s merely the gossip of the German trenches telegraphed across
No Man's Land. I do not know how far the divisional Staff Officer
satisfied himself as the result of all his messages, but he did not
satisfy the gentleman with the big index.

"There is one way to find out who is there," the Big Man said, "and that
is always the same--to go there and bring some of them back."

And so twice in the next three weeks the German artillery fired about
L30,000 worth of shells, and a party of picked men stole across the
open, and in spite of a certain loss on one occasion they took back a
few prisoners. And the query went out of the index.

It would be quite easy to present to the German for a penny the facts
which it cost him L60,000 and good men's lives to obtain. When you know
this, you can understand why the casualties reported in the papers do
not any longer state the units of the men who have suffered them.

CHAPTER XI

THE GREAT BATTLE BEGINS

_France, July 1st._

Below me, in the dimple beyond the hill on which I sit, is a small
French town. Straight behind the town is the morning sun, only an hour
risen. Between the sun and the town, and, therefore, only just to be
made out through the haze of sunlight on the mists, are two lines--a
nearer and a farther--of gently sloping hill-tops. On those hills is
being fought one of the greatest battles in history. It is British
troops who are fighting it, and French. The Canadians are in their lines
in the salient. The Australians and New Zealanders--it has now been
officially stated--are at Armentieres.

A few minutes ago, at half-past six by summer-time, the British
bombardment, which has continued heavily for six days, suddenly came in
with a crash, as an orchestra might enter on its grand finale. Last
night, some of us who were out here watched the British shells playing
up and down the distant skyline, running over it from end to end as a
player might run the fingers of one hand lightly over the piano keys.
There were three or four flashes every second, here or there in that
horizon; night and day for six days that had continued. Within the last
few minutes, starting with two or three big heart bangs from a battery
near us, the noise suddenly expanded into a constant detonation. It was
exactly as though the player began, on an instant, to use all the keys
at once.

We now ought to be able to see, from where we sit with our telescopes,
the bursts of our shells on