n
England days ago. Can't you get him off--to Amiens, anyhow?'

'We scarcely like to. You see, we're all desperately sorry for him, his
fun gone and his career over and all that. He likes bein' with us and
listenin' to our yarns. He has been up once or twice too. The
Shark-Gladas. He swears it's a great make, and certainly he knows how
to handle the little devil.'

'Then for Heaven's sake don't let him do it again. I look to you,
Archie, remember. Promise.'

'Funny thing, but he's always worryin' about you. He has a map on which
he marks every day the changes in the position, and he'd hobble a mile
to pump any of our fellows who have been up your way.'

That night under cover of darkness I drew back the division to the
newly prepared lines. We got away easily, for the enemy was busy with
his own affairs. I suspected a relief by fresh troops.

There was no time to lose, and I can tell you I toiled to get things
straight before dawn. I would have liked to send my own fellows back to
rest, but I couldn't spare them yet. I wanted them to stiffen the fresh
lot, for they were veterans. The new position was arranged on the same
principles as the old front which had been broken on March 21st. There
was our forward zone, consisting of an outpost line and redoubts, very
cleverly sited, and a line of resistance. Well behind it were the
trenches which formed the battle-zone. Both zones were heavily wired,
and we had plenty of machine-guns; I wish I could say we had plenty of
men who knew how to use them. The outposts were merely to give the
alarm and fall back to the line of resistance which was to hold out to
the last. In the forward zone I put the freshest of my own men, the
units being brought up to something like strength by the details
returning from leave that the Corps had commandeered. With them I put
the American engineers, partly in the redoubts and partly in companies
for counter-attack. Blenkiron had reported that they could shoot like
Dan'l Boone, and were simply spoiling for a fight. The rest of the
force was in the battle-zone, which was our last hope. If that went the
Boche had a clear walk to Amiens. Some additional field batteries had
been brought up to support our very weak divisional artillery. The
front was so long that I had to put all three of my emaciated brigades
in the line, so I had nothing to speak of in reserve. It was a most
almighty gamble.

We had found shelter just in time. At 6.30 next day--