
-
-"You cad!" shouted Kenneth, with Harry hard on his heels; "what do you
-mean by that foul play?"
-
-Stoneway, too much preoccupied to be aware of the approach of observers,
-growled something under his breath, and was making off sullenly.
-
-"No you don't!" cried Kenneth, seizing him.  "Just have a look at
-Ginger," he added to Harry.
-
-Ginger, pale and shaken, sat up and smiled feebly.
-
-"Time?" he said.  "I'll have another round."
-
-"Not a bit of it," said Harry.  "He kicked you on the ground.  Didn't
-you know? It was foul play.  What was it all about?"
-
-"I didn't kick him," muttered Stoneway.
-
-"That's a lie.  I saw you do it," said Kenneth.  "What's the row,
-Ginger?"
-
-"Well, what you may call a bit of a shindy," Ginger replied.  "Just
-between ourselves, like.  I'm ready for another go."
-
-"No.  Come, out with it, man."
-
-"Well, I was traipsing along with that there basket on my head when up
-he comes and starts rounding on me for chipping him. 'I'm not having any
-truck with grousers,' says I.  Then we had a few words, and he got me
-one afore I was ready, that I own.  But I can't hardly believe he kicked
-me when I was down, and a bit dazed like."
-
-"He did.  You take a rest and recover: we'll settle with him."
-
-"What are you talking about?" Stoneway blustered.
-
-"Giving you a hiding.  Off with your coat," said Kenneth.  "You'll see
-fair play, Harry."
-
-"I say, this is my job," said Harry. "You've been on the sick list."
-
-"I'm all right."
-
-"No, really."
-
-"Well, don't let's waste time.  I'll toss you for it."
-
-And while Stoneway looked on in amazement, Kenneth spun a coin, won,
-stripped off his tunic and rolled up his shirt sleeves.
-
-"Two to one against the big 'un," cried Ginger, with a grin of delight.
-
-Seeing there was no help for it, Stoneway slowly took off his tunic.
-
-"And mind you fight fair," Harry warned him, "or I promise you I'll take
-a hand myself."
-
-The two men faced each other.  They presented a striking contrast.
-Stoneway was slightly the taller and much the heavier; his big chest
-bulged under his shirt, and his biceps were thick.  But Harry, scanning
-him keenly, noting his fleshiness, decided that his muscles were rather
-flabby than hard; and observing Kenneth's slighter but well-knit frame,
-and remembering his promise as a boxer at school, felt pretty confident
-of the result.
-
-After the first few exchanges he was more doubtful.  Stoneway had a
-longer reach, and was clearly accustomed to the use of his fists.  At
-the start he forced the fighting, trying to get a knock-out blow, and
-Kenneth needed all his skill to meet his bull-like rushes and
-sledge-hammer strokes.  He managed to land one punishing body-blow that
-would have shaken up a smaller man, but Stoneway recovered himself
-quickly, and the first round ended with little damage on either side
-except that Stoneway found himself somewhat winded.
-
-The combatants had now taken each other's measure.  In the second round
-Kenneth in his turn adopted forcing tactics, bewildering his opponent by
-the whirlwind rapidity of his attack and his elusiveness in defence.
-Stoneway began to realise that he had met more than his match.  He
-breathed heavily; his fat cheeks took on a yellowish tinge; and the end
-of the round found him with a bigger nose and a bump over his right eye,
-and greatly distressed in wind.
-
-"Next round finishes him," whispered Harry, as he wiped Kenneth's face.
-
-The third round was in fact conclusive. Stoneway made a desperate rush,
-stopped by a neat upper cut, and before he could recover he was hurled
-to the ground by a blow above the heart that might have finished a
-professional pugilist.
-
-"Now you'll apologise to Ginger," said Kenneth, as Stoneway slowly
-picked himself up.
-
-But Stoneway scowled out of his damaged brows, put on his tunic in
-silence, and walked away without uttering a word.
-
-It was much to Ginger's credit that not a man in the battalion ever
-discovered how Stoneway had come by his bruises.  There was an end alike
-to his grumbling and to Ginger's rough banter.  But there was an end,
-too, to all show of friendliness between them.  They never spoke to each
-other, and Stoneway was always careful to keep out of Kenneth's way.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V
-
-                         THE BACK OF THE FRONT
-
-
-The slow wet winter dragged itself out. The training went on, fair
-weather or foul. The 17th Rutland Light Infantry got their service boots
-in due time, but other details of their equipment were slow to arrive.
-Presently they received enough rifles and entrenching tools for half the
-battalion, and the ordinary drill and physical exercises, which Kennedy
-had privately confided to Amory "bored him stiff," was varied with
-musketry practice and digging trenches. There were long marches,
-semaphore practice, sham fights, night operations; day by day the men
-gained new knowledge of their trade.  More rifles came, this time with
-bayonets; bayonet exercise and practice in attack gave further variety
-to their work. At last, towards the end of February, the whole battalion
-was fully equipped, and the men grew excited at the prospect of going to
-the front.
-
-It was a great moment when the colonel gave them a few hours' notice of
-entrainment. Lusty cheers broke from a thousand throats; the longed-for
-day had come at last.  Crowds of townsfolk assembled at the station to
-see them off, but they were quiet, serious crowds, the women's faces
-tense with anxiety, the children unwontedly subdued. It was no picnic
-for which these sturdy Englishmen were setting out.  Everybody was now
-aware of the greatness of the struggle, the bravery and tenacity of the
-enemy, the scientific skill and terrible thoroughness with which the
-Germans had prepared through many years for this attempt to seize the
-mastery of the world. Hearts were full as the men stepped blithely into
-the long train; how many of them would return, and of these, how many
-would be sound and strong?
-
-Their immediate destination was known to none except the commanding
-officer. When, after a tiring journey, with much shunting and
-side-tracking, the men were finally detrained at a small station in the
-south of England, with no sign of sea or transports, there was a general
-feeling of surprise and disappointment.  They were marched to a wide
-barren plain, peppered with tents and huts, and here, it became known by
-and by, they were to spend a month or more in further training.
-
-Even Ginger for once became a grouser.
-
-"I've had about enough of this," he growled.  "What's the good of it
-all?"
-
-"Discipline, Ginger," said Kenneth.
-
-"Discipline!  That's obedience, ain't it? Well, I ask you, don't we do
-as we're told like a lot of school kids?  I'm sure I'm as meek as Moses.
-Never thought I could be so tame.  I've quite lost my character, and if
-ever I get back to the works I'll have to go a regular buster, or else
-I'll be one of the downtrodden slaves of the capitalist."
-
-"I don't think so badly of you," said Kenneth, with a smile.  "But
-discipline is more than obedience.  Between you and me, I think this
-extra training is as much for the officers' sake as ours.  The British
-officer leads, you see.  He knows we'll obey orders; he has to make sure
-that he gives the right orders.  If he didn't there'd be an unholy mess:
-we should lose confidence in him, and the game would be up.  We've got
-to work together like a football team, every man trusting every other;
-and that's what all this drilling and training is for."
-
-"I daresay you're in the right," said Ginger.  "I wasn't thinking of
-them young officers!  They're a good lot, though, ain't they?  I don't
-know what it is, but there's something about 'em--why, Mr. Kennedy now,
-he's ten years younger than me, and yet somehow or other he manages me
-like as if I was a baby.  And no bounce about it either; I wouldn't
-stand bounce from any man, officer or not.  But he don't bounce; he
-speaks as quiet as a district visitor; but somehow--well, you feel
-you've just _got_ to do what he says, and you'd be a skunk if you
-didn't.  I don't understand it, I tell you straight."
-
-Kenneth did not speak the thought that arose in his mind, but he warmed
-to this testimonial from the British working-man to the British
-public-school boy.
-
-There came a day, about the middle of March, when the battalion was once
-more entrained.  This time the men took it more quietly: the first
-disappointment forbade them to set their hopes too high.  It was dark
-when the train reached its destination; the lights on the platform were
-dim; but one of the men shouted, "A ship, boys!" as he got out of his
-compartment, and a thrill of excitement ran through the crowd.
-
-They were in fact at the dock station at Southampton, and a big
-transport vessel lay alongside.  Many of the men had never been on the
-sea before.  Ginger looked a little careworn, and confessed to Kenneth
-that he felt certain he was going to be sick. The night was nearly gone
-when all the men were aboard.  Some lay down in their overcoats; others
-remained on deck, irked by the impossibility of satisfying their
-curiosity about the vessel.
-
-At daybreak the ship cast off and steamed slowly through the fairway of
-Southampton Water towards the open sea.  It was a bright calm morning,
-and the men watched with fascinated eyes the ripples glistening in the
-sunlight, the various shipping, the shores receding behind them.  And
-presently, when they had rounded the north-east corner of the Isle of
-Wight, and the course was headed southward across the Channel, they
-burst into cheers when they caught sight of the low lean shapes of
-destroyers on either side of them.
-
-"What price submarines to-day!" cried one of the men.
-
-"Ain't got an earthly," remarked another.
-
-"Don't believe there are none," said a third.  "Our men in blue have
-sunk 'em all long ago."
-
-"How are you getting on, Ginger?" asked Kenneth.
-
-Ginger was half lying on his back, gripping a stanchion, and looking
-straight ahead with nervous anticipation.
-
-"Is it much farther?" he asked.
-
-"Nothing to speak of.  The Channel's as calm as a millpond."
-
-"It may be, but the ship ain't.  She's very lively.  All of a shake, she
-is.  Takes a lurch for'ard, then backs a bit, seemingly, then another
-lurch.  It ain't what I'm used to.  It worries the inside of me.  I want
-to say 'Whoa, steady!' like I do to the donkeys at fair time.  And it
-gives me the needle to see that there Stoneway sticking hisself out as
-if he was driving the bally ship.  It don't seem fair, a big chap like
-him taking it so easy when he's got twice as much as me to lose."
-
-"Well, you won't lose much if you keep still," said Harry, laughing at
-the man's woe-begone face.  "It's quite certain you couldn't have a
-calmer crossing."
-
-Ginger's alarms were needless.  When the cliffs of France hove in sight
-he got up and leant over the rail, eagerly watching the advancing
-coast-line.
-
-"That's France, is it?" he remarked. "I don't see much difference.  I
-can't understand why the folks over there don't speak English, when they
-live so close.  I reckon we'll learn 'em afore we get back."
-
-The red and blue roofs of Boulogne became distinct.  Presently the
-vessel rounded the breakwater and manoeuvred herself alongside the quay.
-There was scarcely anything to show that the men had actually arrived in
-France.  Khaki predominated on the quay; an English voice hailed the
-skipper through a megaphone; a blue-grey motor omnibus with the windows
-boarded up and the words "Kaiser's coffin" chalked on the sides stood on
-the road.
-
-No time was lost in disembarkation.  The men were marched across the
-railway lines to a train in waiting.  Ginger, with Kenneth, Harry, and
-half a dozen more, got into a compartment labelled "Defense de fumer,"
-and started lighting up at once.
-
-"We'll defend it all right," said Ginger, "but the rest is spelt wrong."
-
-"It means you mustn't smoke," said Kenneth.
-
-"Well, that's a good 'un!  What do they take us for?  Any gentleman
-object?"
-
-"No!" yelled in chorus.
-
-"I didn't half think so."
-
-The train rumbled away eastward, and the men scanned the bare country
-from the windows, remarking on its dreary character, scarcely relieved
-by the pollard willows that raised their naked boughs against the grey
-sky.  By and by they got out at a small station, and marched along a
-straight road between rows of trees to a country village. They kept to
-the right side; the other was busy with empty supply wagons, lorries of
-familiar appearance, now and then a mud-caked motor car.
-
-Some officers had gone on ahead to arrange billets.  Arriving at the
-village, the majority of the men were accommodated in the barn and
-outbuildings of a large farm, a few in separate cottages.  Kenneth, with
-Harry and Ginger and other men of their platoon found themselves
-allotted to a labourer's cottage, where shake-downs of clean straw had
-been laid on the floors of a couple of rooms.  A road divided their
-billet from the garden of a good-sized house, in which quarters had been
-found for two or three of the officers.
-
-Apart from the traffic on the road there was as yet no sign of war.  No
-sound of guns broke the stillness of the spring afternoon. But it had
-become known that the firing line was only a few miles ahead, and the
-men were all agog with expectation of an early call to the trenches.
-
-It soon appeared, however, that they were not yet to enter upon the real
-work of war. Rumour had it that Sir John French was waiting for further
-reinforcements before pursuing the forward movement recently started at
-Neuve Chapelle.  Day after day passed in exercising, marching,
-practising operations in the field.  Word came of other regiments
-pouring across the Channel and occupying other villages and towns behind
-the firing line.  All day long they heard the distant bark of guns, and
-saw too frequently the swift passage of motor ambulances conveying their
-sad burdens to the coast. When off duty they strolled about the village,
-making friends of the hospitable villagers, romping with the children,
-playing football, cheerful, light-hearted, scarcely alive to the
-actualities of the desperate work in which they were so eager to engage.
-
-One day a trifling incident occupied Kenneth's attention for a moment.
-He happened to have gone into a little shop to buy cakes for the
-children of the good people upon whom he was billeted.  Several of the
-men were there making purchases, and one of them was vainly trying to
-explain his wants to the shopkeeper.  Stoneway was standing by.  Kenneth
-translated for his baffled comrade; then, suddenly remembering what he
-had overheard on the platform at St. Pancras station, he said to him:
-
-"Why didn't you ask Stoneway to help you?  He speaks French."
-
-Stoneway looked astonished and startled, but said at once:
-
-"Me!  I know a word or two, but you can't call it speaking French.  I
-couldn't do it."
-
-Kenneth said no more, though his recollection of the energetic
-conversation at the station was very clear, and he wondered why the man
-had denied his accomplishment.
-
-There was only one opinion of the kindness and hospitality of the
-villagers, and the men were particularly enthusiastic about the owner of
-the house across the road.  Far from limiting himself to the sumptuous
-entertainment of the officers billeted on him, he went out of his way to
-lavish attentions on the soldiers, making them presents of cigarettes,
-and treating them to the wine of the country.  The village had not
-suffered from the ravages of war, though the Germans had occupied it for
-a few days during their rush towards Calais; but it harboured many
-refugees from towns and villages farther eastward, and these were
-supported by the benevolent owner of the large house, who maintained a
-sort of soup kitchen where the homeless people could obtain free
-rations.
-
-One evening, when Kenneth and his comrades were at supper in their
-host's capacious kitchen, the talk turned on Monsieur Obernai, "the
-mounseer over the way," as Ginger called him, "one of the best."  Jean
-Bonnard, the cottager, and his wife took their meals with their guests,
-and chatted freely to Kenneth and Harry, the only men who knew enough
-French to understand them. Kenneth repeated in French what Ginger had
-said.
-
-"Ah yes, monsieur," said Bonnard. "Monsieur Obernai is a good man.  You
-see, he is from Alsace, and has reason to hate the Germans."
-
-"All the same, I don't like him," said his wife, pressing her lips
-together.
-
-"That is a point on which we don't agree," said Bonnard, with a smile.
-"Just like a woman!  She doesn't like him, but she can't say why."
-
-"You hear him!" said madame.  "Just like a woman!  As if a woman was not
-always right!"
-
-"But you have a reason, madame?" said Harry.
-
-"Bah!  I leave reasons to men; I have my feelings."
-
-Bonnard shrugged his shoulders.
-
-"Well, mon amie," he said, "I can put my reasons into words, see you.
-Monsieur Obernai came here from Alsace five or six years ago.  He could
-not stand the Germans, so he sold his property and came and settled
-here, and he has been a good friend to the village, that you cannot
-deny.  A very quiet man, too; he lives all alone with an old housekeeper
-and a couple of servants, and makes himself very pleasant.  When our two
-boys went off to the war, didn't he give them warm vests and stuff their
-haversacks with cigarettes?"
-
-"Yes, he was good to our poor boys," admitted the good woman grudgingly,
-"but I don't like him all the same.  I don't like his voice; it makes me
-shrivel."
-
-"A man speaks with the voice God gave him," said her husband.  "As for
-me, I look at what a man does, and don't trouble myself about his voice.
-And after all, it is not a bad voice."
-
-"Smooth as butter," rejoined the woman. "But there, we shall never
-agree, mon ami. Get on with your soup."
-
-After supper, some of the men settled down to write home.  The postal
-regulations annoyed Ginger.
-
-"I'm a poor hand at writing," he said, "and I don't see why I shouldn't
-send my love to my wife and kids on one of these here postcards.  It
-ain't enough for a letter; yet if I put it on the postcard they'd
-destroy it, they say.  What for, I'd like to know?"
-
-"It does seem hard lines," said Kenneth, "but I suppose it's to ease the
-censors' work. They've an enormous number of cards to look over, and
-they'd never get done if they had to read a lot of stuff."
-
-"'Love' 's a little word; that wouldn't hurt 'em.  Still, rules is
-rules, no doubt."
-
-He proceeded to cross out several sentences on the official postcard
-provided, leaving only "I am quite well" and adding his signature and
-the date.
-
-Presently the post corporal came to collect the letters and cards.
-
-"Captain wants you, Murgatroyd," he said.
-
-"Going to give you your stripe at last, Ginger," said Harry.
-
-"I shouldn't wonder," said Ginger, grinning as he went out.
-
-When he returned, twenty minutes later, the expression on his face
-checked the congratulations that rose to his comrades' lips. His
-features were grimly set, and he went to his place by the fire without
-uttering a word.
-
-"No luck, Ginger?" said one of the men indiscreetly.
-
-"Shut up!" growled Ginger, lighting his pipe.
-
-Nothing would induce him to explain why he had been sent for, or the
-reason of his annoyance.  He was one of the best-behaved men in the
-company, and it seemed unlikely that he had got into trouble without the
-knowledge of the others.  Wisely, they did not press him with questions,
-expecting that he would tell them all in good time.
-
-Ginger's interview with Captain Adams had been a surprising one.
-
-"You know the post regulations, Murgatroyd?" said the captain.
-
-"Yes, sir."
-
-"Well, look at this postcard.  Is that your signature?"
-
-"D. Murgatroyd; that's me, sir," said Ginger, after a glance at the
-pencilled name.
-
-"What do you mean by writing the name of the place in invisible ink?"
-
-"Never did such a thing, sir.  Don't know anything about invisible ink."
-
-"Well, how do you explain it, then?  This card had the name written in
-invisible ink. It was discovered by the Post Office in London, and
-they've returned it for inquiries.  What have you to say?"
-
-"What I said before, sir: I didn't do it."
-
-"You write to Henry Smith, 563 Pentonville Road?"
-
-"Never heard of him, sir."
-
-"What's the game, then?  Go and fetch the post corporal," he said to his
-servant.
-
-The man came in with a bundle of recently collected cards in his hand.
-
-"Look at this," said the captain, showing him the card in question.
-"Did you get that from Murgatroyd?"
-
-"I couldn't say, sir; I get such a lot."
-
-"But you know his signature?"
-
-"I can't say I do, sir; but he has just written a card; perhaps you
-would like to have a look at it."
-
-He searched his bundle, found the card and handed it to the captain, who
-compared the two signatures.
-
-"This is very odd," he said.  "They are very much alike, but there's a
-slight difference in the shape of the y.  It looks as though some one
-were imitating your fist, Murgatroyd."
-
-"Yes, sir," said Ginger, stiffly.  "I'd like to punch his head, sir," he
-added, as the baseness of the trick struck him.
-
-"Well, we must find out who it is.  Keep this to yourselves, men; he may
-try it again and give us a chance to catch him. Not a word to anyone,
-mind."
-
-Ginger saluted and returned to his billet, his indignation growing at
-every step.
-
-The incident was discussed at the officers' mess that night.
-
-"Murgatroyd is straight enough," said Kennedy.  "He's one of the best
-men in my platoon.  It's rather a mean trick."
-
-"And a senseless one," said the captain. "I'm inclined to think one of
-the men must owe him a grudge, and want to get him into trouble."
-
-"What about the addressee?" asked another officer.  "Who is Henry Smith,
-of 563 Pentonville Road?"
-
-"The London people will keep him under observation, no doubt," said the
-captain. "I told the post corporal to examine every batch carefully, and
-see if there are any more addressed to the same person."
-
-Three days passed.  No letters or cards addressed to Henry Smith were
-discovered. On the third day a telegram from London was delivered to the
-colonel.
-
-"Henry Smith gone, leaving no address.  Report result of enquiry."
-
-After consulting Captain Adams the colonel telegraphed in reply that
-Murgatroyd's signature appeared to have been forged, probably with the
-intention of getting him into trouble, and that he was keeping a careful
-watch on the correspondence.  Ginger meanwhile had recovered his
-spirits.  He had been made a lance-corporal, and sewed the stripe on his
-sleeve with ingenuous satisfaction.  At the back of his mind was a
-suspicion that Stoneway might have sought a mean revenge for his
-thrashing by this use of invisible ink; but since the scheme had failed,
-he resolved not to trouble his head about it.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER VI
-
-                            BAGGING A SNIPER
-
-
-The village being within easy range of the German guns, its immunity
-from bombardment struck the officers of the battalion as rather strange.
-For a few days, it is true, the enemy might have been unaware that
-British troops were in occupation; but a German aeroplane, a dove-winged
-Taube, had been observed to fly over the place, and it could hardly be
-doubted that information of their presence had been carried to
-headquarters.  All that the soldiers knew of warfare for two or three
-weeks was the dull boom of distant guns, the passage of ambulances
-occasionally and of supply wagons frequently, and the passing of railway
-trains conveying new howitzers and field guns along the line a mile or
-two away.
-
-The call to action came unexpectedly. One evening, just after supper,
-the men were ordered to parade in full marching kit.  They overflowed
-from the little market square into the adjacent streets, and there they
-were inspected by the colonel, who passed up and down the ranks with an
-orderly carrying a lantern.
-
-When the inspection was finished, the colonel posted himself on a tub in
-the middle of the square.  It was a dark night, and the flickering light
-of the lantern illuminated only the lower part of the colonel's body,
-leaving his face in shade.
-
-"Now, men," he said, "we are going to take a spell in the trenches.  We
-have several miles to march; there must be no straggling, or you'll
-pitch into Jack Johnson holes in the road.  No talking, no smoking. I
-know you'll give a good account of yourselves.  We're a new battalion;
-we've got to make our name; and by George, we'll do it!"
-
-The platoon commanders stifled an incipient cheer, and the battalion
-marched off into the night.
-
-Along the dark straight road they tramped, between lines of tall poplars
-that raised their skeleton shapes against the sky.  For a mile or two
-nothing impeded their progress; then the advance guard came upon a deep
-cavity extending half across the road, and two men were told off to warn
-the succeeding ranks of the danger.  Presently they passed through a
-hamlet which had been shattered by the German artillery. The sides of
-the road were heaped with bricks and blackened rafters, behind which
-were the jagged walls of roofless cottages.
-
-A little beyond this they were met by a staff officer, come to guide
-them to the trenches.  Then they had to ease off to one side to allow
-the passage of the weary men they were relieving.  At length they came
-to a small clump of woodland, and learnt that the trenches were on the
-further side of it.  Section by section they passed into the shelter of
-the trees, stepping across trunks felled and split by shells, and slid
-noiselessly into the narrow zig-zag ditches where they were to eat and
-sleep and spend weary days and nights.
-
-Kennedy and his platoon, among whom were Kenneth, Harry, Ginger, and
-their pals, found themselves in a narrow passage about 4 ft. 6 in. deep,
-with a loopholed parapet facing eastward, and here and there little
-cabins dug out in the banks, boarded, strewn with straw, warm and
-stuffy.  In the darkness it was impossible to take complete stock of
-their surroundings, but learning that in a dug-out it was safe to strike
-a light, Kenneth lit a candle-end, and was amused to see that his
-predecessor in the little cabin to which he had come had chalked up
-"Ritz Hotel" on the boarding.
-
-The men were too much excited to think of sleeping.  They had learnt on
-the way up that the position they were to hold was rather a hot place.
-The Germans in their front, only a few hundred yards away, were very
-active and full of tricks.  They watched the British trenches with lynx
-eyes, and so sure as the top of a cap showed above the parapet it became
-the mark for a dozen rifles. There were night snipers, too, somewhere in
-the neighbourhood, constantly dropping bullets on their invisible
-target.  The men who had just left the trenches had been much worried by
-these snipers, whom they had failed to locate; but they had reason to
-believe that the pestilent marksmen were hidden somewhere behind the
-lines.
-
-"You're safe enough so long as you keep your heads down," said the
-officer who directed Kennedy to his position.  "Except for the snipers
-we have had little trouble lately; and I hope you'll have a good time."
-
-Kennedy told off his men to keep watch in turn through the night.  While
-off duty they sat in the dug-outs chatting quietly, listening for sounds
-from the enemy's trenches, wondering what was in store for them when
-daylight came.  Fortunately the wet weather had ceased; the bottom of
-the trench was still sticky, but the March winds were rapidly drying the
-ground.  The night was cold, but there was a brazier in each dug-out,
-and the men, crouching over these in their great-coats, contrived to
-keep warm and comfortable.
-
-They watched eagerly for daylight.  At the first peep of dawn some of
-the men were told off to the loopholes.  About thirty yards in front
-there stretched a wire entanglement, with small cans dangling from it
-here and there.  Two or three hundred yards beyond this they saw the
-similar entanglement of the Germans.  For about a hundred yards of the
-line this wire was more remote, and the men learnt afterwards that a
-pond of that breadth filled a declivity in the ground. Here and there,
-all round the position at varying distances, stood isolated farmhouses,
-trees, and patches of woodland.  All was peaceful; no sound of war broke
-the stillness of the fair March morning.
-
-They had their breakfast of cocoa and bread and jam.  Towards noon two
-men from each section were told off to go back to a farm house behind
-the lines for the day's rations.  They hurried along the trench in a
-crouching posture, struck into a communicating trench leading to the
-rear, and emerged on the outskirts of the wood. There was instantly the
-crack of a rifle.  A sniper had begun his day's work.  The men waited
-uneasily, clutching their rifles, wondering if any of their comrades had
-been hit.  Kennedy posted his men a yard apart along the trench, ready
-to fire at the first sign of movement among the enemy.  The zig-zag
-formation of the trench prevented any man from seeing more than the men
-of his own section, and there came upon them a feeling of loneliness and
-almost individual responsibility.
-
-In about an hour's time Kenneth and his comrades were relieved to see
-their food-carriers returning with steaming pails. These contained a
-sort of hash mixed with beans and potatoes.  The men poured this into
-their billies, warmed them at the braziers, and acknowledged that their
-dinner of Irish stew a la Francaise wasn't half bad. After that food was
-carried up only at night.
-
-The day passed uneventfully.  A rifle-shot was heard now and then; from
-a distant part of the line came the continual rumble of artillery-fire;
-once they caught sight of a British aeroplane far away to the
-north-east, with little patches of white smoke following it, hugging it.
-There was nothing to do except to keep a continual look-out.
-
-But at dusk the reality of their danger was brought home to them.
-Cramped with the fatigue of maintaining a bending-posture one of the men
-got up to stretch himself. "Keep down!" shouted Kennedy, but it was too
-late.  There was a slight whizz; the man fell headlong.  Kenneth ran to
-him, as the crack of the rifle was heard.  Nothing could be done.  The
-bullet had pierced the man's brain.
-
-When it was dark Kenneth and Ginger carried their dead comrade through
-the trenches to the wood, and buried him there among the trees.  They
-returned in silence to their post.
-
-"You'll write to his mother," said Ginger, as they got back.  "She'll
-like to know as how poor Dick has been put away decent."
-
-"Yes, I'll write," said Kenneth.  "He felt no pain."
-
-"War's a cursed thing," Ginger broke out.  "What call have these Kaisers
-and people to murder young chaps like Dick, all for their own
-selfishness?--that's what it comes to.  It didn't ought to be, and 'pon
-my soul, it beats me why us millions of working men don't put a stop to
-it.  We're in it now; I'll do my bit; but seems to me the world would be
-all the better if they'd just string up a few of the emperors and such,
-them as thinks war's such a mighty fine thing."
-
-Their first loss threw a cloud upon the spirits of the men.  But it did
-not lessen their resolution.  Direct knowledge, slight though it was at
-present, of the grim realities of war braced their courage.  Already
-they had a comrade's death to avenge.  To the more thoughtful of them
-the dead man represented a blow struck at their country, and they saw
-more clearly than before that it was their country's service that had
-called them here.
-
-Their spell in the trenches was to last two days.  They were days of
-inaction, discomfort, tedium.  Apart from intermittent sniping the
-Germans made no movement.  The Rutlands kept incessant watch on them,
-with no relaxation until the fall of night.  Even then they were not at
-ease. Sniping was kept up fitfully through the night, and they learnt
-that even in the darkness there was peril is rising to stretch their
-cramped limbs.  At dusk on the first day a man was slightly wounded.
-These sneaking tactics, as they considered them, on the part of an
-unseen enemy worried and irritated the men.  Whenever a shot was heard,
-they tried to estimate its direction, but their guesses were so
-contradictory that no definite opinion could be arrived at.  On one
-occasion Kenneth tried to calculate the distance of the marksman by
-noting the interval that elapsed between the whistling sound of the
-bullet and the subsequent report of the rifle; but neither his data nor
-his watch were sufficiently accurate to give him much satisfaction.  The
-one thing that seemed certain was that the night sniping was done
-somewhere behind the lines.
-
-When the battalion was relieved, and returned to billets for a couple of
-days' rest, officers and men talked of little but the sniping.  They
-thought that nothing could be more demoralising, having as yet had no
-experience of heavy gun-fire.  The officers discussed the possibility of
-getting hold of the snipers, and determined to take serious steps to
-that end on their next turn of duty at the trenches.
-
-An opportunity seemed to offer itself on their second day back.  There
-had been a good deal of sniping overnight, and in the morning Kenneth
-happened to notice what appeared to be a bullet-hole on the inner side
-of the parapet.  He at once called Captain Adams' attention to it.
-
-"That's proof positive," said the captain. "The sniper is behind us."
-
-"It seems odd that he should fire on the mere chance of hitting
-somebody, for of course he can't take aim in the dark," said Kenneth.
-
-"He's got our range, of course, knows we've no rear parapet yet, and
-guesses that we move about more freely after dark.  But we ought to be
-able to locate him now. Stick your bayonet carefully into the hole,
-Amory; we'll get a hint of the direction of the bullet's flight."
-
-The bullet had penetrated some little distance into the earth.  Kenneth
-probed the hole with his bayonet, and it seemed pretty certain that the
-shot had been fired from the left rear, and, judging by the angle of
-incidence, from a considerable distance, probably not less than a mile.
-
-Captain Adams scanned the ground in that direction through his field
-glasses. About a mile to the left rear stood a small copse.  Slanting a
-rifle towards it, and comparing the angle with that of the hole made by
-the bullet, the captain decided that the copse was too far to the right,
-and swept his glasses towards the left.  The only other likely spot was
-the ruins of a farm, but that seemed too far to the left.  Between farm
-and copse ran a low railway embankment, which appeared almost exactly to
-meet the conditions.
-
-"The sniper is there or thereabouts," said the captain.  "Are you game
-to do a little scouting to-night, Amory?"
-
-"Anything you like, sir," Kenneth replied.
-
-"Well, creep out to-night and see if you can make anything of it.  It
-would be safer to go alone, perhaps, but on the other hand a little
-support may be useful, so you had better take another man--Murgatroyd,
-say: he's an active man, and not too tall.  You must have your wits
-about you."
-
-Ginger was delighted at the chance of doing something.  The other men
-envied him, and Harry looked a trifle sulky.
-
-"Cheer up, old man," said Kenneth. "Your turn will come some day."
-
-At dusk Kenneth and Ginger, the former carrying a revolver supplied by
-the captain, the latter armed only with his bayonet, made their way
-through the communication trenches to the second line of entrenchments
-and thence to the road leading to the village. They waited until
-complete darkness had fallen before stepping openly on to the road. The
-Germans had the range of it, and knowing that it was used after dark by
-British troops moving to and from the trenches, they might start
-shelling at any moment.
-
-"We'll leave the road as soon as possible," said Kenneth, as they set
-off, "and bear away to the left."
-
-"The right, you mean," said Ginger.
-
-"No, the left, and work our way round. We'll take a leaf out of the
-Germans' book; they prefer flank attacks to front.  We've plenty of
-time."
-
-It was very dark.  They struck off to the left across fields, and picked
-their way as well as they could, stumbling now and then into holes and
-over broken relics of former engagements.  They could only guess
-distance.  Kenneth took the time by his luminous watch, and allowing for
-the detour, when they had walked for twenty minutes he bore to the
-right, crossed the deserted road, and peered through the darkness for
-the ruined farm and the railway embankment. No trains had run beyond the
-village for a considerable time, and it was known that the permanent way
-had been cut up by German shells.
-
-Moving purely by guesswork they failed to find the farm, but after a
-time came suddenly upon the embankment, and halted.
-
-"Right or left?" whispered Kenneth.
-
-"The farm?" returned Ginger.
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Right, I should say."
-
-At this moment a shell burst in the air some distance to their right,
-whether from a British or a German gun they could not tell.  It lit up
-the country momentarily like a flash of lightning, and as the two men
-instinctively flung themselves down, they caught sight of the ruins some
-distance on their right hand.  The illumination was over in a second,
-leaving the sky blacker than before.
-
-They waited a little, wondering whether the shell was herald of a night
-attack.  But the shot was not repeated.  The country was silent.
-
-"Just to let us know they ain't gone home yet," Ginger whispered.
-
-"We'll make for the farm," said Kenneth in equally low tones.  "The
-sniper hasn't begun work yet; I haven't heard any rifle shots about
-here.  We'll separate when we get to the place, and approach it from
-opposite sides."
-
-Very cautiously they groped their way across the open field towards the
-farm house, and when they caught sight of it, bent down under cover of a
-hedge, and crept on almost by inches.  Then, leaving Ginger near the
-broken gate of the farmyard, Kenneth stole away to make a complete
-circuit of the place.
-
-In ten minutes he returned.
-
-"It's a mere shell," he whispered.  "The roof is gone, except in one
-corner; there are heaps of rubble everywhere, rafters lying at all
-angles, and furniture smashed to splinters."
-
-"Did you go inside?"
-
-"No, but I think we might risk it.  Look out you don't get a sprained
-ankle."
-
-They crept through the yard, over the rubbish, and into what had been
-the house. Kenneth had an electric torch, but dared not use it.  They
-halted frequently to peer and listen, then went on again, doing their
-utmost to avoid any disturbance of the broken masonry and woodwork.
-Before they had completed their examination of the premises, the crack
-of a rifle at no great distance away caused them to abandon the search
-and hurry into the open again.
-
-Outside, they waited for a repetition of the shot to give them a clue.
-It was some time before it came.  At length there was a dull rumble of
-distant artillery, and in the midst of it a sound like a muffled
-rifle-shot from the direction of the railway.
-
-"He's a clever chap," whispered Kenneth. "I hadn't noticed it before,
-but I think he waits for the sound of firing elsewhere before he fires
-himself--a precaution against being spotted.  Let us wait for the next."
-
-Presently there was the rattle of musketry from the trenches far to the
-left.  Before it had died away, a single rifle cracked much nearer at
-hand.
-
-"From the railway, sure enough," said Ginger.  "We'll cop him."
-
-They hurried across the field to the embankment, crawled up it, and when
-their eyes reached the level of the track, they peered up and down the
-line.  They could see only a few yards, so dark was the night. There was
-no glint even from the rails, which were rusty from disuse.  After
-listening a while, they crept up on to the track, and waited for another
-shot to guide them.
-
-It was long in coming.  To move before knowing the direction would be
-useless and might be dangerous, so, curbing their impatience, they lay
-on the slope of the embankment.
-
-At last they heard the whirr of an aeroplane.  Having learnt to expect a
-shot from the sniper when it was masked by some other sound, they sprang
-up.  The humming drew nearer; then came the single sharp rifle crack.
-
-"Behind us!" whispered Kenneth.
-
-With great caution the two men moved along the track, stepping over
-sleepers and rails torn up, and skirting deep holes made by shells.
-Every now and again they stopped to listen.  Presently they were brought
-to a sudden halt by the sound of a rifle-shot apparently almost beneath
-them.  Dropping to the ground, they peeped over the embankment.  At this
-spot there had been a landslip, evidently caused by a heavy shell. At
-the foot of the embankment lay a pool of water, extending for some
-twenty yards. Except for these nothing was to be seen.
-
-They felt rather uncomfortable.  On this bare embankment, rising from an
-equally bare plain, there seemed to be no cover of any kind.  Yet it was
-certain that a sniper was within a few yards of them, perhaps within a
-few feet.  They lay perfectly still, watching, waiting for another shot.
-It did not come.  Kenneth began to wonder whether the sniper had seen or
-heard them, and stolen away.  Or perhaps he was stalking them.  At this
-thought Kenneth gripped his revolver.
-
-What was to be done?  To prowl about in the darkness on the chance of
-discovering the marksman would be mere foolhardiness. He hoped on for
-another shot, not daring even to whisper to Ginger.  The minutes
-lengthened into hours; the two men were cramped with cold; but as if by
-mutual consent they lay where they were.  Neither was willing to go back
-and report failure. Now and again they caught slight sounds which they
-were unable to identify or locate. They nibbled some biscuits they had
-brought with them, determined at least to await the dawn.  Conscious of
-discomfort, they had no sense of fatigue or sleepiness.  And when at
-length the darkness began to yield, they fancied they saw shadowy
-enemies on the misty plain.
-
-When it was light enough to see clearly, they looked to right and left,
-to the front and the rear, and discovered no sign of life within a mile
-of them.  The air began to fill with the roll of artillery and the
-rattle of rifle-shots.  Here and there in the distance they saw columns
-of black smoke.  Two aeroplanes passed overhead towards the German
-lines, and shrapnel shells strewed white puffs around and below them.
-But on the embankment all was quiet.
-
-"He must have got away in the darkness," Kenneth ventured to whisper at
-last.
-
-"Can't make it out," murmured Ginger in return.
-
-How the sniper could have escaped unseen was a mystery.  Daylight
-revealed the bareness of the plain.  Only a few low hedges divided the
-fields.  One such, bordered by a narrow ditch, ran northward from the
-railway within a few yards of them.  But this could be of no use to a
-sniper, for it was on the wrong side of the embankment, towards the
-north.
-
-After a murmured consultation they rose to examine the embankment more
-closely, in the hope of finding tracks of the sniper. As they did so, a
-number of bullets whistled around them; their figures had been seen on
-the skyline by the Germans.  Dropping instantly to the ground, they
-crawled along, skirting the hole made by the shell, and taking care not
-to slide down in the loose earth that had been displaced.  They covered
-thus a hundred yards or so in each direction, up and down the line,
-without discovering anything.
-
-"We must give it up," said Kenneth at last.  "I don't like to, but I see
-nothing else for it."
-
-"Our chaps are in billets to-day," said Ginger.  "I'm game to stay till
-to-night if you are."
-
-"All right.  We've got our emergency rations.  We may as well lie up in
-the farm, and take turns to sleep."
-
-They crawled across the track to the British side of the embankment,
-slid down the slope, and being now safe from German shots began to walk
-erect along the bottom, following a slight curve in the direction of the
-farm.  The less of open field they had to cross, the better.
-
-They had taken only a few steps along the base of the embankment when
-Ginger, a little in advance of Kenneth, stopped suddenly, and stooped.
-Then he turned his head quickly, putting his finger to his lips. Kenneth
-hurried up.  Ginger pointed to a slight track in the grass, leading
-round the low hedge before mentioned.  Without hesitation they began to
-follow it up, moving with infinite precaution, and bending under cover
-of the hedge.
-
-Running straight for some distance, the track at last made a sharp bend
-to the right, then skirting another hedge parallel with the embankment.
-The two men were on the point of turning with it when Kenneth, in the
-rear, happening to look behind him over the hedge, caught sight of a man
-about half a mile away, coming apparently from the direction of the
-village where the Rutlands were billeted.  Ginger came back at a low
-call from his companion, and they stood together at the hedge, watching
-the stranger, careful to keep out of sight themselves.
-
-The man drew nearer.  He was old and shabbily dressed.  A small basket
-was slung on his back.  Every now and again he looked behind as if
-fearful of being followed. They watched him eagerly, surprised, full of
-curiosity and suspicion.  His path ran along the hedge parallel with the
-railway, and he was screened by it from the British lines.
-
-He came on until he had almost reached the hedge behind which the two
-Englishmen were posted.  At this point there was a wide gap in the hedge
-that covered him, and he turned off sharply at right angles towards the
-railway.  Kenneth instantly guessed that he had done this to avoid
-observation through the gap, that he would pass round the end of the
-hedge near the embankment, and follow the track by which Ginger and he
-had recently come.
-
-As the man turned, Ginger caught Kenneth by the sleeve.  His eyes were
-bright with excitement.  He seemed about to speak, but Kenneth hastily
-clapped a hand over his mouth.  Watching the man until he was on the
-point of turning the corner, Kenneth drew Ginger through a small gap in
-the hedge parallel with the railway, and they waited there until the
-stranger came up to it on the track they had just left, and began to
-walk towards another hedge at right angles to it, which led back to the
-embankment almost at the spot where they had watched through the night.
-
-They followed him quietly.  He was on the inner side of the hedge, they
-on the outer. They saw that he was wading along the ditch towards the
-railway.  At the end of the hedge they stooped and peeped through a gap,
-to see what was going on within a few feet of them.  They heard a low
-whistle, and were just in time to catch sight of the man disappearing
-into a culvert that carried the ditch under the embankment.
-
-Allowing him time to get through, they crawled through the hedge, up the
-embankment, over the line, and approaching the culvert from above,
-established themselves on top of the brickwork at the entrance. They
-heard voices from below, within the culvert.  Kenneth held his revolver
-ready, Ginger gripped his bayonet.  And there they waited for one or
-other of the men inside to come out.
-
-They had not long to wait.  The mumble of voices came nearer.  Kenneth
-listened intently, but could not distinguish the words until, just
-beneath him, he heard "Auf Wiedersehen!"  Immediately afterwards the man
-they had followed waded out through the shallow water at the bottom of
-the culvert, bending almost double to avoid the arch.  His basket was
-gone.  Just as he was about to straighten himself, Kenneth called
-sternly, "Hands up!"  The man swung round, saw a revolver pointed at his
-head, and instantly threw up his hands, at the same time glancing right
-and left as if seeking some way of escape.
-
-[Illustration: "HANDS UP!"]
-
-What were they to do with him?  Within a few feet of them, in the
-culvert, was the sniper, a man of courage and daring, or he would not
-have elected or been chosen for this particular means of serving his
-country. Luckily Kenneth was a man of quick decision.
-
-"Collar that fellow while I keep an eye below," he said.  "Take care you
-don't show against the opening."
-
-Ginger sprang down the embankment, and approached the captive, whom
-Kenneth covered with his revolver, at the same time keeping an eye on
-the arch below.  In a few seconds Ginger had made the man pull off his
-coat and waistcoat, and unfasten his braces, and with these he tied him
-hand and foot.
-
-"You'll be safe there for a bit," he said, laying the man at the foot of
-the embankment.  Then he rejoined his companion.
-
-Meanwhile Kenneth had been considering how to get the sniper out.  There
-had been no sound from the culvert, but the German must be well aware of
-what had happened. That he had not attempted to escape by the other end
-was probably explained by his ignorance of the number of men he had to
-do with.  Armed with his rifle, he might have thought himself pretty
-safe in the narrow culvert, where he could take heavy toll of any
-assailants who should attempt a direct attack.
-
-"We'll have to smoke him out," whispered Kenneth, as Ginger joined him.
-"There's some straw in the farmhouse; cut back quickly and bring as much
-as you can carry."
-
-In ten minutes Ginger returned with two large bundles which he had
-himself trussed. He kindled one of the trusses, and placed it at the
-rear end of the culvert, the quarter from which a slight breeze was
-blowing. Kenneth meanwhile kept watch above the brick arch at the other
-end.
-
-The straw was somewhat damp, and made as much smoke as they could have
-wished. Carried by the breeze through the culvert, it floated out
-beneath Kenneth, tickling his throat and causing his eyes to smart.
-Every moment he expected the sniper to make a rush from his unendurable
-position. When a minute or two had passed without any sign of the man he
-was surprised: was insensibility to smoke one of the German
-superiorities?
-
-"Any more straw, Ginger?" he asked.
-
-"Another bundle," Ginger replied, and returned to the farther end to
-light it.
-
-He had only just disappeared over the edge of the embankment when
-Kenneth, who had been straining his ears for sounds of movements below,
-heard a slight displacement of ballast on the line above him. Glancing
-up, he found himself looking straight at the barrel of a rifle, behind
-which was a head surmounted by a German helmet.
-
-For half a second he was paralysed with astonishment.  Then a click
-galvanised him into activity.  Realising that the rifle had missed fire,
-forgetting--like an idiot, as he afterwards confessed--that he had a
-revolver, he made a spring and with his left hand seized the muzzle a
-few feet above him.  The German held fast; there was a momentary tug of
-war; then the German lost his footing on the slippery earth, fell
-suddenly to a sitting posture, and slid down the embankment helplessly,
-driving Kenneth under him into the shallow pool of water at the foot.
-
-Kenneth was a thought quicker than the German in recovering his wits.
-Wriggling sideways, he flung his arm over the man, spluttering out a
-mouthful of muddy water, and grappled him.  For a few seconds they
-heaved and writhed like grampuses.  Then Ginger, drawn by the splash,
-came running across the line, saw the struggling figures, sprang down
-the embankment, and dashed his fist in the German's face.  In another
-moment he had dragged the man out of the water and a foot or two up the
-embankment, and held him down until Kenneth had shaken himself and come
-to his side.
-
-"This beats cockfighting," he said. "Where did the beggar come from?"
-
-"Don't know," said Kenneth.  "We'll see presently.  I'm nearly choked
-with mud. We'll have to use his braces too."
-
-When they had tied the man securely, they got up to investigate.  What
-they discovered was a proof of the ingenuity which the Germans exhibit
-in all their undertakings.  The landslide, a little to the right of the
-culvert, formed a sort of boss on the embankment.  At the farther
-extremity of this, out of sight from the spot where Kenneth had stood,
-the German had forced his way up from a small chamber excavated in the
-base of the embankment, where he had a folding chair, a rug, a tin plate
-and mug, a supply of ammunition, and the basket which the visitor had
-carried.  It was full of food.  There were two or three inconspicuous
-openings for the admission of air, and, towards the British trenches, a
-small tube, and an arrangement by which the rifle could be clamped.
-Evidently the sniper took his sights in the daytime, and set the rifle
-in such a position in the tube that he could fire directly on the
-trenches with the certainty of having the correct aim.
-
-"Up to snuff, ain't they, not half," said Ginger, with unwilling
-admiration.  "But how did you come to be wallowing in that there
-puddle?"
-
-Kenneth explained.
-
-"My word! a lucky missfire," said Ginger.
-
-"Lucky indeed!" replied Kenneth. "And we can't discover the cause of it;
-the rifle's in the mud."
-
-"Never mind about the cause of it. We've bagged our first prisoners;
-that's one to us and the Rutlands."
-
-But Kenneth was never satisfied to leave a problem unsolved.  Thinking
-over the matter constantly during the next few days, unwilling to
-ascribe to luck something that must have a sufficient cause, he came to
-the conclusion that the breech of the rifle had become clogged with
-earth as the sniper forced his way up through the landslide.
-
-They marched their prisoners back to headquarters in the village,
-keeping the embankment between them and the enemy as long as possible.
-
-"I've often seen this old rascal about the village," said Ginger,
-referring to the civilian.  "He's a spy, that's what he is. They'll
-shoot him, won't they?"
-
-"The colonel will hold an enquiry, no doubt.  By George!  I shall be
-glad to get back and dry my things and have a good feed."
-
-They received an enthusiastic welcome from their comrades, and Colonel
-Appleton commended them for their successful work. The sniper was sent
-to the rear as a prisoner of war.  An investigation was held.  It came
-out that the civilian who supplied him with food was a supposed refugee,
-and one of the pensioners of Monsieur Obernai.  That gentleman was
-summoned to the court of inquiry, and was overcome with horror on
-learning that one of the men whom he had assisted was a spy.
-
-"It is heart-breaking," he said.  "It is enough to make one hard.
-Besides, it might throw suspicion on me.  Still, it would not be just to
-abandon my humble efforts to alleviate distress because one man has
-deceived me.  But in future I shall make the most careful inquiries
-before I assist a stranger."
-
-The spy was shot, and thereafter there was no more trouble from night
-snipers at that part of the lines.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VII
-
-                          IN THE ENEMY'S LINES
-
-
-It was during their next spell in the trenches that the Rutlands had
-their first taste of artillery fire.  They were not systematically
-bombarded: there was no indication of infantry attack; but at irregular
-intervals shells from field guns burst over or behind the trenches,
-doing very little damage, but making the men nervous and irritable.
-When the ominous tearing sound was heard as a shell flew through the
-air, the men winced and cowered, and at the explosion they looked
-fearfully around, sometimes through a shower of earth, wondering to find
-themselves still alive.
-
-"You'll get used to it by and by," said Captain Adams to the men of his
-company. "The bark is worse than the bite at present. It's really very
-kind of the Bosches to let you get accustomed to them gradually."
-
-After a day or two the bombardment became heavier and more persistent.
-Two or three batteries were located, either by officers in observation
-posts or by British airmen, and the British gunners replied to them, not
-without success.  But presently the trenches were shelled at night by
-heavier guns which it seemed impossible to place. The position of the
-guns appeared to vary. Sometimes the reports came from the south-east,
-sometimes from the east, sometimes from the north-east; and in general
-they were louder than those of the guns which had been definitely
-located, though this fact, in the opinion of some of the men, was due to
-the stillness of the night air.  They began to suspect that the Germans
-were bringing up more guns to various parts of their line, with the idea
-of discouraging any attempt to break through at this point.
-
-All this made the Rutlands eager to come to grips with the enemy, and
-the prolonged inaction tried them sorely.  To amuse them during the long
-weary evenings in the trenches the colonel sent for a number of mouth
-organs, and some of the officers read to them in the dug-outs by candle
-light. One evening the men of Kennedy's platoon pricked up their ears
-when they heard the plaintive notes of a flute from a short distance on
-their left.
-
-"Who's playing?" they asked.
-
-Word was passed along the trench that it was Stoneway, who had bought a
-flute in the village.
-
-"There's a chap for you!" said Ginger. "All the months we were training
-the beggar never did a thing, playing or singing. Seems to me he can
-play, too.  But he didn't ought to play 'Home, sweet Home.'  Gives you a
-lump in your throat.  Pass the word along for 'Dolly Grey,' will you,
-mates?"
-
-Stoneway's unsuspected musical accomplishments raised him in the
-estimation of his comrades.  Every night there were calls for him.  He
-knew a great number of their favourite tunes, and was always ready to
-play them.  He would usually begin by running up and down the scale, and
-practising tuneless exercises; and sometimes, when these preliminary
-flourishes were rather prolonged, the men called to him to "cut it" and
-come to the real thing.
-
-As time went on, the shelling became more frequent.  It soon became
-clear that the Germans were working from definite knowledge of what was
-going on behind the British lines.  The bombardment often took place
-when parties were relieving one another in the trenches, though this was
-always done in darkness.  And one day, when the general commanding the
-division came to the village to inspect the battalion, a particularly
-brisk shelling caused a stampede of the people, who had come to regard
-themselves as safe. Several cottages were damaged, several civilians as
-well as soldiers were killed or wounded, and a heavy shell excavated a
-deep hole in the garden of Monsieur Obernai's house.
-
-One morning the trenches were subjected for the first time to the fire
-of a heavy howitzer.  A peculiar low drone, rapidly increasing in
-loudness, was heard.
-
-"'Ware Jack Johnson!" cried Captain Adams, and the men crouched in the
-trenches, holding their breath.
-
-The first shell fell some distance behind the lines.  They heard a
-terrific crash, and saw a column of thick smoke.  The second shell,
-about a minute after the first, fell far too short, plunging into the
-ground just in front of the German trenches, and bespattering them with
-earth.  The third exploded in the pond between the lines, and sent a
-wave into the German trench at the side.  During the next half hour the
-ground in front of the pond between the opposing forces was pitted with
-holes made by the heavy shells.
-
-"There's something wrong with the range-finding or the charges,"
-remarked Harry.
-
-"Lucky for us," said Kenneth, brushing from his coat some dust cast up
-by one of the shells.  "The smell is bad enough."
-
-After half an hour the shelling ceased, and the men wondered what
-purpose the Germans could have had in such an apparently motiveless
-bombardment.  Captain Adams suspected that something was going on in the
-German lines, and remembering the success of Kenneth and Ginger in
-discovering the sniper, he decided to send them out that night as a
-listening patrol.  Harry begged to be allowed to go with them.
-
-"Very well," said the captain.  "If you're successful we'll try a whole
-section another time.  It's a ticklish job, you understand.  You'll
-crawl over to the German trenches, and listen.  You know German, Amory,
-I believe.  You'll do the listening, then; you others keep on the watch.
-Don't lose your way.  I'll take care that the men here don't fire on you
-as you come back; but if you stray too far to right or left you may find
-yourselves in hot water."
-
-"You've no special instructions, sir?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"No: you must work out the details yourselves.  You're not puppets on
-the end of a string."
-
-"Nor yet monkeys on a stick," Ginger murmured when the captain had gone.
-"What did Capting mean by that?"
-
-"He meant that we're not machine made, as the Germans are, by all
-accounts," replied Harry.  "I say, I'm jolly glad he let me go too: I'm
-getting quite fat with doing nothing."
-
-They talked over their plans together. Obviously the safest direction in
-which to approach the enemy was towards the large pond.  This was an
-irregular oval in shape, and the Germans had not closely followed its
-curve in cutting their trenches, for, if they had done so, it would have
-exposed them to enfilading fire from the British.  They had carried
-their advanced trench close up to the border of the pond on each side,
-then run communicating trenches at right angles from front to rear, and
-there dug a straight trench along the breadth of the pond, about a
-hundred yards in the rear of their first alignment.  The wire
-entanglements in front of the pond, facing the British, were not so
-elaborate as on the rest of their line, from which the inference was
-that the water was too deep to be waded.
-
-Just before midnight the three men crept stealthily out of their trench,
-armed only with their bayonets, crawled under the barbed wire, and
-wriggled forward towards the pond.  It was slow and tiring work, for the
-ground was much cut up by shell fire, and littered with fragments of
-shells, empty tins, and other rubbish.  There was a certain advantage in
-the unevenness, in that it gave cover; but it also contained an element
-of danger, because there was a risk of their displacing something as
-they proceeded, and they knew that the slightest noise would provoke a
-fusillade from the enemy.
-
-The moon was not up, but the sky was spangled with stars, by whose
-feeble light they were able to distinguish objects on the ground within
-ten or a dozen paces.  They heard the Germans talking and laughing in
-their trenches, and here and there a slight radiance marked the places
-where they had candles or lamps.  Foot by foot they crawled on, Kenneth
-leading the way towards the angle of the trenches on the left.
-
-At last he came to a stop within a few feet of the parapet.  The three
-men lay flat on the ground.  For some moments Kenneth was not able to
-distinguish anything from the general murmur, but presently he realised
-that one man was reading aloud to the rest from a German newspaper.
-"The blockade of England.  Great German success in the North Sea.  An
-English merchantman of 245 tons laden with bricks was torpedoed in the
-North Sea yesterday, and seriously damaged.  The starvation of England
-proceeds satisfactorily."
-
-"What, do the English eat bricks?" asked one simple soul.
-
-There was a laugh.
-
-"They have good teeth!  Look at this picture," said another.
-
-"If the English bricks are harder than our war bread I pity them," said
-a third.  "We needn't cry 'God punish England' any more."
-
-"Is there any news of sinking a grain ship?" asked a voice.
-
-"No," replied the reader.  "Grain comes in big vessels; I expect the
-Americans won't let their ships sail.  We shall have America on our side
-soon."
-
-"Anything to shorten the war," said a man. "I'm tired of it.  I want to
-get home to Anna and the children.  The General said it would be all
-over by Christmas."
-
-"So it will, by next Christmas.  I want to get back to the Savoy: I made
-L10 there the Christmas before last."
-
-"You won't make it again.  The English won't have any money after this."
-
-Signing to the others to remain where they were, Kenneth crept still
-farther forward until he came below the parapet. From the direction of
-the voices he guessed that the trench was unoccupied at the angle; the
-men who should be there were gathered around the man who had the paper.
-Cautiously raising himself, he peeped first through a loophole, then
-over the crown of the parapet.  Here he was able to look along both the
-main trench and the communicating trench at right angles to it.  In the
-former, about a dozen yards away, he saw a group of men at the entrance
-of a dug-out, from which a glow shone forth.  It was here, evidently,
-that the man was reading.  He discovered the reason why, apart from the
-attraction of the newspaper, this part of the trench was empty.  The
-stars were reflected in water that lay along the bottom.  There was
-evidently a considerable leakage from the pond.  On the right hand the
-communication trench was quite dark.  Apparently it was not manned at
-all.
-
-Kenneth dropped down again, and remained for a short time listening.
-The conversation had changed: instead of discussing the war, the Germans
-were talking of domestic matters; the ex-waiter of the Savoy Hotel
-described his little house and garden at Peckham, and told how he had
-happened to meet in London a girl from his own village in Wurtemburg,
-who was now his wife. Luckily he had saved enough money to keep her and
-his children for a year or two.
-
-Finding that he was not likely to gain any important information,
-Kenneth crawled back to his companions, and they made their wriggling
-way to their trench without being discovered.  Captain Adams was a
-little disappointed at the meagre result of their reconnaissance.  The
-only valuable piece of news was that the communication trench was empty
-and the angle flooded.
-
-Shortly after their return the mysterious gun again opened fire.
-Several men were wounded by splinters of shells, one so seriously that,
-in spite of the risk, he had to be carried at once to the rear.
-
-Next day Kenneth said to Harry:
-
-"Look here, last night's business has whetted my appetite.  Why
-shouldn't we get behind the German lines and see if we can locate that
-gun?  Every day we lose a man or two without being able to retaliate,
-and it's quite time to put a stop to it."
-
-"Will the captain let us?"
-
-"Adams wouldn't object, I think; but I'm afraid we should have to get
-the colonel's leave for this.  I'll take the first opportunity of
-speaking to the captain.  It would be a pity not to make some use of the
-little information we were able to pick up."
-
-Captain Adams, when the proposal was put to him, at once said, as
-Kenneth had expected, that he must ask the colonel's permission.
-
-"It's a good deal more dangerous than last night's affair, you see.
-You'll be shot out of hand if you're caught."
-
-"But it's worth trying, sir, if we can find that gun.  Apart from our
-losses, it's making the men jumpy."
-
-"That's all very well, but I don't want to lose two useful men.  Still,
-I'll see what the colonel says."
-
-Later in the day he sent for them.
-
-"I've seen the colonel," he said.  "He was at first dead against it, but
-I did my best for you.  He agrees, provided you come back at once if you
-find things too unhealthy: that is to say, you are not to go on if you
-come up against any considerable body of the enemy.  And keep the matter
-to yourselves. You'll be supposed to be going out again as a listening
-patrol.  I shall tell only Mr. Kennedy and your sergeant.  No one else
-is to know what has become of you, and they will be on the look-out for
-your return."
-
-He gave them a large-scale map of the district behind the German lines,
-and recommended them to study it carefully during the day.  The railway
-seemed likely to be their best landmark.  It ran almost due north-east.
-About four miles away it passed over a canal running north and south.
-With these two fixed lines and a pocket luminous compass they should not
-wander far afield in ignorance of their general position.  Much nearer
-to the British trenches, and almost directly in their front, was a
-ruined church, the spire of which, used by the Germans as an observation
-post, had been shot away some time before the Rutlands arrived at the
-front.
-
-Their diligence in conning the map aroused the curiosity of their
-comrades, but they laughed off enquiries, and gave the map back to the
-captain.
-
-They decided to start, carrying revolvers, soon after dark, at the time
-when the Germans might be supposed to be taking their evening meal.
-With some difficulty they managed to slip away unnoticed by the other
-men. Moving with even more caution than on the previous night, they
-crawled over the ground until they reached the angle of the trenches
-abutting on the pond.  It was quite dark; the moon, in its third
-quarter, was, as they had learnt from the almanac, not due to rise for
-some hours.
-
-Peering down into the firing trench, they neither saw nor heard any sign
-of occupants in the space immediately below them; but they heard voices
-from a traverse a few yards away.  Then Harry caught sight of three or
-four men coming down the communication trench, and from their gait
-concluded that they were bringing food.  The two dropped down below the
-parapet and lay motionless: it was clear that they had started a little
-too early.
-
-They waited until they heard the men pass back along the communication
-trench; then, after a short interval, rose to carry out the plan
-previously agreed upon for descending into the trench.  The principal
-danger was a fall of loose earth from the parapet or a splash in the
-water at the bottom.  Kenneth cautiously clambered up the earthwork, lay
-flat on top of the parapet, then backed until his legs hung over inside.
-To avoid slipping he held Harry's hands, and so lowered himself until he
-stood on the banquette, which was an inch or two under water.  Pressing
-himself close against the earthen wall, he steadied Harry in his
-descent: both stood in the trench.  They were panting with excitement.
-
-From their left came the sounds of conversation; the speakers were
-invisible. They were just about to start down the communication trench
-when they heard footsteps approaching from the farther end. Flattening
-themselves into the angle they waited breathlessly.  The corner was so
-dark that they hoped to escape detection; but their hearts leapt to
-their mouths when they saw the flash of an electric torch some distance
-away in the communication trench. Escape was impossible.  If the light
-was shown as the men approached the corner discovery was certain.
-
-"Don't waste the light," Kenneth heard one of the men say.  "We are
-running short of batteries.  You can see the turn by looking up.  Watch
-the stars."
-
-The light was switched off.  Holding their breath the Englishmen waited.
-Two Germans drew nearer, splashed through the water, and turned into the
-firing trench. As soon as they had disappeared, Kenneth and Harry
-started to go down the communication trench, stepping very slowly
-through the water, and halting every now and again to listen.  Presently
-they were startled by hearing voices behind them.  The Germans
-apparently were returning.  To retreat now was impossible.  Whatever
-danger might lie ahead, they must go on.
-
-By this time they had quitted the water. Seemingly they had passed
-beyond the pond. But the bottom of the trench was sticky with mud;
-walking was difficult.  And the men behind were gaining on them.
-Suddenly they came to a trench at right angles--no doubt the trench at
-the rear of the pond. Scarcely daring to look along it, they went
-straight on.
-
-"Anything doing?" asked a voice close by.
-
-"All's quiet," replied Kenneth in German.
-
-Another hundred yards brought them to a third trench.  It appeared to be
-unoccupied. After listening intently for a few moments they decided to
-trust their luck down this trench rather than continue along the
-communication trench, in which they could still hear the footsteps and
-voices of the men following them.  Others might be coming towards them.
-Striking to the left, they went along the trench for a few yards; then,
-coming upon another communication trench at right angles, they stopped
-to consult in murmurs.  They decided that the trenches were more
-dangerous than the open ground.  Retracing their steps for some little
-distance, they waited a moment or two.  All was silent.  Cautiously they
-clambered up and lay, breathing hard, upon the grass.
-
-A little ahead of them was the ruined church standing black and gaunt in
-the starlight.
-
-"We go past that," whispered Kenneth, "then strike off to the
-north-east.  We'll try that direction first, at any rate.  Most of the
-shots appear to come from there."
-
-"About how far away?"
-
-"Two or three miles, I think."
-
-"I say----"
-
-"Well?"
-
-"Oh nothing!--only I feel sort of empty inside."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VIII
-
-                                SKY HIGH
-
-
-Harry's feeling of emptiness simply meant that he was only now beginning
-to realise the difficulty of the task undertaken so lightheartedly by
-himself and his friend. They had come only about a fourth of the
-distance they expected to cover, and it was the easiest portion, for
-after all there was much less chance of meeting enemies in the quiet
-communication trenches than behind the lines, where movement was
-unconstrained, and a German might lurk behind every tree.
-
-They lay for a few minutes, peering into the darkness, listening,
-thinking out their course.  Somewhere to the left they heard the rumble
-of carts, the clatter of motor cars, the voices of men.  Similar sounds,
-but fainter, came from the right.  On either hand there was a road to
-avoid.  No doubt there was a path running from the church to one or
-other of these roads.  Their best plan seemed to be to creep along by
-the churchyard wall and strike across the fields, taking what cover the
-hedges, ditches, and isolated trees afforded.  There was no definite
-clue to their direction.  The gun they had come to seek had not yet
-begun its nightly work.
-
-Assuring themselves that there were no sounds in their immediate
-neighbourhood, they got up and stole towards the tree-lined wall of the
-churchyard.  The wall was broken in many places; trees had been split
-and felled and tombstones shattered by gunfire.  They moved very
-cautiously along the wall towards the open fields. Suddenly they both
-halted and crouched. High up in the ruined tower a light had flashed for
-a moment.  From the same place came faint sounds which they soon
-recognised as the murmur of voices.  The light again shone forth, and
-again disappeared. It came and went at intervals, now long, now short,
-and in a few minutes they realised that the men in the tower were
-signalling.
-
-The light showed in the direction of the trenches.  They had never
-noticed it in their night watches there; presumably the signallers were
-at work for the first time, or perhaps the direct rays were masked, and
-the light was visible only at a higher elevation.  Beyond doubt the
-signallers were Germans; no British soldiers, or natives in collusion
-with them, would have chosen a spot within the German lines, and so near
-the trenches--a spot where the glow of the lamp could be so clearly
-distinguished.
-
-But it was puzzling.  Why should the Germans signal towards their own
-trenches? Was it possible that they were communicating with somebody
-behind the British lines?
-
-The two Englishmen crouched below the wall.
-
-"Shall we take a look-in at the tower?" asked Harry in a whisper.
-
-"It's not our present job," returned Kenneth.  "We're out to find the
-gun. Perhaps afterwards--at any rate we'll report it.  The men up there
-have got a good view over the fields; we shall be lucky to get away
-without being discovered."
-
-Bent double, they hurried along the wall, and when it came to an end,
-crept on under cover of a hedge across a field.  Descending into a
-shallow hollow, they sprang across a brook, and made for a small clump
-of trees on rising ground in front of them.  The ground was rough and
-stubbly; walking was difficult and fatiguing.  They passed through the
-skirt of the wood, crossed more fields, taking to the ditches where the
-ground rose, and quickening their pace through the depressions.  Kenneth
-frequently consulted his compass and watch, the dials of which were
-faintly luminous.
-
-At length he announced that they must have come about three miles from
-the trenches.
-
-"It's no good going farther at present," he said.  "All we can do is to
-wait until we hear the discharge of the gun, perhaps see its flash.  And
-it will be just our luck if they don't fire it to-night."
-
-"How long shall we wait?"
-
-"That's the problem!  If we wait too long we shan't get back to-night,
-and that means hiding up all to-morrow.  We can't possibly return in
-daylight.  But it's no good talking.  Let's make ourselves as
-comfortable as we can in the shade of this hedge.  And for goodness'
-sake don't let me fall asleep."
-
-"Not much chance of that if you feel like me.  I couldn't sleep a wink,
-though I'm tired enough."
-
-They sat down, took some chocolate from their tins, and prepared for
-their vigil.  All was silent around them.  There were no longer sounds
-of traffic; the roads had apparently diverged.  The whole countryside
-lay peaceful under the silent stars.
-
-Time went on.  The air was cold.  Now and then they got up and tramped
-to and fro to stir their chilled blood.  Ten o'clock: eleven: no sound.
-Kenneth looked at his watch at ever shorter intervals.  He was becoming
-restless.  Had they adventured on a vain quest?  The moon crept above
-the horizon, dimly illuminating the landscape, showing here a dark
-rounded mass that must be a wooded hill, there the white walls of a
-solitary farmhouse.
-
-"There's no getting back to-night," thought Kenneth, as the light
-increased.
-
-It was just past midnight.  They were sitting side by side, silent,
-disappointed, depressed.
-
-"Hark!" said Harry suddenly.
-
-There was a low continuous rumble in the distance.  It grew louder.
-They rose to their feet, and looked across the fields eastward.  The
-ground stretched away in undulations, alternate dark and light bands in
-the moonshine.  They could see nothing to explain the sound.  It came
-from their right, increasing in volume as it approached, then
-diminishing as it passed away to the left, finally ceasing.
-
-"Sounded like a railway truck," said Harry.
-
-"There's no line there," replied Kenneth. "The only line shown on the
-map is the one running through the village almost due east; it turns to
-the north-east after cutting the German lines.  It must be a good three
-or four miles from here.  That sound went right across our front, from
-south to north, and couldn't have been more than half a mile away."
-
-"Well, it's stopped now.  We needn't bother about it.  Quite certainly
-it wasn't made by the guns, and that's the only riddle we're called on
-to solve.  I'm fed up with this, Ken."
-
-"So am I.  The idea of a whole day here is sickening.  Still, it can't
-be helped."
-
-They sat down again, each thinking his own thoughts.
-
-Suddenly there was a momentary flash, instantly followed by a terrific
-roar.
-
-"The gun!" exclaimed Kenneth, springing up.
-
-"And jolly close, too," said Harry, looking across the fields.  "Which
-side of us?"
-
-"I don't know.  We must wait for the next.  This is getting exciting."
-
-Within a minute or two they saw the flash again, lighting up the sky
-behind a low ridge on their left front.  The noise of the discharge
-reverberated and died away.
-
-"Come on!" whispered Kenneth.
-
-They crept along the hedge in the direction of the ridge.  A third
-report rent the air; then, after a minute's silence, they were surprised
-to hear a renewed rumbling, which passed across their front nearer than
-they had heard it before, and receded towards the south.
-
-"'Pon my word, it seems to have some connection with the gun after all,"
-murmured Kenneth.
-
-They went on, as fast as they could with caution.  Crawling up the
-ridge, they peered over.  Nothing was to be seen in either direction.
-They crawled down the other slope, and came to what appeared to be a
-sunken grass road.  It was shadowed by the ridge.  Looking to right and
-left, and discovering nothing, they got up and began to walk across the
-road.  Suddenly Harry stumbled, and uttered a low exclamation.
-
-"A whack on the toe," he murmured.
-
-"By George!" whispered Kenneth behind him.  He had stooped to look at
-the obstruction.
-
-Harry turned.  The obstacle was a rail. There was no glint from it;
-apparently it was rusty.  But it was sticky to the touch. Kenneth held
-his fingers to his nose.  They smelt of tar.
-
-Beside the rail there was a layer of loose grass, twigs, rubbish of all
-sorts, and beyond this, five feet away, a parallel rail.
-
-"We have come on a single-track railway," said Kenneth.  "It's not
-marked on the map; must have been recently laid.  Let us go on a little,
-and examine it."
-
-In a few minutes their discovery was confirmed.  The seeming grass road
-was a roughly laid track.  But the rails had been painted over with tar,
-and the sleepers and permanent way were hidden under low heaps of
-litter.
-
-"They're clever beasts," said Kenneth. "D'you see the trick?  No airman
-would ever guess this to be a railway.  The rails are quite dark."
-
-"But what's it for?"
-
-At this moment came the report of the gun, some distance to the south.
-
-"That's what we are going to find out," said Kenneth.
-
-They made their way stealthily along the track between the rails in the
-direction of the sound.  Presently, at a gentle curve, they came to a
-white post with a small square platform in front of it, abutting on the
-railway.  Wondering what it was for, they went on, and in a few moments
-heard the rumble of an approaching train.  They scrambled up the ridge
-on their right, threw themselves flat on the ground and watched.
-
-In a few minutes an engine and two trucks glided into view, making
-extraordinarily little noise.  They passed slowly below the watchers.
-There was no smoke from the engine; perhaps it was electric. The first
-truck carried a heavy gun; the other, containing men, was like an
-ordinary railway wagon, but apparently better sprung, for it moved with
-only the low rumble which the watchers had already heard.  The effect of
-the train gliding past, dark, almost without sound, was mysteriously
-strange.
-
-When the train had passed, they hastened after it, walking just below
-the crest of the ridge.  They had scarcely started when they heard a low
-screeching of brakes. Stealing on a few steps, and peering over, they
-saw that the train had stopped opposite the small platform.  The men had
-got out of their truck, and were moving noiselessly but quickly about
-the truck containing the gun.  Orders were given in a low voice. There
-was a slight grating of machinery and creaking of timber.  The recoil
-cradle of the gun, which still remained on the truck, was being placed
-on the platform; the gun itself was being loaded.  Its muzzle pointed
-over the railway line towards the trenches.
-
-Stuffing up their ears, Kenneth and Harry waited.  The gun was fired.
-They heard the heavy projectile whizz over their heads. Three times the
-gun spoke; then it was swung round on the truck, and the train moved on
-to the north-east.
-
-Dazed and deafened by the tremendous noise, the watchers followed it
-along the line.  Here was a discovery indeed.  It was no wonder that the
-gun had never been located.  But what they had already learnt made them
-eager to learn more.  Where was the gun kept when not in use?  Where was
-the headquarters of the men?  If they could find out this, they would
-have information of real value to carry back with them.
-
-They went cautiously along the line, on the look-out for sentries.  But
-the line was not guarded.  Its existence was probably known only to the
-German staff, and it was evidently used only for the gun train.
-
-About half a mile beyond the platform, the train came to rest at
-another.  Again the gun was fired: then the train rumbled back.  The two
-men hid until it had passed, then continued along the line in the
-opposite direction.  During its absence they would seize the opportunity
-to survey this part of the line.
-
-Some ten minutes after the train had passed they caught sight of low
-buildings ahead on the east side of the track, and a dim light.  In case
-there might be Germans on the spot, they left the rails, walked across a
-field under cover of the hedge, and approached the buildings from the
-east. These, they found, were three low wooden sheds, near the opening
-of a large quarry, which Kenneth remembered having seen marked on the
-map.  The sheds were in ill repair: there were many chinks and gaps in
-their boarded walls.  Apparently the quarry and its appurtenances had
-been for some time disused.  The light which they had seen from the
-railway line proceeded from one of the sheds, from the interior of which
-they now heard guttural voices. Peeping through a chink in its wall,
-they saw four Germans smoking, drinking, and playing cards by the light
-of oil lamps.  There were narrow beds ranged along the opposite wall,
-some of which were occupied.  Helmets and tunics hung from pegs.  In one
-corner rifles were piled.  In another stood a cooking stove, its iron
-chimney passing out through the roof.  It was evident that the shed was
-continuously occupied.  At the end nearest the line the door was open,
-and a sentry paced to and fro.
-
-While the Englishmen were taking stock of all this, they heard the drone
-of an aeroplane approaching.  The four men at the table sprang up,
-turned down the lamps, seized their rifles and ran to the door. Kenneth
-stole a few yards along the wall until he came within earshot of them.
-He was on the shaded side of the shed; there was nothing but
-miscellaneous litter on the ground, so that it seemed unlikely that the
-Germans would come in this direction.
-
-"Is it one of ours?" asked one of the men, as the drone grew louder.
-
-"I can't see," replied another.  "It sounds like an English machine."
-
-"Well, they won't spot us.  They haven't done it by daylight, so they
-won't now."
-
-"They're flying rather low.  We could easily hit them."
-
-"But that would be to give ourselves away.  They have gone past.  It's
-all right."
-
-The aeroplane disappeared.  But the men had no sooner re-entered the
-shed than its drone was heard again.  They hastened out.
-
-"It's coming round in a circle," said a voice.  "The cursed Englishmen
-seem suspicious."
-
-"They're hunting for the gun, of course. But it has been quiet lately.
-The captain heard the sound in time.  And there's nothing bright about
-the gun.  The English are dished."
-
-"They're no good, the stupid English. They've no chance against German
-brains."
-
-The aeroplane finally vanished, and the men returned to their cards,
-turning up the lamps again.  Some ten minutes later the report of the
-gun was heard.  It was fired at intervals for an hour, at varying
-distances; then the low rumble of the train approached. The watchers
-heard the door of the second shed creak.  In a few minutes the train
-glided up, and entered the shed, into which, it being the middle one of
-the three, the Englishmen could not see from their present position.
-After a while the door was closed, and the gun crew joined their
-comrades. They were not accompanied by their officer, who had no doubt
-gone to more select and comfortable quarters elsewhere.  After
-exchanging a few words with the cardplayers, the newcomers threw off
-their clothes and got into bed.
-
-"I should like to have a look into the other sheds," whispered Harry.
-"But the moon lights up the other side; and the----"
-
-"Don't talk here," said Kenneth.  "Come round to the back."
-
-Taking care not to displace loose stones, they crept along the wall and
-some distance into the quarry.
-
-"They can't hear us here," said Kenneth, still, however, speaking in
-whispers.  "I think we've found out enough.  The place is marked on the
-map.  Our gunners can shell it by map measurement."
-
-"Yes, but let's have a look at the other sheds before we go.  It won't
-be safe to go into the moonlight, perhaps; but couldn't we take a peep
-from the rear?"
-
-"The sheds are built right against the quarry wall.  But we'll go and
-see."
-
-They stole across the litter until they came to the back of the sheds.
-There they found that there was some chance of achieving their purpose.
-The wall of the quarry was very uneven, just as it had been hewn out.
-Consequently the back walls of the sheds did not fit flush against it;
-there was a space of varying width, but at its narrowest part wide
-enough to admit a man.  Into this they crept.
-
-They discovered that this end of the sheds was in worse repair than the
-side they had already seen.  Protected from the weather by the wall of
-the quarry, the timber had not been renewed.  There were many gaps, and
-when they touched the wood, its crumbling gave signs of dry rot.  But
-the interiors of the second and third sheds were quite dark: it was
-impossible to distinguish anything within.
-
-Harry broke off several fragments of the dry wood without making any
-sound.
-
-"We can get in," he whispered.
-
-Kenneth hesitated.  They had learnt enough for their purpose; it would
-be a pity to risk the failure of the whole enterprise.  But youth is
-adventurous and confident.  The voices of the men in the first shed
-would smother any slight sounds they might make; the sentry was at least
-a hundred and fifty feet away.
-
-"All right," he murmured.
-
-With their clasp knives they cautiously attacked the boards in the wall
-of the third shed, stopping every now and again to listen.  After a
-while they were able to remove two of the boards, leaving an opening
-large enough to admit them.  Very carefully they climbed in.  Dark as
-the interior had appeared from the outside, they found when they were
-inside that there was just light enough, filtering through cracks in the
-wall, to reveal the contents of the shed. The whole interior, except for
-narrow gangways, was packed with shells and cases of high explosives.
-Near the door there were shells for field guns and howitzers, and a
-certain quantity of small arms ammunition. It was clear that the shed
-was an ammunition depot.
-
-Creeping carefully back, they replaced the boards, and went to the
-middle shed, which they managed to enter in the same way, after the
-exercise of greater patience, owing to the more constricted space
-between the shed and the wall of the quarry.  Here they found the gun
-train, and a number of petrol tins: evidently the engine was petrol
-driven. While Kenneth examined the engine as well as he could in the
-still dimmer light, wishing he dared to use his electric torch, Harry
-stole to the front of the shed, and watched the sentry through a crack
-in the badly fitting folding doors.  Kenneth followed him.
-
-"Let me know when the sentry's back is turned," he whispered.  "I'll use
-my torch then."
-
-Harry gave the sign by a scarcely audible hiss.  Kenneth made the best
-use of the few seconds afforded him at intervals.  His experience of
-motor engines had taught him exactly what to look for.  And he was
-prompted, not by mere curiosity, but by a sudden idea which had occurred
-to him, but which he had not yet mentioned to his companion.  The engine
-was still warm. He knew that it ran very smoothly; it was provided with
-a very efficient silencer, or he would not have mistaken it for an
-electric engine.  With their customary thoroughness, the Germans had
-ensured that the movements of their gun train should lack nothing in
-secrecy.
-
-The mechanism was simple, similar to that of an ordinary touring car,
-except that there were only two speeds and reverse.
-
-"Well," he thought, "why not run off with the train, gun and all?"
-
-The train had backed into the shed trucks first.  They were still
-coupled to the engine.  The load was very heavy; the question was
-whether he could get up speed in time to escape.  Some of the Germans
-were awake: the sentry was at the door; the feat seemed impossible, and
-Kenneth dismissed the idea, feeling glad that he had not suggested it to
-Harry.  But before leaving the engine he looked into the tank, and saw
-that it was half full of petrol.
-
-A hiss called him to the door.  The sentry was being changed.  The new
-man was grumbling at having had to leave his bed.  The voices in the
-further shed had ceased.
-
-"All gone to bed?" asked the sentry who was being relieved.
-
-"Yes," replied the other, yawning.
-
-"Schneider won five marks of me this afternoon.  He said he'd give me my
-revenge.  Well, I'll beat him to-morrow."
-
-He went into the shed: there was a rustling for a few moments: then all
-was silent, except for the heavy tramp of the sentry as he paced slowly
-up and down.
-
-The two Englishmen went back to the quarry wall, and were replacing the
-boards.
-
-"I say!" whispered Harry.
-
-"What is it?"
-
-"It's mad, perhaps; but I wondered if we couldn't run off with the
-train."
-
-"Absurd!" replied Kenneth.
-
-"But----"
-
-"Hush! we'll talk presently."
-
-They returned to their former position across the quarry.
-
-"I daresay you are right," said Harry, "but I wish we could collar that
-gun."
-
-"It's impossible," said Kenneth, arguing against his own inclination.
-"We couldn't open the door without being seen."
-
-"But it's so ramshackle that it would burst at a touch."
-
-"Then we'd make a row starting the engine, and before we had any speed
-on they'd be at us."
-
-"I don't know.  They've got to wake up, and dress----"
-
-"Why waste time dressing?"
-
-"Well, is a German a soldier without his uniform?  Anyhow, they would be
-too sleepy for a few seconds to understand what was going on.  It might
-just give us time to get off."
-
-"I don't mind telling you that the idea occurred to me, but I gave it
-up."
-
-"Oh, do let us try it.  It's a sporting chance.  They feel perfectly
-secure; that's so much in our favour.  They'll be struck all of a heap,
-and you know what confusion there is when fellows are taken by
-surprise."
-
-"You've the tongue of the old Serpent, Harry.  With a little luck--ah!
-while we're about it, oughtn't we to blow up the ammunition?"
-
-"That means blowing up the men too."
-
-"Well?  We can't take 'em prisoners. And when you remember that every
-shell in the shed may kill or maim a lot more Englishmen or Frenchmen
-than there are Germans in the shed, you'll see that it's our duty.
-War's war, more's the pity. There are some fuses near the door."
-
-"Come on, then."
-
-They stole back.  Kenneth crept into the ammunition shed, and started a
-time fuse while Harry removed the boards from the wall of the engine
-shed.  Just as Kenneth, returning, had almost reached the opening, in
-his haste he displaced a shell that was standing insecurely.  It toppled
-over with a heavy thud.  He sprang through the gap.
-
-"Touch and go now!" he panted.  "We haven't a second to lose."
-
-There was no time to replace the boards. They slipped into the engine
-shed, hearing the sentry call to his comrades and run towards the
-ammunition shed.  In a few moments he would discover the gap in the
-wall, and the Germans would be scouring the place.
-
-The Englishmen ran to the engine.
-
-"Jump in!" gasped Kenneth.
-
-He stooped down to find the starting handle, in the agitation of the
-moment forgetting that, when examining the engine, he had noticed the
-push that indicated a self-starter.  There was no crank, but only the
-shaft on which it should fit.  For the moment his brain ceased to work;
-he was conscious only of the noise of shouts and hurrying footsteps
-dinning in his ears.  Then recollection came in a flash.  He raised
-himself, sprang into the cab of the engine, and simultaneously released
-the brake and pressed the button of the starting mechanism.  Beneath his
-feet there was a welcome whirr; he threw the engine into gear, and the
-heavy machine, with the heavier trucks behind, lurched forward.
-
-The folding door was only eight or nine feet away--little enough space
-to allow for momentum.  It was neck or nothing.  At the first movement
-Kenneth threw out the clutch, racing the engine; then he let it in, and
-the train jerked itself forward in a way that alarmed him for the
-couplings.  The manoeuvre succeeded.  The engine crashed into the crazy
-door; it was shattered and partly wrenched off the hinges; and the train
-glided out, rounded the curve, and ran with increasing speed into the
-straight towards the south.
-
-All this had occupied only a few moments. Meanwhile, what of the
-Germans?  At the thud of the falling shell the sentry was at the farther
-end of his beat.  He hastened towards the ammunition shed, calling to
-his comrades as he passed their door.  Some sprang up, others only
-turned in their beds. The former, as Harry had foretold, began to throw
-on their uniforms.  There was no sound from outside to alarm them.  But
-a second cry from the sentry caused them to seize their rifles and rush
-out as they were. They followed him into the ammunition shed, where he
-showed them, by the light of an electric torch, the hole in the wall.
-They poked their heads through, and seeing nothing, were beginning to
-ask each other what they had better do when they heard through the shed
-wall the whirr of the starting engine.  Shouting, they hurried back,
-overturning shells and bruising their toes, heard the crash of the door,
-and reached the entrance in time to see the train lumbering round the
-curve to their left.
-
-One or two rifle shots rang out.  Kenneth and Harry heard for a minute
-or two, above the purring of the engine, shouts as if the Germans were
-pursuing them on foot.  And then there was a terrific roar; the sky was
-lit up by a flash that blinded the pale moon, and fragments of metal
-fell in a thick shower upon the train, inflicting sharp blows upon the
-Englishmen, of which their hands and faces bore signs for several days.
-
-"What double asses we were!" gasped Kenneth.  "The row will bring the
-Bosches swarming about us."
-
-"They'll make for the sheds.  By George! what a blaze!  Lucky we're
-running in a hollow.  Where does the line lead to?"
-
-"Don't know.  Be ready to jump.  We're going nearly thirty miles an hour
-now; I'll slow down in a minute or two.  We must get away from the line
-and hide up."
-
-In a few minutes he slackened speed to about five miles.
-
-"Drop off!" he said.
-
-Harry leapt out.  Kenneth opened the throttle to the utmost, put the
-engine into top, and jumped clear as it gathered way. By the time he had
-picked himself up the train had disappeared.  Clambering up the western
-bank, the two men, bending low, raced as fast as they could towards a
-small clump of trees that stood up dark in the moonlight.  They were but
-halfway across the field when there was a tremendous crash somewhere to
-their left rear, a sound of tearing and rending, then silence.
-
-"It's run off the line or something," Kenneth panted.  "Hope the old gun
-is smashed."
-
-It was weeks before they knew what had happened.  Then, passing over the
-ground in the course of a general advance of the British forces, they
-saw the debris of the train, engine, gun, and trucks, lying amid
-shattered masonry in and beside a shallow brook.  The engine had failed
-to take a sharp curve and dashed into and through the parapet of the
-bridge.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IX
-
-                                 D.C.M.
-
-
-The two men had almost reached the clump of trees when they heard the
-thud of horses' hoofs approaching them from the front.  They instantly
-dropped flat into one of the furrows of the stubble field.  Two horsemen
-galloped round the corner of the clump, and rode down towards the
-railway, passing within twenty yards of the fugitives.
-
-Waiting breathlessly until the horsemen had gone out of hearing, the two
-got up, and, still bending low, hurried over the few yards between them
-and the clump and plunged among the trees.
-
-"We shall have to get back to-night, by hook or crook," whispered
-Kenneth. "They'll track us down as soon as it is light....  Listen!"
-
-From beyond the clump came the steady tramp of a considerable body of
-men.  Was it possible that the Germans were on their track already?  For
-a few moments they were unable to decide in what direction the men were
-going.  The sounds became gradually fainter, receding towards the
-railway. Apparently a detachment had been dispatched towards the scene
-of the conflagration.
-
-They stole towards the western side of the clump, and, standing within
-the shadow of the trees, looked out across the country. The moon was
-still up, obscured at moments by drifting clouds.  Far ahead, a little
-to their left, they could just distinguish the tower of the ruined
-church.  Still farther to the left the moonbeams revealed the roofs of
-the small village which the church served, and in which, no doubt,
-German soldiers were billeted.  Lying on the eastern slope of a low
-hill, it was invisible from the British lines, but Kenneth remembered
-having seen its position marked on the map.
-
-"It's past two o'clock," said Kenneth, glancing at his watch.  "The moon
-won't go down for hours, and it will be light by six. We simply must get
-back before sunrise.  All we can do is to creep along the shady side of
-the hedges and take our chance."
-
-After a good look round, they left the trees and hurried to the shelter
-of the nearest hedge.  Being now on lower ground, they could no longer
-see the church: but they judged their general direction by the compass,
-and made their best speed.  Once they found themselves in a field
-completely surrounded by a hedge.  Forcing their way through at the cost
-of many scratches, they fell some five feet into a ditch that the hedge
-concealed, and sank over their ankles in slimy mud.  They scrambled up
-the other side, the brambles tearing their skin and clothes, and tramped
-on again.
-
-It was nearly an hour before they came once more in sight of the church,
-farther to the left than they had expected.  Their best course seemed to
-be to try to find the communication trench by which they had come.
-Keeping always on the shady side of the hedges, they paused only to
-glance towards the tower, to see if the light was still showing, then
-turned their backs on it and hurried on.
-
-They came to a stretch of open ground on which there was no cover of any
-kind, and knew that they were now near the trenches. The most
-nerve-racking portion of their journey was before them.  They dared not
-go erect, in the moonlight.  If they should stumble unawares upon an
-occupied trench it was all up with them.  Throwing themselves on the
-ground, they crawled forward by painful inches, stopping every few
-seconds to listen.  Once the scurry of some wild creature across their
-front tightened their hearts and sent a cold thrill along their spines.
-Presently they heard the murmur of voices on their right, and instantly
-edged to the left, only to be brought to a check after a few minutes by
-voices in that direction also.  Had the rearmost trenches been manned
-during their absence?
-
-Aching in every limb, they crawled still more slowly over the ground.
-At last they encountered a ridge of broken earth, and stopped, holding
-their breath.  There was no sound near them; faint murmurs came from a
-distance.  Harry cautiously raised his head, crept forward a few inches,
-and whispered--
-
-"A trench!"
-
-They peered over.  The trench was empty. Sliding into it, they ran along
-to the left, and presently struck a trench at right angles.  This too
-was empty.  They halted at the corner to listen, then hurried along
-until they had almost reached the second trench.  A man, by his figure
-an officer, turned from it into the communication trench, and walked
-rapidly towards the firing line.  They pressed themselves against the
-wall.
-
-"Making his rounds," whispered Kenneth. "Our best chance is to follow
-him."
-
-"We've come right," said Harry. "There's the water."
-
-A bank of cloud veiled the moon.  They hoped it would not pass for the
-few minutes during which darkness would be so precious a boon.  They
-heard the officer splashing through the water at the further end of the
-trench, and crept after him as rapidly as they dared.  He turned into
-the firing trench.  Voices were heard.  There was great risk in crossing
-the trench, and it occurred to Harry that it would be less dangerous to
-clamber over the embankment on their left and wade through a few yards
-of the pond, which could not be very deep thereabout.  If the moon
-remained in cloud, they would not be seen from the trench behind the
-pond.  Accordingly, two or three yards from the angle of the trenches,
-they swarmed up the bank, and began to let themselves down on the other
-side, clinging to the earth so that they should not drop heavily.
-
-Then fortune deserted them.  The earth crumbled in Kenneth's grasp, and
-he fell into the water with a great splash.  Harry at once flung himself
-face downwards, and the two crawled through several inches of water
-towards the dry land.  The light was increasing as the thinner end of
-the cloud moved slowly across the moon.  Crushing their inclination to
-jump to their feet and sprint over the ground towards their trench, they
-scampered along on all fours.  And then the unveiled moon flooded the
-scene with light.
-
-Shouts came from behind them.  Shots rang out, and pattered around them.
-A bullet carried off the heel of Harry's boot. Still they wriggled on.
-They were conscious of sounds in front.  The trench was alive. A hand
-grenade fell just behind them, bespattering them with earth.  Yard by
-yard they dragged themselves over the ground; here was the wire
-entanglement. As they drew themselves under it, a bullet struck one of
-the tin cans suspended from the top.  There were only a few yards now.
-From right and left a hail of bullets flew from the British trench.
-They reached the parapet.
-
-[Illustration: A LONG WAY BACK]
-
-"Steady!" whispered Kennedy.  "Keep flat for a moment."
-
-But the caution was vain.  After coming a hundred yards under fire they
-thought of nothing but the safety of the trench.  They crawled on, over
-into friendly arms.  Bullets sang around them.
-
-"Pipped!" exclaimed Kenneth, as something stung his shoulder.
-
-But next moment they were safe, dropping exhausted on to the banquette.
-And then the air was rent by a storm of cheers hurled defiantly at the
-Germans.
-
-"Good men!" said Kennedy, as he helped Kenneth to pull off his coat.
-"You're a lucky fellow, by George!  It's little more than a graze.  I
-didn't expect to see you back.  Ah! here's the captain."
-
-Captain Adams came up.
-
-"Amory hurt?  A mere scratch, I see. It was a tight moment.  You seemed
-an age crawling up.  But come now, have you anything to report?"
-
-"Ammunition depot blown up, sir."
-
-"That was the row we heard, then," the captain interrupted.  "We thought
-it must have been an accident, as no firing was going on at the time."
-
-"And to the best of our knowledge and belief, the gun is done for."
-
-"You don't say so!  Talk, man; a round unvarnished tale deliver.  Oh,
-but this is good!"
-
-The captain was evidently excited. Kenneth and Harry between them
-related the whole sequence of their adventures, to an audience of the
-captain, two lieutenants, and as many men of the platoon as could come
-within earshot.  When the story was finished, another roar of cheers
-burst forth, which was taken up along the trench far on both sides,
-though the most of the shouting men could not have known as yet what
-they were cheering for.
-
-"A dashed fine piece of work," said the captain, warmly.  "It's a
-feather in the cap of No. 3 Company, and certain promotion for you two
-men.  You'll have to see the colonel to-morrow, when we get back to
-billets.  Go into the Savoy and sleep; you deserve a day's rest, and you
-shall have it."
-
-When they reappeared among their comrades next day a broad grin welcomed
-them.
-
-"You do look uncommon pretty," said Ginger.  "I never see anyone like
-you except once, and that was when a chap I knew got drunk at the fair,
-had a fight with another chap, tumbled into a blackberry bush on the way
-home, and was found by a copper in the ditch after it had been raining
-all night.  Your best gals would fair scream at the sight of you.  'Oh
-George, dear, where did you get them scratches?  You've been a-fighting,
-you horrid creature, you!'  'No, Sally, I've had a little bit of
-misfortune.'  'Rats! You won't get over me. I'd be ashamed to be seen
-along of you, with a face like that.  I'll walk out with Bill next
-Sunday, so there!'  And off she goes, and on Monday morning you get hold
-of Bill and spoil his beauty for him, and then there's a pair of you."
-
-Everybody laughed, and the two dirty and disfigured objects concerned
-understood that that was Ginger's way of paying a compliment.
-
-On returning to the village at the close of the day, they had only just
-washed and got rid of some of the mud from their clothes when the
-colonel sent for them.  They had to repeat their story.
-
-"I don't happen to have any Iron Crosses," said the colonel, "but I'm
-going to recommend you for commissions.  Officers are badly wanted
-still, and you've got over that nonsense of a few months back?"
-
-"Not at all, sir," said Kenneth.  "We're bound by our promise."
-
-"Ridiculous!  I don't mean that you are ridiculous to keep your word,
-but to give such a promise was a piece of confounded stupidity.  Why,
-goodness alive! after what you've done the men would follow you
-anywhere."
-
-"It's very good of you, sir," Kenneth replied, "but really we must stick
-to what we said."
-
-"Not that I want to lose you from my regiment.  Well, I shall have to
-get Captain Adams to give you your stripes.  You won't object to that?"
-
-"I'm afraid we must, sir.  You see, anything that gave us a lift over
-the other men would be a breach of the understanding."
-
-"Well, you're a couple of young jackasses. I hope I'm a man of my word,
-but----  Oh well, have it your own way!  Virtue shall be its own reward.
-You've relieved the whole battalion of a great worry and danger, and I'm
-uncommonly obliged to you."
-
-It was not until some weeks later that the two friends learnt that their
-names had appeared in the _Gazette_ among a list of men recommended for
-the distinguished conduct medal.  Their refusal of promotion had become
-known to their comrades, and it was observed that Ginger and some of his
-friends often had their heads together, and appeared to be conducting
-delicate negotiations with the men of the other platoons.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER X
-
-                                HOT WORK
-
-
-Kenneth had not omitted to report the signalling from the church tower.
-The light had not been seen from the trenches of his own battalion, and
-it was guessed that the receiver of the messages was at some other point
-behind the long British front.  But on the first night of their return
-to billets it occurred to Harry that the light might possibly be visible
-from some post of equal height with the tower in which it shone, and he
-suggested to Kenneth that they should go up into the belfry of the
-church in their village.  In order to give no excuse for a German
-bombardment the colonel had refrained from making use of this as an
-observation post, which some of his officers regarded as an excess of
-scrupulousness.  It would be necessary to get permission now before
-Harry's suggestion could be acted upon.
-
-Harry put the question to Captain Adams. He saw the colonel, who in view
-of the fact that the Germans were certainly using a church tower a few
-miles away gave his consent.  Finding, therefore, the sacristan, Harry
-and Kenneth got him to take them up the belfry at about the same hour as
-they had seen the Germans' lamp.
-
-Furnished with Captain Adams' field-glasses, they scanned the country in
-turns. For a long time they had no reward, and they were indeed on the
-point of quitting the spot when Kenneth caught sight of a twinkle far
-away to the south-east.  It vanished and reappeared at irregular
-intervals, just as the light from the tower had done.
-
-"We are not getting the full rays here," said Kenneth, after Harry had
-taken a look.  "But it is clear that they are signalling to someone in
-this direction, more or less."
-
-"Let us go half way down the tower, and see if the light is visible
-there," suggested Harry.
-
-But they found that only at the foot of the belfry itself could they
-catch sight of the twinkling light.
-
-"It's very cleverly arranged," Harry remarked.  "They are not signalling
-to this village, that's clear.  There's certainly no observer but
-ourselves here, and no other place is high enough to catch the rays."
-
-"Except Obernai's house," said Kenneth, looking round over the village.
-Most of the roofs were considerably lower than the spot on which they
-stood.  Only the attics of the Alsatian philanthropist's house rose
-above that level.  That large building in its extensive grounds was
-about sixty yards to their left.  There was a light in one of the lower
-rooms, where Captain Adams and several other officers were billeted: the
-rest was dark.
-
-"It's not very likely, after that spy business, that any of Obernai's
-servants is in German pay," Kenneth continued.  "Still I'll tell the
-captain what we have seen."
-
-He made his report to Captain Adams next morning.  Later in the day the
-captain said to him:
-
-"There's nothing in that matter, Amory. I asked Monsieur Obernai whether
-his servants were trustworthy, and he assured me that he had had them
-for years, and could answer for them all.  I didn't tell him why I had
-made the enquiry; it's best to keep these things as quiet as possible;
-we don't want to make people uneasy.  I've no doubt the signals are
-directed to some place farther away on our left, and the colonel is
-sending word along the front, asking them to keep a look-out."
-
-Nothing more was heard of the signalling for a long time.
-
-When they returned to the trenches, their position was somewhat altered.
-The Rutlands were moved a little to the right, and Kennedy's platoon
-occupied a portion of the trench which had formerly been held by another
-platoon.
-
-Kenneth was making himself comfortable in a dug-out with Harry and
-Ginger when he picked up, among the various articles left by its former
-occupants, a piece of ruled music paper dotted with notes.
-
-"A relic of your friend Stoneway, Ginger," he said with a laugh.  "He's
-the only musician in the company."
-
-"Is he, by George!" cried Harry.  "You forget I was in the school choir,
-old chap."
-
-"So you were!  I remember how the mothers used to admire your pretty
-little cherub face when you let off your songs on the platform.  'Isn't
-he sweet, mother?' I heard a girl say once.  You remember how we rotted
-you."
-
-"Yes, confound it!  I was jolly glad when my voice broke, and I got out
-of all that.  I haven't sung a note since; if I try, my voice is like a
-nutmeg grater."
-
-"You've lost your cherubic mug too, old man.  But look here; whistle
-over this tune; let's hear what it is."
-
-Harry took the paper, scanned it for a moment or two, then said:
-
-"It's no tune at all.  The notes go up and down all anyhow."
-
-He whistled a few notes.
-
-"Oh, for any sake stop it!" implored Ginger.  "It's Stoneway's
-exercises, by the sound of it.  Call that music!  It's enough to make a
-cat ill."
-
-"I'll give it back to Stoneway next time I see him," said Harry.
-
-"Tear it up," said Ginger.  "If he hasn't got it, perhaps he can't----"
-
-A shout interrupted him.
-
-"Stand to!  Here they come!"
-
-They seized their rifles and rushed out into the trench, Harry stuffing
-the paper into his pocket.  The men were posting themselves a yard apart
-on the banquette, looking excitedly through the loopholes. Across the
-open ground in front the Germans were advancing in a serried mass.  It
-was a surprise attack, not heralded, in the customary way, by a
-bombardment.  The testing moment had come for the Rutlands at last.
-
-They stood at their posts, tense, quiet with excitement.  Ginger's
-features twitched; Harry's lips were parted.  With their fingers at the
-triggers they awaited breathlessly the order to fire.  On came the dense
-grey lines. The Germans did not fire; with fixed bayonets they swarmed
-forward rapidly.  They came to the wire entanglement; with clock-work
-precision every man in the first rank plied his nippers, and then, in
-the trench, Kennedy cried in a hoarse whisper:
-
-"Three rounds, rapid!"
-
-All along the line sounded the crackle of rifles.  On the right a
-machine-gun rattled; on the left another.  Three times the rifles spoke.
-Men were shouting, they knew not what.  Other sounds mingled with the
-din: yells, groans, guttural orders from the German officers; and at the
-wire entanglement lay a long swathe of fallen men.
-
-But behind them another multitude was dashing on.  They leapt over their
-stricken comrades, only to drop in their turn before the withering
-volley from their unseen enemy in the trench.  Through the gaps poured
-an unending torrent; the grey-clad men were drawing nearer to the
-trench.  The rifle-fire was now continuous, but it was of no avail to
-repel this close-packed horde.  There was no longer question of taking
-cover.  The Rutlands leapt up to meet the charge.  They fired as fast as
-they could, until their rifles were hot.  In spite of their losses the
-Germans pressed on until sheer weight of numbers carried them to the
-edge of the trench.
-
-It is not for us to describe the scene of carnage there--the hideous
-work of the bayonets, the cries of the wounded, the hoarse shouts of
-defenders and assailants. The Germans fell back.  Kennedy's clear voice
-shouted the order for volley-firing. And now came a fierce reply from
-the German ranks.  Then they fell on their knees and crawled forward
-again.  Again they were driven back.  They began to retreat. And then
-Kennedy leapt on the parapet and gave the command to charge.  The men
-responded with alacrity.  Up they scrambled, over the fallen men, and
-dashed forward with exultant shouts.  There was a whizz and boom
-overhead.  The British artillery behind was coming into play.  From the
-front came deafening crashes; columns of earth and smoke rose into the
-air.  The Rutlands lay on the ground until the guns had ceased fire;
-then dashed on.  They plunged into the reek about the German trench;
-they sprang over the parapet and drove the Germans out; and a storm of
-cheers acclaimed their victory.
-
-They were preparing to hold the ground they had won when word was
-brought that strong reinforcements were hurrying up to the Germans from
-the east.  They had no reserve strong enough to hold the new line in
-face of a superior force.  The colonel ordered them to evacuate the
-trench, after doing as much damage as was possible in the short time
-available.
-
-The men set to work with their own trenching tools and with those
-abandoned by the Germans to hack down the walls of the trench.  Kenneth
-caught up a pick, and remembering the pond at the right of the
-communicating trench, he began to cut a hole through the three or four
-feet of intervening earth.  Ginger joined him.  In a few minutes the
-water burst through in spate, flooding the trenches, and driving the
-Englishmen out pell-mell.
-
-Laughing, singing, throwing jokes one to another, they returned to their
-own trenches. They picked up swords, rifles, helmets, and other articles
-of equipment that were scattered over the ground, threaded their way
-among the fallen men, stopping here and there to assist wounded
-comrades. Meanwhile the British artillery was pounding the German lines
-to discourage a renewed attack, and the Red Cross men moved swiftly and
-silently over the field.
-
-Kenneth had not seen Harry for some time, and was anxious about him.
-But the friends met at the edge of their trench. Each ran his eyes
-rapidly over the other; their set faces cleared when they recognised
-that neither was hurt.
-
-Settled down once more in their dug-out, the three men talked over their
-experiences.
-
-"I felt my blood run cold," said Harry, "but I hadn't time to be afraid.
-I feel worse now.  Look at my hand shaking."
-
-Ginger, very pale, was mechanically cleaning his rifle.  He flung it
-down with a curse.
-
-"What have they done to me?" he cried. "What have they done to me?  I
-killed an officer, a nice young chap as might have been your brother.
-What for?  What about his mother?  And all those poor chaps yonder: why
-can't them as make wars let us alone? Men ain't made to kill each other.
-What's the good of it all?  When the war's over, millions dead, millions
-crippled, millions miserable.  It didn't ought to be."
-
-"We're serving our country, Ginger," said Kenneth.  "It's not a question
-of just the present moment.  We've got to think of the future.  What
-would life be worth to our people at home if the Germans had their way?
-You can get nothing good without paying the price, and it will be good
-if we can teach the Germans and the world that force isn't everything,
-that people have a right to live their own lives without being bullied.
-For every man that dies, whether English or German, perhaps thousands
-may have a better time in days to come.  That's worth fighting for, and
-dying for, if need be.  We've all got our little part to play. It's not
-a thing you can argue about: you feel it.  Look at what Sir Edward Grey
-said: he'd rather cut the old country altogether than be obliged to give
-up our good English ways and to put up with German tyranny.  Don't you
-feel like that too?  Well, that's why we are fighting; we're fighting to
-call our souls our own, and, please God, we'll win."
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER XI
-
-                      THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GINGER
-
-
-It was when the battalion next returned to billets that the meaning of
-Ginger's confabulations with the men of other platoons came out.
-
-One evening after supper Kenneth and Harry were smoking in the Bonnards'
-kitchen.  They were alone.  Ginger and the other members of their billet
-had left them some little while before, and the men's faces had worn the
-sly, conscious look of those who are meditating a secret design.
-
-"If I didn't know Ginger, I should think they were up to some mischief,"
-Harry had said.
-
-Presently the door opened, and Ginger reappeared, at the head of eight
-or ten men from other platoons of No. 3 Company. They all looked a
-little sheepish and uncomfortable as they filed into the room.  Some
-hung back and were pushed forward by their mates.  Ginger moved to the
-rear, and was instantly seized by several hands and expostulated with in
-fierce whispers.
-
-"Keep your wool on; I'm only going to shut the door," said Ginger.
-
-"What's in the wind, you fellows?" said Kenneth.  "Why are you hanging
-about the door?  Come round the fire and light up: we'll have a smoking
-concert or something."
-
-There were mutterings among the group. Some words reached the ears of
-the two men at the fire-place.
-
-"It's your job: you're a sergeant."
-
-"No fear; you don't catch me..."
-
-"Ginger's the man..."
-
-"Spouts like a M.P...."
-
-At last Ginger was pushed through to the front.  He grinned, half turned
-to protest, was swung round again; then he drew his hand across his
-mouth.
-
-"Mr. Harry, and Mr. Amory," he began.
-
-"Oh, come now, no misters here," Harry broke in.
-
-"Not in the ordinary way, of course," said Ginger, "but this ain't an
-ordinary occasion. The fact is, we're a deputation, that's what we are;
-a deputation from No. 3 Company, and the other chaps have made me
-foreman of the jury.  Not as I want to push myself; not me.  I consider
-it's a job for a three-stripe man; but Sergeant Colpus here is a very
-bashful and retiring man, though you'd never think it to look at him."
-
-"Dry up!" growled the sergeant, turning fiery red as the other men
-sniggered.
-
-"Well, you _would_ put it on to me," Ginger went on, "and I must do it
-my own way, always respecting my superior officer, of course.  Being
-foreman of the jury, I speak for 'em all, got to give the verdict, as
-you may say.  The fact of it is, we men of No. 3 Company, what you may
-call the Randall Company, ain't easy in our minds at the idea of being
-dogs in the manger like.  We know as the colonel wants to make you
-officers, and we think it ain't fair to you or the army to keep you in
-the ranks 'cause of us.  A promise is all right, and we take it very
-kind that you've stuck to your guns, in a manner of putting it, all
-these months.  Speaking for myself, I didn't expect nothing else.  But
-we think it 'ud be a dirty shame if we held you to your promise now,
-specially when every man of us knows you ought to be officers, and
-there's not a man of us but would be proud to follow your lead anywhere.
-And so we've come to say that the promise is off, and we don't stand in
-the way of your getting your rights."
-
-There was a chorus of approval as Ginger wiped his mouth again and
-stepped back among his comrades.
-
-"It's very good of you, Ginger," said Harry, "but I'm sure neither Amory
-nor myself want to leave the ranks."
-
-"Not at all," said Kenneth: "thanks all the same."
-
-"But it ain't right," said Ginger, coming forward again.  "We've learnt
-a thing or two since we started being soldiers, and we've lost a lot of
-the bally nonsense that used to fill our heads, about all men being
-equal and such like.  Mind you, I'm a Socialist, as strong as ever I
-was.  I say now, as I've said afore, that there's no call for a man to
-stick himself up and think himself mighty superior 'cos he's got a quid
-for every penny I've got. And I don't say but what, if we'd had your
-eddication and chances and all that, we wouldn't be as good as you.  But
-that ain't the point.  We've got to look at things as they are, and be
-honest about it, and what I say is that you've had the training that
-makes officers and we haven't; and besides, you were born one way and we
-were born another, and it's no good trying to make out that chalk's as
-good as cheese.  And there's another thing.  When we've got a tough job
-afore us like licking the Germans we're bound to consider what's best
-for the company and the regiment, and if a man is cut out for an officer
-it's simply silly to keep him a private: he ain't in his right place,
-doing his right job.  So we think it's only right for us and the army
-that you should do what the colonel wants, and that's the size of it."
-
-"Is that what you all think?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"Well, I can't say that; all but one or two, and they're a disgrace to
-the company. There's----"
-
-"I don't want to know who they are," said Kenneth, interrupting.  "We're
-both immensely obliged to you for your good-will, but we enlisted on
-certain terms, and I feel for my part that we can't break our contract
-without the unanimous consent of the company."
-
-"I agree," said Harry.  "The men enlisted on the faith of our promise,
-and it wouldn't be fair to break it without the consent of all.  So
-we'll drop it, Ginger, and go on as before."
-
-"It's for you to say, sir," said Ginger. "There!  'Sir,' says I.  A slip
-of the tongue, mates; you can't get out of bad habits all of a sudden.
-Well, I'll say for No. 3 Company that we'd be sorry to lose such good
-pals, and as there's no chance that St---- that the pigheaded members of
-the jury will come round to the opinion of the sensible ones, we may
-reckon it as certain that the defendants will be condemned to serve as
-Tommies for three years or the duration of the war."
-
-"And now we'll discharge the jury," said Kenneth, "and have a sing-song
-until 'lights out.'  Come on, Ginger; start off with 'Dolly Grey.'"
-
-Next afternoon Kenneth was summoned to the captain.
-
-"I've a little job for you, Amory.  You know how to drive a motor; do
-you know anything about the mechanism?"
-
-"Not much; but Ginger--that is, Murgatroyd, sir--is a bit of a mechanic.
-Of course I'll have a shot at whatever is required."
-
-"Add Randall, and we have the Three Musketeers complete.  You didn't
-know that's our name for you, I suppose?  Well, it's this.  A motor
-cyclist came in just now with a despatch for the colonel, and reported
-that on the way he had passed a man who'd had an accident of some sort
-with a motor lorry, and wanted help.  Just go and see what you can do,
-the three of you.  I don't know whether the load is for us; if it is, so
-much the better.  Take my map; the breakdown is thereabouts"--he pointed
-to a spot some three miles away--"and be as quick as you can."
-
-The three men set out, Ginger carrying a bag of tools he had borrowed
-from the village smith.  The place where the accident had happened was
-apparently on a by-road about halfway between the village and the
-headquarters of the next regiment on the left of the Rutlands.  They
-followed footpaths across the fields, some of which had been sown by the
-inhabitants.  The air was very misty, and but for the map they could
-hardly have found their way.  But presently they caught sight of a man
-in khaki sitting on the grass at the corner of the main road and
-by-road.  The man bore the badge of the Army Service Corps on his
-sleeve.
-
-"What's wrong?" asked Kenneth, going up to him.
-
-"Are you the Wessex?" said the man.
-
-"No, the Rutlands.  You've had a spill by the look of you."
-
-"You're right," said the driver with an oath.  "And I owe that there
-parson one. It's his fault.  Did that cyclist send you along?"
-
-"No, but the capting did," said Ginger. "Where's your lorry?  We'll have
-a go at it."
-
-"Well, if you two chaps 'll be a pair of crutches I'll take you to it.
-I'm bruised all over, and my ankle's got a twist so that I can't hardly
-walk.  It's about a mile away."
-
-Supported by Kenneth on one side and Harry on the other, the man led
-them slowly along the by-road.
-
-"I only came out a week ago, a Carter Paterson man I am," he said.  "I
-was driving up a load of grub for the Wessexes, and somehow took the
-wrong turning away back there.  I'd drive over London blindfold, but I'm
-new to this job, see.  It came over misty, and I got a sort of notion I
-was on the wrong road, and there was nobody about to ask the way of,
-even supposing I could have made 'em understand me. However, at last I
-happened to catch sight of a fat parson in a long cloak just ahead of
-me.  I pulled up, and pointed to the name of the village on my map, for
-twist my tongue to it I couldn't.  'All right, my man,' says he,
-speaking English like a countryman. 'You take the first turning on the
-right': that's this road we're on now.  That seemed about the right
-direction.  'Good road?' says I: 'not too soft for a heavy load?'
-'Capital road,' says he.  'Go as fast as you like, straight through to
-the road you've left.'
-
-"Well, it seemed all right.  Wasn't a bad road for a bit, and I put on
-speed to make up for lost time.  Then, just as I was going through an
-avenue of trees, and what with the mist and the shade couldn't see more
-than a few yards ahead, the road took a sharp dip, and I throttled down
-and screwed on the brakes; but the road made a sudden bend, and before I
-knew where I was, I was chucked in the ditch by the roadside.  I was
-dazed for a bit, and when I come to, there was the lorry in the field.
-I crawled to it; it was stuck fast, and even it if hadn't been I
-couldn't have driven it in the mashed state I was in.  A pretty fix to
-be in, in a strange country, with no garage handy.  I didn't know what
-to do.  When I'd recovered a bit, I crawled back to see if I could find
-that parson.  It was all his fault, not warning me, and he ought to get
-me out of the mess. But I couldn't find him, so all I could do was to
-crawl to the main road, on the chance of seeing some of our chaps.  It
-was hours before any one came along; just my luck; another time the road
-would very likely have been crowded.  But presently that cyclist came up
-at forty miles an hour.  He would have gone past if I hadn't bellowed
-like a bull.  He wouldn't get off his machine to take a look at the
-lorry, but he said he'd send help if he could.  And all I want is to get
-hold of that parson; I'd know him again in a minute by his size and the
-wart on his nose.  Why, a German couldn't have served me a dirtier
-trick; and he said he knew the road....  There's the lorry; I doubt
-whether you'll get it up; and the Wessexes howling for their grub, I
-expect."
-
-The lorry was tilted over to one side, with the near front wheel
-embedded nearly up to the axle in the soft earth of the field.
-
-"Got a jack?" asked Ginger.
-
-"You'll find it under the seat."
-
-Ginger fetched it, and with his companions tried to jack the wheel up;
-but the tool sank into the earth.
-
-"Let's unload and then see," suggested Kenneth.
-
-It took them half an hour to unload the car, working so hard that they
-were all bathed in perspiration.  Again they plied the jack, but in
-vain.
-
-"The only chance is to get something solid to put under it," said
-Ginger.  "There's nothing handy hereabouts.  Any houses about here?" he
-asked the driver.
-
-"Hanged if I know.  It was too misty to see when I came along.  The
-parson lives somewhere, I suppose."
-
-"I'll run up the hill and take a look round," said Harry.
-
-"Take your rifle, man," Kenneth called, as Harry was starting without
-it.
-
-"All right; but we're miles away from the German front.  You might have
-a look at the engine while I'm gone."
-
-All this time there had been sounds of firing in the distance eastward,
-with reports of British guns at intervals nearer at hand. But they were
-now so familiar with such sounds that they scarcely heeded them. Guns
-and gunners were alike out of sight. There were few signs of war
-immediately around them; but for the absence of human activity on the
-fields the country might have been at peace.
-
-Harry went up the hill and for some distance along the road before he
-discovered anything that promised assistance.  A slight breeze was
-dispersing the mist; but the sun was already far down in the western
-sky; in an hour or two it would be dark. At length, on his right he
-noticed a rough cart track leading to a small farm building half hidden
-in a hollow about half a mile away.  He hurried towards it across the
-fields, soon regretting that he had not gone by the beaten track, for
-the soil was soft and heavy.
-
-Approaching the building at an angle, he saw a man pottering about in
-the yard. While he was still at some distance the man happened to glance
-towards him, then went into the house.  Harry quickened his pace, and
-entering the yard, was met at the house door by a burly individual who
-gave a somewhat surly response to his salutation. In his best French
-Harry explained the circumstances, and asked for the loan of a stout
-board.
-
-"You'll find one in the shed yonder," said the man.  "You'll bring it
-back?"
-
-"Oh yes," Harry replied, thinking that the farmer might at least have
-offered to help.  "By the way, could you lend us a horse to pull the
-lorry on to the roadway when we get it up?"
-
-"I haven't got one; all my horses are requisitioned."
-
-"That's hard luck.  I hope we'll soon clear the country, and there'll be
-better times.  Many thanks: I'll return the board presently."
-
-Reflecting on the hardships war inflicted on honest country people,
-Harry trudged back with the plank, this time taking the cart track.
-
-"Good man!" said Kenneth.  "Where did you get it?"
-
-"At a small farm.  The farmer's rather a bear, but I suppose the war has
-pretty well ruined him.  Now, Ginger, let's see what we can do."
-
-Placing the plank by the embedded wheel, they set the jack on it and
-screwed up the axle until they finally succeeded in releasing the wheel.
-
-"The lorry isn't damaged, luckily," said Kenneth.  "We'll get the wheel
-on to the plank, then I'll start the engine and we'll back on to the
-road.  You fellows shove."
-
-In a few more minutes the lorry stood on the road, facing towards its
-original destination.
-
-"Now for loading up," said Harry.  "This is back-aching work; I
-shouldn't care to be a docker."
-
-The three men started to carry the boxes and baskets from the field to
-the lorry, the driver sitting on the grass by the roadside. They were
-about halfway through the work when they heard the hum of an aeroplane.
-Like the reports of artillery it was so common a sound that they paid
-little attention to it. But Kenneth, glancing up as the sound grew
-louder, exclaimed:
-
-"It's a Taube, about 5000 feet up.  I fancy.  There'll be a pretty chase
-presently. By Jove! it's dropping.  Something must have gone wrong with
-the engine.  I'll try a pot shot at it if you fellows will go on
-loading."
-
-Seizing his rifle, he stood watching the aeroplane as it circled above
-them, gradually coming lower.
-
-"Look out!" he cried suddenly.
-
-Almost as soon as he had spoken there was a terrific crash on the road
-about thirty yards away, and a shower of earth and stones bespattered
-the lorry and the men. Kenneth fired as the Taube made another sweep
-round, still lower.
-
-"Here's another!" he called.  "Down with you."
-
-They all threw themselves flat on their faces.  The second bomb exploded
-farther away than the first, doing no damage. They sprang to their feet,
-and all three fired at the aeroplane, which was now making a vol plane,
-and would come to earth apparently about half a mile away.
-
-"We'll nab them," cried Ginger.  "Come on."
-
-They ran up the hill.  The aeroplane was descending on the far side of
-the farm, near a clump of trees.  They rushed across the fields, and
-were just in time to see a man leap from the aeroplane and dive into the
-copse.  The farmer joined them as they ran past.  They came to the
-aeroplane.  The pilot was _in extremis_.  After the shot had struck him
-he had managed to control the machine until it reached earth; he would
-never fly again.
-
-"We must catch the other fellow," said Kenneth.
-
-All three ran into the copse, the farmer following them.  Separating,
-they scoured the plantation in all directions without finding the
-fugitive.  After about half an hour Kenneth called the others together.
-
-"He seems to have got away," he said. "We must give it up.  It'll soon
-be dark, and we've got to get the lorry home.  Ginger, will you mount
-guard over the aeroplane? Our fellows are sure to have seen it, and will
-no doubt be coming up shortly.  We'll motor back if we can borrow a
-car."
-
-"Right you are," said Ginger.  "I'll wait for you, in any case."
-
-The others left him, returned to the lorry, and lifting the driver on to
-it, drove off rapidly towards its destination.  There they told their
-story, and the colonel at once sent off a motor omnibus with a number of
-men to secure the aeroplane.  When they approached the spot where they
-had left it the machine was gone.
-
-"Somebody must have fetched it already," said Kenneth.  "It's a pity you
-fellows are too late."
-
-They drew up at the rear of the farm. Kenneth and Harry sprang out,
-surprised that Ginger was not awaiting them.
-
-"He's inside, perhaps," said Harry.  "He makes friends of most people;
-perhaps he has got over the farmer's surliness."
-
-They went through the yard to the house door.  The farmer met them on
-the threshold.
-
-"Ah, messieurs," he said, "this is lamentable."
-
-"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
-
-"Your comrade, messieurs, he is gone.  I fear he is a prisoner.  He made
-signs that he was thirsty, and I left him there at the aeroplane while I
-returned here to fetch him some little refreshment.  Ma foi!  I was just
-uncorking the bottle when I heard a whirr. I rushed out with the bottle
-in one hand and the corkscrew in the other, and voila! there was the
-aeroplane already in the air."
-
-"But how?--what..."
-
-"I do not know," said the farmer, with a shrug.  "I only guess.  The man
-who ran away must have hidden until your backs were turned, then come
-back and overpowered your comrade and flown away with him."
-
-"That's very rummy," said Kenneth to Harry.  "Ginger isn't a man to be
-caught napping easily.  What do you make of it, sir?" he asked the
-lieutenant in charge of the omnibus party, who had followed them.
-
-Kenneth repeated the farmer's story.
-
-"Very curious," said the officer quietly. "The man wasn't himself a
-flier, I suppose?"
-
-"No."
-
-"Well, I think we'll run your farmer back to headquarters.  It looks
-rather fishy: there are spies all over the place.  You speak French?  I
-don't, more's the pity.  Just tell this fellow he's to come with me."
-
-The farmer protested volubly, but the officer was inexorable.  The
-omnibus party returned with their prisoner, and Kenneth and Harry
-tramped back in the twilight to their village.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XII
-
-                                 DOGGED
-
-
-There was great indignation among the men of No. 3 Company when Ginger's
-capture was reported.  Latterly the German airmen had rarely appeared
-behind the British lines; their experiences had usually been
-unfortunate.  "Like their cheek!" grumbled one of the men.  "And to
-carry off Ginger, too, after a lucky shot had brought 'em down.  That
-farmer chap must have been a spy, and I hope they'll give him what he
-deserves over yonder."
-
-The loss of the most popular man in the battalion was a blow to the
-Rutlands.  And to be a prisoner they counted the worst of luck.  Death
-they were ready for; to be wounded was all in the day's work; there was
-not a man of them but preferred death or wounds to captivity, to be the
-mock and sport of a misguided populace, and the victim of brutal and
-barbarous guards.
-
-"And we can't do nothing," growled a sergeant.  "Lor bless you, when I
-think of the stories I read as a nipper in the boys' papers, daring
-rescues, hairbreadth escapes and all that--what a peck of rubbish I used
-to swallow!  And believe it all too, mind you. It all looked so easy.
-There was the prison, and the jailer's pretty daughter, perhaps a file
-to cut away the bars, or a knife to dig a tunnel underground, or a note
-carried to a wonderful clever pal outside, or the prisoner dressing up
-in the gal's clothes: gummy, how excited I used to get.  Them chaps that
-write the blood-curdlers don't know nothing about the real thing, that's
-certain."
-
-Kenneth laughed.
-
-"The real thing tops anything ever invented, after all," he said.
-"You've heard of how Latude escaped from the Bastille; and how Lord
-Nithsdale escaped from the Tower; and how an English prisoner--I forget
-his name--a hundred years ago made a most wonderful escape from the
-French fortress of St. Malo; and only the other day, a German prisoner
-in Dorchester had himself screwed into a box and nearly got away."
-
-"Nearly ain't quite, though.  But I never heard of those other Johnnies;
-you might tell us about them--if they're true, that is; I don't want no
-fairy tales."
-
-And Kenneth beguiled an evening or two by relating all the historical
-escapes he could remember.
-
-Ginger's case, they agreed, was hopeless. The papers, it was true, had
-recorded the escape of Major Vandeleur from Crefeld, without giving any
-of the particulars which the men were hungry for.  That a British
-lance-corporal could ever escape from a German concentration camp was
-beyond the bounds of possibility, and they had to resign themselves to
-the hope of one day, when the war was over, seeing Ginger again, perhaps
-half-starved, ill, wretched, a speaking monument of German "culture."
-
-The Rutlands were sent into the trenches again, where they again endured
-the tedium of watchful inactivity.
-
-One evening, Captain Adams sent Kenneth to the village with a message.
-The telephone between the village and the trenches had suddenly failed.
-Kenneth found the place busier than he had ever known it.  A new
-regiment had arrived.  Officers of all ranks were present; despatch
-riders were coming in.  He was asked to wait for a return message to the
-firing line.  While waiting he became aware of a considerable movement
-some distance in the rear of the British lines.  There were sounds of
-heavy vehicles in motion in several directions. Something was clearly in
-the air.
-
-It was about three hours before he was sent for and received a written
-message from a staff-officer.
-
-"What's your name?" he was asked.
-
-"Amory, sir."
-
-"Oh!  You had a hand in destroying that German gun the other day?"
-
-"Yes, sir," replied Kenneth, rather taken aback to find that his name
-had become known.
-
-"A capital bit of work!  Get on with this despatch as quickly as you
-can.  It's important.  And if you have heard anything out there"--he
-pointed to the rear--"you needn't say anything about it.  There are
-spies everywhere.  The telephone wire has been repaired, by the way; it
-was cut near the village; but we've a reason for not using it just at
-present.  Tell Colonel Appleton that, will you?"
-
-The night was very dark, but by this time Kenneth knew every inch of the
-road to the trenches.  There was desultory firing, both artillery and
-rifle, for a considerable distance along the lines ahead.  As he left
-the village the sounds from the rear grew fainter, drowned by the firing
-and by a moderate wind blowing from the direction of the enemy's lines.
-
-The road was quite deserted.  All coming and going between the trenches
-and the billets had ceased for the night.  But when he had walked for
-about a quarter of a mile he was conscious of that strange, often
-unaccountable feeling that sometimes steals upon a solitary pedestrian
-on a lonely road at night--the feeling that he was not alone. He had
-heard neither footfall nor whisper; the wind sighed through the still
-almost bare branches of the trees.  His feeling, he thought, was
-probably due to mere nervousness caused by the knowledge that he was
-carrying an important despatch.  But it became so strong that he sat
-down by the roadside and slipped off his boots, slinging them round his
-neck, and walked on heedfully in his stockings, keeping a look-out for
-holes in the road, and stretching his ears for the slightest unusual
-sound.
-
-In a moment or two he came to the end of the avenue of poplars; those
-which had formerly lined the rest of the road had been felled, partly to
-provide wood for the trenches, partly for the sake of the gunners. On
-the left, a few yards from the road, was a small plantation.  It had
-been sadly damaged by German shells, but many trees still remained.
-Just as he came opposite to the plantation his ears caught a sound
-which, though indistinguishable in the wind, was different from the
-rustling of branches or foliage.  It appeared to come from behind him.
-He slipped from the road towards the clump of trees; then, as it
-suddenly occurred to him that some other person might be making for the
-same place, he reached for a branch just above his head, and swung
-himself up with the "upstart" of the gymnasium.  It was a frail support,
-but he sat astride the branch near the trunk, and there, among the
-burgeoning twigs, he waited.
-
-His senses had not deceived him.  Three vague shapes moved out of the
-blackness, and passed almost beneath him.  His ears scarcely caught the
-sound of their movements; yet sound there was, a dull muffled tread as
-though their feet were blanketed. Who were these nocturnal prowlers?
-What were they about?  Kenneth wished there were no despatch buttoned up
-in his pocket, so that he were free to follow these stealthy figures.
-He had not been able to determine whether they wore uniforms.  If they
-were villagers, they had no right to be hereabouts at night.
-
-Peering through the foliage, he was just able to discern that the three
-men had halted at the edge of the plantation.  For a moment or two there
-was complete silence. He guessed they had stopped to listen. Then they
-spoke in whispers.  A few words were carried on the wind to Kenneth's
-attentive ears: "Soeben gehoert ... ganz nahe ... ja."
-
-"They're after me!" thought Kenneth. He had no doubt that it was he whom
-they had referred to as "just heard ... quite near."  Spies were
-everywhere, as the staff-officer had said.  These men must have learnt
-in the village that he was carrying a despatch.  He wished that he could
-stalk the stalkers, but he dared do nothing that would endanger his
-errand.  One man he might have tackled; with three the odds were too
-heavy against him.  And while he was still debating the matter with
-himself the three dark shapes had disappeared as silently as they had
-come.
-
-He waited a minute or two.  They had apparently gone along the road
-which he himself was to follow.  They might suspect that they had
-outstripped him, and ambush him before he reached the trenches.  He must
-dodge them by making a detour. Dropping lightly to the ground he skirted
-the northern side of the plantation and struck across the ploughed land
-at what seemed a safe distance from the road.  The soil was sticky; his
-progress was slow; and he stopped every now and again to listen. For
-some time he heard nothing but the wind and the crack of distant rifles
-or the boom of guns.  Presently, as he drew nearer to the trenches,
-there fell faintly on his ear the customary sounds of conversation,
-laughter, singing.  At one moment he believed he heard the tootle of
-Stoneway's flute.  As these sounds increased in loudness, he despaired
-of recognising the stealthy movements of the spies.  He unslung his
-rifle, resolving, if he caught sight of them, to fire.  The shot, even
-if it failed to dispose of any of them, would probably bring men from
-the trenches in sufficient numbers to deal with them.
-
-He had to guess his course across the fields, pushing here through a
-hedge, there descending into a slimy ditch and crawling up the further
-side.  At last he caught sight of a landmark: a ruined shed which stood
-about two hundred yards in rear of the trenches. To reach the trench in
-which Colonel Appleton had his quarters he must strike across to the
-right, and pass between the shed and the road.
-
-There was no sign of the three spies.  The fields were quite bare; the
-shed was the only thing that afforded cover.  Instinctively he gave it a
-wide berth, and was leaving it some paces on his left when he heard a
-sudden guttural exclamation, and two figures rushed from the shed
-towards him.  There was no time to fire.  Uttering a shout he thrust his
-bayonet towards the assailants.  The stock of his rifle was seized from
-behind.  And now, at this critical moment, the years of training on the
-football field, in the gymnasium, on Mr. Kishimaru's practice lawn, bore
-fruit in instantaneous decision and rapid action.  Releasing his rifle
-suddenly, the man behind him fell backward to the ground.  At the same
-moment Kenneth stooped, tackled the nearest of the other men, and
-brought him down.  The second man toppled over them.  Freeing himself
-instantly, Kenneth sprang up and sprinted towards the road, hearing in a
-moment the thud of heavy footsteps behind him.
-
-But there were sounds also in front.  His shout had been heard in the
-trenches, and some of the Rutlands were running to meet him.  A word
-from him sent them at a rush towards the shed.  Leaving them to hunt for
-the spies, he hurried on and delivered his despatch to the colonel, to
-whom he related his adventure.
-
-It was some time before the men returned.
-
-"They got away," said one of them.  "It was no good hunting any longer
-in the dark. But we've brought these."
-
-He handed over Kenneth's rifle and a cap bearing the badge of a
-Territorial regiment. It was clear that the spies had disguised
-themselves in British uniforms.  The colonel telephoned particulars to
-the village, asking that a thorough search should be made; but other
-matters were then engaging attention.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIII
-
-                       THE FIGHT FOR THE VILLAGE
-
-
-In the darkest hours before the dawn the trenches were buzzing with
-excitement. Word had been passed along that next morning the Rutlands
-were to attack.  The long, trying period of inaction was over.  Sir John
-French had ordered the capture of the village within the German lines.
-The hill on which it stood commanded a wide stretch of open country, and
-its possession was an essential preliminary to the general advance which
-would take place when the weather improved and the reserves of
-ammunition were completed.
-
-During these last hours of the night sleepy men trudged along the road
-and across the sodden fields towards the firing line. Fresh troops, some
-of whom had never been under continuous fire, crowded into the trenches.
-Some of the men tried to prepare breakfast in the constricted space; the
-most of them were too much excited to feel any inclination to eat.  The
-bustle which Kenneth had noticed in the village was explained. Batteries
-of heavy artillery had been brought up and placed all along the rear of
-the British lines.  The men listened eagerly for the boom that would
-announce the great doings of the day, and they gazed up into the inky
-sky, longing for the dawn.
-
-Sitting, sprawling, packed tight in the trenches, they waited.  Would
-morning never come?  The darkness thinned; the blackness gradually was
-transformed into ashen grey, streaked here and there with silvery light.
-A gun boomed miles in the rear. The men stifled a cheer.  Rifle fire
-burst from the German trenches.  Bullets pinged across the breastworks,
-and some of the newcomers involuntarily ducked.  Captain Adams passed
-along the simple orders of the day.  "The battalion will advance in line
-of platoons at 7 o'clock."  Another hour to wait!
-
-The men took off their equipment and stowed their coats in their packs.
-Some munched sticks of chocolate, others lighted cigarettes but forgot
-to smoke them.  Boom, boom!  The British guns were in full play. The
-German guns were answering.  Shells screamed across the trenches in both
-directions.  The din increased moment by moment.  The air quivered with
-the thunderous crashes, and sang with the perpetual _phwit, phwit_ of
-bullets.  Not a man dared to lift his head.  Clouds of earth rose into
-the air before and behind, showering pellets upon the waiting soldiers.
-
-Boom and roar and crash!  Presently the stream of shells from the
-Germans diminished.  It almost ceased.
-
-"Platoons, get ready!"
-
-"Fix bayonets!"
-
-The men began to swarm up the parapet. There was no enemy to be seen.
-The wire stretched across their front had been battered down in many
-places.
-
-All at once there was a great stillness.  The artillery had finished its
-work.
-
-"Now, men!" shouted Kennedy, commander of the leading platoon.
-
-With a cheer the men rushed forward, Kenneth on the right, Harry on the
-left. On either side other regiments had already deployed and were
-advancing.  They came to the first of the German trenches--empty, except
-for prone and huddled forms in grey, and a litter of rifles, helmets,
-water-bottles, mess-tins, equipment of all kinds.  Kenneth sprang into
-the communication trench beside the pond, and splashed through the water
-at the bottom, the rest of the platoon after him. Where were the
-Germans?
-
-They came to the second line of trenches, floundered through what seemed
-an endless series of mysterious zigzag passages, waded through two or
-three feet of greenish water, scrambled up the embankment beyond, and
-raced across the open field, as fast as men could race with packs on
-their backs, full haversacks, and rifle and bayonet, over ground pitted
-with holes, heaped with earth and stones, scattered with the bodies of
-men, strands of barbed wire, fragments of shells and all the dreadful
-apparatus of warfare. Still there were no Germans to be seen, but
-bullets spat and sang among the advancing men; here a man fell with a
-groan, there one tumbled upon his face without even a murmur, scarcely
-noticed by his comrades pressing on and on with shouts and cheers.
-
-Kennedy's platoon reached the ruined church which Kenneth and Harry had
-passed on their memorable night expedition.  With shaking limbs and
-panting lungs they flung themselves down behind the wall of the
-churchyard for a brief rest.  The next rush towards the village would be
-across two hundred and fifty yards of open ground, bare of cover until
-they came to the gardens at the back of the cottages.
-
-The modern battle makes greater demands on individual effort and
-resource than the old-time battles on less extensive fields, where all
-the operations were conducted under the eye of the commander-in-chief.
-Kennedy's men knew nothing of what was going on on their left and right.
-They heard the insistent crackle of rifles, the rapid clack-clack of
-machine guns, the whistling of shrapnel. They saw the white and yellow
-puffs, with now and then a burst of inky blackness, in the sky.  Boom
-and crash, rattle and crack; pale flashes of fire; the ground trembling
-as with an earthquake; all the work of deadly destructive machines,
-operated by some unseen agency.  And in a momentary lull there came
-raining down from somewhere in the blue the liquid notes of a lark's
-song.
-
-"Now, men," cried Kennedy, "the last rush.  No good stopping or lying
-down.  On to the village.  Stick it, Rutlands!"
-
-The men sprang through the gaps in the wall, rushed across the
-churchyard and into the open fields.  From the houses a little above
-them on the hillside broke a withering fire.  They pressed on doggedly,
-stumbling in holes and shell pits, scrambling up and moving on again,
-bullets spattering and whistling among them, their ears deafened by the
-merciless scream and boom.  On, ever on, the gaps in their extended
-order widening as the fatal missiles found their mark.  There was no
-faltering.  A mist seemed to hide the houses from view, but they were
-drawing nearer moment by moment.  Suddenly there was a tremendous
-detonation in their front; a vast column of smoke, earth and brick dust
-rose in the air, and where cottages had been there were now only heaps
-of ruins.  "I hope our own gunners won't shell us," thought Kenneth on
-the extreme right, as he dashed towards the side street in which the
-explosion had taken place.
-
-And now at last the enemy were seen, some on the ground, some fleeing
-helter skelter from the ravaged spot.  The Rutlands yelled.  From the
-further end of the village came answering British cheers.  Working round
-the shoulder of the hill another company had forced the defences, and
-the village was won.
-
-With scarcely a moment's delay the men set to work to prepare for the
-inevitable counter-attack.  Lieutenant Kennedy was not to be seen.
-Sergeant Colpus took command of his platoon, diminished by nearly a
-half.  Kenneth and Harry, bearing no marks of the fight except dirt, had
-time for only a word of mutual congratulation before they rushed off to
-place machine guns at the salient angles of the village.  Others threw
-up new entrenchments and barricades, utilising the debris of houses and
-furniture. And meanwhile, on the shell-scarred field behind, the
-ambulances and Red Cross men were busy.
-
-The village consisted of one principal street, with a few streets
-springing from it on either side; crooked and irregular, following the
-contour of the hill.  For a couple of hours the men toiled to strengthen
-the position they had carried; then warning of the impending attack was
-given by a shell from a German battery miles away to the east.  It burst
-some fifty yards in front of the village.  A minute or two later four
-shells plunged among the houses almost at the same instant.  The warning
-had given the Rutlands just time enough to evacuate the houses and take
-what shelter was possible. An aeroplane soared high over the position
-towards the German lines.  Shrapnel burst around it, but it sailed on
-unperturbed for several minutes, then swept round and returned.  No
-visible signal had been observed, but almost immediately shells began to
-scream over the village: the British artillery had been given the range
-and had opened fire.  For half an hour the German bombardment continued,
-gradually slackening as gun after gun was put out of action by the
-British shells from far away.  Finally the German batteries were
-silenced, but the enemy had not relinquished his design of a
-counter-attack. In the distance, over a wide front, column after column
-of grey-clad infantry was seen advancing in the dense formation that had
-cost countless lives in the early months of the war, but which had
-succeeded many times in crushing the defence, even though temporarily,
-by sheer weight of numbers.
-
-The Rutlands manned the houses, the ruins, the garden fences, the
-breastworks hastily thrown up.  Other battalions occupied the German
-reserve trenches running close beside the church in the rear.  The
-advancing Germans were met with rapid fire from rifles and machine guns.
-Great gaps were cut in their ranks, but they were instantly filled up.
-Time after time they were brought to a halt and showed signs of
-wavering; but in a few minutes their lines were steadied and they came
-on again with indomitable courage.  It was soon apparent that the German
-commander was hurling immense masses forward with the intention of
-recapturing the village at all costs.  As they approached they spread
-out to right and left, attacking the village on three sides. The
-Rutlands and the one company from another regiment which held it could
-look for no support, for the men in the trenches also were hard beset
-and unable to leave their positions because of the enfilading fire of
-the numerous German machine guns.
-
-Kenneth and Harry, with the other survivors of their platoon, occupied
-two or three small houses on the southern slope of the hill.  A dozen
-men held a detached cottage some forty yards beyond.  It was on this
-cottage that the huge German wave first broke.  Two or three times it
-was swept back; then Captain Adams, recognising the hopelessness of
-attempting to retain this isolated outpost, ran into one of the nearest
-houses and called for a volunteer to carry the order for its evacuation.
-Harry sprang forward among the group that instantly responded.
-
-"Good, Randall!" said the captain. "Bring them back at once.  Look out
-for cover."
-
-Harry left the house, ran along for a few yards sheltered by a brick
-wall, then with lowered head sprinted along the open road towards the
-cottage.  He entered it from the back.  Of the dozen men who held it,
-only four or five were now in action.  Two were dead; the rest, among
-whom was Stoneway, were wounded.  On receiving the captain's order, the
-men who were unhurt carried out those of their comrades who were
-incapable of movement, and began to withdraw.  The moment they left
-their loopholes the Germans they had held at bay swarmed up the slope.
-Laden as they were, they could hardly escape without assistance.
-
-"Come on, boys!" shouted Kenneth.
-
-Followed by several of his companions he dashed out of the house.  At
-the wall they stopped to fire one volley, then with a ringing cheer
-charged with the bayonet.  At the sight of cold steel the Germans
-recoiled, and their pause, short as it was, gave Harry time to bring the
-retiring men under cover of the wall.  Then the Germans came on again in
-such numbers that Kenneth and his party had to fall back, firing as they
-went, and rejoin the men in the house.
-
-For ten minutes more they held their position, hurling the grey mass
-back by the rapidity of their fire.  Their rifles were hot to the touch.
-Still the Germans pressed forward, some of them flinging hand grenades,
-which set fire to the houses.  To remain longer was to court certain
-destruction. Dashing out at the back, the men rushed from garden to
-garden towards the main street, only to find that the enemy had already
-forced their way into that, and were pressing hard upon the remnants of
-two platoons that were falling back, disputing every yard.
-
-Kenneth glanced round among the men who had accompanied him from the
-houses. Neither Sergeant Colpus nor any other non-commissioned officer
-was with them.
-
-"We'll give them a charge, boys," he cried.
-
-Several files of Germans had already passed the end of the lane that ran
-along the rear of the gardens into the main street. Forming his little
-party in fours, Kenneth led them along the lane.  They swept upon the
-flank of the enemy, their sudden onset cutting the column in two.  The
-eastern portion recoiled: the western, caught between these new
-assailants and the Rutlands stubbornly retreating up the street, were
-cut to pieces.
-
-"Well done!" cried Captain Adams, rushing up at the head of the men upon
-whom the pressure had been relieved, "Dash down those walls there."
-
-He pointed to a house that was already tottering through the effects of
-the bombardment.  Taking advantage of the enemy's confusion, the
-Rutlands completed the demolition of the walls, hurling bricks, plaster,
-rafters, furniture across the street, and hastily raising a barricade.
-When the Germans returned to the charge, they found themselves faced by
-a formidable breastwork, from behind which the Rutlands met their rush
-with rifles and machine guns. They were thrown back again and again, and
-during every interval the defenders ripped up the pave and worked
-energetically at sinking a trench across the whole breadth of the
-street.
-
-"They are checked for the moment," said the captain.  "But they'll bring
-up field guns, and splinter the barricade.  We'll hold the houses on
-each side.  I've already sent word to the colonel; if we can manage to
-hold our ground for the rest of the day we shall get support to-morrow."
-
-It was clear that the attack had been checked all along the line.  The
-Germans immediately in front of the village established themselves at
-the foot of the hill facing the street, no doubt with the intention of
-renewing the attack after another bombardment. During the day the
-Rutlands were not further molested.  Early next morning the village was
-heavily shelled by the German batteries, but British artillery had been
-moved up in anticipation of this onslaught, and after a hot duel that
-lasted for nearly an hour the Germans were again silenced.  Their
-infantry was observed to be entrenching themselves in the fields half a
-mile away, and a certain amount of spasmodic rifle fire and sniping went
-on between the two forces.
-
-The Rutlands were worn out with fatigue and hunger.  It had been
-impossible to bring up supplies, and they had only their emergency
-rations and what food they could find in the village.  But in the
-evening two fresh battalions came up to relieve them, and they were
-ordered back to their original billets.  There the brigadier himself
-complimented them on their success, and promised them a well-earned
-rest.
-
-When the roll was called, it was found that the success had been won at
-a heavy cost.  Half the officers and thirty per cent. of the men were
-killed or wounded.  Colonel Appleton was slightly injured by a splinter,
-Lieutenant Kennedy had narrowly escaped death: a bullet had shattered
-the wire-nippers in his breast pocket, causing lacerations of the flesh.
-Stoneway's wound turned out to be very slight; and some of the men who
-had been with him in the cottage were rather aggrieved that he had
-withdrawn from the firing line though not incapacitated. Captain Adams,
-Kenneth and Harry were among those who had come through unscathed.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIV
-
-                             THE HIKIOTOSHI
-
-
-The village appeared to be full of wounded. Some were being attended to
-by doctors on the spot, others were sent to the rear in motor ambulances
-as fast as these could be brought up.  The Rutlands learnt that their
-attack on the village had been only one incident in operations that had
-extended for several miles along the front, and which had resulted in a
-certain gain of ground. The German trenches had been stormed, and the
-enemy thrown back for a considerable distance.
-
-During the morning a motor despatch rider came in with a message from
-the general of division.  An immediate answer was required, which
-Colonel Appleton at once proceeded to write, while Captain Adams
-questioned the cyclist on what he had seen in the course of his ride.
-The divisional headquarters was at a village some fifteen miles to the
-north-east as the crow flies, but the route taken by the cyclist, well
-behind the British lines, was almost twice that distance.  He had been
-instructed to return the same way.  It occurred to Captain Adams,
-however, that much time would be saved if a more direct route were
-followed, and he suggested that the colonel should take advantage of the
-change in position resulting from the forward movement and the confusion
-in the German lines, to send his message along a road that ran from the
-captured village in the rear of what had been the enemy's trenches.
-
-"That's all very well," said the colonel, "but in the first place this
-man is ordered to go back the same way, and in the next we have no other
-cycles or cyclists."
-
-"We have a couple of cycles," said the captain.  "Don't you remember,
-sir, we sent a requisition to the base for a couple of new machine guns
-and by some blunder or other they sent us two motor cycles instead?"
-
-"And we still have them?"
-
-"Oh yes!  We shall have to keep them until someone discovers that they
-are missing and ultimately finds out their whereabouts. And I've no
-doubt we've several men who can ride."
-
-"There's a further consideration.  The road you mention is now between
-our firing line and the enemy's.  It will be decidedly unhealthy."
-
-"A little risky, no doubt; but by all accounts the Germans have been
-thrown back some distance, and they'll be too busy consolidating their
-new position to be very dangerous to-day.  I daresay there'll be snipers
-here and there, but they're not very successful at running targets.  I'd
-suggest that you triplicate your despatch: send one copy by this man the
-long way, and two at short intervals by the direct road.  You'd make
-sure of it thus."
-
-"Well, I'll 'phone to the front and discover how the land lies.  In the
-meantime see if you can find riders.  If it appears reasonably safe I'll
-adopt your suggestion: it will save half an hour or more."
-
-The captain at once hurried to the Bonnards' cottage.  "Amory's a likely
-man," he thought.
-
-The upshot was that when the official despatch rider was returning to
-headquarters by the long way round, Kenneth and Harry were speeding
-along the road north-eastward.  Harry was the first to start; Kenneth
-followed at a minute's interval, just keeping his friend in sight. Their
-orders were to let nothing interfere with or delay the delivery of the
-despatch. If any accident happened, if either of them was hit by a
-sniper's bullet, there must be no question of helping the other.
-
-Before starting they had attentively studied a large-scale map of the
-district. The colonel's information had shown the impossibility of
-attempting to reach headquarters without leaving the direct road. This
-lay, for about half the distance, between the new fronts of the opposing
-forces, but it then crossed the new position which the Germans were
-believed to be entrenching, and ran for several miles behind it.  There
-was, however, a by-road forking to the left just before the halfway
-point was reached, and this opened into a bridle track leading in the
-right direction.  By making this slight detour they would lose a mile or
-two, but they might hope to incur no more danger than they were bound to
-risk in the early part of the journey.
-
-"Barring accidents, we shall save a good deal more time than the colonel
-thinks," said Kenneth, as he folded the map.  "The way the other fellow
-has gone is sure to be congested with traffic: this will be clear."
-
-"I hope so," replied Harry, "but don't forget there's been an action.
-The road is probably half pits.  Well, I go first then; if I come a
-cropper, take warning and scoot."
-
-At the outset the road was not so bad as he had expected, and he was
-able to run the machine at a pace of nearly forty miles an hour without
-much risk.  There were few marks of gun fire, no doubt because the road
-followed the bottom of an indentation over which the shells had passed.
-But after a time it rose, and the ground fell away on each side, and
-Harry was warned of the necessity of reducing speed by a sudden jolt
-that made him bite his tongue.  From that moment he had to watch every
-yard of the road.  Sometimes on the left, sometimes in the centre,
-sometimes on the right, yawned a shell pit deep enough to bury a wagon.
-Presently he had to pick his way through a litter of broken rifles,
-helmets, haversacks, all sorts of articles of equipment, evidently
-dropped or thrown aside by the Germans in their disordered flight the
-day before.  Time was so important that, even now, he rode at a speed
-that would have seemed lunacy to a motorist with a proper respect for
-springs and bearings, avoiding only dangerous holes, and riding over
-most of the obstacles. His progress was a succession of jolts and jerks
-that threatened to dislocate the machine, and he afterwards wondered
-that it had not broken down under the strain.
-
-He came into the by-road.  This, being at a lower level than the road he
-had left, had not suffered so much from shells; on the other hand, it
-was scored with ruts and soft with mud, into which the wheels now and
-then sank several inches.  He was beset now by a constant fear of
-skidding, and annoyed by splashes of mud on his face.
-
-"It might be worse," he thought.  "Lucky they are not bullets."
-
-So far, it was clear, he had not been seen by the snipers whom Captain
-Adams had mentioned as the greatest risk of the journey. The ground on
-either side rolled away in gentle undulations.  There was neither house
-nor living creature in sight.  Guns were booming in the far distance,
-but though he knew that there were thousands of invisible soldiers on
-each side of him, nothing on the face of the country indicated a state
-of war.
-
-Topping a rise, he came to a ruined hamlet in which not a single cottage
-was whole. Beyond this branched the bridle track that led to his
-destination.  It was a lane no more than four feet wide, between hedges,
-and thick with slimy mud.  It wound and twisted in an erratic and
-seemingly purposeless manner, and but for the evidence of the map he had
-conned Harry would have had no confidence in its general direction.
-
-Suddenly he heard the characteristic scream of a shell not far ahead.
-Immediately afterwards the deep boom of a heavy gun came from his right.
-The German gunners had started work.  In a few seconds there was rolling
-thunder on each side of him; it was evident that a violent artillery
-duel was in progress.  The hedges prevented him from seeing anything;
-but reflecting that the gunners were aiming at each other's positions he
-was not disturbed about his own safety.
-
-He had just turned an awkward corner, narrowly avoiding a sideslip, and
-was congratulating himself on a few yards of straight track and a
-widening that gave hope of reaching an open road, when, amid the sound
-of guns, he caught another sound, which at first he mistook for the
-whirr of an aeroplane.  In a moment, however, he recognised his error.
-It was the purring of a motor bicycle, and in front, approaching him.
-Almost as soon as he knew this, the machine came in sight at the far
-corner, perhaps a hundred yards away, running at no great speed.  At the
-first glance he saw that the rider was a German; at the second that the
-German was not unprepared to meet him. He realised afterwards that, the
-wind being with him, the noise of his own swiftly running engine must
-have been heard first.
-
-Each had only a few moments to decide what to do.  The German, the
-instant he recognised the approaching rider as a British soldier,
-screwed on his brakes, turned the bicycle across the lane, sprang off
-and drew a revolver, no doubt expecting that the Englishman would swerve
-at the obstacle, be forced into the hedge, and present an easy target.
-His reasoning, if such it was, would have been sound enough had it not
-proceeded from a faulty estimate of the English mind--an error into
-which the Germans have been betrayed many times since the Kaiser made
-his initial blunder in the same kind.  The German is a master of the
-obvious, and imagines that what he would do is the best thing to be
-done, and that an Englishman will do it badly.
-
-Harry, however, was not committed by training or habit to either of the
-obvious courses: to allow himself to be forced into the hedge, or to
-stop dead and fight the German on foot.  It seemed to him, in those few
-seconds that he had for deciding, better to clear the way for Kenneth,
-who, no doubt, was not far behind.  A spill would at any rate not hurt
-his feelings, as it might a German's.  Accordingly, instead of applying
-the brakes, he opened the throttle, and bracing himself for the shock,
-drove his machine at ever-increasing speed straight for the enemy.
-
-This, of course, from the German point of view, was English madness.
-Still, it was unexpected, and when the German fired, at the distance of
-twenty paces, his aim was flurried by his natural surprise, and by the
-sudden realisation that his machine would certainly be smashed.
-Dropping his revolver, and shouting something that was far from
-complimentary, he tried to pull his bicycle clear; but his action was
-not only too late; like so many well-meant efforts to prevent mischief,
-it furthered it.  His movement of a few inches caused Harry's bicycle to
-strike the hub of the driving wheel instead of the middle of the
-machine, for which he was steering.  Harry was flung over the
-handle-bars into the hedge, a few feet in advance of the bicycles, which
-lay mangled together, and not quite so far from the German, who had very
-luckily escaped being crushed beneath them.
-
-The two men staggered to their feet almost at the same moment, bruised
-and shaken, but equally unconscious of their hurts.  The German, with
-his cultivated instinct, fumbled for his revolver, remembered it was on
-the ground out of reach, and was drawing his sword-bayonet when Harry,
-in the British way, flung himself upon him.  And when Kenneth, half a
-minute later, drawn up at speed by the sound of the crash, came upon the
-scene, he beheld with mingled amazement and concern two military
-figures, begrimed with mud, struggling on the ground.  The figure in
-grey was undermost.
-
-"Go on!" shouted Harry.  "I've got the Hikiotoshi on him."
-
-Kenneth had slowed down, but remembering the captain's injunction, and
-seeing that his friend was well able to take care of himself, he opened
-out and in a few seconds was pushing along at as high a speed as the
-greasy lane permitted.  He could not help smiling at the recollection of
-his own bewilderment and naive indignation when, in one of his early
-lessons in jujutsu from Mr. Kishimaru, he had found both legs suddenly
-swept from under him, and heard the Japanese, beaming down upon him,
-gently remark:
-
-"That, my dear sir, is the Hikiotoshi."
-
-Kenneth's experiences along the road had been identical with Harry's.
-But a few seconds after he had left the scene of the collision he had
-reason to wonder, for the first time, whether he would ever reach his
-destination.  The bridle track opened into a road that intersected a
-stretch of plain. It had suffered hardly at all from shells; being on a
-higher level than the bridle track it was fairly dry and gave a better
-surface for riding; but it was fully exposed on either hand, without
-protection of hedge or dyke; and anyone passing along it must be in full
-view for a considerable distance left and right.  And Kenneth found that
-he had run into the very centre of the artillery duel the sounds of
-which he had heard for some minutes.  Shells whizzed over his head in
-both directions.  Bang to the left of him, boom to the right of him, and
-above him shriek and moan in various tones.  And in the midst of the
-broken sounds came the continuous hum of an aeroplane somewhere in the
-neighbourhood.
-
-Neither the German nor the British batteries were visible.  Kenneth
-indeed did not look round for their flashes or the smoke from the
-bursting shells.  Bending forward over the handle-bars he raced on,
-congratulating himself that, his course being probably midway between
-the distant batteries, the gunners on each side were too intent on
-searching the hostile position to concern themselves about a solitary
-cyclist careering across their front at a shorter range.  But he knew
-that between him and the guns infantry were watching in their trenches,
-perhaps awaiting the order to advance, and at any moment he might find
-himself caught between two fires.
-
-He was not long left in doubt whether he had been seen.  From the right
-a bullet sang across the road.  It was a single shot, from the rifle of
-some sniper concealed somewhere in advance of the German lines.  At a
-speed of fifty miles an hour he must be a difficult target even for the
-most expert of marksmen, and he hoped that speed would save him.
-Another shot whistled by his ear; that was a narrow escape, he thought;
-but there had been no volley from the German trenches: apparently he had
-not been seen except by the sniper, and it was only a stream of shot
-from rifles or machine guns that he had to fear.
-
-Presently, however, he was startled by a loud explosion near at hand on
-his left; glancing round, he saw a column of earth and smoke rise from
-the ground.  "That's a shell from a field-gun," he thought.  "The
-Germans have spotted me, and are trying their hand."  Another shell
-burst on his right, close enough to bespatter him with earth.  A few
-seconds afterwards there was a shattering explosion on the same side, of
-such force that the concussion of the air alone was sufficient to hurl
-his machine sideways.  Uncontrollably it mounted a low bank on the left,
-jumped a ditch, tore a furrow through the heavy soil, then stopped
-slowly and turned over.
-
-Kenneth picked himself up, covered with dirt but unharmed.  He looked at
-the fallen machine.  Both wheels were buckled; from one the tyre had
-been ripped off; the bicycle was damaged beyond repair.  A shell
-bursting within a hundred yards sent him scrambling into a ditch, where
-he rested for a few moments to collect himself.  The German gunners were
-apparently satisfied; the firing ceased.
-
-"Scuppered, and with only a few miles to go," he thought.  "Both of us!
-The long way will prove to be the shortest after all."
-
-After a little consideration he came to the conclusion that there was
-still a chance of arriving first at headquarters by making his way along
-the ditch parallel with the road.  In any case he must attempt it, for
-the third rider might have met with an accident: his clear duty was to
-go on and deliver the despatch.  He was farther from his destination
-than he supposed, and it would probably have taken him an hour to reach
-it on foot.  But he set off along the bottom of the ditch, sinking
-sometimes over his ankles in slime and water.
-
-Some twenty minutes afterwards he was surprised to hear another series
-of explosions on the road behind him.  A little later the wind carried
-towards him the purr of a motor bicycle.  It was rapidly approaching;
-the crash of bursting shells came nearer and nearer.  Was the rider a
-friend or an enemy?  It could not be either Harry or the German he had
-met, for he had seen at a glance as he passed by that their machines
-were crippled.  He was bound to be discovered; the ditch, while deep
-enough to conceal him from the gunners in the distance, would not hide
-him from anyone passing along the road, even if he lay flat in the
-filthy ooze.  He drew the revolver which Captain Adams had lent him,
-resolving to get his shot in first.
-
-Only a few seconds elapsed between his hearing the sound and the
-appearance of the bicycle round a curve in the road behind.  The rider
-was in khaki; he was flat over the handle-bars; the machine seemed to
-leap along the road.  It flashed by, and Kenneth, crouching over the
-ditch, was amazed to see that the rider was Harry. Whether his friend
-had recognised him he could not tell.  Quite oblivious of the shells
-that were still bursting on and near the road, he watched the bicycle's
-breakneck career until it passed under a bank that protected it from the
-German guns, turned a corner, and disappeared.  Next moment there was a
-crash behind him; he was conscious for the fraction of a second of sharp
-blows on every part of his body; then he knew no more.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER XV
-
-                          THE OBSERVATION POST
-
-
-Harry reached the divisional headquarters without further mishap, and
-delivered his despatch.  The rider who had come by the long way had not
-arrived.  It was more than half an hour later when he at last rode in,
-and explained that he had been delayed at several points by congestion
-of traffic.
-
-Meanwhile Harry had obtained leave to ride back and bring in his
-companion, whom he expected to meet within a mile or two. Evening was
-coming on; heavy clouds were heaping themselves in the western sky,
-hastening the dark.  Harry had only the vaguest idea of the locality of
-the spot where he had caught a momentary glimpse of Kenneth, and after
-riding for some distance, untroubled by attentions from the German
-gunners, without meeting him, he began to feel uneasy.  The sight of the
-abandoned motor bicycle increased his misgiving. Turning at the bridle
-path he rode back very slowly, closely scanning both sides of the road.
-At length he descried, in the failing light, a body lying half in, half
-out of the ditch.  He jumped off his machine and hastened to the
-prostrate form, dreading to find that his friend was killed.  But a
-moment's examination sufficed to reassure him.  The heart was still
-beating.  A few drops from his flask revived Kenneth, who sat up, a
-deplorable object, caked with mud from head to foot.
-
-"How do you feel, old man?" asked Harry anxiously.
-
-"Ugh!" grunted Kenneth.  "Is my collar-bone broken?"
-
-"Not a bit of it, or you couldn't move your neck like that.  Can you get
-up?"
-
-"Give me a hand."
-
-He rose slowly to his feet.
-
-"Is my skull cracked?" he asked. "Where's my cap?"
-
-Harry picked it up, and put it on his head after feeling all over the
-skull.
-
-"Just pinch me up and down the legs, will you?" said Kenneth.
-
-"I don't think there's anything wrong," said Harry after pressing all
-the joints and muscles.
-
-"Then I've cost the Germans a good few pounds for nothing.  I'm horribly
-dizzy; feel as if a whole rugger team had been over me.  You got through
-to headquarters?"
-
-"Yes.  But look here, I'll tell you about it presently.  D'you think you
-could stick on the carrier?  The sooner we get out of this the better."
-
-"Let me walk a little first.  I'm rather top-heavy at present.  You got
-there first?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Good man!  'Fraid we'd both muff it....  Is my face as dirty as my
-hands?"
-
-"My dear child, your face is all right. If you talk like that I shall be
-certain you are cracked."
-
-"All right, old man; only I was thinking of your face, you know.  I
-don't mind so long as we are both pretty much alike."
-
-"Well now, hop on, and I'll go fairly slowly.  If you feel inclined to
-tumble off, sing out and I'll catch you before you fall."
-
-Kenneth, however, managed to maintain his seat on the carrier, and the
-two rode into headquarters just before absolute dark.  They were given a
-billet for the night, and told to return to their regiment as best they
-could next day.  Luckily able to get a bath, they were then provided
-with supper, and Harry had an opportunity of telling at his ease how he
-had managed to save the situation.
-
-"You see, after I had put him down with the Hikiotoshi----"
-
-"I nearly rolled off with laughing when you sang that out," Kenneth
-interrupted. "How delighted old Kishimaru would be! I must write and
-tell him about it.  Go on."
-
-"Well, I had to lay him out, which wasn't very difficult, and for
-safety's sake I tied him up in his own straps.  Then I had a look at my
-machine.  The front wheel was hopelessly buckled.  What about the
-German's, I thought.  I found that the engine was mere scrap iron; it
-had got the full force of the collision.  But the back wheel wasn't hurt
-a bit.  By good luck it was exactly the same size as mine, and as the
-tool bag was there all complete, I set about exchanging the wheels--and
-also more or less pleasant remarks with the German, who showed a
-wonderful command of English bargee idiom when he recovered his senses.
-I had pulled my old Rover to pieces so often at home that I had no
-trouble, though it took me a long time.  When I had finished, I wondered
-whether I could bring in the German as a prisoner, but I couldn't very
-well fix him on the carrier without help. And besides, the front forks
-had been so strained and twisted that I was afraid the whole concern
-might come to grief.  So I went over and bade him a polite good-bye,
-eased his lashings so that he could wriggle free with a little exertion,
-and then set off at full speed.  By the way, I had taken the liberty of
-examining his pockets, left him a photograph and a few trifles, and took
-a letter and a despatch which I handed to the general.  On the whole I
-think we've done a good day's work."
-
-"I rather think we have.  Pity you didn't leave the German tied up: we
-might have got him to-morrow on our way back."
-
-"No thank you!  Once running the gauntlet of German shells is enough for
-me. We'll go back the long way.  And as we shall have only the one
-machine between us I'll take it to the repairing shop and have it looked
-over.  There's not much wrong with it, and we'll take turn and turn
-about on the carrier."
-
-They set off in a fine spring dawn, taking their midday meal with them.
-It was slow going on this outer circle.  The road, lying well behind the
-British lines, was encumbered with military traffic.  The pave was for
-long stretches occupied by motor omnibuses and lorries, carrying men,
-provisions, and ammunition.  Here was a lorry loaded with bacon, there
-one packed with loaves of bread from the baking ovens, there another
-heaped with parcels sent out from home, another with new uniforms, boots
-and equipment.  Time after time the cyclists had to hop off, leave the
-pave for the muddy unpaved border of the road, and stand ankle deep in
-mud until the heavy vehicles had passed, exchanging pleasantries with
-the cheerful drivers.
-
-"I say, this is a nuisance," said Harry, at one of these stoppages.  "If
-I'm not mistaken, the map showed a cross-road about halfway, leading
-into the road we travelled yesterday.  It comes out by that hamlet we
-passed.  I vote we take that and chance it. There's no firing at
-present, and the road is less exposed at that end.  Of course there's no
-hurry, but this constant hopping off and on is too monotonous for
-anything."
-
-"We'll have a look at the cross-road when we come to it.  It may be too
-bad for riding."
-
-On reaching the cross-road, they found that there was no traffic on it,
-though there were marks of the recent passage of heavy vehicles.  It
-looked fairly easy, so they struck into it, and bowled along for a mile
-or two without interruption.  In spite of bruises due to their spills on
-the previous day they felt very fit, and the rapid movement through the
-fresh morning air had its usual exhilarating effect.
-
-"This is better than the trenches--heaps better than hanging about in
-billets," said Kenneth.  "I'd rather like despatch riding."
-
-"So would I," replied Harry.  "But I don't regret anything.  All I'm
-sorry for is that poor old Ginger is collared.  I'm afraid he's having a
-rotten time of it."
-
-The road was winding and hilly, running through country for the most
-part bare, but dotted with clumps of woodland.  Presently they passed a
-train of artillery transport. Shortly afterwards they came in sight of a
-low hill from the further side of which they expected to see the ruined
-hamlet. As they rode up the hill they suddenly noticed, just below the
-crown on their left, a battery of British field-guns getting into
-position.  The gunners were masking it from aerial observation by means
-of branches of trees and shrubs on which the foliage was well advanced.
-Then a bend of the road brought them in sight of a battalion of
-infantry, evidently in support of the guns.
-
-"Halt there!" cried a man, coming towards them.
-
-They slipped off, left the bicycle by the side of the road, and
-accompanied the man to the colonel.
-
-"Where are you going?" he asked.
-
-Kenneth mentioned the name of their village.
-
-"You can't go this way," said the colonel. "The enemy isn't far on the
-other side of the road this leads to, and I don't want anything to
-attract his attention to this quarter.  Ride back, and go along the main
-road."
-
-"We can't get along very well for the traffic, sir," said Kenneth.  "We
-rode the other way yesterday, and know it quite well.  It's much
-shorter, and a good deal of it is in a hollow, so that we are not very
-likely to be seen.  Besides, sir, we might possibly do a little scouting
-on the way."
-
-"You're not in a signal company?"
-
-"Not officially, sir, though we carried an emergency despatch
-yesterday."
-
-"Well, I'll let you through on condition that you come back at once if
-you see anything worth reporting.  You're a public school man, aren't
-you?"
-
-"Yes, sir.  Haileybury."
-
-"O.T.C.?"
-
-"Yes, sir."
-
-"Couldn't wait for a commission, I suppose?  Well, remember your work on
-field days.  I can trust you to use your intelligence."
-
-"Thank you, sir."
-
-"By the way, I must tell you that a field telephone has gone ahead.
-Look alive; the gunners are in a hurry."
-
-They remounted and rode on, passing a screen of scouts lying over a wide
-front below the crest of the hill.  As they were nearing the foot of the
-farther slope they saw the telephone wagon coming towards them.  On
-meeting it they stopped and asked the driver what was going on.
-
-"Nothing yet.  We've laid the wire to a cottage you'll see in the
-distance when you get beyond those trees.  There's a lieutenant and four
-men in charge.  You'd better hurry up."
-
-"What, are there any Germans in sight?" asked Harry.
-
-"No; but there's been a bit of sniping. I don't think they could have
-seen us going into the cottage, but they must have caught sight of us on
-the road.  I heard the smack of a bullet on the back of the wagon, and
-was thankful when I got under the trees."
-
-They went on.  Beyond the trees the road ran straight up a long gradual
-incline. To the left, on the crest, stood a small cottage, enclosed,
-with its garden, within a brick wall.  They had ridden only a few yards
-up the ascent when they heard the crackle of rifle fire ahead.
-
-"The Germans must have seen or guessed that the men went to the
-cottage," said Kenneth.  "We had better leave the machine and go up
-across the field.  The cottage and garden wall will give us cover.  It
-will be just as well to learn what's going on."
-
-They left the road and ran up the grassy hill towards the cottage.  On
-nearing the crest they became aware that the firing they had heard was
-being directed from the front of the cottage.  There was no answering
-fire, but it was clear that the little party in the cottage was
-expecting an attack. Being an observation party, to whose success
-secrecy was essential, it was equally clear that they would not have
-fired except from urgent necessity.
-
-"Ride back and tell the colonel," said Kenneth.  "I'll go on and lend a
-hand."
-
-At another moment it would have been Harry's way to dispute his friend's
-right to the dangerous part, and to settle the matter by the spin of a
-coin.  It might have occurred to him, too, that the call for support
-would reach the colonel by telephone more quickly than he could convey
-it on the bicycle.  But guessing that the position was critical, he
-turned his back at once, ran down the hill, mounted the machine, and
-rode back at his utmost speed.  Kenneth meanwhile had vaulted the garden
-wall, and dashed into the cottage through the open door at the back.
-
-During the next ten or fifteen minutes events crowded one upon another
-more rapidly than can be related, and we must pause for a little to make
-the position clear. The cottage stood on a spur projecting slightly
-eastward from the general line of the ridge.  Below it the ground sloped
-gently down to the road which Kenneth and Harry had travelled on the
-previous day.  Beyond that the country undulated for several miles.
-About a mile away was a young plantation.  The road ran right and left,
-with considerable windings, and a mile and a half away, on the right,
-was the ruined hamlet through which the motor riders had passed.  A
-little below the cottage a stone wall of no great height stretched
-across the ground, ultimately meeting the road.  On the eastern side of
-it--that is, in the direction of the German lines--was a ditch, shallow
-and empty.  During the night a full regiment of Germans, reorganised
-after their recent repulse, had occupied the wood and the hamlet, the
-advance guard of a large body whose purpose was to carry their line
-forward just as the British on their side were doing.  The British
-engineer party had not completed the installation of the telephone in
-the cottage when the lieutenant saw the Germans debouching from the wood
-towards the hamlet, and considerable movement in the hamlet itself.
-Ordering his men to cut loopholes in the wall of the front room on the
-upper storey, and to fire if the enemy appeared to be advancing on the
-cottage, he worked at the telephone, and had almost finished when the
-German scouts were seen creeping up the hill about half a mile away.
-Below them was a company in extended order; below them again a second
-company in support.  They were coming straight towards the cottage, and
-the men, in obedience to their officer's orders, had fired.
-
-Kenneth dashed into the cottage.  The lower floor was empty.  He rushed
-up the stairs into the only room above.  Four men were posted at the
-loopholes; the lieutenant was screwing on the receiver of the telephone.
-He looked up as Kenneth entered.
-
-"Are they coming on already?" he asked.
-
-"No; but a pal of mine has ridden back to tell the colonel."
-
-"That's good.  It will be a minute or two before this wretched thing is
-in working order."
-
-Just then there was a burst of rifle fire from the enemy.  The windows
-were shattered.  One of the men dropped his rifle and shouted.
-
-"Get out and back to our lines," called the officer, seeing that he was
-_hors de combat_. "Take his rifle, will you?" he added to Kenneth.  "For
-goodness' sake don't go near the window."
-
-Kenneth picked up the rifle and hurried to a loophole.  From the volume
-of the enemy's fire it was clear that the assailants were a very
-numerous body, and it struck him as madness for five men to attempt to
-hold the place.  He ventured to say so.
-
-"Done at last!" said the lieutenant. "What was that you said? ... All
-right" (he spoke through the telephone).  "Infantry advancing.  No sign
-of battery.... Hold it!  Of course we must.  If they get here they can
-see our battery from the roof.  Besides, if we can hold them off until
-the battalion comes up we couldn't have a better defensive position than
-the wall and ditch in front....  Gad! that's bad."
-
-A shell had burst on the slope between the cottage and the road, clear
-of the infantry advancing farther to the right.
-
-"Take my glasses," continued the lieutenant, "go well to the left, and
-see if you can spot the direction when the next shell comes."  In low
-distinct tones he spoke into the bell of the receiver: "Enemy firing
-line about 700 yards below crest, range say 5200."
-
-Another shell burst about a hundred yards to the left of the cottage.
-
-"See the flash?" asked the officer, with the receiver at his ear.
-
-"No."
-
-"They're firing at long range....  Yes: all right....  They've had to
-change their position--our battery, I mean.  Want another five minutes."
-He looked at his wrist watch.  "By that time the Germans will be upon
-us, even if a lucky shot from one of their big guns don't tumble the
-place about our ears.  However!"
-
-Kenneth admired the young officer's coolness as, laying down the
-receiver, he took up a rifle and posted himself at a loophole. The
-Germans had stopped firing: bending low they were creeping up yard by
-yard towards the wall.
-
-"Are you a good shot?" asked the officer.
-
-"Fair," replied Kenneth.
-
-"Then pick off the men on the flank.  If they get across that dyke
-they'll work round to our rear and have cover until they are close upon
-us."
-
-Kenneth, sighting for 500 yards, took aim at the man highest up on the
-enemy's extreme left flank.  The man dropped.  Then he fired at the next
-man, and missed.  A second shot found its mark.  Meanwhile the officer
-and his three men methodically fired, each through his own loophole.
-And for four crowded minutes they poured their bullets into the line of
-scouts, which thinned away until not one was visible on the hillside.
-
-But the company behind was pushing steadily on, and now opened fire.  A
-hail of bullets struck the walls of the cottage and whistled through the
-broken windows. The officer, creeping across the floor to the telephone
-receiver, was smothered with splinters of wood.  One of the men uttered
-an oath and drew his hand across his cheek.
-
-"A free shave, Tom," said the next man with a grin.  "Whiskers won't
-grow there no more."
-
-Meanwhile, every twenty or thirty seconds a shell burst in the
-neighbourhood of the cottage, every time nearer.  The noise was
-terrific.
-
-"Long time getting the range," said the lieutenant, holding the receiver
-to his ear. "Our boys are just going to start.... Yes; still coming on;
-range 5000: 400 less will smash _me_, so be careful." ...
-
-Almost immediately afterwards a British shell burst in front of the
-cottage.
-
-"Where did it fall?" asked the officer.
-
-"Behind their supports, sir," replied one of the men.
-
-"Make it 4800," said the lieutenant through the telephone.
-
-The words had scarcely left his lips when there was a terrific crash.
-For a few seconds Kenneth was so dazed as almost to be unconscious.
-When he regained his wits he found himself lying in darkness on the
-floor.  An acrid smell teased his nostrils. Wondering where he was, and
-why he was alive, he tried to rise, and knocking his head, discovered
-that he was under a bed. He crawled out, over a heap of rubbish, and
-wriggled to a gap in the back wall, and into the garden.  And there,
-emerging from the framework of what had been a window, was the
-lieutenant, his face streaming with blood.  But he still held the
-telephone receiver, which, by one of the freaks of such explosions, had
-remained undamaged.
-
-"Cottage bashed to bits," he reported coolly through the telephone....
-"No answer.  The line's broken somewhere. Wonder whether it was a German
-shell or one of ours.  Hunt about for a rifle.  By their howls they're
-coming on.  We'll creep round into the ditch.  I've got my revolver:
-come after me if you can find a rifle."
-
-But Kenneth was diverted from his search for a rifle by groans from
-beneath a heap of debris.  Removing it as quickly as possible, he
-released one of the privates, whose face was cut and bruised and his arm
-broken. He was wondering whether to look for the other men or for a
-rifle when he saw a khaki figure running along by the garden wall
-towards the ditch.  Another followed, then another, then groups, all
-hastening quietly in the direction of the firing.  The battalion had
-come up at last.  Kenneth continued his search for the men.  One was
-dead; the third badly wounded.
-
-Meanwhile the British soldiers, puffing hard with the run up the hill,
-were filing into the ditch, opening fire on the Germans the moment they
-arrived.  The enemy's artillery was silent, no doubt for fear of hitting
-their own men.  But British shells were falling almost incessantly on
-the German columns down the hill.  Still the enemy advanced, losing more
-and more heavily as the ditch filled up.  And presently, unable to
-endure the terrible fire from the British vantage position above them,
-they recoiled and were soon in full retreat, with still heavier losses,
-for by the time they reached the road the whole of the British battalion
-was extended along the firing line.
-
-The British at once set to work to deepen the ditch for a regular
-trench.  Before long the German artillery again began to play, the fire
-becoming more and more accurate as the gunners found the range.  The Red
-Cross men were kept busy in tending the wounded under cover of the
-ruined cottage. In a short time the British position on the ridge was
-consolidated, and preparations were made for a line of trenches,
-somewhat farther back and less exposed, which would become the permanent
-trenches if the Germans were in sufficient force to return to the
-attack.
-
-By force of circumstances Kenneth had taken no part in the fight after
-the collapse of the cottage.  But the engineer lieutenant, who had
-retired from the firing line as soon as the ditch was manned, and
-imperturbably rummaged among the ruins for the broken wire, thanked him
-for his help.
-
-Kenneth wondered why Harry had not returned.  As soon as he had an
-opportunity he enquired about him, and learnt that the colonel had sent
-him to the village with a message.  The road by which Kenneth had
-intended to return being closed, he could only regain his billet by
-tramping back until he reached the main road.  But Harry on the bicycle
-met him halfway, and they reached their quarters in time for dinner. And
-there they learnt that a portion of the village which they had captured
-two days before had been won back by the Germans.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XVI
-
-                          EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY
-
-
-In a small room in one of the houses at the foot of the hill village,
-bending over a table spread with papers, sat Lieutenant Axel von
-Schwank, an officer of a crack Prussian regiment, and a scion of an
-ancient and exalted family.
-
-He had had an excellent dinner, without sparing the wine: what need was
-there to do so when so many cases had been obtained gratis in Champagne?
-He would have liked to remain with his brother officers, convivially
-employed in the room on the other side of the passage; but his colonel
-had given him some work to do. That was the penalty of being a musician.
-
-For Lieutenant Axel von Schwank was accomplished in music.  His
-rendering of the Waldstein sonata was wonderful for an amateur and a
-Prussian; he sang "The Two Grenadiers" with _eclat_, as his friends used
-to say before the authorities ordered the French language to be
-abolished; and he was renowned for his ability to read the most
-difficult score at sight.  With all that he was full of martial spirit:
-his cheeks were seamed with no fewer than three scars, proud memorials
-of his student days.
-
-But it was for his musical skill that the colonel had selected him for
-the piece of work on which he was now engaged.  It was very elementary
-work for a man who could play the Waldstein sonata and read a score by
-Strauss; any school girl could have done it; but even the greatest
-philosopher has at times to perform the simple operation of washing his
-face, and the lieutenant need not have felt that he was demeaning
-himself by a task so much below his powers.  For what Lieutenant Axel
-von Schwank was doing was simply to transcribe into musical notation, on
-a sheet of ruled music paper, the two lines of German with which the
-colonel had supplied him.
-
-Surely that is difficult, you say?  He has only seven letters, A to G,
-to employ, representing the seven notes of the scale, and the German
-alphabet has twenty-six.  What about the v's, and w's, and z's in which
-the German language is so much superior to the French?  But in the first
-place, remember that the German musician calls H the note which the less
-accomplished Englishman calls B, and in the second place that the range
-of most instruments, including the German flute, extends beyond a single
-octave.
-
-So that if the lieutenant writes this
-
-[Illustration: [musical note]]
-
-for A, there is nothing to prevent him writing
-
-[Illustration: [musical note]]
-
-for I, and by means of the sharps and flats he can even arrive at Z,
-without exceeding the compass of that dulcet instrument.
-
-He was busy with his transcription when he heard a scuffling of feet and
-the clank of swords in the opposite room.  His fellow officers were
-hurrying to the street door. The colonel put his head in.
-
-"We are called to the trenches," he said. "Go on with that, and follow
-us when you have done."
-
-The lieutenant had sprung up, turned round and saluted.  When his
-superior was gone, he sat down and set to work again. After all, he
-probably reflected, music has charms: it would preserve him for a few
-minutes more from the bullets of those hateful pigs the English.
-
-The house was in silence.
-
-A little while after the officers had departed, a strange, unshaven,
-unkempt face peered round the edge of the door, which the colonel had
-left open.  It was a lined and somewhat careworn face; the eyes were
-bright and wild; the hair, very rough and tangled, was red.  The face
-moved slowly forward; inch by inch a dirty, tattered khaki uniform
-showed itself; and the rays of the lamp on the table glinted on the
-blade of a long carving knife, held in the man's right hand.  He wore no
-boots, and his stockings made no sound as he tiptoed across the room.
-
-[Illustration: THE INTRUDER IN KHAKI]
-
-Lieutenant Axel, bending over the table with his back to the door, was
-absorbed in his occupation.  But just as the intruder reached his chair
-he seemed to become aware that he was not alone.  He turned suddenly,
-his right hand holding the fountain pen, his left, by some instinct,
-crushing the papers into his pocket, and found a determined face glaring
-at him, and a carving knife pointed at his breast.  Before he could
-collect himself a sinewy hand clutched him by the throat, and a voice
-said in a hoarse whisper:
-
-"Make a sound and you're a dead 'un."
-
-Whether a knowledge of English was one of Lieutenant Axel's
-accomplishments or not, there was no mistaking the hand, the knife, the
-purport of the words.  He turned pale; his eyes searched the room for a
-chance of escape; he was discreetly silent; and at a significant
-movement of the offensive blade he raised his hands above his head.  A
-drop of ink fell on his nose.
-
-The captor, in whose expression there was eagerness, anxiety, an air of
-listening, loosed his grip on the officer's throat.
-
-"Take off your uniform and 'coutrements," he said, with a jerk of the
-knife.
-
-Lieutenant Axel hesitated for a moment only.  The Englishman's face was
-not pleasant.  Hurriedly he stripped off tunic, trousers, belt and
-boots.
-
-"That'll do," said Ginger, in whose eyes the look which the German had
-mistaken for fury really indicated that he was at his wits' end to know
-how to effect the change of clothes without putting down the knife and
-giving his captive an opportunity to dash for the door.
-
-An idea flashed upon him.  Still pointing the knife at the officer, he
-took up the lamp with his left hand, placed it on the chimney piece
-close by, and stripped the cloth from the table.
-
-"Put it over your head," he whispered fiercely.
-
-Again a movement of the knife abridged the lieutenant's hesitation.  The
-shrouding table-cloth eclipsed the concentrated fury of his eyes.
-Ginger wasted not a second. He shoved the officer into a corner of the
-room, pulled a sofa across to bar him in, cut a bell-pull with the
-knife, and drawing the cord over his head, began to tighten it. The
-German began to struggle; for the first time he spoke.
-
-"You shtrangle me!" came the muffled words.
-
-"Shut up!" growled Ginger, with a premonitory dig of the knife.  "I
-won't graze your skin if you don't make a fuss.  But----"
-
-Lieutenant Axel may have wondered: this hateful pig was certainly not
-expert in frightfulness; he was very soft, like all the English.  But
-the struggles ceased; the officer was quiet while Ginger knotted the
-cord about his neck.  And he stood there in the corner, a statue in
-table-cloth and pants, as Ginger, with a quickness learnt on raw
-mornings in the barracks at home, endued himself with the well-tailored
-habiliments of a Prussian officer.  The boots were a trifle large for
-him.
-
-He listened.  All was quiet.  He threw a dubious look at the rigid
-officer.
-
-"Not safe," he muttered.
-
-Hastening to the German, he loosed the cord, pulled off the table-cloth,
-and looking into the hot face said:
-
-"You've got to be tied up.  Make a row and you know what.  Join your
-hands behind you."
-
-While Ginger was tying his hands, and his feet to a leg of the sofa,
-Lieutenant Axel von Schwank cursed him in undertones in both English and
-German.  Ginger made no reply.  But as soon as this part of his work was
-finished, he caught up some papers from the mantelpiece--they were
-copies of the Hymn of Hate--twisted them together, and with a sudden
-movement thrust them into the German's mouth.
-
-"There!  Bite them," he muttered. "Such shocking language!"
-
-He once more threw the table-cloth over the helpless man's head, put the
-pickel-haube on his own, and quietly left the room. Passing the open
-door opposite he hesitated for the fraction of a second, then went in,
-gulped a glass of wine, caught up the frame of a chicken from the table,
-and digging his teeth into it ravenously, hurried back, along the
-passage, down a dark flight of steps, and out through the back door into
-the garden. He drew quick breaths as he leant against the wall, gnawing
-the carcase.  From somewhere on his right came low sounds he had learnt
-to recognise as signs of Germans in their trenches.  On the left there
-was silence. In the distance guns boomed.  After a few minutes he threw
-the chicken bones upon a neglected garden plot, sighed, drew his hand
-across his lips, and murmured:
-
-"Blowed if I know!"
-
-The village was a mile or more from his old trench; he knew that.  It
-was, he supposed, wholly in possession of the Germans.  He would have to
-go through it up the hill, or round it, and pass the enemy's trenches
-before he could reach his regiment.  And at any moment the German
-officer might be discovered!
-
-"I must skip," he said to himself.
-
-The assuagement of his terrible hunger had seemed a necessity beyond all
-others. Now he realised his peril.  Choosing the direction that was
-silent, he stole from garden to garden, scaling the fences, and
-presently found himself in a lane.  It was uphill to the right: that was
-his way.  The lane ended in a street.  There he turned to the left, but
-had taken only a few steps when the tread of feet and the sound of
-guttural voices coming towards him sent him back hastily in the opposite
-direction. To his dismay, in a few seconds he heard other men
-approaching.  There was no escape.  On one side he was blocked by a high
-wall, on the other a house dimly lighted.  The night was dark; he wore a
-German uniform; unless accosted by a real officer he might pass safely.
-With shrinking heart but an assured gait he walked boldly on, close to
-the wall.
-
-Dark though it was, the soldiers returning from the trenches recognised
-the officer's uniform and went by stiffly at the salute. Ginger was
-bringing his hand up smartly when he remembered that he was an officer,
-eased the movement, and dropped his hand again, quaking lest some
-terrible blunder in the mode of his return salute should have betrayed
-him.  But in the darkness it passed muster. No doubt the men were tired.
-They went on.  Ginger, perspiring and limp, leant against the wall for a
-moment or two.
-
-"Oh crumbs!" he murmured as he braced himself and set off again.
-
-A few steps brought him to a lane that broke the line of houses on his
-left.  It was quiet.  He turned into it.  The ground rose somewhat
-steeply.
-
-"Must be going right," he thought.
-
-Soon the houses were left behind.  The lane became a track across even
-ground, with a few trees at the borders.  Suddenly the silence was
-broken by the sharp crackle of rifle fire from the upper part of the
-hill. Ginger threw himself down and crouched behind a stout trunk.
-There was no reply from the German trenches, which must be somewhere
-below him, he thought.  He waited patiently until the firing died away,
-then rose and crept forward.
-
-His heart sank into his boots when he came unawares upon a trench and
-heard the murmur of guttural voices.  Before he had time to retreat, a
-sentinel addressed him in German.
-
-"Sssh!" Ginger hissed, sliding into the trench a few feet from the dark
-figure. Further down the trench there were dim lights.  It was neck or
-nothing now. Stepping on to the banquette he began to clamber up to the
-parapet.  The sentry, no doubt believing that the officer was engaged on
-some special scouting duty, came towards him, whispering, "Erlauben Sie,
-Herr Leutnant," and gave him a leg-up.
-
-Ginger scrambled over, fell on hands and knees, and crawled over the
-ground.  How far ahead were the British trenches he knew not; the night
-was too dark for him to be seen, but at the least noise he would
-certainly be taken for a German and become the invisible target for a
-dozen rifles.
-
-While he was slowly wriggling forward he heard a commotion far in his
-rear--shouts, the sound of many men on the move. Probably the muffled
-lieutenant had been discovered; the men in the trenches would be advised
-of the outrage, and the no man's land between the hostile forces might
-be swept by a fusillade.  Crushing himself flat he dragged himself on.
-
-Now there were sounds in front of him. He stopped, panting, listening.
-Yes, they were British voices; were they those of his own comrades?
-What should he do?  If he called, he might be riddled with shot. So many
-Germans could speak English. The Rutlands would know his voice, but what
-if the men in the trenches were not the Rutlands?
-
-For a few moments he lay inert with hopelessness.  Then an idea occurred
-to him.  On again, inch by inch, feeling out for barbed wire.  There was
-none; the position must have been hurriedly occupied. The voices were
-more distinct; his straining cars caught individual words.
-
-"English, I surrender!" he called in a low tone.
-
-The voices were hushed.
-
-"Who goes there?" said a voice.
-
-"Murgatroyd, of the Rutlands," he replied.
-
-"Keep still."
-
-There was a momentary flash of light.
-
-"Don't fire!" called Ginger, instantly realising that his uniform must
-have been seen.  "I surrender."
-
-"Hands up and come on."
-
-Ginger was just rising when bullets sang over his head from behind.  He
-dropped down again; his last chance was gone; they would believe he was
-tricking them.  But he heard an officer give an order.  There was no
-answering fire from the trench in front, no repetition of the volley
-from the rear. He crawled on, dimly seeing the parapet a few yards away.
-
-"I surrender," he repeated, and crawled on, over the sandbags, was
-seized by rough hands, hauled headlong into the trench, and held firmly
-by the neck.
-
-"Got him, sir," said a voice.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XVII
-
-                                STRATEGY
-
-
-"Don't throttle me," Ginger murmured, scarcely able to speak from
-physical exhaustion and the reaction from mental strain.  "Are you the
-Rutlands?"
-
-"No, we ain't.  Got a special fancy for the Rutlands, 'eemingly."
-
-"I'm Murgatroyd, No. 939, 17th battalion, 3rd company, 1st platoon,"
-said Ginger feebly.
-
-"Oh, we know all about that.  You German blighters all speak English,
-but you don't come it over us."
-
-"Silence, Barnet; bring him along," said the officer.
-
-"Yes, sir.  Says he's a Rutland, sir."
-
-Ginger was taken along the dark trench to a dug-out lit by a
-candle-lamp.  The lieutenant looked at him.  The uniform was German,
-from helmet to boots: the Iron Cross was on his breast; but the dirty,
-lined, unshaven face was not that of a German officer.
-
-"Who do you say you are?" said the lieutenant, puzzled.
-
-"Murgatroyd, lance-corporal in the 17th Rutlands, sir: called Ginger,
-sir: look at my hair."
-
-He removed the helmet.  The lieutenant laughed.
-
-"The name suits you," he said.  "But what have you been up to?"
-
-"Taking French leave and German toggery, sir," said Ginger.  "Beg
-pardon; could you give me a drink?  My mouth's that parched.  I'm all of
-a shake."
-
-Refreshed by a cup of tea, Ginger told his story.
-
-"A regular romance," said the lieutenant. "You're as plucky as you are
-lucky.  By George!  I should like to have seen the German taking off his
-uniform.  He must have been very mad."
-
-"He had a very swanky shirt, sir, but I couldn't stop to take that.  Can
-I get back to my billet, sir?"
-
-"Certainly.  I'll send a man with you out of the trenches.  You go round
-by the church, you know."
-
-"I'll find my way, sir, never fear.  If you'd give me a cigarette or
-two...."
-
-"But you'll never get through in that uniform.  I can't give you a
-change.  Stay, I'll write you a note; don't wear the helmet."
-
-"No, sir: I'll send it home to the kids, along with the Iron Cross."
-
-"You've deserved that, at any rate. Well, good luck to you.  I wish you
-were one of my men."
-
-"Thank you, sir."
-
-
-Somewhere about midnight, Ginger, after certain amusing adventures with
-the sentries, knocked at the door of Bonnard's cottage. There was some
-delay: then Bonnard opened the door, lifting a lighted candle.
-
-"Bong swar, m'sew," said Ginger.  "What O!"
-
-"Ma foi!" ejaculated the Frenchman, throwing up his hands.  "C'est
-Monsieur Ginjaire!"
-
-"Ah, wee, wee!  Large as life!  Give me some grub, m'sew: la soupe; more
-so; anything; haven't had a good feed since I saw your jolly face last."
-
-"Oll raight!  Mais c'est merveilleux, epatant!  Entrez donc, m'sieur
-Ginjaire; 'ow d'you do!  Shake 'and!"
-
-"Got the Iron Cross, m'sew," said Ginger with a grin, flicking the
-decoration with his finger-nail.
-
-"Par exemple!" cried Bonnard.  "Ah! vous avez fait un prisonnier; vous
-avez pris un officier prussien, n'est-ce pas?  Bravo! 'ip, 'ip, 'ooray!"
-
-There were growls through the closed door of the bedroom adjoining.
-
-"Messieurs, messieurs," shouted the Frenchman excitedly, "c'est que
-m'sieur Ginjaire est revenu, avec la croix de fer. Eveillez-vous,
-messieurs, pour le voir."
-
-"Shut up; taisez-vous!" called Harry, sleepily.
-
-"Let 'em wait till morning," said Ginger. "Give me some grub.  Don't
-want nothing else in all this wide world.  I've got a fang, as you call
-it.  J'ai fang, comprenny?"
-
-"Ah oui!  Vous allez manger tout votre soul."
-
-"Cheese'll do for me ... What O!"
-
-The door had opened, and Harry appeared, blinking.
-
-"What's all this? ... Great Scot!  Where on earth ... I say, Ken, it's
-Ginger!"
-
-"Shut up and go to sleep."
-
-"It's Ginger, I tell you.  Wake up, man. In a German uniform!"
-
-"Ginger, did you say?" cried Kenneth, joining him.  "Well, I'm
-jiggered!"
-
-Ginger, a spoon in one hand, a hunk of bread in the other, grinned as
-they rushed to him, clapped him on the back, shook each an arm.
-
-"Don't choke me, mates," he spluttered. "Let me finish this soup, and
-I'll tell you a story as beats cock-fighting."
-
-"Tuck in.  They starved you, I suppose--the brutes!" said Harry.  "Let's
-get our coats, Ken: it's chilly.  Bonnard will make up the fire."
-
-Presently, sitting around the fire, they listened to Ginger's story.
-
-"I was sitting on the wing of that aeroplane, thinking of the missus and
-kids, when all of a sudden I was knocked head over tip from behind.
-When I came to myself, there was I strapped in the aeroplane, going
-through the sky like an express train.  We came down in the village over
-yonder, and they lugged me to a colonel, and he asked me a heap of
-questions, and of course I wouldn't answer, and then they hauled me to a
-room, took away my belt and bay'net and boots, and locked me in.  Here's
-the end of my milingtary career, thinks I, and only a lance-corporal!
-
-"They gave me some black bread, like gingerbread without the ginger, and
-some slops they called coffee; I called it dishwater.  I wondered how
-long I'd last on fare like that.  But just before morning I was woke by
-a touch on my face, thought it was a mouse, slapped my hand up, and
-heard a little voice say 'Oh!'  If I could only speak French like you!
-It was the woman of the house.  She let me out and took me down to the
-cellar, and said something which I took to mean she'd give me the tip
-when to get away, but it might have been something else for all I know.
-Anyway, she didn't come back."
-
-"A very unsafe place, I should think, with Germans," said Kenneth.
-
-"There you're wrong.  For why?  'Cos there was no wine there.  The
-cellar was empty.  Hadn't been used for an age, I should think.  It was
-almost pitch dark; just a little air through some holes at the top of
-the wall.  Well, there I was.  The woman had given me some pang and
-fromarge, and a so of o--rummy lingo the French, ain't it?--and for I
-don't know how long I waited, thinking she'd come back and tell me the
-coast was clear.  But she didn't, and knowing the Germans were all over
-the village I didn't dare to stir of my own accord.  Besides, when
-you're expecting something, you don't trouble for a time.  I was so sure
-the woman would come when she could.
-
-"Down there in the dark, of course, I'd no notion of how time was going.
-I heard guns booming every now and again, and sounds in the house above,
-and being pretty easy in my mind, as I say, I dropped off to sleep.
-When I woke I finished off my grub, waiting as patient as a monument for
-the word to clear.  Whether it was night or day I couldn't tell: there
-seemed to be someone moving about the house all the time.  At last I got
-hungry and mortal sick of being alone in the dark, and began to wonder
-what I'd do if she didn't come back.  Thought I'd try and have a look
-round.  I felt my way to the door, and came to the bottom of the
-staircase.  It was light up above, and I heard the Germans talking
-overhead, and didn't dare go up.  I decided to wait till night and try
-again.  I went to that staircase a dozen times, I should think, before
-night; the day seemed extra long; and even when night came I was dished,
-for a lamp was burning, and there were more voices than ever, and I
-heard someone playing a flute.  I guessed they'd sacked the woman for
-letting me go, and smiled to myself at their hunting like mad for me all
-over the place.
-
-"But it was no smiling matter there, I can tell you.  I didn't sleep a
-wink that night, but kept on going to the staircase on the chance they
-were napping above.  Not they!  And I was getting hungrier and hungrier,
-and thirsty!--I never knew before what thirst was.  I felt seedy, and a
-banging in my head, and couldn't keep still, going round and round that
-cellar till I was nearly mad."
-
-"Why didn't you break out when we stormed the village?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"How was I to know about that?"
-
-"There must have been a terrific row," said Harry.  "Close by, too."
-
-"If I'd known I'd have been out like a shot, you bet.  But I guess how
-it was.  I must have got fair worn out with traipsing round and round,
-and fallen asleep at last, and when you go to sleep like that, nothing
-on earth 'ud wake you.  'Specially being used to the sound of guns in
-the trenches. Anyway, when I woke up, I was so mad for food that I said
-to myself I'd get out somehow and chance it.  I went to the staircase;
-there was a light above, so I knew it was night, and I began to crawl
-up.  But there was a footstep on the passage, and down I went again, but
-not into the cellar; that gave me the horrors.  I sat in the dark at the
-foot of the staircase, in the hope there'd be quiet above in time.
-
-"Well, I waited hours, it seemed.  I heard laughing and talking, and
-knives and forks going, and that made me mad.  I was just going to make
-a dash for it when I heard the Germans going along to the door.  I
-didn't hardly dare to hope they'd all clear out, but I waited a bit, and
-all was quite still, and I crawled up on hands and knees so the stairs
-shouldn't creak.  What I was afraid was that the servants were in the
-kitchen, but there wasn't a sound; and I crept along the passage.
-
-"There was two doors, one on each side, open.  On the right was the room
-where the officers had been dining.  The sight of that table was too
-much for me, famished as I was.  I must eat if I died for it.  I was
-just a-going to begin when a little sound almost made me jump out of my
-skin.  I snatched up a carving knife and whipped round, and there,
-across the passage, in the room opposite, was an officer writing at a
-table, with his back to me.  Quick as lightning I thought if I could
-only get into his uniform I'd have a chance of getting through their
-lines in the dark.  I listened: the house was quiet as a graveyard: and
-with the carving knife in my hand I stole across the passage."
-
-He described his brief operations with the German lieutenant and his
-subsequent proceedings.
-
-"And all I want now," he concluded, "is a photo of that Frenchwoman to
-send to the missus, and I hope she've come to no harm."
-
-"You're a trump, Ginger," cried Harry, clapping him on the back.
-"You've certainly won that Iron Cross."
-
-"It'll do for the kids to play with," remarked Ginger.  "Myself, I
-wouldn't wear the thing the Kaiser gives away by the ton. Ah!  I said I
-only wanted one thing, but there's another."
-
-"What's that?"
-
-"Why, to find that farmer that helped the German chap to strap me to the
-aeroplane.  And he pretended to help us hunt for him.  He's a spy,
-that's what he is."
-
-"He was taken into our lines.  I don't know what became of him," said
-Kenneth. "You must tell the captain to-morrow all about it, and he'll
-make enquiries.  You must be fagged; get to bed.  Our men will be jolly
-glad to have you back again."
-
-Ginger's feat made him the hero of the battalion.  The colonel promoted
-him full corporal, and sent a messenger at once to the Wessex regiment
-to enquire what had become of the farmer.  The reply was that the French
-authorities had nothing against the man, who had lived in the
-neighbourhood for years, and he had been allowed to return to his farm.
-Colonel Appleton at once resolved to arrest him.
-
-"We had better do everything in order," he said, to Captain Adams.
-"We're in France, and the authorities might feel hurt if we dispensed
-with them.  I'll get the police commissaire of the district to take the
-matter up as there are no French military officers within thirty miles:
-it will save time.  Tell the Three Musketeers to be ready to go with him
-to identify the man."
-
-Later in the day the summons came. The three men found Captain Adams in
-the company of a stout little spectacled functionary, resplendent in a
-tri-colour sash, and two red-trousered gendarmes.  The police commissary
-not being on the spot, the maire of the neighbouring town had undertaken
-the task.  He had been a sergeant in the army of 1870, and was full of
-zeal.  A motor-car was in waiting.  Into this the party crowded.
-Ginger, clad in a new uniform with the double stripe on his sleeve,
-fraternised with the gendarmes at once, and conversed with them on the
-back seat in a wonderful jargon.  Kenneth and Harry, as more
-accomplished in French, sat with the maire in front.
-
-He was a fussy little man, proud of his antiquated military experience.
-Inclined to dilate on the details of his service under Mac Mahon, he was
-adroitly led by Kenneth to the business in hand.  Then he was full of
-tactics and strategy.
-
-"We must proceed by surprise, messieurs," he said.  "That is a sound
-principle.  I know the place well.  We will stop at some distance from
-the farm house, and advance through the wood in skirmishing order,
-myself in the centre, the gendarmes supporting me, and you English
-gentlemen on the flanks.  Thus we will converge upon the rear of the
-farm house, taking care to arrive simultaneously, and carry the place by
-a coup de main."
-
-It occurred to Kenneth that there were defects in this plan, and that
-their object was to arrest a spy, not to carry a fortress. But he deemed
-it best to say nothing.  The maire evidently liked the sound of his own
-voice, and was bursting with elation at having the conduct, after forty
-years, of what he regarded as a military operation.
-
-"By this means," he went on, "we shall cut off the enemy from his line
-of retreat, which would afford him good cover if he could reach it.
-That I take to be sound tactics, messieurs."
-
-About a mile from the farm house, on a hillside above the wood behind
-it, they came upon a shepherd tending two or three sheep.  He looked up
-as the car ran up the hill, called out, "Bon soir, monsieur le maire!"
-and watched the car as it descended on the other side.  It stopped at
-the foot, the six men got out, and set off across the field towards the
-wood.  The shepherd, a big man with a wart on his nose, instantly took
-to his heels, and running downhill on the near slope, out of sight of
-the maire's party, made at full speed for the wood, about a quarter of a
-mile from the spot where the maire would enter it.
-
-Meanwhile the maire had halted, and was impressively declaring his final
-instructions.
-
-"You will advance cautiously through the wood, with the silence of
-foxes.  Take cover, but preserve a good line: that is a sound principle.
-When you hear my whistle, advance at the double, converging on the
-centre--that is myself.  It is well understood?"
-
-Kenneth explained all this to Ginger, who rubbed his mouth and said:
-
-"He don't happen to be General Joffre, I suppose!  I reckon we three 'ud
-do better without him."
-
-"We're under orders," replied Kenneth. "We must look out for our chance.
-Of course he ought to have sent some of us to the other side."
-
-"He ought to have stayed at home to mind the baby," growled Ginger.
-"However!"
-
-They extended, crept through the wood, and at the given signal dashed
-out upon the farm house.  The maire was left far behind. The doors were
-open, back and front. Ginger was first in at the front, Harry at the
-back.  The house was deserted.  In the kitchen the table was laid for a
-meal; there was hot coffee in a pot: one of the cups was half full.  The
-occupants had evidently left in haste: the surprise had failed.
-
-The Englishmen rushed out, and Ginger collided with the maire, who was
-puffing and blowing, partly from haste, partly from fury at having been
-outstripped.
-
-"My fault, m'sew," said Ginger, picking him up.  "They've bunked."
-
-Kenneth translated, soothingly.
-
-"They must have escaped by the front while we approached from the rear,"
-he said.
-
-"My plan was sound.  It would have succeeded if they had waited," said
-the maire.  "And we gave them no warning: it is incomprehensible."
-
-Meanwhile Harry, Ginger, and the gendarmes were scanning the
-neighbourhood, hastening to various points of vantage. Suddenly Ginger
-gave a shout.  Far to the right, along the road by which the motor lorry
-had been driven, three cyclists were pedalling at full speed away from
-the farm. The rearmost was a big man, like the shepherd whom the party
-had passed on the hill. As soon as Harry saw them, he squared his elbows
-and ran towards the motor-car, nearly a mile away, shouting to Ginger to
-inform the others.  By the time he drove back in the car, the maire had
-decided on pursuit, and was making calculations of speed.  In a few
-moments the car was flashing along the road.  But the cyclists had had
-eight or nine minutes' start.  There was no sign of them.  They had
-evidently quitted the road and made off by one or other of the by-paths
-on each side, along which, even had their tracks been discovered, the
-car could not follow them.
-
-"We're done, all through him!" growled Ginger, in high indignation, with
-a jerk of his head towards the maire.
-
-That little man was explaining to Kenneth that the soundest principles
-sometimes fail in practice through unforeseen contingencies.
-
-"But they will not dare to return to the farm house," he said, "so that
-we have accomplished something."
-
-They returned to the village.  Kenneth gave the colonel a faithful
-report of the expedition.  Colonel Appleton let out a hot word or two.
-
-"Next time we have an arrest to make we'll do it first and consult the
-police afterwards," he said.
-
-
-
-
-                             CHAPTER XVIII
-
-                       USES OF A TRANSPORT LORRY
-
-
-The Rutlands had a somewhat longer spell in billets than usual.  They
-were awaiting a draft from the base to make good their losses.  The
-officers and kind friends at home had provided books and games as a
-relief from the constant mental strain to which modern warfare subjects
-a man, and with these and impromptu smoking concerts they beguiled the
-tedium of inaction.
-
-Monsieur Obernai was very active in effort on their behalf.  Speaking
-English with only a trace of foreign accent, he went freely about among
-the men, conversing with them about their experiences, retailing
-reminiscences of Alsace, making liberal presents of cigarettes.  He was
-very affable with the officers billeted in his house, and sometimes
-joined them in their mess-room. On one of these occasions he remarked
-with a smile that but for the incessant booming of the guns he would
-hardly have known that war was going on, so little did they talk about
-it.
-
-"Anything but that, monsieur," replied Captain Adams.  "'Deeds, not
-words,' is our motto.  The whole thing is so frightful that we try to
-forget all about it at off times."
-
-"It is so different in our army," said Monsieur Obernai.  "Our officers
-are not capable of such detachment."
-
-"'A still tongue makes a wise head,' monsieur," said the captain.
-
-Monsieur Obernai looked puzzled, but smiled amiably.  He had a pleasant
-smile.
-
-One day the battalion was suddenly paraded.  A few minutes afterwards a
-motor car drove up, and the men recognised with a thrill that the
-commander-in-chief had come to inspect them.  Sir John French passed up
-and down the lines, addressing a man here and there, then made a little
-speech to the battalion as a whole, complimenting them on the work they
-had done and promising them stiff work in the future and ultimate
-victory.  After visiting a few slightly injured men who remained in the
-village, the field-marshal drove away amid ringing cheers.
-
-The battalion had only just been dismissed when the whirr of an
-aeroplane was heard, and a few seconds later a Taube flew over the
-place.
-
-"Look out!" cried somebody.
-
-Some of the men scuttled for cover, others looked up nonchalantly into
-the sky.  The aeroplane was out of range.  Suddenly there was a terrific
-explosion.  A column of earth and smoke shot up from a field a few
-hundred yards west of the village.  The Taube was seen flying back,
-chased by a couple of English aeroplanes.
-
-"It almost looks as if they knew the chief was to be here," remarked
-Colonel Appleton, watching the chase among his officers.
-
-"And we only knew it ourselves twenty minutes before he arrived," said
-Captain Adams.
-
-"Well, I knew it last night, but I kept it to myself.  Got word by
-telephone.  They may have tapped the wire.  The spies aren't all
-scotched yet, Adams."
-
-"The deuce!" exclaimed the captain. "I'd like to catch some of them."
-
-"The Germans have very little for their money, though.  Look! our
-fellows have brought the Taube down."
-
-Behind the German lines the aeroplane was whirling in precipitous
-descent from an immense height.
-
-"Two more good men lost!" said the colonel.  "And the spies will go on
-spying."
-
-Next night the Rutlands were ordered back to the hill village.  The
-enemy was to be turned out at all costs.  Regiments were coming up in
-support, and as soon as a sufficient reserve was collected the attack
-was to be driven home.  The men were fired with grim resolution.  News
-had just come in of the employment of poisonous gas at Ypres, miles away
-to the north, and as they cleaned their bayonets they vowed to avenge
-their fallen comrades from Canada.
-
-The upper part of the hill had been held against repeated assaults by
-the Germans. The opposing lines crossed the main street, about ninety
-yards apart.  Between them the houses had been demolished by one side or
-the other.  The houses above the British trenches, and those below the
-German, were occupied by snipers.  The British snipers had an advantage
-in being above the enemy; on the other hand they were more exposed to
-artillery fire, and their positions had been a good deal knocked about.
-To protect themselves from the fire of these snipers the Germans had
-made the parapets of their trenches unusually high.  This handicapped
-them to some extent in replying to rifle fire; but they had compensated
-themselves by installing a large number of machine guns, which were
-certain to take a heavy toll of the attackers when they charged down the
-hill.
-
-Soon after the Rutlands reached their position at the top of the hill,
-in the dusk, a lorry came up from the rear with supplies for the next
-day.  Owing to the rearward slope the vehicle could be brought to within
-a few yards of the trenches without being seen by the enemy, and since
-horses were employed as less noisy than a motor engine, supplies had
-been regularly brought up in this way without the knowledge of the
-Germans.
-
-Kenneth and Ginger, with other men, were unloading the lorry when a
-second lorry appeared near the foot of the hill on the British side.  It
-was heavily laden, and the slope proved to be too much for the two
-horses drawing it.
-
-"Old cab horses, they are," said the driver of the lorry that was being
-unloaded. "Not fit for this job.  I'll have to go down and lend a hand."
-
-Placing a brick under one of the wheels, he unharnessed his horses and
-led them down the hill.  Kenneth and Ginger were carrying a box between
-them to the communication trench running downwards from the crest when a
-shell came whizzing over from the German side and exploded near the
-lorry they had just left, bespattering them with earth, felling one or
-two of their comrades, and sending the rest scampering into the trench.
-The shock of the explosion caused Kenneth to drop his end of the box:
-both he and Ginger were dazed for a few seconds. When they looked round,
-they were aghast to see the lorry moving backward down the hill.  Only
-half its load had been removed, and though its motion was at present
-slow, it would gather speed and, unless it could be checked, would crash
-into the second lorry to which the driver was now yoking his horses.
-For a moment they were paralysed by realisation of the frightful danger.
-Men, horses, stores would all be hurled and crushed in hideous wreck.
-The heavy vehicle was already rolling on more quickly when with mutual
-decision they left the box and sprinted after it.  The case was
-desperate.  Neither of them had any idea how the catastrophe could be
-averted.  It would scarcely be possible to loose the skid and throw it
-into position while the lorry was running, faster every moment.
-
-More fleet of foot than Ginger, Kenneth rushed ahead, overtook the
-lorry, and, a thought striking him, seized the pole, and exerting all
-the force of which he was capable while running at speed, twisted it to
-the left.  The lorry swerved, appeared to hesitate, then ran into a
-shallow ditch at the side of the road and turned over.  The pole,
-striking against a tree, snapped off, flinging Kenneth to the ground.
-
-"Whew!" gasped Ginger, running down. "That was a near thing."
-
-"Twenty yards," said Kenneth, rising and rubbing his elbow.
-
-"George! that was a near 'un!" panted the driver, who had hastened up.
-His face was very pale.  "I owe you one, mate. Nothing else would have
-saved us.  Hope you ain't hurt."
-
-"Nothing to speak of.  The lorry has come off the worst."
-
-"George! you're right!  It's what you may call snookered.  Done for,
-that's what it is.  We'll have to shove it out of the way before I can
-bring my horses up, and leave it.  What you say, Bill?"
-
-"Can't do nothing with it," said the driver of the second lorry.
-
-"Take my tip, and put the skid on when you get yourn up, mate.  George!
-it give me a fright and no mistake."
-
-They drove the second lorry to the summit, leaving Kenneth and Ginger to
-carry up the spilled load.
-
-"The lorry isn't so badly damaged as he thinks," said Kenneth.  "The
-brake is bent, and a good deal of wood is chipped off, but the thing
-will run all right."
-
-He so informed the driver when he met him.
-
-"All the same, you don't catch me driving it back to-night," said the
-man.  "It's nearly dark, the road's bad enough when you're too complay,
-as the Frenchies say. I'll leave it to the morning at any rate."
-
-It was dark when Kenneth and Ginger had finished their task.  They took
-their places with their platoon in the firing trench.
-
-"Think they'll have any gas for us to-morrow?" said Ginger.
-
-"It's not very likely," said Kenneth. "The gas the Germans have been
-using lies low; it would be more useful to us."
-
-"Well, why shouldn't we use it too? What's the odds whether you're
-killed with gas or shrapnel?  Gas don't hurt, I expect, and it's a deal
-cleaner."
-
-"Upon my word I don't know," Kenneth replied.  "There's no logic in it.
-But somehow it goes against the grain.  You poison dogs with gas, not
-men."
-
-"Besides, it's taking an unfair advantage," said Harry.  "It depends on
-the wind--and there's no crossing over at half-time."
-
-The notes of a flute came along the trench from the left.
-
-"Stoneway's at it again," said Ginger.
-
-"The fellow can play," remarked Harry. "Good stuff, too.  He doesn't
-confine himself to the trumpery tunes of the musical comedies.  That's a
-bit of Mozart."
-
-"I've heard that tune somewhere," said Ginger reflectively.  "I haven't
-got much of an ear for music, but I know them twiddles.  Why, hang me, I
-heard 'em when I was in that cellar.  Somebody was playing 'em
-upstairs."
-
-"It's a concerto every flautist knows," said Harry.  "The Germans
-certainly lick us in music."
-
-"A pity they're not satisfied with that," said Kenneth.
-
-They listened in silence till the conclusion of the piece, and joined in
-the general applause.  After a short interval the performer began again,
-now, however, playing detached notes that had neither time nor tune.
-
-"Those exercises, again!" said Ginger. "That's the worst of music.  My
-little Sally is learning the pianner, and she makes me mad sometimes
-with what she calls the five-finger exercises.  'For mercy's sake play
-us a tune,' says I.  'I've got to practise this, Dad,' says she.
-'What's the good of it?' says I.  'Teacher says it's to get my fingers
-in order,' says she.  Anybody'd think her fingers weren't the same as
-other people's; they're all right; a very pretty hand she's got....
-He's stopped, thank goodness! Pass up the word for 'Dolly Grey,' mates."
-
-Silence presently reigned.  The men reclined, dozing.
-
-"I say, Harry," said Kenneth.
-
-"What is it?" replied Harry sleepily.
-
-"I've been thinking.  We might make good use of that lorry."
-
-"How?"
-
-"Let it loose on the Germans."
-
-"Send it down-hill, you mean?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"What's the good?  They'd hear it coming and clear out of the way.  It
-might break their wire and a bit of the parapet--hardly enough damage to
-be worth the fag."
-
-Kenneth was silent for a little.  Then he roused Harry again.  There
-ensued a long conversation between them, at the conclusion of which
-Kenneth crept along the trench to find Captain Adams.  It was some time
-before he returned.
-
-"The colonel agrees," he said in some excitement.  "There's no time to
-lose.  We've got to attack at four o'clock.  Wake up, Ginger."
-
-Ginger having been informed of what was intended, he and Kenneth stole
-from the trench, up the communication trench, and set off at a trot
-towards their billets.  Two hours later they returned in a motor car,
-which halted at the eastern foot of the hill. They carried up a large
-rectangular object, and at a second journey a number of bolts and a
-heavy hammer.  Soon the men in the trenches heard the clank of
-hammering, and Harry suggested that the lorry was being repaired.
-
-His comrades were in fact at work on the lorry.  The object which they
-had brought up consisted of several sheets of corrugated zinc which
-Ginger, a skilled mechanic, had bolted together in the village.  This he
-was now fixing upright over the rear axle of the lorry, so that it
-overlapped the body of the vehicle on each side.  With the assistance of
-Kenneth and the driver of the car he was turning the lorry into an
-armoured car, of unusual form, it is true, but likely, they thought, to
-serve its purpose.  When the zinc was in position, they filled up the
-space between the sheets with sand, and so completed a bullet-proof
-screen about nine feet wide.  Then, going into one of the half-ruined
-houses, they brought out a number of planks and carried them to the
-centre of the firing trench.  There, over a space of about ten feet, the
-parapet was quickly demolished, and the planks were laid across side by
-side, forming a bridge.  The men of the platoon had meanwhile been taken
-into their confidence, and when Captain Adams called for volunteers to
-cut the wire immediately in front, several men crawled out and did the
-work without being detected.
-
-These preparations having been completed, half a dozen men quickly
-pushed the lorry over the crest of the hill to within a few yards of the
-trench.  Favoured by pitch darkness, and moving with the utmost
-quietness, they had everything in readiness by three o'clock, without
-the knowledge of the Germans, and even of the more distant platoons of
-their own battalion.
-
-The orders of the day were already known along the British line.  They
-were to attack just before dawn.  The hill was to be cleared of Germans.
-It was a task for rifles, bayonets, and hand grenades.  They could
-expect no help from artillery, so narrow was the space dividing the
-lines.
-
-At the appointed moment, twenty men of the 1st platoon formed up in file
-behind the lorry, each carrying a hand grenade in addition to his rifle.
-The word was given. They pushed the lorry off; on each side the other
-men scrambled out of the trenches; some crawled forward and cut the wire
-on either side.  Then, without uttering a sound, they charged down the
-hill.
-
-The lorry rumbled slowly over the plank bridge, on to the road, and
-gathered way as it bumped and jolted down towards the German trenches,
-the twenty men running behind it.  When it had covered a dozen yards it
-was greeted with rapid rifle fire from the German sentries.  There were
-shouts from below, but before the enemy realised the manoeuvre, a shower
-of hand grenades fell among them, the lorry crashed through the wire
-entanglement, broke through the parapet, and turned a somersault over
-the trench.
-
-Then a yell burst from the throats of the Rutlands, and the air was rent
-by the crackle of rifles all along the line except at the spot where the
-lorry had fallen.  There Kenneth and his companions sprang into the
-trench, and pushing along to right and left, cleared it with the
-bayonet, the panic-stricken Germans fleeing before them or flinging up
-their hands in token of surrender. Confusion spread along the whole
-line.  The British arrangements had been thoroughly made.  While the
-Rutlands charged down the main street, other regiments were sweeping
-through the streets and alleys on either side, raking them with fire
-from machine guns, flinging bombs into the occupied houses, chasing the
-Germans at the point of the bayonet.  Here and there were furious hand
-to hand encounters; at one point a mass of the enemy's reserves surged
-forward and gained ground, only to be borne back in turn by the
-irresistible dash of British supports.  In half an hour the streets were
-cleared, and while some of the British blocked up the captured trenches
-against counter-attack, others rushed the houses to which the enemy
-still clung, and stormed them one after another.
-
-All this had happened in the grey chill dawn.  By the time the sun's rim
-appeared over the distant horizon the position was completely won, at
-comparatively slight cost.  More than two hundred prisoners remained in
-British hands, and among them Ginger, who had escaped with a few
-bruises, recognised the lieutenant to whom he had been indebted for a
-uniform.
-
-When the roll was called, it was found that of the twenty men who had
-followed the lorry only one had been wounded.
-
-"A capital idea of yours, Amory," said Captain Adams.  "It's a pity we
-can't always be going down-hill behind screens. There's a fortune
-awaiting the man who invents a bullet-proof protection for infantry in
-the field."
-
-"Wouldn't that result in stale-mate, sir?"
-
-"Well, if it put an end to warfare by machinery it would give us a
-chance for our fists!  Men will fight, I suppose, to the crack of doom.
-It would be much healthier if we could fight out our quarrels without
-killing one another."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XIX
-
-                               SUSPICIONS
-
-
-Next day fresh regiments were moved up, and the Rutlands, who had twice
-borne the brunt of the struggle for the hill, were sent into reserve and
-promised a long rest.  They went back to their old quarters, now a good
-deal farther behind the firing line.
-
-One night, when Kenneth was returning alone to his billet, he heard the
-thin squeak of a bat, and glanced up, though it was so dark that he
-could scarcely expect to see the animal.  To his surprise, he caught a
-momentary glimpse of it as it flew across the lane.  It was as though a
-moonbeam had flashed upon the wings for the fraction of a second.  But
-the moon was not up. The sky was clouded; only one or two stars were
-visible; and the rays of a star were too feeble to light up the
-flittering wings.
-
-Kenneth was puzzled.  He stood still, looking up, waiting for the bat to
-reappear. It was circling somewhere above him; he could still hear it
-faintly squeaking; but it did not again come within view, and after a
-while the sound ceased.
-
-"Extraordinary!" thought Kenneth.
-
-He was about to move on when he heard the grating of a key in a lock, so
-slight that it might have passed unnoticed had he not been listening
-intently for the bat.  In this quiet lane, with trees on one side and a
-garden wall on the other, the sound challenged curiosity.  The villagers
-were forbidden to leave their cottages after dark; Kenneth himself had
-only chosen this route as a short cut to his billet; he could not help
-suspecting that one of the inhabitants was breaking rules and entering
-his house by a back way to avoid detection.
-
-It was no part of his duty to play the policeman, and he would have gone
-on his way if he had not at this moment heard a light, hasty footfall,
-as of one walking quickly but cautiously.  Instinctively he remained
-still, keeping close to a tree trunk. A man passed him, moving very
-quietly, almost touching him.  He appeared to be in uniform.  A second
-later he heard the key again.  Then all was silent.
-
-He was now interested, suspicious.  The man was going in the direction
-from which he had come.  Who was he?  What was he doing at this late
-hour?  For a moment he thought of following him; but he was averse to
-getting a man into trouble for what was perhaps a harmless escapade, and
-he decided to proceed.
-
-A few steps brought him to a door in the wall.  The man must have been
-silently let out, and must have left without a word, the door being then
-as quietly closed and locked behind him.  The wall, as Kenneth knew,
-bounded the gardens of two or three of the larger houses.  It might
-perhaps be worth while to find out from which house this nocturnal
-visitor had departed so stealthily. It was too dark to see; Last Post
-would be sounded in a few minutes; all that he could do was to put a
-mark upon the door which he could identify next day.  He scratched a
-cross with his pocket-knife on the right side of the door, on a level
-with the keyhole, which was on the left, and went on, treading lightly
-by instinct.
-
-So soon as he could get off next day, he returned to the lane.  The door
-he had scratched was one of three.  Two were close together.  The wall
-was too high for him to look over; he could only discover the house to
-which his door belonged by going to the end of the lane, and round to
-the front of the houses.  The gardens were large; it meant a walk of
-some considerable distance.  His most certain course was to number his
-paces along the lane, and take an equal number along the street which
-the houses faced.  He went along with even stride, and in the lane
-counted 239 steps. In the street the 237th pace brought him to the front
-gate of Monsieur Obernai.  This must be the house.  His paces had
-probably differed a little, or the street and the lane were not quite
-parallel.
-
-"It's all right," he thought.  "The man was one of the officers'
-servants, perhaps, sent out on some late errand."
-
-But as he went away, this explanation did not appear quite convincing.
-A servant sent on an errand by one of the officers quartered in Monsieur
-Obernai's house would not have been let out stealthily, and locked out.
-Furtiveness implied an uneasy conscience.  Upon this thought came a
-sudden recollection of Madame Bonnard's dislike of the Alsatian.  He had
-seldom himself come into contact with the village philanthropist; it
-seemed to him now that he had even avoided him.  "It never struck me
-before," he thought, "but I haven't felt the least inclination to meet
-him.  Yet some of the men are quite keen on him."
-
-On the previous night he had not mentioned the incident to his comrades.
-It was not in Kenneth's nature to be expansive. He had told them about
-the sudden appearance and disappearance of the bat, which, however,
-they, not having seen it, had not regarded as extraordinary.  But now, a
-little uneasy, he decided to tell them everything.  He felt the need of
-talking it over.
-
-"Capting wants you," said Ginger, meeting him at the door of Bonnard's
-cottage.
-
-"What's it about?" he asked.
-
-"That uniform I borrowed; they found some papers in the pockets, in
-German, seemingly, and Capting wants you to read 'em."
-
-Kenneth went back to Monsieur Obernai's house, was admitted, and found
-Captain Adams with other officers in the mess-room.
-
-"Ah, Amory, we want you," said the captain.  "You know German.  What do
-you make of that?"
-
-He handed him a scrap of paper, straightened out after having been
-crumpled, on which were written two lines in German.
-
-"Tell our friend it is now due east," Kenneth translated.
-
-"That's what I told you, Adams," said one of the lieutenants.  "There's
-nothing in it."
-
-"Well, look at these, Amory."
-
-He handed to him the contents of Lieutenant Axel von Schwank's
-pocket-book. Kenneth looked them over: a copy of the Hymn of Hate, a
-cutting from the _Cologne Gazette_ announcing the blowing up of Woolwich
-Arsenal, some letters from members of the Schwank family, one or two
-memoranda of no importance.  He translated them aloud one by one.
-
-"Nothing of any value to us," said the captain.  "I think we might give
-the letters back to the prisoner.  His people idolise him, evidently.
-Well, the only thing left is this."  He took up a crumpled piece of
-music paper.  "Schwank seems to write music in his spare time--a setting
-of the Hymn of Hate perhaps.  Our find is no use.  Very good, Amory,
-that's all."
-
-But Kenneth, rendered suspicious of everything by his recent
-discoveries, remembered that he had found a similar piece of music paper
-in the trench some weeks before.
-
-"Before you tear that up, sir," he said, "I think I'd let Randall have a
-look at it. We found a paper like it in our trench."
-
-"You think there may be something in it?"
-
-"I'm rather suspicious, sir, but I'd rather say no more until Randall
-has seen it."
-
-The captain sent a man to find Harry. When he arrived, Kenneth asked him
-whether he still had the piece of music paper he had found.  After
-rummaging in his pocket Harry drew the paper out.  The two pieces were
-laid side by side.
-
-"Well?" said the captain, when Harry had examined them for a few
-moments. The other officers crowded round in an interested group.
-
-"They are not alike except in one particular," said Harry: "that neither
-is a recognisable tune."
-
-He whistled the notes.
-
-"Very ugly, certainly," said the captain. "Any further suggestion,
-Amory?"
-
-"What do you call that note in music?" Kenneth asked Harry, pointing to
-the first note on Stoneway's paper.
-
-"B flat," said Harry.
-
-"And the next?"
-
-"E, then D, then E again; the next is A sharp above the stave."
-
-"What are you driving at, Amory?" asked the captain.
-
-"I was wondering if I could make a word out of it, but _bedea_ doesn't
-begin any word either in English or German that I know of. Try the other
-paper."
-
-"F sharp, A, G, E," said Harry.
-
-"It's the sharps and flats that bother me," said Kenneth.  "Do they ever
-call them anything else?"
-
-"No ... Wait a bit.  The Germans call B flat B, and B natural H.  I
-remember toiling away at a fugue on the name BACH years ago.  I say,
-give me a minute.  I've got a notion."
-
-He sat down at the table, took out pencil and began to write the names
-of the notes on the lines and spaces, beginning with A on the second
-leger line below the stave.  Having written H on the third line, instead
-of writing A on the second space he wrote I, and on the third space J.
-Then he paused, looking reflectively at the notes originally written.
-Except in the case of B flat, all the accidentals were sharps.
-
-"We'll try this," he said.
-
-On the third space he wrote C sharp, and called it K, and so proceeding,
-completed the alphabet by writing two notes, the second sharpened, on
-each line and space.  Z fell on the third space above the stave.
-
-"Now try again," he said to Kenneth.
-
-Kenneth took up von Schwank's paper, and read off the names of the notes
-in this new notation.  The first four letters were _Sage_.
-
-"That's good German," he said.
-
-"Go on," said the captain.  "This is very interesting."
-
-Kenneth wrote down the letters as he read them.
-
-"By George!" he cried.  "In English it reads: 'Tell our friend it is now
-due east.'"
-
-"What's due east?" Captain Adams exclaimed.  "Try the other paper."
-
-"The first word is _bedeutend_, 'considerable,'" said Kenneth, writing.
-"The English of it all is, 'Considerable movement in the rear.'"
-
-The officers glanced at one another.
-
-"We've had a spy among us, then," said the captain quietly.  "Where did
-you get this, Randall?"
-
-Harry explained, without however naming the man whom, in common with
-Kenneth, he now suspected.  But his reticence was unnecessary.
-
-"It's that fellow Stoneway, without a doubt," said one of the
-lieutenants.  "He makes the most weird sounds on his flute. You'll
-arrest him, Adams?"
-
-"Wait a little.  There's a deep-laid scheme here.  There's more than one
-man involved.  Who is 'our friend'?"
-
-"I must tell you what I saw last night, sir," said Kenneth.
-
-He described the stealthy exit from the gate in the lane, and the
-discovery that it led from Monsieur Obernai's garden--behind the house
-in which they were then assembled. Captain Adams whistled under his
-breath.
-
-"Rather serious for our polite Alsatian host," he said.  "We must get to
-the bottom of this.  It won't do to act too hastily.  We must catch the
-fellow at it."
-
-"But hang it all, we can't stop here under the roof of a spy," said a
-lieutenant.
-
-"If I may suggest, sir," said Kenneth, "do nothing yet.  Nobody knows
-about this except ourselves.  If you leave the house or show any sign of
-suspicion, those who are involved will smell a rat, and we shall perhaps
-fail to learn all there is to be learnt.  Wouldn't it be better if you
-go on as usual, and let Randall and me, and perhaps Murgatroyd, keep a
-watch on the lane?"
-
-"But Obernai won't appear in the lane," said the captain.
-
-"Very likely not, sir.  I believe his work is done in the house.  You
-remember the lamp signalling we saw in the church tower."
-
-"That's in our hands now."
-
-"Yes, and the light now comes from due east."
-
-"You think that's it?  Have you seen a light?"
-
-"No, sir; but last night I caught a sudden glimpse of a bat flying above
-my head in the lane; it was for only the tenth of a second, just as if
-the bat had crossed a pencil of light.  But I was puzzled, because there
-was no light visible.  I can't help thinking that it has some connection
-with this discovery, and if you'll give us leave to keep a look-out at
-night, we may make sure of it and give you positive grounds for taking
-action."
-
-"What about Stoneway?  Hadn't we better keep him under observation?"
-
-"Leave him to us, sir.  I'd give him plenty of rope."
-
-"And keep enough to hang him afterwards," said the lieutenant of his
-platoon.
-
-"Very well, Amory," said the captain. "You'll of course say nothing to
-any one else.  We'll do our best to keep up appearances before Obernai,
-though upon my word it will tax our histrionic powers.  If you make any
-discovery, don't come to the house; report to me elsewhere."
-
-"If we can collar the men, sir?"
-
-"Oh, in that case do so, and put them under lock and key.  But don't
-attempt too much: it's of great importance to get hold of the whole
-gang, for I imagine that we've been unawares in a wasps' nest all this
-time. We must scotch them all."
-
-"One thing, sir, before we go: will you tell us the arrangement of the
-house?"
-
-"So far as I know it.  Our billets are all in the front.  Obernai and
-his servants live at the back.  On this floor there's a long passage
-between us.  Upstairs there's no communication between back and front:
-the doors are blocked up, to secure our privacy, Obernai said."
-
-"There's a back staircase, then?"
-
-"No doubt."
-
-"How many servants are there, sir?"
-
-"Two men, whom Obernai brought with him from Alsace, he says.  I've
-caught a glimpse of an old woman, too, but she rarely leaves the back
-premises."
-
-With this information Kenneth and Harry left the house, and returned to
-their billet to consult Ginger.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER XX
-
-                        MONSIEUR OBERNAI's ATTIC
-
-
-"I can't hardly believe it," said Ginger, when Kenneth recounted the
-facts and his inferences.  "Never thought Stoneway had the pluck."
-
-"A man without pluck is no good as a spy," Harry remarked.
-
-"True.  He must have had an awful time of it, always wondering if he'd
-be found out, or copped by a German bullet."
-
-"What strikes me most forcibly is the thoroughness of the German
-organisation," said Kenneth.  "You'll always find individuals ready to
-take their lives in their hands, for patriotism or pay; but you won't
-always find things so perfectly organised.  If we're right, Stoneway
-must have been employed first as an anti-recruiting agent, with orders
-to enlist and act as spy within our ranks if that seemed feasible."
-
-"I see through that post-card business now," said Ginger.  "He gave our
-address to some pal in London so that the Germans should know where he
-was, and make use of him.  And then to put it on to me!--a dirty trick.
-But what can you expect when the Kaiser lets his men do dirty tricks and
-gives 'em Iron Crosses for it?  Whatever he is, Bill is no gentleman."
-
-"Stoneway is a German, I suppose?" said Harry.
-
-"Steinweg--not an uncommon German name," replied Kenneth.  "But now, how
-are we going to set about our job?"
-
-"What was that you said about a bat?" said Harry.  "I didn't pay much
-heed."
-
-Kenneth again described the curious phenomenon, adding:
-
-"That's why I want to do something more than watch the lane.  If the man
-I saw was Stoneway, we might catch him again, but give time for Obernai
-to clear away anything suspicious.  It seems to me that what we have to
-do is to get into the house, and have a look at the back premises."
-
-"That means we should have to get in at the back secretly?"
-
-"Yes; if we went to the front openly we shouldn't get farther than the
-lobby."
-
-"Suppose it turns out that we are quite wrong, wouldn't it be rather a
-serious matter to break into a French house?  Obernai is popular: it
-might not be easy to persuade the French authorities that we were not
-burglars."
-
-"Let's chance that," said Ginger.  "For any sake don't let the police
-know beforehand, or the whole thing will be messed up like it was with
-that maire.  Besides, if it comes to that, we've got the capting behind
-us."
-
-"I quite agree," said Kenneth.  "We'll risk it.  Well now, judging by
-the length of the side garden wall, the house is about sixty yards from
-the lane.  With these mysterious comings and goings the back gate will
-very likely be watched; at any rate there'll be somebody about to let
-visitors in and out.  I vote we get into the next garden, and clamber
-over the wall into Obernai's.  We shall have to wait until the people in
-the next house are asleep--say eleven o'clock to-night."
-
-About half-past ten, when the village was dark and silent, the three men
-left their billet and, to avoid detection, took a round-about route to
-the lane.  The air was rather chill, and a light mist hung low over the
-ground.  Each of the three carried a revolver, and they had agreed not
-to speak except in case of necessity, and then only in whispers.
-
-Creeping along softly under cover of the trees that lined one side of
-the lane, they passed Obernai's door, and halted opposite the door of
-the next house, a few yards beyond.  Here they waited, listening.  All
-was silent.  Then Kenneth tiptoed across the lane and quietly tried the
-door of Obernai's garden.  It was bolted.  The next door opened to his
-touch.  Joined by his companions, he entered and found himself in a
-garden much overgrown with weeds. They stole along by the side wall, and
-halted under it about fifty feet from the house.
-
-"Give me a leg-up," Kenneth whispered.
-
-In a few seconds he was down again.  The top of the wall was spiked with
-glass. Stripping off his overcoat, he mounted again, laid the coat over
-the glass, and dropped lightly to the ground, after listening awhile to
-make sure that nobody was about.  The others followed him in turn.
-
-The back of the house was quite dark. There was no sound within or
-without. Through the mist they could just distinguish the path leading
-to the back door.  Kenneth crossed the grass to it, stole along, and
-cautiously turned the door handle.  The door resisted his slight
-pressure: it was locked or bolted.  He looked up the wall. The windows
-were out of reach.  It seemed that the house could only be entered
-forcibly.
-
-He was returning to consult his companions when he suddenly heard behind
-him a sound like the ringing of a muffled electric bell inside the
-house.  Hurrying on, he crouched with the other two at the foot of the
-wall and waited.  In a few moments they heard a bolt drawn.  They could
-see nothing, but apparently the door was being opened.  Then from the
-doorway came a low whisper: "Geben Sie Acht," followed, as by an
-instantaneous after-thought, by the French words, "Prenez garde."  There
-was no reply, but a slight rustle approached, and the three watchers,
-peering over the bushes, saw a woman passing in almost absolute silence
-down the path to the back wall.
-
-Had she left the door open?  Kenneth was thinking of stealing up to it
-to find out when it occurred to him that the woman had perhaps gone to
-let in a visitor.  It would be well to wait a little.  Very soon he was
-justified.  The figure of the woman, scarcely distinguishable in the
-gloom, reappeared. At her heels was a man.  They passed along the path
-within twenty feet of the lurking watchers; neither spoke a word.
-Presently came the sound of a bolt gently shot, then all was silent
-again.
-
-It was pretty clear that the bell had been rung from an electric push in
-the garden door.  Kenneth had seen none; it was probably concealed.
-
-"Shall I find it, and get the door opened?" he whispered to his
-companions.
-
-"That would give the whole show away," said Harry.  "We don't want to
-raise an alarm."
-
-"Then I don't see that we can do anything. The only thing is to tell the
-captain to-morrow, and he'll arrest the lot."
-
-"Why not?" said Ginger.  "If they're innocent, they won't mind--not
-much."
-
-"But we shan't catch them at it.  You may be sure there's nothing
-suspicious to be found in the daytime.  We've got very artful men to
-deal with."
-
-They were still discussing their course of action when they heard the
-bolt drawn again.  Next moment there was a perpendicular streak of dim
-light, which widened rapidly.  The door was open; the room or lobby
-behind was now lit by a small oil lamp, turned very low.  Through the
-illuminated rectangle of the doorway came a man and a woman.  The man
-was in a British uniform.  They stepped down to the path.
-
-"Stoneway!" whispered Ginger.
-
-Pressing themselves almost flat on the ground they watched the two
-figures walking down the path, the end of which, towards the garden
-wall, was scarcely reached by the feeble rays from the doorway.
-
-"Now!" murmured Kenneth.
-
-Bending double, they hastened across the grass, and slipped in through
-the doorway. They were in a lobby.  At the further end of it was a
-closed door.  There were doors on both sides, one of them slightly open.
-In the corner on the right was the staircase leading to the upper floor,
-and on the square-topped newel-post stood the small oil lamp.
-
-Taking in all this at a glance, Kenneth peered through the open door on
-the left. The room was dark and untenanted.  He beckoned to his
-companions.  They followed him into the room.  In less than a minute the
-woman returned from the garden, closed and bolted the door, and was
-moving along the lobby when the stairs creaked slightly, and an old man
-came tottering down.
-
-"Bier, noch Bier," he said in low tones to the woman.
-
-The woman muttered something, took the lamp from its place, and
-accompanied by the old man went into one of the rooms off the lobby on
-the opposite side from the three watchers.  They were heard clumping
-down wooden steps, no doubt leading to the cellars.
-
-"Now's our chance," Kenneth whispered.
-
-The three stole out of the room into the dark lobby, and crept on hands
-and knees up the staircase.  The landing above was equally dark, except
-in the far corner on the right, where light came through a door slightly
-ajar.  The three men tiptoed to it. Kenneth peeped in.  The room was
-apparently Obernai's bedroom.  No one was in it; the bed had not been
-disturbed.  A candle was burning on the dressing-table.  Pieces of heavy
-French furniture afforded means of concealment.
-
-"You stay here," whispered Kenneth. "I'll go on."
-
-He slipped off his boots, blew out the candle, and crept out.  There was
-no sound from below.  On the opposite side of the landing was a narrow
-staircase, leading, he presumed, to the attics.  Up this he groped his
-way.  At the top there was a passage, at the end of which, on the right,
-was a streak of light on the floor.  Feeling his way along, he felt two
-other doors, the handles of which he turned in succession, hoping to
-slip into a dark room as he had done below.  Both doors were locked.  At
-this moment, hearing the footsteps of the old man coming slowly up the
-bottom flight of stairs, he slipped back to the dark end of the passage
-and stood watching there.
-
-The old man mounted the upper flight. A can clinked against the post as
-he turned to the right towards the door beneath which the light shone.
-He tapped on the door; it was opened; the man passed in.  Kenneth heard
-a guttural voice say: "Zwei Batterien heute morgen----"  The remainder
-of the sentence was cut off by the closing of the door.  In a few
-moments it opened again; the old man came out, closed it behind him, and
-sat down on a stool at the end of the passage, either as sentry, or to
-be at hand if more beer was required.
-
-Kenneth scarcely dared to breathe.  What was going on in that room?
-What could he do?  After several uncomfortable minutes the door suddenly
-opened--too wide for his comfort--and a voice said:
-
-"Frisch auf!  Die Lampe ist beinahe erloescht."
-
-The door was shut.  The old man rose wearily and hobbled downstairs, no
-doubt to fetch oil or whatever was used for the lamp.
-
-Kenneth felt that the time had come for action.  The mention of the lamp
-left no doubt in his mind of the work on which the occupants of the room
-were engaged.  Waiting until the old man had reached the foot of the
-lower staircase, he stole down to the room where he had left his
-companions and told them in a few whispered words what he had
-discovered.  They removed their boots and stood behind the door,
-prepared to follow the man when he came up again.
-
-In a few minutes he returned.  They waited until he had ascended the
-upper staircase, then followed him noiselessly, saw him enter the room,
-and crept along to the door, drawing their revolvers.  From within the
-room came the smell of acetylene gas. Standing back against the wall,
-they waited for the reopening of the door.  As soon as the old man
-reappeared, they started forward, pointing their revolvers at him,
-pushed him before them and entered the room.
-
-There was an exclamation, a moment of confusion.
-
-"Hands up, or I fire!" cried Kenneth in German.
-
-There were four men in the room, three seated at a table drinking beer,
-the fourth occupied with a steel lever operating a disc that worked from
-side to side in front of a bright bull's-eye lamp.  Kenneth's warning
-had checked a movement on the part of two of the seated men towards
-their coat pockets. The man at the lamp, who had faced round at the
-sudden intrusion, was quicker than his companions, and drew his revolver
-at the moment of turning.  But as he was raising his hand Harry fired.
-His revolver fell to the floor with a crash, and with a curse he clasped
-his broken wrist with the other hand.
-
-The three others had fallen back into their chairs.  A stream of beer
-from an overturned mug trickled from the table to the floor, for one
-tense moment the only sound in the room.  The men's faces were pale and
-contorted with fear.  They sat, limp, with no spirit for resistance,
-recognizing that the game was up.
-
-Kenneth and Harry glowed with a quiet satisfaction.  Ginger was more
-demonstrative.
-
-"Blest if I haven't got him at last!" he exclaimed, smiling triumphantly
-at one of the prisoners.  "It's the chap that downed me when I was
-sitting on that aeroplane."
-
-"Monsieur Obernai is unfortunate in his friends," said Kenneth.
-
-Obernai glared at him; it was not the expression of a bland
-philanthropist.  One of his companions, a big man with a wart on his
-nose, did not wear the look of pious resignation that might have been
-expected from a man dressed in a cure's soutane.  The features of the
-fourth man seemed familiar to Kenneth, though at the moment he could not
-recall the time or place of his seeing him before.
-
-"We'll just hand these men over to the captain," said Kenneth.  "Then
-we'll deal with Stoneway."
-
-After ordering the men to empty their pockets, they marched them
-downstairs, and through the door connecting the back part of the house
-with the officers' billets. Captain Adams, like the others, had gone to
-bed.  He came to the door of his room in his pyjamas.
-
-"We've caught Obernai and three others signalling with a lamp, sir,"
-said Kenneth.
-
-"You don't say so!  What have you done with them?"
-
-"They are below, sir."
-
-"Take them off to the provost-marshal: I don't want to see them."
-
-"Stoneway is in it, sir, I am sorry to say."
-
-"Arrest him, as quickly as you can. Then come back and tell me all about
-it."
-
-The spies were marched off to prison. Then Ginger with a corporal's
-guard went to the cottage where Stoneway was billeted. Stoneway was not
-there.  Enquiry and search were alike fruitless.  It was not until an
-hour later that Ginger hit on a possible explanation of his absence.
-
-"By jinks!" he exclaimed, with a gesture of vexation.  "I forgot the old
-woman."
-
-He hastened back to Obernai's house. The old woman had disappeared.
-
-On returning to the house some time before, Kenneth and Harry found the
-officers, all in their night attire, examining the signalling apparatus
-in the upper room.
-
-"They are all safely locked up, sir," Kenneth reported.
-
-"That's well.  How did you catch them?"
-
-Kenneth gave an account of the night's work.
-
-"You did very well, Amory," said the captain.  "The battalion is lucky
-in having the Three Musketeers.  And the whole brigade is indebted to
-you.  This is a fiendishly ingenious arrangement."
-
-He explained the working of the apparatus. The acetylene lamp faced one
-end of a long tube, which pierced the outer wall of the house.  By means
-of a delicate mechanism the position of the tube could be altered by
-millimetres.  The length of the tube prevented the rays from converging
-like the rays of a searchlight, so that the light, directed eastward,
-was not likely to be seen except by a person at an equal height.
-
-"I have no doubt at all," said the captain, "that some miles away in the
-German lines there is an operator with a similar lamp, at the same
-height and in the same straight line with this.  We have kept a look-out
-but seen nothing; no doubt the cessation of the flashing gave them
-warning.  To them the light would appear like a star on the horizon, and
-the alternate exposure and dousing of it by means of the disc made the
-signals.  No wonder we've got it unexpectedly hot sometimes."
-
-Here Ginger came in.
-
-"Stoneway's got away, sir," he reported. "I guess the old woman gave him
-the tip."
-
-"Poor wretch!  He can't get far.  I'll circulate the news at once and
-he'll be hunted down.  Now get to your billets, men; I shall want your
-evidence in the morning."
-
-As they were returning through the silent streets, talking over the
-exciting incidents of the night, Kenneth suddenly exclaimed:
-
-"By George!  I remember now.  That fellow was the man I saw talking
-French to Stoneway at St. Pancras station."
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XXI
-
-                              MARKED DOWN
-
-
-About four o'clock on the following afternoon, an old French peasant was
-walking along a road some fifteen miles to the west of the village in
-and around which the Rutlands were billeted.  His lean form was bent,
-wisps of white hair straggled from beneath his broad soft hat, his legs
-dragged themselves along.  There was no one else upon the road, which
-was remote from the main highways that had been for nine months streams
-of traffic; but the old man glanced continually right and left, before
-and behind, as if searching for something with his shrewd bright eyes.
-
-He came to a wood abutting on the road, and, after another look round,
-disappeared among the trees.  A few minutes later he halted, then took a
-few slow careful steps forward, and stopped again, looking down with a
-curious eagerness.  There, stretched on the fresh springing grass of a
-glade spangled with bright spots of sunlight, lay a man asleep.  He was
-clad in the uniform of a British soldier, without a belt.  His cap had
-fallen off, his arms were thrown out, his face was half turned to the
-ground. Perhaps the Frenchman noticed that the regimental badge was
-missing from his cap, the regimental letters from his shoulders.
-
-After standing for a few moments contemplating the prostrate form, he
-bent down and touched the man's shoulder. The soldier started up
-instantly; the expression of his eyes might have betokened anxiety or
-fear; but it changed when he saw that his disturber was just a simple
-old Frenchman, with mildness written all over his brown ruddy face,
-withered like an apple long laid by.
-
-"Bon soir, monsieur," said the Frenchman. "It is a hot sun, to be sure,
-but monsieur l'Anglais will catch a chill if he remains here asleep."
-
-"Ah yes, I must be going," said the soldier, in French surprisingly good
-for an English private.  "I have lost my regiment.  I fell lame and
-dropped behind. Can you get me anything to eat?"
-
-"Why yes, if you will be content with simple fare.  These are hard
-times, monsieur.  But who would not suffer for France? Come to my
-cottage hard by; I can at least give you a crust and a mouthful of wine.
-We French and you English are comrades, to be sure."
-
-"Is your cottage far?"
-
-"A few steps only; it is quite by itself. You would get better food in
-the village, but that is two miles away."
-
-"I'll get a good meal when I rejoin my regiment.  All I want now is a
-little to help me on my way."
-
-"Yes, yes, I understand.  Come then; it is only a few steps."
-
-He set off through the wood, the soldier limping by his side, crossed
-the road, and came within a few minutes to a little timber cabin.  There
-the soldier, sitting on a low stool, ate ravenously the bread and strong
-cheese given him, and drank deep draughts of the thin red wine.  The old
-man watched him benignantly, thinking perhaps that he ate as though
-seeing no near prospect of a full meal.
-
-"You haven't seen my regiment, I suppose?" said the soldier.
-
-"How can I tell?" replied the Frenchman, lifting his hands.  "I have
-seen many regiments; whether yours was among them I do not know."
-
-The soldier noticed a glance towards his shoulders.
-
-"I gave my badges away to the French girls," he said lightly.  "They
-clamoured for souvenirs....  There's no chance of my running into the
-Germans?"
-
-"God forbid!" said the old man.  "They are a little nearer, it is said;
-they are using poisonous gas against our brave men.  But we do not lose
-heart.  They will never beat us, never.  When I look at the mists on
-yonder hills every evening----"
-
-"Mists, are there?"
-
-"Why yes: they creep over the hills at sunset; one can hardly see a
-dozen metres ahead.  They say the Germans crept up a night or two ago in
-the mist, and took an English trench."
-
-"Ah! well now, my regiment was marching to Violaines; you can put me in
-the way?  I must find them before night."
-
-"To be sure."
-
-He went with him to the door, and pointed out the direction.  The
-soldier offered to pay for his food, but the old man, with many
-gestures, refused to accept a sou.  He bade his guest good-bye, returned
-to his cabin and shut the door.  In his eyes was a look of satisfaction
-mingled with a strange eagerness. He hurried to the little window facing
-the road, and looked out from behind the curtain.  The soldier was
-limping along in the direction his host had indicated.  But presently he
-stopped and threw a furtive glance backward towards the cabin, another
-up and down the road, then walked on again.  His lameness had been
-suddenly cured; his gait was even and agile.  And instead of continuing
-in the way shown him, he turned off abruptly and re-entered the wood.
-Beyond it lay those hills which night clothed with mist.
-
-The old man waited a little, then issued from his cabin, trotted to the
-road, and, he also, re-entered the wood.  In a few minutes he was back
-again, and set off at the best speed of his aged legs for the village
-two miles away.  Arriving there, he went straight to the mairie, and
-peered through the wire frame on the door, within which a notice in
-large handwriting was posted.  It was headed in big letters,
-
-                            SOLDAT ANGLAIS,
-
-and beneath was a methodical description, in numbered sentences, of the
-deserter for whose discovery a reward was offered.  The old man ticked
-off the details one by one; then, his bright little eyes gleaming, he
-knocked at the door.
-
-It was a small and unimportant village. The maire was of scarcely higher
-social standing than his visitor.  He had no gendarmes at his disposal:
-all the able-bodied men were in the ranks.
-
-"He is a big man, Jacquou?" he said.
-
-"He!  Big, brawny, a regular beef-eater."
-
-"Then we will telegraph.  The English must arrest him.  For us it would
-be dangerous. But what if they delay, and he escapes? There would go
-that fine reward, Jacquou, like the maid's chickens."
-
-"Ah!  Trust me for that, monsieur le maire, trust me for that," said the
-old man as he hobbled away.
-
-Something less than two hours later the soldier emerged from his
-hiding-place in the wood, at a point at some little distance from the
-road.  He came out slowly, nervously, glancing around and behind him.
-There was in his eyes that look of anxiety and fear which had appeared
-in them at the moment of his being roused by the old man. It was like
-the look of a hunted animal. He gazed towards the hills.  Their ridges
-were sharp and clear against the sky.  He looked up, and behind.  Shafts
-of sunlight were still piercing the foliage.  He glanced at the watch on
-his wrist, appeared to make a mental comparison between the time
-indicated and the position of the sun, made restless movements, then
-went a few steps back among the trees.  From his pocket he took a map,
-and spreading it on a trunk, in a sunbeam, he studied it anxiously.
-
-Just as he was folding it up, he heard a low throbbing hum far away to
-the south. Hurriedly replacing the map in his pocket, he went to the
-edge of the wood, and peered into the southern sky.  The sound was
-faint; no speck dotted the cloudless blue. But the hum was drawing
-nearer.  He dropped his eyes, and scanned as much of the road as he
-could see.  Nothing was in sight.  His mouth worked; a furrow between
-his eyes deepened; he rubbed his hand across his brow, and shuddered to
-see how damp it was.  Again he looked along the road.  That humming made
-him impatient: was it really growing louder, or were his nerves
-redoubling the sound in his ears?
-
-At length, with the suddenness of one tired of waiting, he turned his
-back on the sound, and plunged into the depths of the wood northward.
-He had gone but a hundred yards when he stopped with a start, chilled to
-the marrow.  Somebody was there, close by.  He stared; his breath came
-and went in pants; but after a moment he went on with a smothered laugh
-that was like a groan.  It was only a peasant boy whittling a stick.
-The boy looked up as he passed, idly, vacantly.  The solitary British
-soldier apparently did not interest him.  He dropped his eyes again,
-fell again to his whittling, and softly hummed the air of "Au clair de
-la lune."
-
-The soldier went on among the trees.  He was not startled when he caught
-sight of another boy collecting twigs blown down by the gales of early
-spring.  He had even so far recovered as to throw a pleasant "Bon soir!"
-to the boy as he passed.  The boy looked up; he gave no response, not so
-much as a smile.  Were the boys hereabouts deaf, or silly, or what?  The
-man looked back; the boy, on one knee, an arm stretched out as with
-arrested movement, was watching him.
-
-On again.  Insensibly his pace was quickening. At the sight of a third
-boy away to his left, apparently doing nothing, he felt unreasonably
-angry.  Was the wood full of boys?  Why had he not seen them before? Why
-were they so quiet?  Himmel!  Was he being watched?  He would soon stop
-that.  He turned about, glowering, to scare away these disturbers of his
-peace of mind. They had vanished.  Relieved, almost amused at his
-nervousness, he strode on, glancing up at the waning sunlight through
-the trees to make sure of his direction.
-
-Suddenly, a little ahead on his right, he saw the flicker of a boy's
-white blouse amid the undergrowth.  With a muttered execration he
-slanted towards it, but was checked by a slight rustle on his left.
-Swinging round, he caught a glimpse of a small figure flitting among the
-trees.  He stopped.  His limbs were shaking; streams of perspiration
-trickled down his face.  Now at last he knew the meaning of these
-stealthy movements, this sinister silence.  The boys had been set to dog
-him.  The certainty appeared to paralyse him.  He stood swaying on his
-feet, glancing around for a means of escape from the toils that he felt
-closing about him.  Mechanically he raised his hand and dashed from his
-face the rolling beads.
-
-The spell was broken by the sound of a motor cycle and shouts behind.
-As though galvanised, he made a sudden break at full speed ahead, in a
-line between the two boys he had last seen.  Looking neither to right
-nor to left he pounded on until he was breathless.  Then he paused to
-listen.  Had he shaken off the trackers?  The whirr had ceased, the
-shouts were fainter; he was beginning to think that he had gained a few
-minutes when a small figure scurried through the undergrowth in front of
-him.  He started again, bearing to the left.  A glint of white amid the
-green intensified his terror.  He lost command of himself.  No longer
-did he take the dying sunlight as his guide. Blindly, desperately he
-struggled on, every moment changing his course.  The sounds had ceased;
-there was not even a rustle to warn him.
-
-Presently he stopped, aghast.  Before him was the patch of grass which
-his weight had flattened.  He had been moving in a circle. Then a gleam
-of hope lit the darkness of his despair.  He was now near the road;
-perhaps his pursuers had penetrated far into the wood.  He pushed on,
-staggering, came to a sunken track, and, supporting himself against a
-tree trunk, looked fearfully around. There, to the left, at the side of
-the track, were two motor bicycles.  The old Frenchman was keeping
-guard.  No one else was in sight.  Gathering his strength, he rushed
-headlong towards his last hope.
-
-The old man heard his footsteps, looked up, and raised his feeble voice
-in a quavering shout.  There was no time for a second. The soldier
-hurled himself upon the aged peasant, felled him with one blow, sprang
-to one of the bicycles, started the engine, ran the machine a few yards
-and leapt into the saddle.  With every jolt as the bicycle gained speed
-on the rough track his heart grew more elate.  Whither the track led he
-neither knew nor cared; his whole soul was in the present.
-
-Right and left of him were the trees.  He had ridden perhaps thirty
-yards when, from the right, a khaki-clad figure dashed into the track
-just ahead.  The fugitive increased his speed and rode straight on.  If
-the man stood in his way, so much the worse for him. Then, in a moment,
-Atropos cut the thread. As the bicycle was whizzing by, the man flung
-himself bodily upon it.  There was a crash, a thud, then silence.
-
-A few minutes later, Kenneth and Harry came hurrying to the scene.
-
-"Is he killed?" asked the latter, as Kenneth stooped over the body lying
-on the machine.
-
-"No, he's alive," replied Kenneth, after thrusting his hand into the
-man's tunic.
-
-He unscrewed the stopper of his flask, and poured weak spirit into the
-unconscious man's mouth.  Not until Ginger had recovered consciousness
-did they turn their attention to the other man, whose case, indeed, they
-had recognised at the first glance as hopeless.  When he was hurled from
-the machine, his head had struck a tree trunk on the opposite side of
-the track. Stoneway was dead.
-
-Yet he had survived his partners.  Perhaps half-an-hour before, Obernai
-and the rest of the gang, after a drumhead court-martial, had paid the
-last penalty.  Spying, at the best, is ignoble work; and when it is
-accompanied, as in Obernai's case, with the treacherous abuse of
-hospitality and the betrayal of trusting folk, the spy's doom awakens no
-sympathy.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER XXII
-
-                             "RECOMMENDED"
-
-
-"A fig for reasons!" exclaimed Madame Bonnard.  "We women can do without
-them.  Monsieur Amory will bear me witness; I said that wretch Obernai
-was a villain."
-
-"Pardon, mon amie," said her good man, mildly: "you said you did not
-like his voice."
-
-"Well, was not that enough?  I did not like his voice: therefore he was
-a villain. It is plain."
-
-"The Kaiser is said to have a very pleasant voice," remarked Kenneth,
-slily.
-
-He was sitting in the Bonnards' kitchen, awaiting the return of his
-comrades for supper.
-
-"I should like to ask his wife what she thinks of it," said Madame
-Bonnard.  "Poor woman! what a terrible thing it will be for her when she
-goes with him into banishment, and she has to listen to him all day
-long!"
-
-"Think you they will banish him, monsieur?" asked Bonnard.
-
-"Who can tell?" Kenneth replied.  "We have got to catch him first."
-
-"Ah!" sighed Madame.  "It is terrible. The end is so far off.  Every day
-I dread to hear bad news of my poor boys.  And to think that there are
-millions of poor women whose hearts are bleeding through that wicked
-man!  What punishment is great enough for him?  I should like to think
-of him worn and hungry, roaming the world like the Wandering Jew, with
-no rest for his feet, always seeing with his mind's eye the burning
-cottages, the maimed children, the weeping mothers, the poor lads he has
-massacred."
-
-"Is it fair to put it all down to the Kaiser?" said Kenneth.
-
-"Yes, it is fair," cried the good woman, vehemently.  "Poor people copy
-their betters.  His soldiers do what they know will please him.  Has he
-said one word of blame for all the dreadful things they have done?  Like
-master, like man."
-
-"I say, old man, here's the post," shouted Harry, bursting in at the
-door.  "Two letters and a thumping parcel for you; nothing but a
-newspaper for me....  Good heavens!"
-
-"What is it?"
-
-"The curs have sunk the Lusitania.... Oh! this is too awful.  That gas
-they are using--the poor fellows die in agony.  It is sheer murder."
-
-Kenneth read the paragraphs Harry indicated. The Bonnards had left the
-room.
-
-"We must just stick it," said Kenneth, handing the paper back.  "Nothing
-but a thorough thrashing will bring them to their senses.  And there are
-silly stay-at-home people who talk of not humiliating them! The Germans
-are doing their best to show that the world would gain if the whole race
-were wiped out."
-
-"Are there no decent people among them at all?"
-
-"Of course there are, and they'll be horrified when they learn the
-truth.  There's my partner, Finkelstein, as good-hearted a man as ever
-breathed.  He'd never believe the brutes capable of the crimes they are
-committing.  But the people are being fed with lies.  I can't but think
-a lot of them will sicken with disgust by and by."
-
-"I only wish we could hurry it up.... Hullo, here's Ginger!  I didn't
-expect to see you, old man."
-
-"I'm going home, boys!" cried Ginger, with a smiling face.  His arm was
-in a sling.  "Doctor says I'll be no good for three months.  Shoulder
-dislocated!  My word! he did give me beans when he jerked it into place.
-But I'm going home, home!  Fancy how the missus and kids will jump!  Not
-but what I'm sorry to leave you."
-
-"I don't grudge you a rest, old chap," said Harry, "but we shall want
-you back again.  Listen to this."
-
-He read parts of the newspaper paragraphs. Ginger swore.
-
-"I tell you what," he cried.  "I'm not going home to do nothing.  I'm
-going recruiting.  That's what I am.  I've spouted a lot of rot in my
-time; they'll hear some hard sense now.  By George! and if I don't have
-at least a score of recruities to my name, call me a Dutchman.  But I've
-got some news for you--better than those horrible things in the paper."
-
-"What's that?" asked Kenneth.
-
-"Well, you see, Colonel sent for me, and we had a talk, man to man;
-Colonel's a white man, that's what he is.  As a matter of fact, I've
-done a bit of spouting this evening.  But the chaps didn't want much
-talking to; they're all right.  Verdict unanimous this time.  To cut it
-short, that promise of yours is off.  The chaps say they're quite
-satisfied with their job.  Not one of 'em wants to go back to the works
-until they've seen the Kaiser get his deserts. And Colonel is writing
-home to say he wants commissions for you in the Rutlands."
-
-"You mean it, Ginger?"
-
-"That's just what I do mean.  When I come back, you'll be officers.
-There's just one thing.  If I should happen at first to forget to
-salute----"
-
-"Oh, rot, man!" cried Harry.  "You're a good sort."
-
-"You'll thank them all for us?" said Kenneth.  "I'm afraid we shan't be
-allowed to stay with the Rutlands, though.  Army rules are against it.
-But we'll see.  Now, come and have some supper.  Bonnard will give us
-something to celebrate the occasion."
-
-"Can't," said Ginger.  "I'm under orders to start in half an hour.
-Going back with a batch of crocks.  It's good-bye.  But I hope I'll see
-you again."
-
-He shook hands with them warmly.  They were all moved.  Each felt that
-in the chances of war they might never meet again. But, in the British
-way, they hid their feelings.  Only as Ginger went out he turned in the
-doorway and said:
-
-"Mind you keep your heads down in the trenches."
-
-Kenneth and Harry were silent for a while as they ate their supper.
-
-"Well, old boy?" said Harry presently.
-
-"Yes.  It's good, isn't it?"
-
-"The governor will be happy....  I say, Ken!"
-
-"Well!"
-
-"I can't make you out.  You remember when I met you at Kishimaru's.
-Well, you seemed jolly casual--not a bit keen.  Yet it was you who set
-the ball rolling at the works, and you've been keen enough since."
-
-"Oh well!" was Kenneth's indefinite response.
-
-"Really, I couldn't help thinking you were hanging back.  It was because
-you'd been seedy, I suppose."
-
-"Perhaps."
-
-"What was wrong with you?  German measles?"
-
-"Not so unpatriotic, my son.  A trifle run down, that's all."
-
-"Wanted a holiday, I suppose.  The war scrapped holidays for most
-people."
-
-"I daresay."
-
-"Hang it all!  What's the mystery? What do you mean by 'daresay' and
-'perhaps' and so on and so forth?  What had you been doing?"
-
-"You're a persistent wretch, Randy. Well, I don't mind telling you now.
-I was in Cologne when war was declared, and I had a pretty strenuous
-time for a fortnight."
-
-And he proceeded to outline the adventures which the present writer has
-related elsewhere.
-
-"Well I'm jiggered!" exclaimed Harry. "Why on earth didn't you tell me?"
-
-"Well, you see, you as good as told me I was slacking."
-
-"What's that to do with it?  All the more reason to open up."
-
-"Give me a cigarette, old chap; it's all right now."
-
-A bugle called them to their feet.  They flung on their equipment and
-hurried out. The battalion was assembling in the market place.
-
-"The trenches again?" asked Kenneth of a sergeant.
-
-"No.  We're ordered north."
-
-"Advancing at last?"
-
-"Let's hope so.  Fall in!"
-
-
-
-
-                                THE END
-
-
-
-
-                      PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
-                     RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
-                   BRUNSWICK ST., STAMFORD ST., S.E.,
-                          AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
-
-
-
-
-           *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
-
-
-
-
-                      HERBERT STRANG'S WAR STORIES
-
-
-A HERO OF LIEGE: A STORY OF THE GREAT WAR.
-
-SULTAN JIM: A STORY OF GERMAN AGGRESSION.
-
-THE AIR SCOUT: A STORY OF HOME DEFENCE.
-
-THE AIR PATROL: A STORY OF THE NORTH-WEST FRONTIER.
-
-ROB THE RANGER: A STORY OF THE GREAT FIGHT FOR CANADA.
-
-ONE OF CLIVE'S HEROES: A STORY OF THE GREAT FIGHT FOR INDIA.
-
-BARCLAY OF THE GUIDES: A STORY OF THE INDIAN MUTINY.
-
-THE ADVENTURES OF HARRY ROCHESTER: A STORY OF MARLBOROUGH'S CAMPAIGNS.
-
-BOYS OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE: A STORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.
-
-KOBO: A STORY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
-
-BROWN OF MOUKDEN: A STORY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIGHTING WITH FRENCH ***
-
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