efore the battle we were digging under Hill Number
60. A chance shell exploded on the surface above us and buried us all
underground. Three of us were killed and the other two left alive. I
had one man across my chest and another across my legs, one dead and
the other wounded. We could not move hand or foot. We were buried in
there for seven hours and they finally dug us out unconscious.

"Then we started another sap to lay a mine. My pal was listening, with
an iron rod driven in the ground and two copper wires leading from it
to a head piece, such as a wireless operator uses, so that we could
hear the approach of the enemy's sappers, who were countermining
against us. My pal asked me to come and listen. But I had hardly got
the headpiece on when I said, 'O Lord, they're on us!' and before I
could get the thing off my ears the end of our sap fell through and the
Germans were at us. There was only room to use revolvers and bayonets
in that dark hole and the Germans seemed to get nervous and could not
shoot straight in the panic. We lost only one of our men, but we
killed seven and took the rest of the twenty prisoners. Then, before
they found out what had happened, we crawled through to the German end
of the tunnel and blew up their sap.

"You say was I a Christian? Not me! I was wild and going to the
devil. But one night I was wounded and lay in a deserted shell hole,
shot through the thigh, and unable to move for fifteen hours. I was
feeling for a cigarette in my pocket to ease the pain a bit, but all I
could find was a little pocket testament which someone had given me,
but which I had never read. I managed to get it out and, thinking it
might be my last hour, and that I might never be found, I started to
read to try and forget my wound. I read the twenty-seventh chapter of
Matthew, and sir, that little book changed my life. I have read a
chapter every day since then. I was picked up by the infantry and
carried to a hospital. One night when I could not sleep for the pain,
the nurse asked me if she could do anything for me, and I asked her to
read the Bible to me. She said she had never read it in her life, and
I said it was about time she began, if that was so. After she read it,
she said it helped her too. Yes, I say my prayers on my knees in the
tent now. Another boy has joined me this week; and the language in the
tent is getting better. I'm off to the front tomorrow to take my turn
again.