r or one despatch
rider rode for all he was worth. It was unpleasant to find new
shell-holes just off the road each time you passed, or, as you came into
the straight, to hear the shriek of shrapnel between you and the farm.

Huggie once arrived at the house of the "hairpin" bend simultaneously
with a shell. The shell hit the house, the house did not hit Huggie, and
the sniper forgot to snipe. So every one was pleased.

On my last journey I passed a bunch of wounded Sikhs. They were
clinging to all their kit. One man was wounded in both his feet. He was
being carried by two of his fellows. In his hands he clutched his boots.

The men did not know where to go or what to do. I could not make them
understand, but I tried by gestures to show them where the ambulance
was.

I saw two others--they were slightly wounded--talking fiercely together.
At last they grasped their rifles firmly, and swinging round, limped
back towards the line.

Huggie did most of the work that day, because during the greater part of
the afternoon I was kept back at brigade headquarters.

In the evening I went out in the car to fetch the general. The car,
which was old but stout, had been left behind by the Germans. The driver
of it was a reservist who had been taken from his battalion. Day and
night he tended and coaxed that car. He tied it together when it fell to
pieces. At all times and in all places he drove that car, for he had no
wish at all to return to the trenches.

On the following day Huggie and I were relieved. When we returned to our
good old musty quarters at Beuvry men talked of a move. There were
rumours of hard fighting in Ypres. Soon the Lahore Division came down
towards our line and began to take over from us. The 14th Brigade was
left to strengthen them. The 15th and 13th began to move north.

Early on the morning of October 29 we started, riding first along the
canal by Bethune. As for Festubert, Givenchy, Violaines, Rue de Marais,
Quinque Rue, and La Bassee, we never want to see them again.

[Illustration: YPRES _TO_ LA BASSEE]

FOOTNOTES:

[17] The letters were written on the 14th October _et seq._ The censor
was kind.

[18] Dorsets, I think.

[19] I do not say this paragraph is true. It is what I thought on 15th
October 1914. The weather was depressing.

[20] Optimist!

[21] After nine months at the Front--six and a half months as a despatch
rider and two and a half months as a cyclist officer--I have decide