ong wrangle ensued. Wild threats and foul insults were flung about.
But the quarrel, like nearly all our quarrels, did not go beyond violent
words.

I began to search and soon found a big swollen louse. I crushed it with
my thumb-nail so that the blood spurted out. I heard several faint
cracks coming from the opposite side of the tent and knew that others
were also hunting for vermin.

I examined the seams of my shirt and found two or three more. Then, to
my dismay, I discovered several eggs. They are so minute that some are
sure to escape the most careful scrutiny. The presence of eggs is always
a warning that many nights of irritation will have to pass by before the
young grow sufficiently big to be discovered easily.

I thought I had looked at every square inch of my shirt, but I looked at
it a second time in order to make sure. I soon found a whitish elongated
body clinging tightly to the cloth. Then I found another wedged into the
seam.

Meanwhile, my neighbour, who had been tossing about restlessly and
scratching himself and sighing with desperate vexation, lit his candle
and began to search busily. The sound of an occasional crack showed how
successful he was.

The night was warm and sultry. A storm threatened and it was necessary
to close the tent flap. I blew out my candle and wrapped myself in my
blankets. I was unable to stretch my legs because others were in the
way. I was hemmed and pressed in on all sides. I felt an impulse to kick
out savagely, but was able to control myself.

The stifling heat became unbearable, and at the same time the cold,
clammy moisture from the soft sodden mud underneath began to penetrate
ground-sheet and blankets.

The irritation recommenced. A louse so big that I could feel it crawling
along stopped and drew blood. I tried in vain to go to sleep. I heard my
neighbour scratching himself steadily. Nor could he find a comfortable
position to lie in and kept twisting and turning and moaning. The other
men were snoring or fidgeting restlessly.

At length a fitful slumber came upon me and a confusion of rotting
bodies swarming with monstrous lice passed before my closed eyes. I was
fully awake long before reveille, sleepy and unrefreshed, and when
reveille came we received orders to move within two hours.

Four of us and one N.C.O. were left behind to load a lorry. And then we,
too, packed up and set out to follow the unit.

Thinking to take a short cut across country we a