e the sound of a
gun about three seconds afterward. A shell had burst in the air about
300 yards away. Another and another came--all about the same place. They
appeared to come from the direction of Bapaume.

"Bad, very bad," commented my companion. And so it appeared to me, for
the Germans were dropping their shells from the southeast, at least one
kilometer over range. We were standing beside a strawstack and looking
due south, watching the just discernible line of French guns, when we
heard the ominous whistling screech of an approaching shell. Down on our
faces behind the stack, down we went like lightning, and over to the
left, not 200 yards away, rose a huge column of black smoke and earth,
and just afterward a very loud boom. A big German gun had come into
action, slightly nearer this time.

Just behind a wood I could plainly see the smoke of the gun itself
rising above the trees. Two more shells from the big gun exploded within
twenty yards of each other, and then, with disconcerting suddenness, a
French battery came into action within a hundred yards of our strawstack
cover. They had evidently been there for some time, awaiting
eventualities, for we had no suspicion of their proximity, and they were
completely hidden.

My ears are still tingling and buzzing from the sound of those guns. One
after another the guns of this battery bombarded the newly taken up
position of the German big guns, which replied with one shell every
three minutes.

Presently we had the satisfaction of hearing a violent explosion in the
wood, and a column of smoke and flame rose up to a great height.

Soixante-quinze had again scored, for the German guns had been put out
of action. From out the French position came infantry, at this point
thousands of little dots over the landscape, presenting a front of, I
should think, about two miles, rapidly advancing in skirmishing order.
Every now and then the sharp crackle of rifle fire could distinctly be
heard.

The French had advanced over a mile, and the Germans had hastily
evacuated the wood. Other French batteries now came into action, and the
German fire over the whole arc was becoming decidedly fainter and less
frequent. This might, of course, be due to changing their positions on
the German front.

Wounded began to arrive, which showed that for the present at any rate,
it was safe to go out to the trenches to collect them.

Very few of them seemed badly hit, and the wounded Fren