ducing me, he began to explain my wishes. By the looks and the
smiles, I knew things were going well for me.

Calling the interpreter, the Captain said, "If you accompany my men to
the trenches you may get killed. You must take all risks. I cannot be
held responsible, remember!" And with a smile, he turned and entered the
house.

Hardly realising my good fortune, I nearly hugged my new friend, the
Lieutenant.

"Monsieur," I said, saluting, "I am un Belge soldat _pro tem_."

Laughingly he told me to get my kit ready, and from a soldier who could
speak English I borrowed a water-bottle and two blankets. Going round to
the back of the farm, I came upon the rest of the men being served out
with coffee from a copper. Awaiting my turn, I had my water-bottle
filled; then the bread rations were served out with tinned herrings.
Obtaining my allowance, I stowed it away in my knapsack, rolled up my
blanket and fixed it on my back, and was ready. Then the "Fall in" was
sounded. What a happy-go-lucky lot! No one would have thought these men
were going into battle, and that many of them would probably not return.
This, unfortunately, turned out to be only too true.

In my interest in the scene and anxiety to film it, I was forgetting to
put my own house in order. "What if I don't come back?" I suddenly
thought. Begging some paper, I wrote a letter, addressed to my firm,
telling them where I had gone, and where to call at Furnes for my films
in the event of my being shot. Addressing it, I left it in charge of an
officer, to be posted if I did not return, and requested that if
anything happened to me my stuff should be left at my cafe in Furnes.
Shaking me by the hand, he said he sincerely hoped it would not be
necessary. Laughingly I bade him adieu. Falling in with the other men we
started off, with the cheers and good wishes of those left behind
ringing in our ears.

It was still raining, and, as we crossed the fields of mud, I began to
feel the weight of my equipment pressing on my shoulders, which with my
camera and spare films made my progress very slow. Many a time during
that march the men offered to help me, but, knowing that they had quite
enough to do in carrying their own load, I stubbornly refused.

On we went, the roar of the guns getting nearer: over field after field,
fully eighteen inches deep in mud, and keeping as close to hedges as
possible, to escape detection from hostile aeroplanes. Near a bridge we
were s