ave moved to within two hundred
yards of Leuze Wood now--you can see the guns," resumed the major. "The
other battery positions are on the southern side of the road. The place
I have in my eye for headquarters is close to A Battery."

The German artillery had quite evidently understood the likelihood of
British batteries occupying the slope, and were acting accordingly. Our
party had reached a smashed hut three hundred yards from A Battery,
when the whine of an approaching shell caused us to drop to ground; it
fell fifty yards away, and the air became dense with flying pieces of
shell and earth showers. As we raised ourselves again we saw Beadle
walking at an even pace towards us. "Not a nice spot, sir," he began,
saluting the major. "We picked that place for a mess"--pointing to the
broken hut--"and five minutes later a shell crashed into it. There's a
dead horse round the corner ..."

"Have you been shelled much at the battery?" demanded the major.

"We had two sergeants killed a quarter of an hour ago, sir.... Captain
Dumble is arranging to shift the guns a bit north of the present
position,--do you approve of that, sir?"

"Yes, certainly," responded Major Mallaby-Kelby hastily. "If the
direction of the shelling indicates that it would mean more safety for
the battery I'm all for shifting." Beadle saluted and went away.

There was not as much spare room in the Nissen hut as the major had
thought. He asked me to "organise things" and to "scrounge round" for a
trench-cover to separate the subaltern and his gunners from our party;
but while I was dodging shells, making the search, he found a small
Boche combination hut and dug-out. The opening pointed the wrong way,
of course; but there was one tiny chamber twenty feet below ground with
a wooden bed in it, and upstairs a table, a cupboard, and a large heap
of shavings. It was now eight o'clock, and the major remembered that he
had not even had tea.

"Now what are we going to do about a meal?" he broke out. "We can't
have many servants up here, there's no room ... and it will be
difficult to get the mess cart up. Now, who has any suggestions? On
these matters I like to hear suggestions."

My own idea was that Meddings the cook, the major's servant, and one
other servant should bring up some bully-beef, cheese, and bread, and
bacon and tea for the morning. All that we wanted could be carried in a
couple of sandbags. We could do without valises and blankets that
ni