irection of
the firing line.

That night our officer, Lieutenant McRae, came round fully equipped; one
look at him was enough; we knew there was to be no more "dossing" in the
soft straw for us.

"Fall in at the double, men! We have to take over a new section of
trenches not far from here." Such was the greeting he gave us. We got into
"harness" all right, but how we grouched and "cussed"!

After lining up on the muddy road with the remainder of the battalion, the
usual order was issued: "All fags out; no talking!"

We started off, wading through mud; with every now and then an occasional
halt and more grouching in the ranks. With three hours of this to our
credit, we found ourselves zigzagging round little hillocks along narrow
muddy cart roads. We passed a concealed battery of small howitzers. Some
of the English chaps noticed that we were "jocks" (the name the English
give the kilties) and began cheering us up with:

"Down't wish y' enny 'arm--but ye'r gowin' ta 'ave an 'ell of an 'ot tyme,
you Jocks!"

We had ploughed our way through the mud only a few hundred yards beyond
the battery when my nostrils sensed that there must have been some
killing going on in the vicinity. A little farther on we came to an open
section and turned to the right just before making a small incline. I
could see a few wrecked transport wagons and dead horses. We remained
behind a hillock and were told that we were near the enemy. We were about
to enter trenches which lay quite close to the German lines our officer
told us, adding that we could have reached this point from our billets in
half an hour, but that it was necessary for us to make the exceedingly
long detour. Most of us knew that this was the direction in which we had
seen the sausage balloon, which brought back the memory of the heavy
firing.

We got into the natural ditches, which served us as trenches. We did not
relieve any troops at this place, and there were no signs of any having
been here, but on both flanks at some distance off, there were regiments
entrenched. The situation was not one in the least to be desired. We were
practically on an open space.

We were just in the act of starting work with our entrenching tools when
all at once--"s-c-ch-eew!"--and the sky was alight with a flare rocket.
There was no necessity for orders to hug the earth; we just simply flopped
on our faces. Then it seemed as if the whole of the German artillery
opened fire. We did not d