that long line. And against that awesome
bombardment! And the masses and the new tactics that Ivery had bragged
of!

When we ran into the dingy cavern which is Amiens station I seemed to
note a new excitement. I felt it in the air rather than deduced it from
any special incident, except that the platform was very crowded with
civilians, most of them with an extra amount of baggage. I wondered if
the place had been bombed the night before.

'We won't say goodbye yet,' I told the others. 'The train doesn't leave
for half an hour. I'm off to try and get news.'

Accompanied by Archie, I hunted out an R.T.O. of my acquaintance. To my
questions he responded cheerfully.

'Oh, we're doing famously, sir. I heard this afternoon from a man in
Operations that G.H.Q. was perfectly satisfied. We've killed a lot of
Huns and only lost a few kilometres of ground ... You're going to your
division? Well, it's up Peronne way, or was last night. Cheyne and
Dunthorpe came back from leave and tried to steal a car to get up to it
... Oh, I'm having the deuce of a time. These blighted civilians have
got the wind up, and a lot are trying to clear out. The idiots say the
Huns will be in Amiens in a week. What's the phrase? "_Pourvu que les
civils tiennent._" 'Fraid I must push on, Sir.'

I sent Archie back with these scraps of news and was about to make a
rush for the house of one of the Press officers, who would, I thought,
be in the way of knowing things, when at the station entrance I ran
across Laidlaw. He had been B.G.G.S. in the corps to which my old
brigade belonged, and was now on the staff of some army. He was
striding towards a car when I grabbed his arm, and he turned on me a
very sick face.

'Good Lord, Hannay! Where did you spring from? The news, you say?' He
sank his voice, and drew me into a quiet corner. 'The news is hellish.'

'They told me we were holding,' I observed.

'Holding be damned! The Boche is clean through on a broad front. He
broke us today at Maissemy and Essigny. Yes, the battle-zone. He's
flinging in division after division like the blows of a hammer. What
else could you expect?' And he clutched my arm fiercely. 'How in God's
name could eleven divisions hold a front of forty miles? And against
four to one in numbers? It isn't war, it's naked lunacy.'

I knew the worst now, and it didn't shock me, for I had known it was
coming. Laidlaw's nerves were pretty bad, for his face was pale and his
eyes bright l