nd or two as a
ruddy star. And the green lights turned the vaporous fog a sickly
yellowish green as though it were some new poison-gas of the devils
over there. I led the way straight across. It was too dark to pick a
path and we committed no sacrilege as we trod on the bodies of
forgotten comrades. It was impossible to repress a shudder as the hand
met the clammy flesh, and the spilt light from a rocket exposed the
marble eyeballs and whitened flesh of the cheek with the bared teeth
gleaming yet more white. Our mission was to wait for a German patrol
at the gap in their wire I had previously discovered. We were seeking
identification of the regiments opposing us, and we desired to take at
least one of them alive.

We waited drawn-out minutes while the dark smothered us and our
thoughts haunted us. Minute piled on minute while we suffered the
torture of the heretic who was fastened so that the falling drops of
ice-water would follow each on the selfsame spot. Home and "Love of
Life" sought to drag us back to the shelter of our trenches, but Duty
like an iron stake pinned us there. But the stake was fast loosening
in the soil of our resolution, when we heard the guttural gruntings
that announced the approach of our quarry. We let them pass us and get
well away from their trenches, then silently, like hunters stalking
wild beasts, we followed them. When we were close enough to be almost
overpowered by the smell of sauerkraut and sausage mingling with stale
sweat, my voice rapped out, though muffled by the thick air: "Hands
up!" There was no hesitation in obeying, although there were eight of
them and only six of us. We pointed out the direction for them to go,
and reminded them with our boots that there was no time to waste. We
had only crossed a couple of shell-holes, however, when we came to a
full stop. Presently I understood that they had discovered we were
Australians and were terrified. Probably they had been fed up with
tales about our savagery, that we tortured our prisoners. Anyway, they
would not budge, and we could not carry eight hulking Germans and had
no means of tying them together. Presently, the disturbance attracted
notice from both trenches and there was only one thing to do. My
sergeant called out: "Look out, sir! We'll be seen in a minute. What
will we do?" The contest was short and sharp; they outnumbered us, but
we went to it with a will. It was sheer butchery, but I had rathe