abits.

The British general knew what was coming; he knew that he would
start the German hornets out of their nest when he took the trench;
he knew, too, that he could rely upon his men to hold till they were
told to retire or there were none left to retire. The British are a home-
loving people, who do not like to be changing their habitations. In
succeeding days the question up and down the lines was, "Have we
still got that trench?" Only two hundred yards of ditch on the continent
of Europe! But was it still ours? Had the Germans succeeded in
"strafing" us out of it yet? They had shelled all the trenches in the
region of the lost trench and had made three determined and
unsuccessful counter-attacks when, on the fifth day, we returned to
the chateau to ask if it were practicable to visit the new trench.

"At your own risk!" said the staff officer. If we preferred we could sit on
the veranda where there were easy chairs, on a pleasant summer
day. Very peaceful the sweep of the well-kept grounds and the shade
of the stately trees of that sequestered world of landscape. Who was
at war? Why was anyone at war? Two staff motor-cars awaiting
orders on the drive and a dust-laden dispatch rider with messages,
who went past toward the rear of the house, were the only visual
evidence of war. The staff officer served us with helmets for
protection in case we got into a gas attack. He said that we might
enter our front trenches at a certain point and then work our way as
near the new part as we could; division headquarters, four or five
miles distant, would show us the way. It was then that the twinkle in
the staff officer's eye as it looked straight into yours became manifest.
You can never tell, I have learned, just what a twinkle in a British staff
officer's eye may portend. These fellows who are promoted up from
the trenches to join the "brain-trust" in the chateau, know a great deal
more about what is going on than you can learn by standing in the
road far from the front and listening to the sound of the guns. We
encountered a twinkle in another eye at division headquarters, which
may have been telephoned ahead along with the instructions, "At
their own risk."

There are British staff officers who would not mind pulling a
correspondent's leg on a summer day; though, perhaps, it was really
the Germans who pulled ours, in this instance. Somebody did remark
at some headquarters, I recall, that "You never know!" which shows
t