18 
LAND & WATER 
December 7, 191 
tempted for an instant into keeping a lesi* careful head 
undrr (ovi-r tliaii the situatiDii (ienianded. A hiiiitt 
leapt uhitll past witliin an inch of liis ear and he dropiicd 
Hat to earth with an oath. " Tliat was 'im." Ik- said. 
" 1 saw thi' riasli of is rifle. Looks like 'e's got me piped 
off, an' it's Roin' to be 'im or me for it." 
Chick and another man in the same hole had been busy 
shooting at any mark that presented, but when tlieir 
every appearance abo\e gronnd began to be giected by 
an impleasantly close bullet, they ceased to lire and 
sciuatted back in the hble to watch Ben, and the conduct- 
ing of his duel. A dozen times he and the German lired, 
each drawing or returning instant shot for shot. Ben 
mo\ing from one spot to another in the shell crater, 
pushing his rifle out slowly, lifting his head cautiously 
an inch at a time. 
Over their heads the' great shells shrieked and rushed, 
round them crackled a spattering rifle fire, the occasional 
haiimiering of a machine gun, the rolling crash and whirr 
Of bii'rsting shells and fl\'ing splinters. Far out to right 
and left of them, far to their front and rear the roar of 
battle ran, long-thundering and unbroken, in a deafening 
chorus of bellowing guns, the vibrating rattle of rifles 
and machine guns, the sharp detonations and reports 
of shells and bombs and grenades. But Ben, and in 
lesser degree his companions, were quite heedless of all 
these things, of how the battle moved or stayed still. 
For them the struggle had boiled down into the solitary 
duel between Ben and his (icrman ; the larger issues 
were for the mement completely overshadowed, as in 
war the\' so often are, by the mere individual and personal 
ones. Ben insisted in finishing off his duel single-handed, 
declining to have the others there interfere in it. " It's 
'im or me for it," he repeated, " fair dinkum. An' 
I'm goin' to get 'im, and 'is 't^met on my blinkin' own." 
He decided at last to move his position, to crawl 
ilong and try to catch his opponent in flank, to stalk 
his enemy as a hunter stalks a hidden buck. Since he 
could not escape from the crater they were in without 
exposing himself to that watchful rifle, he scraped down 
with his entrenching tool a couple of feet of the rim of 
the crater where it formed a wall dividing off another 
crater. When he had cleared the passage he came back 
and fire another shot, just to keep his enemy watching 
in the same spot for him, and hurriedly crawled over into 
the ne.xt crater, squirmed and wriggled away from it 
along cracks and holes and folds of the torn and tumbled 
ground in a direction that he reckoned would allow 
him to reach the (ierman sheltering in his hole and 
behind a broken hillock of earth. But before he reached 
such a position as he desired he found himself looking 
over into a deep crater occupied by an ofificer and half 
a dozen men with a machine gun. 
The officer looked up and caught sight of him. " Hullo 
Sneath," he said, " Where are you off to ? You're moving 
the wTong way, aren't you ? The order was to retire, 
and you're moving forward." 
Ben wriggled over into the crater and crouched puffing 
and blowing for a moment. " I 'adn't 'card nothin' 
about retiring, sir," he said doubtfully. 
"That's the order, said the officer briskly,"! 
don't kno>v what it means any more than you do, but 
there it is. You'd better wait now and move back 
with us." 
Ben was annoyed — exceedingly annoyed. This re- 
tirement looked like losing him his duel, and what was 
more, losing him his coveted helmet. Retirement was a 
thing he had not for an instant calculated upon. He 
had taken it (juite for granted that if he could slay the 
wearer of the liehnet, the helmet was his, that he had only 
to wait until the lin(> advanced to go straight to it 
and pick it up. With a \aguc idea that he would have 
managed the affair much better on his own, without 
these interfering directions of his movements, he began 
to wish he had nc\er come across this officer, and from that 
jiassed to wondering whether he couldn't give the ofilicer 
the slip and finish off his programme in his own way. 
At' that monKMit the British artillery fire redoubled 
in intensity and the rush of shells overhead rose to a 
roaring gale. 
" Sharp there, " said the oflrtccr, " Get that gun picked 
up. Now's our chance to get back while the guns are 
socking it into 'em." 
He was right, of course, and their chances of retire- 
ment were likely to be improved bv the he.-wier covering 
lire. But Bt-n was also right in a lialf-formed idea thai 
had conie to him - that the covering lire would also lessen 
the risk of a move forward, or as he put it to himself— 
" With all them shells about their ears they'll be too 
busy keepin' their heads down to do much shootin' at 
me if I chance a quick rush ; an' most likelv I'd be on top 
o' that bloke wi' the 'elmet afore 'e knew it." 
The others were picking up the machine gun and 
preparing to move, and Ben took a long and careful look 
over the edge of the hole to locate his helmet wearer. 
With a quick exclamation he snatched the rifle to his 
shoulder, anned, and fired. 
" That'll do," said the officer sharply turning at 
sound of the shot. " Cease firing and get along back." 
But Ben was gazing hard in the direction of his shot 
*' I've got 'im," he said triumphanti}-, " 1 11 swear I got 
'im that time. Showin' a fair mark 'e was, an' I saw 
'im jerk an' roll when I fired." 
Never mind that," said the officer impatiently," 
" There's their rifle fire beginning again. Time we w-erc 
out of this. Keep down as well as you can all of you. 
Move yourselves now. " 
The men began to scramble out of the hole, and in an 
instant Ben's mind was made up. They were retiring ; 
so far as he knew the battalion might be retiring out of 
the line, out of the battle, and out of the reach of chances 
of German helmets. And meantime there was his 
helmet lying there waiting to be picked up, lying within 
a hundred yards of him. 
He climbed up the rear wall of the crater, halted and 
spoke hurriedly to the officer. " I won't be 'alf a mo' 
sir," he said, " Something there I want to pick up an' 
bring in," and without waiting for any reply turned and 
bolted across the open towards his helmet.' The officer 
was consumed with a quick gust of anger at such dis- 
obedience. " Here," he shouted and scrambled out of 
the pit, " Hi, come back you " ; and as Ben ga\e no sign 
of having heard him, he' shouted again and ran a few 
paces after him. 
And so it was that about a dozen Anzacs rising sullenly 
and grumblingly out of a big shell-crater in reluctant 
obedie.nce to the order to retire, saw a khaki figure rise 
into sight and go charging straight forward towards 
the enemy, and a second later the figure of an officer 
bound into sight and follow him. 
Two or three of the Anzacs voiced together the thought 
that rose to all their minds : 
" Who said retire . . . What blundering fool 
twisted the order . . . retire, Gostrewth, they're 
advancing ... us retire, an' them goin' forward 
To them the position required little thinking over. 
They could see some men advancing, and distinctly see 
an officer too at that. And how many more the smoke 
hid. 
In an instant they were swarming up and out of their 
crater ; there was a wild yell, a shrill " Coo-ee," a confused 
shouting, " Come on boys . . . at 'em Anzacs . . 
Advance Australia," and the dozen went plunging off 
forward. Out to right and left of them the yell ran like 
fire through dry grass, the coo-ees rose long and shrill ; 
as if by magic the dead ground sprouted gleaming 
bayonets and scrambling khaki figures. Every man 
who looked saw a ragged and swiftly growing line surg- 
ing forward, and every man, asking nothing more, taking 
only this plain evidence of an advance, made haste to 
fling himself into it. .Straight at the flashing rifles and the 
drifting fog-bank of shell smoke that marked the German 
position the shifting wa\e swept and surged, the men 
yelling, shouting and cheering. Bullets beating down 
upon them, shells crumpling and smashing amongst 
them cut them down by dozens, but neither halted 
nor slowed down the charging line. It poured on, flooded 
in o\-er the wrecked trenches and dug-outs, the con- 
fused litter of shell holes big and little, piled earth heaps, 
occasional fragments of brickwork and splintered beams 
that alone remained of the \-illage. The ffank attacks 
that had been launched a few minutes before and held up 
staggering under the ferocious fire that met them, found 
the weight of their opposition suddenly grow less, took 
fresh breath and thrust fiercely in again, gained a footing, 
felt the resistance weaken, and bend, and break, and in a 
moment were through and into the tumbled wreckage 
