y," he answered.
"You're safe?"

"I think so," I answered. "Bill."

"I've copped it," answered the Cockney. "Here in my back, it's burnin'
'orrid."

"A minute, matey," I said, tumbling into a kneeling position and
bending over him. "Let me undo your equipment."

I pulled his pack-straps clear, loosened his shirt front and tunic,
pulled the clothes down his back. Under the left shoulder I found a
hot piece of shrapnel casing which had just pierced through his dress
and rested on the skin. A black mark showed where it had burned in but
little harm was done to Bill.

"You're all right, matey," I said. "Put on your robes again."

"Stretcher-bearers at the double," came the cry up the trench and (p. 195)
I turned to Pryor. He was attending to one of our mates, a Section 3 boy
who caught a bit in his arm just over the wrist. He was in pain, but
the prospect of getting out of the trench buoyed him up into great
spirits.

"It may be England with this," he said.

"Any others struck?" I asked Pryor who was busy with a first field
dressing on the wounded arm.

"Don't know," he answered. "There are others, I think."

"Every man down this way is struck," came a voice; "one is out."

"Killed?"

"I think so."

"Who is he?"

"Spud Higgles," came the answer; then--"No, he's not killed, just got
a nasty one across the head."

They crawled across us on the way to the dressing station, seven of
them. None were seriously hurt, except perhaps Spud Higgles, who was a
little groggy and vowed he'd never get well again until he had a
decent drink of English beer, drawn from the tap.

The shelling never slackened; and all the missiles dropped (p. 196)
perilously near; a circle of five hundred yards with the trench
winding across it, enclosed the dumping ground of the German guns. At
times the trench was filled with the acid stench of explosives mixed
with fine lime flung from the fallen masonry with which the place was
littered. This caused every man to cough, almost choking as the throat
tried to rid itself of the foreign substance. One or two fainted and
recovered only after douches of cold water on the face and chest.

The suspense wore us down; we breathed the suffocating fumes of one
explosion and waited, our senses tensely strung for the coming of the
next shell. The sang-froid which carried us through many a tight
corner with credit utterly deserted us, we were washed-out things;
with noses to the cold eart