the
fear which looked out of those glinting eyes was terrible to behold.

We gave them "Oxo," and the medical officer came and looked at them.
They came down to our dried-up water-course and tried to sleep; but they
were past sleep. They kept dozing off and waking up with a start and
muttering--

"... All gone... killed... where? where? No, no... No!.. . don't move...
(mumble-mumble)... keep still... idiot! you'll get shot... can you see
them? Eh? where?... he's dying, dying... stop the bleeding, man! He's
dying... we're all dying... no water... drink..."

I've seen men, healthy, strong, hard-faced Irishmen, blown to shreds.
I've helped to clear up the mess. I've trod on dead men's chests in the
sand, and the ribs have bent in and the putrid gases of decay have burst
through with a whhh-h-ff-f.

But I'd rather have to deal with the dead and dying than a case of
"sniper-madness."

I was just recovering from that attack of fever and dysentery, and these
two were lying beside me; the one mumbling and the other panting in a
fitful sleep.

When they were questioned they could give very little information.

"Where's Lieutenant S---?"

"... Gone... they're all gone..."

"How far did you go with him?"

No answer.

"Where are the others?"

"... Gone... they're all gone..."

"Are they killed?"

"... Gone."

"Are any of the others alive?"

"We got away... they're lost... dead, I think."

"Did you come straight back--it's a week since you were lost?"

"It's days and days and long nights... couldn't move; couldn't move an
inch, and poor old George dying under a rock... no cover; and they shot
at us if we moved... we waved the stretchers when we found we'd got too
far... too far we got... too far... much too far; shot at us..."

"What about the sergeant?"

"We got cut off... cut off... we tried to crawl away at night by
rolling over and over down the hill, and creeping round bushes... always
creeping an' crawling... but it took us two days and two nights to
get away... crawling, creeping and crawling... an' they kep' firing at
us..."

"No food... we chewed grass... sucked dead grass to get some spittle...
an' sometimes we tried to eat grass to fill up a bit.. . no food... no
water..."

They were complete wrecks. They couldn't keep their limbs still. They
trembled and shook as they lay there.

Their ribs were standing out like skeletons, and their stomachs had
sunken in. They were black with sunburn,