e communication trenches along the top.

It was still pitch dark. I looked at my watch. It was 4.30.

The trenches were full of life. Men were pouring in to take up their
positions. Bosche put a few shells over near by, but fortunately nobody
was touched. He was evidently nervous about something, for on several
occasions he sent up star-shells, in batches of six, which lighted up
the whole ridge like day, and until they were down again I stood stock
still.

[Illustration: OVER THE TOP AT MARTINPUICH, SEPT. 15, 1916. I
PHOTOGRAPHED THIS SCENE AT 5.20 IN THE MORNING]

[Illustration: TWO MINUTES TO ZERO HOUR AT MARTINPUICH, SEPT. 15, 1916,
THEN "OVER THE TOP"]

Day was breaking in the east. A low-lying mist hung over the village.
I hoped it would not affect my taking.

We were now in the trenches, and daylight was gradually beginning to
appear.

"It's got to light up a lot more if I'm going to be able to film," I
said. "But thank heaven the sky is cloudless. That's the one chance."

All at once it seemed as though the sky lightened. Actinic conditions
improved considerably, and I was just congratulating myself on my good
fortune when----

"What's that, sir?" said the man at my side, who had been peering
through a periscope.

Gingerly I raised myself above the parapet and peered in the direction
in which his finger pointed.

For a moment I could discern nothing. Then, gradually out of the early
morning mist a huge, dark, shapeless object evolved. It was apparently
about three hundred yards away. It moved, and judging by the subdued hum
and a slight smoke which it emitted--like the breath of an animal--it
lived!

I had never seen anything like it before. What was it?

CHAPTER XXII

THE JUGGERNAUT CAR OF BATTLE

A Weird-looking Object Makes Its First Appearance Upon the
Battlefield--And Surprises Us Almost as Much as It Surprised
Fritz--A Death-dealing Monster that Did the Most Marvellous
Things--And Left the Ground Strewn with Corpses--Realism of
the Tank Pictures.

What in the world was it?

As we stood there peering at the thing, we forgot for the moment that
our heads were well above the parapet. We were too fascinated by the
movements of the weird-looking object to bother about such a trifle as
that! And the Bosche trenches were only two hundred yards away! For the
life of me I could not take my eyes off it. The thing--I really don't
know how else to describe it--a