e British Tommies was the city, which they took, but at a terrible toll; 6,000 Indian troops, mostly Ghurkas, were slain. The fearful mortality exacted from these troops wa

ning a loss of over 700 men. This magnificent body of fellows went into the war 1,150 strong and at the l

e and a half miles northwest of the city. Here I was detailed as observer, my duty being to get into the front-line trench and from the most advantageous nook that I

e started. That was the last I ever saw of him; he did not come back; Fritz was coming and ahead of him rolled the sinister-looking cloud on our left. Then happened the strangest thing! The line trembled from one end to the other, as the Algerian troops immediately on our left, jumped out of their trenches, falli

fs and stuff them in our mouths, and half choked and blinded we held for a day and a half. The

ch bay a few yards away from me, and when the cloud had passed by I saw him rolling on the ground, apparently blinded, tears streaming from his eyes. I helped him to his feet and when he got hi

s, followed by a smothering fire from the German batteries, and the Germans broke in upon us on our right and

s Attack from

kly as he could as he was playing the devil with the nerves of the men who were lying around there half-dead from the poison fumes. He staggered over and sat down beside me on the side of the road, still wringing his hands. I remonstrated with him and told him that bad as it was it could not be anything like Mons, and to my amazement he stopped his moaning all at once and said with a twinkle in his eye, "Let's beat it to the dugout; the doc won't see us." We took the chance

nocked down, with the stove on top of him, and he was lying in the corner praying like a good fellow. "Oh, Lord! look down in pity and save me! Thou knowest, Lord, I am unworthy o' thy mercy, but please control the shells o' those barbarians and send them in anither direction,

f them blowing the pump from outside through the shack past Scotty, out through the other wall, and Scotty, ducking

m, and I proceeded to put it under my belt as fast as my jaws would work, and then made for my dugout. I was just settling down to a quiet s

to find six Algerians devouring the officers' rations in such fashion as to make one think of the man in the side show who was advertised in letters twenty feet deep as the origina

de of the road waiting for conveyances to remove them. I spoke to a Tommy who had met with a peculiar accident; he had two plates in his mout

station just long enough to lend plausibility to my search before reporting to the O.C. The Major was in a towering rage over our

okout for the cook while there and make some inquiries about him. I saluted and left. The first place I went to in the wagon lines was the cookhouse and as I got there I thought I noti

ook of yours," he said,

at

t to get the D.C.M., 'e ought; that's what hi say. By Gawd! when it comes to the real thing, give me the Scotch! An' honly last night 'e was in his cookhouse with some blighter by the

me to be down

got re

is he

in the

to us at Salisbury Plain of his achievements in the Great Retreat, and the cook had given him a meal befitting a hero of his caliber, which Scott

m; that he ran like a white-livered cur under fire from his cookhouse and didn't stop until he had reached t

t and found him in the innermost corner, pretending to be as

y under fire. You are in for hell as sure as there is heather in your hair." His countenance took on a greenish hue and he mumbled something about being shell-

was jeest tired oot wi' killin' Boches and hadna' the st

decoration." This latter was spoken very grimly, and I could see the great fighter's face fall. "You will see to it, Grant," said the Q.M. "that H

he weird light of the flares and the fading day, that I involuntarily shivered, hardened though I was by that time to grim sights. Each of them carried on his shoulder the hind-quarter of a cow that had been killed by a shell at a nearby farm, and the dripping blood from the beast had slopped all over their uniforms; under each arm was

into one of the Algerians, and he and the cook and the pig tumbled over and over, the pig squealing like mad, the Algerian rolling out deep-throated oaths in his native tongue, and Scotty cursing as

ed have passed for the blood-stained hero he had proclaimed himself in the cookhouse, and in spite of his plight Scotty grinned as I suggest

f the trenches in the gas attack and I felt the

you been,

st complete control o' my nerves and started for the wagon lines wi'out knowing what I was d

the first case of cowardice in this unit and I'll take damned good care tha

likeableness, somewhat after the fashion of our time-honored Falstaff, and his funk under fire made him liable to the extreme penalty,-a firing s

aying that the Major would feel in a better humor in the morning, "and besides,"

e trouble was, I had to tell him of the variance of the prisoner's story told him and that he told the Major, and that the

lmost ready to drop with fatigue, I went over to the wagon lines, gathered some straw and bags t

could not help remembering what he had done at Mons; there was no doubt about that because I had seen his scar and I knew that the ranks of the Seaforth Highlanders had never held a coward; and I mentally concluded that he must really have been suffering from shell shock or he would never have left his post as he did, and I since

art of the commanding officer for he was ordered deported to England, pending dishonorable discharge. There he was sent t

ng the top of the canal bank in broad daylight and in the open, expecting every second that one of the missiles from the shower that was pattering the ground everywhere would get me. In that race through that bullet-swept zone I felt a common bond of k

r, what are you r

eral-because

honor of requesting Colonel Morrison to permit me to enter his unit and Colonel Morrison did me the additional honor of refusing to let me go. I had gotten a somewhat painful scalp wound on the way over, and I made my way to the Fre

seemed to be peasant women, but spoke very good English. They left after some little time and wended their way up the road; but something in their appearance directed attention to them and they wer

their lightning-like acumen and prompt service, the Lord only knows what would have become of us poor

ts work. Within an hour after their arrest the hospital was shelled; it was packed with patients and