in this attitude, too, which is the one that the British and the French
consider most becoming in a German--who were started on toward the
first-line British trench. All along the front small bands of prisoners
were appearing in the same way. There would have been something
ridiculous about it, if it had not been so real.

For the most part, the prisoners had been breached from dugouts which
had no exit through galleries after the Germans had been held fast by
the barrage. It was either a case of coming out at once or being bombed
to death in their holes; so they came out.

"A live prisoner would be of more use to his fatherland one day than a
dead one, even though he had no more chance to fight again than a rabbit
held up by the ears," as one of the German prisoners said.

"More use to yourself, too," remarked his captor.

"That had occurred to me, also," admitted the German.

During the filing out of the different bags of prisoners two incidents
passed before my eye with a realism that would have been worth a small
fortune to a motion picture man if equally dramatic ones had not been
posed. A German sprang out of the trench, evidently either of a mind to
resist or else in a panic, and dropped behind one of the piles of chalk
thrown up in the process of excavation. A British soldier went after him
and he held up his hands and was dispatched to join one of the groups.
Another who sought cover in the same way was of different temperament,
or perhaps resistance was inspired by the fact that he had a bomb. He
threw it at a British soldier who seemed to dodge it and drop on all
fours, the bomb bursting behind him. Bombs then came from all directions
at the German. There was no time to parley; he had made his choice and
must pay the price. He rolled over after the smoke had risen from the
explosions and then remained a still green blot against the chalk. A
British soldier bent over the figure in a hasty examination and then
sprang into the trench, where evidently he was needed.

"The Germans are very slow with their shell fire," said Howell in the
course of his ejaculations, as he watched the operations.

Answering barrages, including a visitation to our own position which was
completely exposed, were in order. Howell himself had been knocked over
by a shell here during the last attack. One explanation given later by a
German officer for the tardiness of the German guns was that the staff
had thought the British too s