he activity at the front commences only with
the falling of night. During the day the zone immediately back of the
trenches is a dead country. But at night it wakens into activity.
Soldiers leave the trenches and fresh soldiers take their places,
ammunition and food are brought up, wires broken during the day by
shells are replaced, ambulances come up and receive their frightful
burdens.

Now we reached the zone of night activity. A travelling battery passed
us, moving from one part of the line to another; the drivers, three to
each gun, sat stolidly on their horses, their heads dropped against
the rain. They appeared out of the mist beside us, stood in full
relief for a moment in the glow of the lamps, and were swallowed up
again.

At three miles from our destination, but only one mile from the German
lines, it was necessary to put out the lamps. Our progress, which had
been dangerous enough before, became extremely precarious. It was
necessary to turn out for teams and lorries, for guns and endless
lines of soldiers, and to turn out a foot too far meant slipping into
the mud. Two miles and a half from the village we turned out too far.

There was a sickening side slip. The car turned over to the right at
an acute angle and there remained. We were mired!

We got out. It was perfectly dark. Guns were still passing us, so that
it was necessary to warn the drivers of our wrecked car. The road was
full of shell holes, so that to step was to stumble. The German lines,
although a mile away, seemed very near. Between the road and the enemy
was not a tree or a shrub or a fence--only the line of the railway
embankment which marked the Allies' trenches. To add to the dismalness
of the situation the Germans began throwing the familiar magnesium
lights overhead. The flares made the night alike beautiful and
fearful. It was possible when one burst near to see the entire
landscape spread out like a map--ditches full of water, sodden fields,
shell holes in the roads which had become lakes, the long lines of
poplars outlining the road ahead. At one time no less than twenty
starlights hung in the air at one time. When they went out the inky
night seemed blacker than ever. I stepped off the road and was almost
knee-deep in mud at once.

The battery passed, urging its tired horses to such speed as was
possible. After it came thousands of men, Belgian and French mostly,
on their way out of the trenches.

We called for volunteers f