rly and pack up ready to go, or pack up and have dinner when we
got to the new position behind Mametz Wood.

It was a dark night again; other brigades of artillery were taking the
same route as ourselves, and, apart from the congestion, our own guns
had shelled this part so consistently since August 8 that the going was
heavy and hazardous. We passed one team with two horses down; at
another point an 18-pdr. had slipped into a shell-hole, and the air
rang with staccato shouts of "Heave!" while two lines of men strained
on the drag-ropes. We reached a damp valley that lay west of a stretch
of tree-stumps and scrubby undergrowth--remnants of what was a thick
leafy wood before the hurricane bombardments of July 1916. D Battery
had pulled their six hows. into the valley; the three 18-pdr. batteries
were taking up positions on top of the eastern slope. Before long it
became clear that the Boche 5.9 gunners had marked the place down.

"I'm going farther along to X 30 A.M. as zero hour, and I circulated
the news to the batteries. Some time later the telephone bell aroused
me, and the adjutant said he wanted to give me the time. Some one had
knocked over my stub of candle, and after vainly groping for it on the
floor, I kicked Wilde, and succeeded in making him understand that if
he would light a candle and check his watch, I would hang on to the
telephone. Dazed with sleep, Wilde clambered to his feet, trod once or
twice on the doctor, and lighted a candle.

"Are you ready?" asked the voice at the other end of the telephone.
"Ready, Wilde?" said I in my turn.

"I'll give it you when it's four minutes to one ... thirty seconds to
go," went on the adjutant.

Now Wilde always says that the first thing he heard was my calling
"thirty seconds to go!" and that I did not give him the "four minutes
to one" part of the ceremony. I always tell him he must have been half
asleep, and didn't hear me. At any rate, the dialogue continued like
this--

Adjutant (over the telephone to me): "Twenty seconds to go."

Me (to Wilde): "Twenty seconds to go."

Wilde: "Twenty seconds."

Adjutant: "Ten seconds to go."

Me: "Ten seconds."

Wilde: "Ten seconds."

Adjutant: "Five seconds."

Me: "Five."

Wilde: "Five."

Adjutant: "Now! Four minutes to one."

Me: "NOW! Four minutes to one."

Wilde (blankly): "But you didn't tell me what time it was going to be."

It was useless arguing, and I had to ring up the adjutant again. As a
m