20 
Land & Water 
June 6, 1918 
"I thocht this was a war, d'ye ken, sorr ?" he said, thnist- 
ing his face dose to the captain. The latter noticed that his 
eyes were tired and blood-shot. " It iss not ! It iss a bluidy 
massacre. And the Jair-nians call us mercenaries ! As if 
there was siller in it! How many bawbees d'ye think I'll 
be taking as company sergeant-major, now, sorr ? " 
But the cajitain had suddenly put a field-telescope to Ids 
eye, and was gazing hard in the direction of the wood about 
a thousand yards away. " Here, ^ergeant-major ; stop 
jawing, and look through this," he said, thrusting the tele- 
scope into the hands of the N.C.O. 
The effect was magical. "A cop, sor^ ; a fair cop. It's a 
sicht I dinna expect to see every day. Eight hundred, do 
you think, sorr ? Five rounds rapid will be enough to lay 
them out, I'm thinking." 
\Miat he had seen through the glass was a grey mass of 
men hanging irresolute about the corners of the wood. They 
had spiked helmets. The captain gave the word of com- 
mand ; the company sergeant-major repeated it. The 
improvised platoon, with their sights at Soo; burst into a 
splutter of rifle-fire. The captain looked through his tele- 
scope. The grey mass had disappeared. 
But the captain was uneasy. Something must have 
happened in that wood for the Germans to get through it. 
For over half an hour silence had brooded over it. Not 
an enemy gun played on it ; not a sound of rifle-fire had 
come from it. . . . What had become of "C" and "D" 
Companies ? He was still revolving that question when he 
saw a man without a cap running from the direction of the 
wood, taking such cover as the ground afforded. As 
he drew nearer, the captain saw that he had bright red hair. 
"By God, it's G !" he exclaimed. It was the lance- 
cbrporal who had had charge of "C" and "D" Companies' 
end of the telephone. 
"I've managed to bury it, sir," said the fugitive, as he 
arrived, breathless and exhausted. 
"Buried what?" 
"The telephone. I'm the only one to get through. "C" 
and "D" Companies were cut off and enfiladed. Sixty per 
cent, casualties. All their ammunition exhausted. They 
were just snowed under. Could you lend me your water- 
bottle ? Thank you, sir." 
He took a long drink. 
Overhead a Taube was circling like a hawk over its prey, 
flying as low as 200 feet, so low that they could see the 
observer looking over the side. He 'dropped a smoke-ball, 
and a few minutes later a "coal-box" landed just short of 
the trench, and threw up a spray of loamy dirt, which covered 
them from foot to head, and filled their eyes and nostrils, 
half-blinding them. At that moment a runner arrived with 
a message from battalion headquarters. .They were to fall 
back. The German line, which had been concave before the 
enemy had taken the wood, was now convex, and was thrust- 
ing forward in a great bulge. 
As they approached the farm, upon which "A" and "B". 
Companies were retiring, a shell landed on the roof. When 
the pillar of cloud cleared, flames were seen coming from it 
as from the heart of the volcano. The barns, filled with 
straw, were blazing fiercely. 
In the farm-yard stood a figure in overalls, bareheaded, 
and with arms bare to the elbows. His overalls were splashed 
with blood, his face was black as a nigger-minstrel's with 
soot, out of which his white eye-balls glared with a fierce 
glow in their irises. He was shouting orders, directing 
stretcher-bearers, and rushing in and out of the burning 
barn, carrying the limp bodies of wounded men in liis arms. 
He was about to rush back, when the signalling-officer caught 
him by the arms. He tried to shake him ofi, but the other 
held him in an iron grip. 
"Blast you, M . Take your hands, off me, or I'll 
trepan you." He raised his fist. "I've got men in 
there, I tell you." * 
"I know, Dickie," said the other softly. "I know. But 
look ! You've done all you can, old man." As he 
pointed to the barn, the roof fell in with a crash, and tongues 
of fire ancl smoke burst from the doorway, scorching them 
where they stood. 
The M.6. stood for a moment like one dazed. He shook 
his fist in the direction of the Germans. He was a master of 
language, but for once in his life words failed him. He 
uttered a choking sound, and turned away. 
The next moment the farm-house itself caught fire. There 
was a noise like the popping of corks, and brass-caps flew 
freakishly in all directions, as though a swarm of bees had 
been disturbed. The S.A.A. had caught fire and was going 
off in a fusillade. The signalling-officer and his men rushed 
to and fro, pulling out the boxes of ammunition and throwing 
them into the mud. 
They fell back, and dug in again. There they held on. 
As the day drew to its close, the sky became obscured with 
clouds, and before night rain began to fall. It fell in a 
steady drizzle, wetting them to the skin as they hung on 
without flares, without wire, without sand-bags, waiting 
every moment of the night for an attack which never came. 
Two days later they were relieved by reinforcements, and, 
retiring by sections, they marched back to billets by the 
light of the moon. Out of the two companies that remained 
only 170 men were left. Of the four machine-guns, they 
had saved but one. The machine-gun officer who had 
umpired at the match was dead. Of the eighteen men who 
had played the game of Machine-gunners v. Ambulance-men, 
only eight survived. 
As they passed "Suicide Corner," the captain caught 
sight of a somnolent sepoy sitting against the bank on the 
side of the road, his face curiously grey in the moonlight. 
"Lost his unit!" he said to himself. 'It was a common 
occurrence. He .went up to him and, seeking to wake him, 
pulled him gently by the- neck of his tunic. He fell forward 
stiffly against the captain. The back of the man's head was 
gone, and his face was merely a mask. He was dead. 
They reached V at dawn. The men unslung their 
rifles and packs, and threw themselves down heavilj' without 
taking their boots off. And for the first time for five days 
they slept. — 
The stories by Centurion — a junior officer who has 
seen much of the war in France — whicli\hav^ been appearing 
at intetv-ils in the columns of L.\nd & W.-^ter since 
November, 1916, are to be published early this month in book 
form by Mr. Heinemann under the title of "Gentlemen- 
at- Arms." They are to be published in America by 
Messrs. Doubleday , Page. Several of the stories describe, 
for the first time' in prjnt, the fortunes of certain regiments 
at the battles of Mons, the Marne, the Aisne, Ypres, and 
. the Somme. 
We shall publish in Land & Water at an early date 
a second series of stories by Centurion, which will appear 
simultaneously in America in the " Centurv Magazine.' 
They found the streets choked with a stream of men, women and children— on foot, on horseback in carts in 
perambulators, ail with their faces turned towards the west, as though intent on some desperate nilorima'oe. 
