y wonderfully. We knew them
well, those formidable German rockets, which seemed as though they
would never go out and shed a pallid and yet blinding light. We knew
that as soon as they were lighted everybody who happened to be within
range of the enemy's rifle fire had at once to lie flat on the ground,
and not move or raise his head so long as the light was burning.
Otherwise shots would be fired from all directions, mowing down the
vegetation and cutting up the earth all around him. This time we were
well outside the range, and we watched the dazzling star in front of
us without halting.

"The shepherds' star," said G. solemnly.

Strange shepherds indeed must they have been who carried carbines as
their crooks, and were provided with cartridges enough to send a
hundred and twenty of their fellow-creatures into the next world. The
star seemed to hang for a moment some yards from the ground; then
slowly, slowly, as though exhausted by its effort, it fell to the
ground and went out. The night seemed less clear and less diaphanous.

We had now reached the glass-works and it was there that we were to
leave our cooks. No one would have supposed that this large factory
lay idle, and that the hundreds of workmen employed there were
dispersed. On the contrary, it seemed to have retained all the
animation of the prosperous enterprise it had been before the war.

It was a large square of massive buildings, almost a miniature town,
planted on the side of the canal, like an outlying bastion of the
suburbs of R. The low white walls, crowned with tiles, had the stunted
appearance of military works. But a nearer view gave rather the
illusion of the life in a busy factory at night-time. The gateway
opened on a courtyard, with furnace fires shining here and there.
Shadowy forms passed backwards and forwards, enlivening the dim scene
with the bustle of a hive. Men came out by fives or sixes, laden with
different kinds of burdens, and disappeared into the darkness, making
for mysterious goals. In front of the open gate other figures were
unloading heavy cases from vans. These quondam glass-works were now a
depot for the Army Supply service, and a huge kitchen, which
administered and fed the whole sector of trenches, of which ours
formed a part.

The Germans knew this. So every day and many times a day their guns
fired a few salvoes of shells on the huge quadrilateral. But our good
troopers were none the worse. Instead of working in