ou duck into the ditches quick!" He is
talking now of a cavalryman's work. "Here you fellows are grumbling
because you have a gun to clean. I wish I got off as easily. I have my
gun and my equipment; it takes a lot of time, and today I had to clean
and water two horses, another fellow's and mine. The other man got hurt,
one of the regulars. His horse fell on him."

The major, at conference, told us that he and Captain Kirby had been
expecting an attack at that point, as the lay of the land was right for
it. They were surprised when the flanking patrol found nothing.

Our next work was quite different, and illustrates the fact that the man
in the ranks can only tell what he sees, and often cannot understand
that. On our fresh advance northward our company was the advance guard, I
company falling to our rear. The first platoon marched ahead as the
"point," with communicating files, and we watched its operations for a
while as we followed along.

The work of the "point," my dear mother, when you are advancing to engage
the enemy, is one of the most dangerous in warfare. When the Germans sent
out their advance guards as they overran Belgium, they considered that
the men in each point had been given their death warrants. The object of
the point, as it proceeds along the road, is to hunt for the enemy and
engage him. The men of the detail march at intervals of about twenty-five
yards on alternate sides of the road, the corporal about halfway of the
squad, and the rearmost, or "get-away man," having the task of falling
back as soon as any serious obstacle is encountered, in order to
communicate with the support. As in enemy's country the roads are likely
to be waylaid, patrols are sent out to investigate any flanking hill, or
wood, or group of buildings, behind which a party could be hiding. You
can imagine the grim interest in trying to walk into an ambuscade. I
company's patrols having failed to locate the enemy in his last
concealment, we were particularly anxious to make no such error.

As we marched up each rise in ground I could see the point ahead of us,
and the patrols working their way through the country to the right and
left of the road. As the point naturally went faster than the patrols it
would gradually leave them behind, the corporal or sergeant commanding
would send back for more men, the message would come through the
communicating files, and men would be sent ahead for the work. Patrols
outdistanced, and