men
tumbled off their machines, the people surged round them. To say the
men were embarrassed would be to put it mildly. They were absolutely
overcome. I filmed them with the crowd around. And then an order was
given to take up billets. Patrols were thrown out, sentries posted, the
men parked their cycles and rested.

On a large double door of a barn the Huns had gone to the trouble of
painting in huge letters the hackneyed phrase "Gott strafe England," and
immediately our men saw it one of them, with a piece of chalk, improved
upon it.

They gathered the children round them and formed a group beneath the
letters with German trophies upon their heads; I filmed them there, one
of the happiest groups possible to conceive.

I left them and went to find the officer in charge, and asked him for
the latest news from other sections.

"I couldn't say," he replied, "but my men were well in touch with them
early this morning, but you seem to know more about it here than anyone
else. When on earth did you arrive in the village?"

"Just before you," I replied. "I came from Bovincourt."

"Well, you have got some job. I certainly didn't expect to find anyone
so harmless as a photographer awaiting our arrival."

The conversation was abruptly stopped by a warning shout from one of the
observers on a house-top close by.

"Germans, sir."

The officer and I rushed to a gap in the buildings and looked through
our glasses, and there, on a small ridge a thousand yards off, a body of
horsemen were seen approaching, riding hard, as if their very lives
depended upon it.

An order was immediately given to the machine-gun company who had taken
up a most advantageous position and one that commanded most of the
country near by.

I placed my camera in such a position by the side of a wall that I could
see all that was taking place and if seen myself I could easily pull it
under cover.

Nearer and nearer they came. They were too far away to photograph.
Excitement was intense. Were they coming into the village? If they did,
I thought, in all conscience they would get a warm reception, knowing as
I did the arrangements for its defence. My eyes were fixed upon them.

The officer close by was on the point of giving the order to fire when a
burst of machine-gun fire rang out in the distance.

"Our cavalry have got them," said the officer. "We have some strong
posts just here, Bosche has fairly run into them. Look! They have their
tails