.

"This was the first-born," the subaltern explained, "the first thing we
could lay our hands on when the close quarters' trench warfare
began."

It was as out of date as grandfather's smooth-bore, the tin-pot bomb
that both sides used early in the winter. A wick was attached to the
high explosive, wrapped in cloth and stuck in an ordinary army jam
tin.

"Quite home-made, as you see, sir," remarked the sergeant. "Used to
fix them up ourselves in the trenches in odd hours--saved burying the
refuse jam tins according to medical corps directions--and you threw
them at the Boches. Had to use a match to light it. Very old-
fashioned, sir. I wonder if that old fuse has got damp. No, it's going all
right"--and he threw the jam pot, which made a good explosion. Later,
when he began hammering the end of another he looked up in mild
surprise at the dignified back-stepping of the spectators.

"Is that fuse out?" someone asked.

"Yes, sir. Of course, sir," he replied. "It's safer. But here is the best;
we're discarding the others," he went on, as he picked up a bomb.

It was a pleasure to throw this crowning achievement of experiments.
It fitted your hand nicely; it threw easily; it did the business; it was
fool-proof against a man in love or a war-poet.

"We saw as soon as this style came out," said the sergeant, "that it
was bound to be popular. Everybody asks for it--except the Boches,
sir."

XXI
My Best Day At The Front

It was the best day because one ran the gamut of the mechanics and
emotions of modern war within a single experience--and oh, the
twinkle in that staff officer's eye!

It was on a Monday that I first met him in the ballroom of a large
chateau. Here another officer was talking over a telephone in an
explicit, businesslike fashion about "sending up more bombs," while
we looked at maps spread out on narrow, improvised tables, such as
are used for a buffet at a reception. Those maps showed all the
British trenches and all the German trenches--spider-weblike lines
that cunning human spiders had spun with spades--in that region;
and where our batteries were and where some of the German
batteries were, if our aeroplane observations were correct.

To the layman they were simply blue prints, such as he sees in the
office of an engineer or an architect, or elaborate printed maps with
many blue and red pencil-lings. To the general in command they
were alive with rifle-power and gun-power and oth