l6 
LAINU & WATER 
oepiemoer 27, 1917 
mustn't get plunky well killed nowadays, unless you 'as • 
orders to." ' , ,1 • 1 
•■ There they go," said Johnny suddenly, and all strainea 
th'^ir ears for the sound of rattling rifle lire that came faintly 
through the roll of the guns. " An' here they come," said 
Kattv quickly, and all crouched low and listened to the rising 
roar of a heavy shell approaching, the he^vycr-r-rump of its 
fall A message passed along, " Ready there. Move in hve 
minutes." And at live minutes to the tick, they rose and 
began to pass along the trench. 
•• Know where we are, Kattv ? " asked Johnny. Ratty 
looked about him. " How should 1 know," he shouted 
back, '■ I was 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 bv the stream." 
" I'm a fat lot better for knowin' it too," said Ratty sar- , 
castically, and trudgqd on. They passed slowly forward 
and along branching trenches until they came at last to the 
front 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 thunder of the guns continued, and out 
in front thev could hear now the crackle of rifle fire, the sharp 
detonations' of grenades. There were far fewer shells falling 
about the old " neutral ground." than Ratty had expected, 
and even comparatively few bullets piping over and past 
them. Tliev reached the tumbled wreckage of shell holes and 
splintered planks that marked what had been the front German 
line, clambered through this, and pushed on stumbling and 
climbing in and out the shell-holes that riddled the ground. 
'• \\ here's the Bufifs that's supposed to be in front o' us," 
shiuted Rattv, and ducked hastily into a deep shell-hole at 
the warning screech of an approaching shell. It crashecT 
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 recoyering, 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 
rifles. Tliey disappeared into the haze, and the machine gunners 
droppi:>d down into a shallow twisting depression and pressed 
on along it. 
" This is the communication trench that used to be 
taped out along the edge o' that cornfield in practice 
attack," said Johnny, when they halted a moment. 
"Trench," said Ratty, glancing along it " StreWth ! " 
The 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 
'^v the dead that lay in it, by the litter of steel helmets, rifles, 
b Tibs, gas-masks, bayonets, water-bottles, arms and equip- 
ment 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. " We 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. 
They reached a wide depression, and Johnny pointed and 
shouted, "The sunk road," and looking round, pointed again 
to some whitish grey masses broken, overturned, almost 
buried in the tumbled earth, the remains of concrete machine 
gun emplacements Ratty remembered had been marked 
somewliere back there on the practice ground by six marked 
boards. " Six," shouted Johnny, and grinned triumphantly 
at the doubter. 
Tlie 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 
where they liad been warned they would most likely come 
under enfilading machine gun tiu\ They halted on the edge 
of this patch .to get their wind, and watched some stretcher- 
l)earers 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' fire," said Ratty, ', Should think it was too. 
Why the 'ell Con'.t they silence. the guns doin' it ? " 
' ' Supposed to be in a clump o' wood over there," said Johnny, 
" And it ain't duetto be took for an hour vet." 
The word passed alpng. and they rose and began to cross 
the open ground amongst the raining bullets. " There's our 
objective," shouted Johnny as they ran. " Jhat rifee — 
come into action, 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 heavy 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 instinctively flinching from the 
direct route into those gusts of flame and smoke. " Keep up," 
yelled Johnny. " Remember the^rench. You'll miss the end 
of it." Ratty recalle"d vaguely the line of flags and tape that 
had wriggled over the practice; ground to the last positimi 
where they had halted each dp!;^;, and brought their guns into 
mimic action. He slanted ^;!rig}it and . presently stumbled 
thankfully into the broken trench,^ and .pushed along it up 
the rise. At the top he foundjhutiself. looking over a gentle 
slope, the foot of which' was veileciiri an eddying mist of smoke. 
A heavy shell burstwithaterrifjong crash and sent him reel- 
ing from shock. He safdown'.^tli a. bump, shaken and for 
the- moment dazed, .but came'-to'hifnself with Johnny's voice 
bawling in his ear, "Come on man, come on. Hurt ? Quick 
then — yer g\m." He staggered up and towards an officer 
whom he could see waving frantically at him and opening 
and shutting his mouth 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 stopped 
abruptly and fell sliding in a tumbled heap down into the 
crater on top of the gun. The 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 
afiger 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 
intp place and he brought the gun into action with a savage 
jerk on the loading lever, looked over his , sights, and layed 
them on the edge of the wood he could just dimly see through 
the smoke. He could see nothing, to fire at — cursed smoke 
\yas 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. 
Tlie 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. Ra-tty had no time to think of the shells. He 
strained his eyes over the sights on the foot of the dimly seen 
trees, held his gun steady and 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 h"is jacket was soaked 
with "blood. ■ 
"Nothing more than a good Blighty one," said the bearer 
who tied him up. " Keep 3'ou.home two-three months mebbe." 
"Good enough," said Ratty. "I'll be back in time to 
see tlie 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 counter- 
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-fow,er 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 tirrie o' the plan. Whole plunky 
attack went like clockwork, far's our bit o' the plans went." 
But it was two days later and snug in bed in a London 
hospital, when ije 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. Goodmile an' a half we pushed 'em 
back, an', held all the ground," an' took 6.000 prisoners ; an', 
says 'Indenburg, ' the British attack was completely repvil- 
sed . . . only a few crater positions were abandonied 
. by us according to plan.' " 
He dropped the paper and grinned. "Accordin' to plap," 
he said. ". Yes,.. it. w,asaccordin.'_ to plan right enough. , But 
'e forgot to say it was accordin' to the plan that was made by 
'Ais an' ua." 
