ough rain and mud, which, like my helmet, seemed to
grow momentarily heavier.

"K.," said I, as he floundered into a shell hole, "about how heavy
did you say these helmets were?"

"About a pound!" said he, fierce-eyed. "Confound the mud!"

Away to our left and high in air a puff of smoke appeared, a
pearl-grey, fleecy cloud, and as I, unsuspecting, watched it writhe
into fantastic shapes, my ears were smitten with a deafening report,
and instinctively I ducked.

"Shrapnel!" said F., waving his hand in airy introduction. "They're
searching the road yonder I expect--ah, there goes another! Yes,
they're trying the road yonder--but here's the trench--in with you!"

I am free to confess that I entered that trench precipitately--so
hurriedly, in fact, that my helmet fell off, and, as I replaced it, I
was not sorry to see that this trench was very deep and narrow. As we
progressed, very slowly by reason of clinging mud, F. informed us
that this trench had been our old front line before we took Beaumont
Hamel; and I noticed many things, as, clips of cartridges, unexploded
bombs, Lewis-gun magazines, parts of a broken machine gun, and
various odds and ends of accoutrements. In some places this trench
had fallen in because of rain and other things and was almost
impassable, wherefore, after much floundering and splashing, F.
suggested we should climb out again, which we did forthwith, very
moist and muddy.

And thus at last I looked at that wide stretch of country across
which our men had advanced unshaken and undismayed, through a hell
the like of which the world had never known before; and, as I stood
there, I could almost see those long, advancing waves of khaki-clad
figures, their ranks swept by the fire of countless rifles and
machine guns, pounded by high explosives, blasted by withering
shrapnel, lost in the swirling death-mist of poison gas--heroic ranks
which, rent asunder, shattered, torn, yet swung steadily on through
smoke and flame, unflinching and unafraid. As if to make the picture
more real, came the thunderous crash of a shell behind us, but this
time I forgot to duck.

Far in front of us I saw a huge puff of smoke, and as it thinned out
beheld clouds of earth and broken beams that seemed to hang suspended
a moment ere they fell and vanished. After a moment came another puff
of smoke further to our right, and beyond this another, and again,
beyond this, another.

"A battery of heavies," said F.

Even