ed with fugitive sun-beams, making a glory of puddles t

desolate countryside of blue hills and dusky woods; and in the air from beyond this wide horizon a sound that rose above the wind gusts and the noise of our going, a faint

forms and knee-boots, while on the roadside were men who lounged, or sat smoking cigarettes, rifle across knees and

. Here and there transport lorries by ones and twos, then whole convoys drawn up beside the road, often axle deep in mud, or l

old-world streets rang with the ordered tramp of feet, the stamp of horses and rumble of gun wheels, where ruddy English faces turned to stare and broad khaki backs swung easily beneath their many accoutrements. And in street a

s, we came out upon the open road again. And now, there being no surface at all to speak of, we perforce went slow, and I watc

ng, rank upon rank, weary men, who showed among them here and there grim evidence of battle-rain-sodden men with hair that clung to muddy brows beneath the sloping brims of muddy helmets; men who tramped an

company of Highlanders, their mud-splashed knees a-swing together, their khaki kilts swaying in rhythm, their long bayonets a-twinkle, while down the wind came the regular tramp of their feet and the wild, frenzied wailing of their pipes. Soon

s dark stains and marks upon that dingy canvas, I knew that here was a company that had done and endured much. C

r a moment he eyed me a trifle dour and ask

id he, and extracted the ci

re leg, I'm thi

rave smile, "but it's no sae muckle a

ieked and wailed, grew plaintively soft, and were drowned and lost in that other sound which

uns at las

her cigarette, "I've been liste

to be the Intelligence Officer i

leave the car soon, so better get into your tin hats." Forthwith I buckled on one of the morions we had brought for the purpose and very uncomfortable I found it. Having made

heavy as I exp

a pound,"

e intersected by sparse hedgerows and with here and there desolate, leafless trees, many of which, in shattered trunk and broken bough, showed grim traces of what had been; an

he heaven above, in the earth below and in the air about us was the quiver and thunder of unseen guns. As we stumbled through the muddy desolation I

mud, which, like my helmet, se

to a shell hole, "about how heavy

id he, fierce-eyed.

eecy cloud, and as I, unsuspecting, watched it writhe into fantastic shapes

e searching the road yonder I expect-ah, there goes another! Yes,

g mud, F. informed us that this trench had been our old front line before we took Beaumont Hamel; and I noticed many things, as, clips of cartridges, unexploded bombs, Lewis-gun magazines, parts of a broken machine gun, and various odds and ends of

e long, advancing waves of khaki-clad figures, their ranks swept by the fire of countless rifles and machine guns, pounded by high explosives, blasted by withering shrapnel, lost in the swirling death-mist of poison gas-heroic ran

ken beams that seemed to hang suspended a moment ere they fell and vanished. After a moment came an

of heavie

uffs burst forth again and

ne of trenches which had once been German. So I stood, dry-mouthed, to watch the burst of those huge shells exploding upon our British line. Fascinated, I stared until F.'s hand

ight still be Britain. Even yet, upon its torn and trampled surface I could read something of the fight-here a broken sh

e double with K.'s long legs striding beside him, but, as for me, I must needs turn for

e damp and mud-spattered wretches who

mbrous headgear, "about how much d

king his cap over his eyes and

amps, that stretched away into the distance. Here also were vast numbers of the ubiquitous motor-lorry with many three-wheeled tractors for the big guns. We sped past hundreds of horses picketed in long lines; past countless tents smeared crazily in various coloured paints; past huts l

ving. "Plenty of 'em round here; see, there's

y saw far ahead many aeroplanes that flew in strange, zigzag fashion,

hrapnel bursting all around 'em-there's the smoke-we call 'em

of the road where many men were engaged with pick and shovel; and here, on either side of the highway, I noticed many grim-looking heaps and mounds-u

beyond, the schoolhouse. The others were houses and cottages. Oh, La Boisell

se last lay here and there, awfully bent and twisted, but of trenches I saw none save a few yards here and there half filled with indescribable débris. It was, indeed, a place of horror-a frightful desolation beyond all words. Everywhere about us were signs of dre

and rusty iron and steel that once were deadly machine guns. As I picked my way among all this flotsam, I turned to take up a bayonet, slipped in t

ttered, I remember, of books. Then, side by side, we came to the battery-four mighty howitzers, that crashed and roared and

h and destruction rush forth, soaring, upon its way, up and up, until it was lost in cloud. Time after time I saw the huge shells leap skywards and vanish on their

eren't, you know-guns weren't in existence and the men weren't gu

ffect!" said I, nodding towards the abominati

ng years to make a gunner once-do it in six short months now! Pretty

ar to go we had perforce to refuse his ho

ine craters," said he, and waving a c

ked and sinister, up whose steep slopes I scrambled and into whose yawning depths I gazed in awestruck wonder; so deep, so

Now, as I went, I stumbled over a small mound, then halted all at once, for at one end of this was a very small cross, rudely constructed and painted white, and tacked to this a strip o

this dreary desolation I knew that one day (since nothing dies) upon this place of horror grass would grow and flowers bloom again; along this now desolate and deserted road people would come by the thousand; these hum

hen I saw that the setting sun had turned each one of t