are even to look up for quite some time. However,
it seemed that we were not the party at which the firing had been
concentrated; one by one our boys ventured to peep over in the direction
of the flashes. The whizzing and groaning of the shells overhead was
terrific, but they passed high. During the flashes, I looked over the open
space in front of us. We were occupying a sort of high ground with slight
mounds. To our right flank the country seemed more regular.

So far none of us had been struck, and we prepared to dig in properly. We
had hardly levelled out our parapet, when an infernal noise of machine-gun
and rifle fire let loose on our right flank some hundreds of yards off.
Some of our look-out sentries seemingly got a bit nervous and commenced
firing too--at nothing. Then the whole line took it up. This racket kept
up fully twenty minutes--and we had not seen as much as a shadow. Shortly
after this, Major Murray, our acting Commanding Officer, came along the
line and gave orders to strengthen our position as the Germans were
expected to make a big charge along the whole front in the morning. I was
then told to select a man from my company (_D_) and go out between the
lines to secure all the information possible with regard to the distance
of the German lines from ours. Particularly, I was instructed to locate
the places where they could crawl up in our direction without being seen.

There was no use asking for a volunteer for no sane person longed for this
risky job, so I approached a strapping young fellow by the name of Lawson
and accosted him with:

"Lawson, coming with me?"

"I'm with you," was his reply. Taking up his rifle, which had been leaning
against the parapet, he added, as an afterthought: "But, whaur are ye
bound fur?"

"We're bound for the German lines, to get information," I answered. I
added that he had better hand over his keepsakes to a chum--the keepsakes
that he'd want his mother or his lass to receive--as we might not come
back again.

Dark as it was, I yet could see his chin fall and his face pale. With a
very serious look and without another word he emptied his pockets. Very
thoughtfully he took two packets of "Woodbine" cigarettes out of his
haversack and handed them over to a chap sitting on the fire step with:
"Here, Donald, ye ken what tae dae wi' these if Ah'm not back afore
mor-r-nin'."

We crawled out for about fifty yards, then, as there were little mounds in
front of and b