in
had said, we wanted "taking out of ourselves," and it had just needed an
impromptu concert in an old Flemish barn to do it.

XXIII

THE "STRAFE" THAT FAILED

There is a certain battery in France where the name of Archibald Smith
brings a scowl to every brow and an oath to every lip. The Battery Major
still crimsons with wrath at the thought of him, and the Observing
Officer remembers bitterly the long, uncomfortable hours he spent,
perched up in a tree a hundred yards or so from the German lines. And
this is how Archibald Smith was the unwitting cause of so much anger to
the battery, and the saver of many a German life.

One morning shortly before dawn the Commanding Officer of an infantry
regiment was wading down a communicating trench, when he met an
artillery officer, accompanied by three men with a big roll of telephone
wire.

"Hullo, what are you doing at this hour?" he asked.

"We hope to do some good 'strafing,' sir," said the subaltern. "I'm
coming up to observe. Some aeroplane fellow has found out that Brother
Boche does his relieving by day in the trenches opposite. We hope to
catch the relief to-day at ten."

"Where are you going to observe from?"

"There's an old sniper's post in one of the trees just behind your
trenches. If I get up there before light I shall get a topping view, and
am not likely to get spotted. That's why I'm going up there now, before
it gets light."

"Well, are you going to stick up on that confounded perch until ten
o'clock?" asked the C.O. "You'd better come and have some breakfast with
us first."

But the Observing Officer knew the necessity of getting to his post as
soon as possible and, reluctantly refusing the Colonel's invitation, he
went on his way. Ten minutes later, he was lying full length on a
platform constructed in one of the trees just behind the firing line.
With the aid of his glasses, he scanned the German sandbags and, in the
growing light, picked out a broad communicating trench winding towards
the rear. "Once they are in that gutter," he muttered, "we shall get
lots of them," and he allowed this thought to fortify him during his
long wait.

* * * * *

"Quite sure the telephone's all right?" asked the Observing Officer for
the fiftieth time. "If that wire were to go wrong we should have no
means of getting on to the battery, for the infantry can only get on by
'phoning to Brigade Headquarters first, and you k