On this trip his engine was put
out of action by a stray fragment from anti-aircraft. After gliding
across the trenches, he landed among some dug-outs inhabited by sappers,
and made use of much the same vocabulary as when he crashed at Dovstone
Marmaduke shot down several Hun machines during the weeks that followed,
but on the very day of his posting for a decoration a Blighty bullet
gave him a return ticket to England and a mention in the casualty list.
When last I heard of him he was at Dovstone aerodrome, teaching his
elders how to fly. I can guess what he would do if at the Grand Hotel
there some chance-introduced collector of autographs offered her book.
He would think of the cow and the Brass Hats, smile, produce his
gold-tipped fountain-pen, and write with a flourish, "John James
Christopher Benjamin Brown. Greetings from Dovstone."

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Officers from Headquarters.

CHAPTER II.

THE DAY'S WORK.

For weeks we had talked guardedly of "it" and "them"--of the greatest
day of the Push and the latest form of warfare. Details of the twin
mysteries had been rightly kept secret by the red-hatted Olympians who
really knew, though we of the fighting branches had heard sufficient to
stimulate an appetite for rumour and exaggeration. Consequently we
possessed our souls in impatience and dabbled in conjecture.

Small forts moving on the caterpillar system of traction used for heavy
guns were to crawl across No Man's Land, enfilade the enemy front line
with quick-firing and machine guns, and hurl bombs on such of the works
and emplacements as they did not ram to pieces,--thus a confidential
adjutant, who seemed to think he had admitted me into the inner circle
of knowledge tenanted only by himself and the G.S.O. people (I., II.,
and III., besides untabbed nondescripts). Veterans gave tips on war in
the open country, or chatted airily about another tour of such places as
Le Catelet, Le Cateau, Mons, the Maubeuge district, and Namur. The
cautious listened in silence, and distilled only two facts from the
dubious mixture of fancy. The first was that we were booked for a big
advance one of these fine days; and the second that new armoured cars,
caterpillared and powerfully armed, would make their bow to Brother
Boche.

The balloon of swollen conjecture floated over the back of the Front
until it was destroyed by the quick-fire of authentic orders, which
necessarily revealed much of the plan and many of