re taken to the British consul,
and after proving our identity we were given clothes, money, and a
passport for England. It was ten days before we got a boat out of
Rotterdam, and during that time we received nothing but kindness from
the people we met.

Finally we secured passage on a boat, and on the _first day of July_ we
landed in England.

"MY COMRADES, AND WHAT BECAME OF THEM, AS TOLD TO ME IN LETTERS, BY MY
OLD CHUM BOB GODDARD."

DEAR JACK:

Well, you certainly had a pretty tough time in Germany, and I don't
envy your experience. And now you want to hear what we did after you
were taken prisoner, and what became of the bunch that you and I knew
so well. It's not pleasant to recall the things that happened, Jack,
but I'll do my best. Let me see; the Battle of St. Eloi was the last
scrap you took part in. Well, after that things cooled down a bit, but
we still took our turn in the trenches on that part of the line. No.
10 Platoon was still intact. We missed poor old Woodrow, and his chum
Fred went around looking like a ghost. The latter had never gotten
over his experience in No Man's Land, his eyes were sunken in his head,
and he was nothing but a wreck. One night, when we were in reserves in
Dickiebush, a few of us were talking and saying how lucky our little
bunch had been, when at that minute an order came in sending us out on
a working party. Fritz had gotten busy and blown down a section of our
front lines, and the boys holding this spot had no protection, so we
were being sent up to repair the damage. I guess Fritz was sore, for
our Stokes light trench mortars and heavies had been pounding the
German trenches all day long. Well, we were told off in small parties
to carry up sandbags, corrugated iron, picks and shovels, to repair the
line.

Our little bunch consisted of Tommy, Bink, Scottie, Bob Richardson,
Newell, McMurchie, and one or two others whom you do not know.
"Flare-pistol Bill" was in charge, of course; and just our luck, we had
to carry the corrugated iron (and damned awkward stuff it is), it's too
wide to carry through the trenches, so we had to go overland--and I
tell you, the machine gun fire was wicked. The boys holding the
trenches had a lot of casualties. Well, we got our loads and started
off in and out of shell holes. Tommy fell into a hole that was full of
water and got soaked; and Chappie, with his poor eyesight, if he fell
once, he fell at least a dozen