n of wire should not interfere with another
Britisher. After a short struggle I succeeded in tearing it up and
went on my way somewhat appeased.

The front was now quite quiet, and after many falls, footsore and
tired, I came to a large wood (the Bois de Logeost) a little before
dawn. In this I hoped to find cover for the day, but it was full of
transport, and many dim lights proclaimed the presence of huts. I had
been walking parallel to it for some distance when a British aeroplane
dropped some bombs too close to be pleasant, causing quite a stir in
the wood, shortly followed by an anti-aircraft gun opening fire not
far away. I have never felt so small in my life, and while tramping on
in a dejected manner, in imagination I was flying once again over the
lines, the occupied territory lying below me like a map: but in spite
of the tranquillity of the scene (for in this pleasant dream not a gun
was in action) I became conscious of a disturbing element somewhere,
something was out of place. To what was it due? Then all at once I
realised that it was all connected with an infinitesimal object which
wandered aimlessly about among the German batteries, and yet attracted
every one's attention. Vaguely I wondered what it could be? Then the
dream slowly faded, and as reality took its place I knew that I was
that atom! When things were quiet again I distinctly heard plonk,
plonk, plonk, the sound made by hand grenades, rising from the lower
ground in front, this was soon followed by the fainter cracking of a
machine gun and a brilliant Verey light, which I concluded was from
three to four miles away. All at once, just beside me, there was a
blinding flash, immediately followed by a deafening roar and the
screaming hiss of a shell, the latter lasting several seconds, then
slowly dying away into the night with a sigh. One of the German
heavies had fired from a neighbouring clump of trees. Had my skin been
any looser I should certainly have jumped out of it. Very soon I heard
the distant explosion of the bursting shell--Cr--ump, and then dashed
off in the opposite direction.

CHAPTER IV

RETAKEN

The country was very bare and the lines so close that there were no
hay or straw stacks about. The stars were beginning to fade from the
sky, so hastily retracing my steps for about a mile, in search of
cover, I almost fell over a tiny straw heap in the middle of a