hands up. Some of the
chaps as they passed me wanted to know if I was a-goin' to stay
there all night! And the Brigade buzzin' like mad to talk to the
Captain.

"I sat in that blessed trench till everybody had cleared out.
Then, seeing as how not even the docket had brought th' orficer
back, I sez to myself as how he must ha' stopped one. So I gets
out of the trench and starts crawling across the top towards the
place where I see the Captain disappear. As I got near the
support line the ground went up a little and then dropped, so I
got a bit of a view on to the ground ahead. And then I sees the
Captain here!"

Buzzer Barling stopped. All had listened to his story with the
deepest interest, especially Strangwise, who never took his eyes
off the gunner's brown face. Some men are born story-tellers and
there was a rugged picturesqueness about Barling's simple
narrative which conjured up in the minds of his hearers the
picture of the lonely signaller cowering in the abandoned trench
among the freshly slain, waiting for the officer who never came
back.

"It's not a nice thing to have to say about an orficer," the
gunner presently continued, "and so help me God, gentlemen, I
kep' my mouth shut about it until... until..."

He broke off and looked quickly at Desmond.

"Keep that until the end, Barling," said Desmond, "finish about
the raid now!"

"Well, as I was sayin', gentlemen, I was up on a bit of hillock
near Fritz's support line when I sees the Captain here. He was
settin' all comfortable in a shell-hole, his glasses in his hand,
chattin' quite friendly like with two of the Gers. orficers, I
reckoned they was, along o' the silver lace on their collars. One
was wearin' one o' them coal-scuttle helmets, t'other a little
flat cap with a shiny peak. And the Captain here was a-pointin'
at our lines and a-wavin' his hand about like he was a-tellin'
the two Fritzes all about it, and the chap in the coal-scuttle
hat was a-writin' it all down in a book."

Barling paused. He was rather flushed and his eyes burned
brightly in his weather-beaten face.

"Eighteen year I done in the Royal Regiment," he went on, and his
voice trembled a little, "and me father a battery sergeant-major
before me, and I never thought to see one of our orficers go over
to the enemy. Fritz was beginnin' to come back to his front line:
I could see their coal-scuttle hats a-bobbin' up and down the
communication trenches, so I crawled back the wa