e of free-born men if they were not. Only
civilized man is capable of such stoicism as theirs. They have
reverted to the cave-dweller's protection because their civilization is
so highly developed that they can throw a piece of steel weighing
from eighteen to two thousand pounds anywhere from five to twenty
miles with merciless accuracy, and because the flesh of man is even
more tender than in the cave-dweller's time, not to mention that his
brain-case is a larger target.

An officer calls attention to a shell-proof shelter with the civic pride of
a member of a chamber of commerce pointing out the new Union
Station.

"Not even a high explosive"--the kind that bursts on impact after
penetration--"could get into that!" he says. "We make them for
generals and colonels and others who have precious heads on their
shoulders."

With material and labour, the same might have been constructed for
the soldiers, which brings us back to the question of munitions in the
economic balance against a human life. It was the first shelter of this
kind which I had seen. You never go up to the trenches without
seeing something new. The defensive is tireless in its ingenuity in
saving lives and the offensive in taking them. Safeguards and
salvage compete with destruction. And what labour all that excavation
and construction represented--the cumulative labour of months and
day-by-day repairs of the damage done by shells! After a
bombardment, dig out the filled trenches and renew the smashed
dug-outs to be ready for another go!

The walls of that communication trench were two feet above our
heads. We noticed that all the men were in their dug-outs; none were
walking about in the open. One knew the meaning of this barometer--
stormy. The German gunners were "strafing" in a very lively way this
afternoon.

Already we had noticed many shells bursting five or six hundred
yards away, in the direction of the new British trench; but at that
distance they do not count. Then a railroad train seemed to have
jumped the track and started to fly. Fortunately and unfortunately,
sound travels faster than big shells of low velocity; fortunately,
because it gives you time to be undignified in taking cover;
unfortunately, because it gives you a fraction of a second to reflect
whether or not that shell has your name and your number on Dug-out
Street.

I was certain that it was a big shell, of the kind that will blow a dug-out
to pieces. Anyone who had n