ining up in front
of the quarry as I came away with three of the signallers. It was
extremely dark, there was a dampness in the air that suggested rain,
some Boche howitzers were firing over our heads across the canal, and a
steady "putt-puttr-putt-putt" in the direction of the strong point,
that less than half an hour ago had fallen, told of a machine-gun duel
in progress. It was not an inspiriting moment; and over us, like a
pall, lay an atmosphere of doubt and apprehension, that lack of
knowledge of what was really happening only added to.

But at such moments there's nothing so steadying to mind and senses as
something definite to do. Earlier on I had noted marked on a Corps
signalling-map a test-box between the quarry and the canal and another
one along the railway embankment, not far from the retiring positions
assigned to the batteries. If we could find them the labour of laying
an overland telephone wire from the quarry to the opposite side of the
canal would be saved. We set out, got off the roadway, and did a good
deal of floundering about in hedge-bottoms and over waste lands; but
the important thing was that we found both test-boxes, and that the
buried cables we hoped for were there.

10.30 P.M.: I had reeled out my lines alongside the railway from the
test-box to D Battery and to C and A, who, because of the nine guns the
brigade had lost in the morning, had become a composite battery. They
had crossed the canal in comparative quiet and were now laying out
lines of fire by compass bearings. B Battery were coming along to a
spot near the railway farther north, and my signallers were waiting to
connect them up. Things were indeed getting ship-shape again. I had
spoken through to the colonel and put him in touch with his battery
commanders, and to the F.O.O. left at the rearmost O.P. on the eastern
side of the canal. The colonel had issued a night-firing programme just
as if we were in settled positions, and with fresh ammunition arriving
from the original waggon lines the batteries began "pooping off" with
brisk enthusiasm, their object being, of course, to cover the
retirement of our infantry.

Every one of us had turned out that morning immediately the Hun
bombardment started. No sleep could be looked for that night either;
but there was the morrow, March 22nd, to be reckoned with--it might
entail even more wear and tear than the day which was ending; so I sent
back to the waggon lines all but six of th