I'ebruary 3, 191G. 
LAND AND WATER 
THE SIGNALLERS. 
By Boyd Cable. 
ITJic upcniiig of this story was published in "Land and 
WcUcr " of January 27th, and told the difficulties under 
Tvhich the signallers work whose duty it is to convey 
despatches from and to the firing Hue. An action 
was in progress, and it sounded as if it ivcre coming 
back closer to the signallers who were carrying on their 
work in the cellar of a half destroyed house.'] 
The sergeant was moving across the door to open 
it and Usten when a shell struck the house above them. 
The building shook violently, down to the very tlags of 
the stone Hoor ; from overhead, after the first crash, there 
came a rumble of falling masonry, the sphntering cracks 
of breaking wood-work, the clatter and rattle of cascad- 
ing bricks and tiles. A shower of plaster grit fell from the 
cellar roof and settled thick upon the papers littered over 
the table. The sergeant halted abruptly with his hand 
on the cellar door, three or four of the sleepefs stirred 
restlessly, one woke for a minute sulhciently to grumble 
curses and ask " what the blank was that " ; the rest slept 
on serene and undisturbed. The sergeant stood there 
until the last sounds of falling rubbish had ceased. " A 
shell " he said and drew a deep breath, " Plunk into 
upstairs somewhere." 
The signaller made no answer. He was quite busy 
at the moment rearranging his disturbed papers and 
blowing the dust and grit off them. 
A telephonist at another table conunenced to take 
and write down a message. It came from the forward 
trench, on the left and merely said briefly that the attack 
on the centre was spreading to them and that they were 
holding it with some difficulty. The message was sent 
up to the O.C. " Whoever the O.C. may be," as the 
sergeant said softly. "If the Colonel was upstairs when 
that shell hit, there's another O.C. now, most hke." But 
the Colonel had escaped tliat shell and sent a message 
back to the left trench to hang on, and that he had asked 
for reinforcements. 
Reinforcements. 
" He did ask," said the sergeant grimly, " but 
when he's going to get 'em is a dilferent pair o' shoes. 
It'll take those messengers most of an hour to get there, 
even if they dodge all the lead on the way." 
As the minutes passed, it "became more and more 
plain that the need for reinforcements was growing more 
and more urgent. The sergeant was standing now at 
the open door of the cellar, and the noise of the conflict 
swept down and clamoured and, beat about them 
" Think I'll just shp up and have a look round," said 
the sergeant. " I shan't be long." 
When he had gone, the signaller rose and closed the 
door ; it was cold enough, as he very sensibly argued, 
and his being able to hear the fighting better would do 
nothing to affect its issue. Just after came another call 
on his instrument, and the repair party told him they 
had crossed the neutral ground, had one man wounded 
in the arm, that he was going on with them, and they were 
still following up the wire. The message ceased, and the 
telephonist leaning his elbows on the table and his chin 
on his hands, was almost asleep before he realised it. 
He wakened with a jerk, lit another cigarette, and stamped 
up and down the room trying to warm his numbed feet. 
First one orderly and then another brought in 
messages to be sent to the other trenches, and the sig- 
naller held them a minute and gathered some more 
particulars as to how the fight was progressing up there. 
The particulars were not encouraging. We must have 
lost a lot of men, since the whole place was clotted up 
with casualties that kept coming in quicker than the 
stretcher bearers could move them. The rifle fire was 
hot, the bombing was still hotter, and the shelling was 
perhaps the hottest and most horrible of all. Of the last 
the signaller hardly required an account ; the growling 
thumps of heavy shells exploding, kept sending little 
shivers down the cellar walls, the shiver being, oddly 
enough, more emphatic when the wail uf the falling shell 
ended in a muJfled thump that proclaimed the missile 
" blind " or " a dud." Another hurried messenger 
plunged down the steps with a note written by the 
adjutant to say the colonel was severely woimded and 
had sent for the second in command to take over. Ten 
niorc dragging minutes passed, and now the separate 
little shivers and thrills that shook the cellar walls had 
merged and run together. The rolling crash of the falling 
shells and the bursting of bombs came close and fast 
one upon another, and at intervals the terrific detonation 
of an aerial torpedo dwarfed for the moment all the other 
sounds. 
The Sleepers Awake. 
By now the noise was so great that even the sleepers 
began to stir, and one or two of them to wake. One sat 
up and asked the telephonist sitting idle over his instru- 
ment, what was happening. He was told briefly, and 
told also that the line was " disc." He e.\pressed con- 
siderable annoyance at this, grumbling that he knew 
what it meant — more trips in the mud and under lire to 
take the messages the wire should have carried. 
" Do you think there's any chance of them pushing 
the line and rushing this house ? " he asked. The tele- 
phonist didn't know. 
" Well," said the man and lay down again. " It's 
none o' my dashed business if they do anyway. I only 
hope we're tipped the wink in time to shunt out o' here ; 
I've no particular fancy for sitting in a cellar with the 
Boche cock-shying their bombs down the steps at me." 
Then he shut his eyes and went to sleep again. 
The morsed key signal for his own company buzzed 
rapidly on the signaller's telephone and he caught the 
voice of the Corporal who had taken out the repair party. 
They had found the break, the corporal said, and weie 
mending it. He should be through — he was througli — 
could he hear the other end ? The signaller could hear 
the other end calling him and he promptly tapped off 
the answering signal and spoke into his institmient. He 
could hear the morse signals on the buzzer plain enough, 
but the \'oice was faint and indistinct. The signaller 
caught the corporal before he withdrew his tap-in and 
implored him to search along and find the leakage. 
" It's bad enough," he said, " to get all these 
messages through by voice. I haven't a dog's chance of 
doing it if I have to buzz each one." 
The rear station spoke again and informed him that 
he had several urgent messages waiting. The forward 
signaller replied that he also had several messages, and 
one in particular was urgent above all others. 
" The blanky line is being pushed in," he said. 
" No it isn't pushed in yet — I didn't say it — I said being 
pushed in — being — being, looks like it will be pushed 
in — got that ? 'The O.C. has ' stopped one ' and the 
second has taken command. This message I want you 
to take is shrieking for reinforcements — what ? I can't 
hear — no I didn't say anything about horses — I did not. 
Reinforcements I said ; anyhow, take this message and 
get it through quick." 
A Terrific Crash. 
He was interrupted by another terrific crash, a 
fresh and louder outburst of the din outside ; running 
footsteps clattered and leaped down the stairs, the door 
flung open and the sergeant rushed in slamming the door 
violently behind him. He ran straight across to the 
recumbent figures and began violently to shake and kick 
them into wakefulness. 
" Up with ye ! " he said, " Every man. If you don't 
wake quick now, you'll maybe not have the chance to 
wake at all." 
The men rolled over and sat and stood up blinking 
stupidly at him and listening in amazement to the noise 
outside. 
" Rouse yourselves," he cried. " Get a move on. 
The Germans are almost on top of us. The front line's 
falling back. They'll stand here." He seized one or 
two of them and pushed them towards the door. " You." 
17 
