with a steady hand when shells are dropping like
hailstones and we're all thinking every minute's our last. You've got
to be careful with him, sir. He's a long sight too valuable for us to
spare.'

Lefroy was right about that, for I don't know what I should have done
without him. The worst part of our job was to keep touch with our
flanks, and that was what I used Wake for. He covered country like a
moss-trooper, sometimes on a rusty bicycle, oftener on foot, and you
couldn't tire him. I wonder what other divisions thought of the grimy
private who was our chief means of communication. He knew nothing of
military affairs before, but he got the hang of this rough-and-tumble
fighting as if he had been born for it. He never fired a shot; he
carried no arms; the only weapons he used were his brains. And they
were the best conceivable. I never met a staff officer who was so quick
at getting a point or at sizing up a situation. He had put his back
into the business, and first-class talent is not common anywhere. One
day a G. S. O. from a neighbouring division came to see me.

'Where on earth did you pick up that man Wake?' he asked.

'He's a conscientious objector and a non-combatant,' I said.

'Then I wish to Heaven we had a few more conscientious objectors in
this show. He's the only fellow who seems to know anything about this
blessed battle. My general's sending you a chit about him.'

'No need,' I said, laughing. 'I know his value. He's an old friend of
mine.'

I used Wake as my link with Corps Headquarters, and especially with
Blenkiron. For about the sixth day of the show I was beginning to get
rather desperate. This kind of thing couldn't go on for ever. We were
miles back now, behind the old line of '17, and, as we rested one flank
on the river, the immediate situation was a little easier. But I had
lost a lot of men, and those that were left were blind with fatigue.
The big bulges of the enemy to north and south had added to the length
of the total front, and I found I had to fan out my thin ranks. The
Boche was still pressing on, though his impetus was slacker. If he knew
how little there was to stop him in my section he might make a push
which would carry him to Amiens. Only the magnificent work of our
airmen had prevented him getting that knowledge, but we couldn't keep
the secrecy up for ever. Some day an enemy plane would get over, and it
only needed the drive of a fresh storm-battalion or two to scatter