so in a very singular
way. "When his trench was heavily attacked by German grenade
throwers," says the official record, "he climbed on to the parapet,
and although subjected to a hail of bombs at close quarters, succeeded
in dispersing the enemy by the effective use of his hand grenades."
Those vague, general terms do not enable us to see the episode. It
discloses itself vividly in the terse sentences of Dwyer himself:--

"All our chaps were either killed or wounded. I was the only
unwounded man left in the trench. The Germans were in a trench
only fifteen yards away, so close that I could hear them talking
in their lingo. I knew that if they took the trench I was in it
would be a bad job for our trenches behind. So I collected all
the hand grenades left in our trench until I had about a hundred
in all. There were three steps leading up to the parapet of the
trench. For a while I sat crouched on the middle step. Then I
found myself on the parapet hurling grenades at the Germans.
Shells and hand bombs were bursting all over and around me, but
nothing touched me at all. I kept on throwing until help came
and the trench was safe. I was pretty well done up when I jumped
down into the trench, mad with joy and without a scratch. The
relieving party chaffed me a lot, and called me 'The King of the
Hand Grenades.'"

Dwyer gives an interesting account of his sensations in battle. As a
rule, introspection in such circumstances is almost impossible, for
the mind, when concentrated solely on the existing situation and
strained with excitement almost to the cracking point, cannot well
observe itself; but Dwyer is made of uncommon stuff mentally as well
as physically. "Fear is a funny thing," he says. "It gets at you in
all kinds of curious ways. When we've been skirmishing in open order
under heavy fire I've felt myself go numb. Then the blood has rushed
into my face--head and ears become as hot as fire, and the tip of my
tongue swollen into a blob of blood. It isn't nice, I can tell you;
but the feeling passes and one's nerves become steadier." He added
what showed his real mettle: "I've never expected to get out of any
fight I've ever been in. And so I just try to do my bit, and leave it
at that." Dwyer made a most successful recruiter for the Irish
regiments, in which, on account of his nationality, he specially
interested himself.

Turning now for a while from the