i6 
LAINU & WATER 
feeuxemoer 27, 1917 
mustn't get plunky well killed nowaAays,- unless you 'as 
orders to." 
" There they go," said Johnny suddenly, and all strained 
thoir ears for the sound of rattling rifle fire that came faintly 
tlirough th». roll of tlie ghns. " An' here they come," said 
Ratty qiiicklv, and all crouched low and listened to tiie rising 
roar of a heavy shell approaching, the heiwy cr-r-rump of its 
:.iU. A message passed along, " Ready there. Move in five 
minutes." And at five minutes to the tick, they rose and 
began to pass along the trench. 
• Know where we are. Ratty ? " asked Johnny. Rattv 
looked about him. " How should I know," he shoutedT' 
back, " 1 vvas never 'ere before." 
" You oughter," returned Johnny. " This is the line we 
started from back in practice attack— the one that was taped . 
out along by the streanj." Jj 
" I'm a fat lot better for knowin' it too," said Ratty sar- . 
castically, and trudged on. They passed slowly forward 
and along branching trenches until they came at last to the 
^ (ront line, from which, after a short rest, they climbed and 
hoisted their machine guns out into the open. From here 
for the first time they could see something of the battle- 
.ground ; but could see nothing of the battle except a drifting 
haze of smoke, and, just disappearing into it, a shadowy 
line of figures. The thimder of the guns continued, and out . 
in front they could hear now the crackle of rifle fire, the sharp 
detonations of grenades. There were far fewer shells falling 
a'oout the old '" neutral ground " than Ratty had expected, 
and even comparatively few bullets piping over and past 
tliem. They reached the tumbled wreckage of shell holes and 
splintered planks that marked what had been the front German 
line, clambered thrmigh this, and pushed on stumbling and 
climbing in and out the shell-holes that riddled the ground.- 
" \\ liere's the Buffs that's supposed to be in front o' us," 
; h >uted Ratty, and ducked hastily into a deep shell-hole at 
tlie. warning screech of an approaching shell. It. crashed 
down somewhere near and a shower of dirt and earth rained 
down on him. He climbed out. " Should be ahead about 
a — here's some o' them now wi' prisoners," said Johnny. 
They had a hurried glimpse of a huddled group of men in 
grey with their hands well up over their heads, running, 
stumbling, half falling and recovering, . but always keeping 
hands hoisted well up. There may have been a full thirty 
of them, and they were being shepherded back by no more 
than three or four men with bayonets gleaming on their 
ri.fles. They disappeared into thehaze, and the machine gunners 
dropped down hito a shallow twisting depression and pressed 
on" along it. 
" This is the communication trench that used to bs 
taped out along the edge o' that cornfield in practice 
attack," said Johnn}', when they halted a moment. 
-"Trench," said Ratty, glancing along it " Strewth ! " 
Th? trench was gone, was no more than a wide shallow 
depression, a tumbled gutter a foot or two below the level 
. of the ground ; and even the gutter in places was lost in a 
patch of broken earth heaps and craters. It was best traced 
'^■.- tlie dead that lay in it, by the litter of steel helmets, rifles, 
b libs, . gas-masks, bayonets, water-bottles, arms and equip- • 
inent of every kind strewed along it. 
By now Ratty had lost all sense of direction or location, 
but Johnny at his elbow was always able to keep him informed. 
• Ratty at first refused to accept his statements, but was 
convinced against all argument. " 'U'e should pass three 
trees along this trench somewhere soon, "Johnny would say, 
and presently, sure enough, they came to one stump six foot 
high and two splintered butts just showing above the earth. 
Tlvy reached a wide depression, and Johnny pointed rmd 
shouted, "The sunk road," and looking round, pointed again 
to som» whit^sh-,grey masses broken, overturned, almost 
buried in th'.-tumbled earth, the remains of concrete machine 
gun emplacement;? Ratty remembered had been marked 
somewhere back there on the practice ground by six marked 
boards. " Six," shouted Johnny, and grinned triumphantly 
at the d<3ubter. ■ ■ 
The last of Ratty's doubts as to the correctness of battle 
plans, even of the German lines, vanished when they came to 
a bare .stretch of ground which Johnny reminded him was 
wh'ie they had been warned they would most likely come 
under enfilading machine gun fire. They halted on the edge 
of this patch to get their wind, and watched some stretcher- 
bearers struggling to cross and a party of men digging furi- 
ously to make a line of linked up shell-holes, while, the ground 
about them jumped and splashed under the hailing of bullets. 
" Enfiladin- fife," said Ratty, ".Should think it was too. 
Why the 'ell ('.on't they silence the guns doin' it ? " 
"Supposed to be in a clump o' wood over there," said Johnny, 
" .A.nd it ain't due to be took for an hour yet." 
The word passed along, and they rose and began to cross 
the open ground amongst the raining bullets. " There's our 
objective," shouted Johnny as they ran. " That rige— 
come into acfion there." Ratty, stared aghast at.the rise, 
and at "the spouting columns of smoke and dirt that leaped 
from it under a steady fall of he.avy shells. "That," he 
.screeched back, "Gorstrewth. Goodbye us then." But he 
ran on as well as he could under the weight of the gun on his 
shoulder. Tney were both. well out to the left of their ad- 
vancing line and Ratty was ihstitictively flinching from the 
direct route into those gusts of flame and smoke. " Keep up,',' 
yelled Johnny. " Remember the trench. You'll miss the end 
of it." Ratty recalled vaguely the line of flags and tape that 
had wriggled over the practice ground to the last position 
where they had halted each d^"^;, and- brought their guns into 
mimic action. He slanted , fright' and presently stiUTibled 
thankfully into the - broken ,t'rench,,ajnd .pushed along it up 
the rise. At the.top he.Tound himsplf looking over a gentle 
slope, the foot of which' was veiled.in an e.ddy.ing mist of smoke. 
.■\ heavy shell burst ,with-a.te.i*i;ifyirigcr4sh' and sent him reel- 
ing from shock.;, He sat'down'^wit|i a.'bump, shaken and for 
the moment dazed, but came to 'himself with Johnny's voice 
bawling in his ear, " Gome on man, come on. Hurt? Quick 
then— yer gun." He staggered up and towards an officer 
whom he could see waving, frantically at him and opening 
and shutting his moiith in shouts that were lost in the uproar. 
He thrust forward and into a shell hole beside Johnny and the 
.rest of the gun detachment. His sergeant jumped down 
beside them shouting and pointing out into the smoke wreaths. 
" See the wood ... six hundred . . . lay on the 
ground-line— they're counter-attack———." He stoppecl 
abruptly and fell sliding in a tumbled heap down into the 
crater on top of, the gim. Tlie officer ran, back to them 
mouthing unheard angry shouts again. Ratty was getting 
angry himself. How could a man get into action with a 
fellow falling all over his gun like that ? They dragged the 
sergeant's twitching body clear. Ratty felt a pang of regret 
for his anger. He'd, been a good chap, the sergeant. But 
anger swallowed him again as he dragged his gun clear. It 
was drenched with blood. " Nice bizness," he said savagely, 
" if my breech action's clogged up." A loaded belt slipped 
into place and he brought the gun into action with a savage 
jerk on th-- loadiiig lever, looked over his , sights, and layed 
them on the edge of the wood he could just dimly see through 
the smoke. He coifld see nothing to fire at— cursed smoke 
was .so thick— but the others'were firing hard— must be 
something there. He pressed his thumbs on the lever and his 
gun began to spurt a stream of fire and lead, the belt racing 
and clicking through, the breech clacking smoothly, the 
handles jarring sharply in his fingers. 
The hillock was still under heavy shell-fire. . They'd been 
warned in practice .attack there would probably be shell- 
fire, and here it was, shrieking, crashing, tearing the wrecker' 
ground to fresh shapes of wreckage, spouting in fountains of 
black- smoke and earth, whistling and hurtling in jagged 
fragments, hitting solidly and bursting in whirlwinds of flame 
. and smoke. Ratty had no time to think of the shells. Ht 
strained his eyes over the sights on the foot of the dimly seen 
trees, held his gun steady arid spitting its jets of flame and 
lead, until word came to him somehow or from somewhere to 
cease firing. The attack had been wiped out, he heard said. He 
straightened his bent shoulders and discovered with immense 
surprise that one shoulder hurt, that his jacket was soaked 
with blood. --■■ ^ • 
" Nothing more than a good Blighty one," said the bearer 
who tied him up. " Keep you home two-three months mebbe." 
"Good enough." said. Ratty.. ," I'll be back in time to 
see the finish," and lit a cigarette contentedly. 
Back in the Aid Post later he heard from one of the Jocks 
who had been down there in the smoke somewhere between the 
machine guns and the wood, that' the front line was already 
well consolidated. He heard too that the German countef:- 
, attack had been cut to pieces, and that.the open ground be- 
fore our new line front was piled 'with their dead. " You 
fellies was just late enough wi' your machine-guns," said the 
Highlander. " In anither three-fower meenits they'd a been 
right on top o' us." " ' 
" Late be blowed," said Ratty. ..'' We was on the right spot 
exackly at the programme time o' the plan. Whole plunky 
attack went like clockwork, far's our bit o' th« plans went." 
But it was two days later and snug in bed in a London 
hospital, when l^e had read the dispatches describing the battle, 
that he had his last word on " planned attacks." 
" Lumme," he said to the next bed, " I likes this despatch 
of ole 'Indenburg's. Good, mile an' a half we pushed 'em 
back, an" held all the gi-ound, 'an' took 6,000 prisoners ; an', 
says 'Indenburg,' the British attack was completely repul- 
^^^ • • • only' a few crater" positions were' abandoned 
by us according to plan.' " 
He dropped the paper and grinned. "Accordin' to plan." 
he'saiid.:. ': Yes, it was.accordin'.to plan right enough. But 
c forgot to say it was accordin' to the plan that was ihade'by 
AiK an' ua." 
