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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Watch, by Scout Joe Cassells
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Black Watch
+       A Record in Action
+
+Author: Scout Joe Cassells
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #33278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK WATCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK WATCH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SCOUT JOE CASSELLS OF THE BLACK WATCH]
+
+
+
+
+  THE BLACK WATCH
+
+  A RECORD IN ACTION
+
+  BY SCOUT JOE CASSELLS
+
+  _One of the few survivors of that
+  "contemptible little army"_
+
+
+  _Frontispiece_
+
+
+  GARDEN CITY    NEW YORK
+  DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+  1918
+
+
+
+  _Copyright, 1918, by_
+  DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+  _All rights reserved, including that of
+  translation into foreign languages,
+  including the Scandinavian_
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+From Mons to the Marne lies the bloodiest trail of sacrifice in history.
+In all the records of war, there stands forth no more magnificent and no
+more melancholy achievement than that of the British regular army, which
+bled its heroic way in ever-diminishing numbers from the challenge to the
+check of the initial German sweep upon Paris. It could not hope for
+decisive victory; it could only clog the wheels of the Juggernaut with
+lives and lives and lives, sold bravely and dearly. Before a countless
+superiority of numbers and an incalculable advantage in enemy
+preparedness, it could only stand, and fall--and stand again, and
+fall--until the end; when the cause of the Allies was saved for the hour,
+and of French's hundred thousand there remained barely a little leaven of
+trained men for the British forces then assembling to learn the trade of
+warfare.
+
+The ablest pens writing of the Great War have paid tribute to this
+splendid deed which changed the course of its beginning. French's retreat
+from Mons has been a topic to inspire the highest eloquence of the
+patriotic historian and the most profound admiration of the militarist.
+Everything, from the point of the onlooker, has been said of it. And
+everything that has been said retires into the perspective of the
+academic, when one reads, in this volume, the words of a trained British
+soldier who experienced and survived it. For stark and simple strength,
+for realism of detail, for a complete picturization of the desperate and
+heroic resistance of the sacrificial army, this soldier's tale is, and
+will remain, unequalled and unique. This prefatory emphasis is not vain or
+extravagant. It need not fear the fact that there is but the turning of a
+page between promise and performance. Here is a writing which is _of_ the
+war, and therefore differs from all writings which can only be _about_ the
+war. It conveys to the reader an almost paralyzing sense of wonder at the
+steadfastness of Britain's military traditions, put to an unexampled
+test. It shows how marvellously well a soldier may learn his business in
+advance--when his business is to die. Concerning one of the most
+noteworthy accomplishments of the arms of Britain, there will survive in
+print no more compelling and convincing narrative than this, the utterance
+of one whose trade was fighting and not writing.
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK WATCH
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK WATCH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+For more than two years now, I have been trying to forget those first
+months of the war. The months when the Black Watch and other regiments of
+the immortal "contemptible little army" marched into the unknown against
+the fiercest, most efficient military power the world, up to that time,
+had known; the months when hidden enemies struck swiftly mystifying blows
+with strange weapons, the more terrible because we did not understand them
+and had never imagined their power and numbers.
+
+For more than two years I have habitually sought to keep my mind upon
+other subjects, yet I can recall those days now in the minutest detail. I
+can hear the sudden thrum of the masked machine guns like giant partridges
+drumming; can hear the singing roar of the Prussian airplanes to which, in
+those days, because of the scarcity of British planes, there could be
+practically no answer; and I can live again the frightful nights when we
+made our stand upon the Marne, and, sneaking into German outpost trenches,
+slew the guards with jack-knives, thrusting gags into their mouths and
+cutting their throats to prevent outcry.
+
+Those were the days of picturesque and shifty fighting. There was
+movement, the rush of cannon from the rear, the charges of cavalry, the
+perils of scouting and patrolling. It was little like the slow trench
+warfare which followed.
+
+The Black Watch--the regiment to which I belong--was one of the first to
+cross the Channel. War was declared August 4th, which was Tuesday. The
+first-class reservists, of which I was one, received their mobilization
+orders the next day.
+
+We assembled at Queens Barracks, Perth, the historic headquarters of what
+we proudly maintain is the world's most famous fighting organization.
+Twice before, since 1742, the Black Watch had outfitted in Perth to fight
+in Flanders. Almost constantly since that date, battalions of the
+regiment have been fighting for Britain in some far-off quarter of the
+globe. For the third adventure in Flanders, which was to see the existing
+personnel of the regiment practically wiped out in an imperatively
+necessary campaign of blood sacrifice, our preparations were brisk and
+businesslike. Within three hours of my arrival at the depot at Perth, I
+was one of a thousand men, uniformed, armed, and fully equipped, who
+entrained for Aldershot to join our first battalion stationed there.
+
+On the thirteenth of August, after a week's stiff training, we boarded the
+steamship _Italian Prince_ and the next day disembarked at Havre.
+
+What awaited us there was much like the reception later given to the first
+American troops to land in France. What followed was quite different. The
+American troops, and millions of their friends and relatives, are all
+wondering what awaits them--what war really will be like--what they will
+have to do and the conditions under which they will do it.
+
+It is an axiom of war that the first troops almost invariably suffer the
+greatest losses. The first American units to go into the trenches have
+suffered a low average of casualties. In one respect they are far better
+off than were the first British and French troops to meet the Germans.
+They know what they are going up against. Modern warfare is a determined
+quantity. They know the methods of the men they will fight against and
+they have allies able to instruct them in the art of fighting as it is
+practised to-day.
+
+We had nothing like that. It was as though we were groping in the dark
+while an unseen foe was striking at us. For days we tramped through France
+and Belgium hearing the roar of the German guns, feeling the sting of the
+shrapnel, but not seeing our foes. Then came the shifty, open fighting,
+now almost forgotten, which will not be resumed until the Germans are on
+the run. When it comes it will be a welcome relief to the men who have
+been battling, like rats, in trenches not fit for human beings to inhabit.
+
+Well, to get back to what happened to us, the first "contemptible little
+army," in France and Flanders.
+
+The 19th of August found us billeted in a town called Boué. We had to
+remain here a few days because the roads were blocked with transports
+going toward the front. The entire regiment was allowed to go swimming in
+a near-by canal and, as my chum and I were dressing, an old Frenchman gave
+us each a half-franc piece, saying that it would give us good luck and
+bring us through alive. It was the first money he had made as a boy and he
+had kept it ever since. The last I heard of my chum was that he had been
+discharged from active service because of wounds, and so it would appear
+his half-franc piece really did bring him through, just as mine did me.
+
+We left Boué on the twenty-first at three o'clock in the morning, and we
+marched until three o'clock the next morning. All the time we could hear
+the muffled booming of the German heavy artillery. It sounded just like
+the noise they make on the stage when a battle is supposed to be in
+progress in the distance. It excited the men and buoyed them up
+wonderfully, but twenty-four hours is a long time to march without sleep,
+and whenever we halted the men lay down in the mud of the road and lost
+consciousness--but not for long. Within a few minutes after every halt,
+the officers would come among us and rouse us, saying that we were badly
+needed up where the guns were growling. It was hard, tiring work, but it
+wasn't half so bad as what we got later, when we were retreating.
+
+We didn't know it, but we were on our way to Mons to hold the left flank.
+
+It was during a short halt in Grande Range that we had our first sight of
+a German airplane. We were billeted in the houses and stables of the
+village, and every one came running out to look at the plane when the
+thrumming of the engine was heard. When it was right over our heads it let
+fly a rack full of steel darts and they came clattering down into the
+village streets. One stuck into the pavement in front of our quarters. It
+was so deeply imbedded that not a man in the company could pull it out. [I
+have seen one of these missiles go right through a house from roof to
+cellar. They have been known to go through a horse and then bury
+themselves in the ground.]
+
+These steel darts were from eight inches to a foot long, cut so that they
+would fall point downward. Dozens of them were contained in a single
+rack, which the aviator released when he was over his target; the speed of
+the machine caused them to scatter. They would go through anything they
+hit, but they were found to be too inaccurate and not so economical as
+explosives.
+
+After the plane had passed we were rushed to the outskirts of the village,
+where we began to entrench. By morning, we had nearly finished the shallow
+trenches which, in that day, were regarded as sufficient protection for
+infantry in the field. At daybreak our High Command had information that
+our position along the highway would prove untenable. Wearily enough, we
+marched to a range of wooded hills where we again entrenched. German heavy
+shells found us there, so we were compelled to retire to another village,
+near which we entrenched once more, on still higher ground. The German air
+scouts were watching us, however, and in this new position a heavier fire
+from long-range artillery found us.
+
+All of this was on August 25th, two days after our forced march of
+twenty-four hours. The weather was extremely hot and we were well-nigh
+exhausted by the work of digging three sets of trenches. We lay and "took"
+the German fire. We had already had some casualties, the wooden steeple of
+the church in the village on our right was in flames, and several houses
+had been destroyed by the German shelling--and we hadn't _yet_ seen a
+German, except the airplane scouts. But they were not long coming into
+view.
+
+As we lay in our shallow trenches, a big shell every now and then falling
+amongst us, another regiment, retreating under heavy fire, broke into view
+from the woods, a mile or more in front of our line. We soon made them
+out--the Scots Guards, hotly pursued by a superior force of Uhlans, and,
+as the German commander fondly believed, near capture. We, in our
+trenches, were in a fever to get our fire on the Germans but they were so
+close upon the Guards that we dared not fire a shot. The Guards, putting
+up a stiff fight directly in front of our position, checked the Uhlans
+sufficiently to enable their own organization to continue its retreat,
+swinging over in the direction of our left flank. This gave us our chance
+and we poured a hot rifle and machine-gun fire into the pursuing force.
+
+We were in action against the Boches, at last! and, furthermore, we had
+the satisfaction of seeing that our fire was effective. The Uhlans, whose
+attention now was forcibly distracted from the hard-pressed Guards to us,
+immediately advanced in our direction, dismounting at 1,200 yards distance
+and returning our fire. Leaving their horses behind a ridge, they crept up
+on us to within 500 yards.
+
+At this point, a water cart belonging to the Guards, which had been hidden
+in a thicket, popped out, and was being driven in the direction of their
+regiment. A party of about thirty Uhlans galloped after it. We turned some
+of our fire on them. I think they were all toppled over, horses and men
+alike. Then another party of about five thousand Uhlans made toward us at
+a gallop and charged, but there were few of them that got to within one
+hundred yards of our single shallow trench. By this time the Scots Guards
+had got into position and opened fire on the Boche cavalry.
+
+Three times the Germans tried to secure the water cart, thinking no doubt
+it was an ammunition wagon. When the cart was about one hundred and fifty
+yards from our trench the horses were shot down by the Uhlans. One of the
+men on it was wounded through the arm, and the other coolly filled his
+water bottle and bathed his comrade's wound, regardless of the Huns who
+were still peppering away. We shouted to the two boys to hurry and come
+into safety. The wounded one's answer was:
+
+"Safety be damned! Some of you Jocks come out here and give us a pull with
+the water cart."
+
+Men of our _H_ company, nearest to the cart, asked permission to go to the
+rescue. Their officers acquiesced and sixteen of them rushed out, cut the
+cart loose from the dead horses, and dragged it to safety behind the ridge
+which we were holding. Three of the sixteen were hit. There were especial
+reasons for this bit of valour. Our own water bottles were empty, our
+water cart drained dry, and we were choking with thirst.
+
+It was now the time of the Scots Guards to help us. They kept a steady
+fire on the Uhlans while we retired behind the ridge to fall in on the
+main road to Hautmont and retreat to the next spot where we could make a
+temporary stand. While we were falling back to the main road, a man from
+each section filled three water bottles from the rescued cart. We didn't
+know when we would get water again, nor how far our tired feet must carry
+us. In this exhausted state we began the furious fatal struggle against an
+overwhelming and irresistible enemy which is known in history as the
+Retreat from Mons.
+
+Of that fearful time, I have lost track of dates. I do not want to
+remember them. All I recollect is that, under a blazing August sun--our
+mouths caked, our tongues parched--day after day we dragged ourselves
+along, always fighting rear-guard actions, our feet bleeding, our backs
+breaking, our hearts sore. Our unmounted officers limped amongst us, blood
+oozing through their spats. With a semblance of cheeriness they told us
+that we must retreat because the Russians were on their way to Berlin and
+we must keep the Germans moving in the opposite direction. When we got a
+few minutes' respite there would be an issue of "gunfire"--the
+traditional British army term for tea served out to men in action. It was
+of a nondescript flavour, commingling the negative qualities of
+"bully-beef stew" and the very positive taste of kerosene oil, the cooks'
+hurricane lamps being stored in the camp-kettles during each of our
+retirements. Invariably--and I mean in twenty instances--the shells would
+begin to drop amongst us before we could finish our portions, eating,
+though we did, with ravenous haste; and when it was not artillery fire
+that stopped our feeding it would be a charge of Uhlans, compelling us to
+drop half-emptied mess-tins and seize rifles.
+
+We had no artillery to speak of, and very few airplanes. If we had had
+more of the latter, there might have been another story. The Germans
+seemed to know every move we made, but we were blind. We dropped into a
+field and killed a bullock, skinned it and were cooking it. There came the
+roar of a powerful engine; a German plane circled over us and went sailing
+back, signalling our position. A few minutes later shrapnel fell among us
+and we went on, some of the men in ambulances. Those that were killed we
+hurriedly buried, but there was not time even to put improvised wooden
+crosses at their heads.
+
+One of our slightly wounded, in the broad accents of lowland Scotch,
+cursed the Germans--not for wounding him, but for knocking over his
+canteen of tea. A hail of flying shrapnel struck down a cook; the men of
+his section cursed in chorus for the misfortune which meant that hunger
+would be added to their other miseries.
+
+Not once alone did we spring up from eating to fight the Uhlans with rifle
+fire and bayonet. It happened a dozen times. Whenever the Uhlans came, we
+fought them off, but always we had to retreat in the end, for the German
+reserves were numberless while ours scarcely existed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+Most of the time while we were dragging our exhausted, diminishing numbers
+ahead of the German wave of shot and steel, I was on scout duty. For a
+while, I was "connecting file" between the Black Watch and the Munster
+Fusiliers who were in rear of us and _almost constantly_ in touch with the
+enemy. I had more than one narrow escape from capture or death.
+
+On one occasion the regiment had been deployed to beat off a flank attack.
+When we resumed the march I was sent back to get in touch with the
+Fusiliers. My orders were to go to the rear until I got in touch with
+them. I was proceeding cautiously along the road when suddenly around a
+curve something appeared before me. My rifle was at my shoulder ready to
+fire. Then I recognized what had been a uniform of the Fusiliers.
+
+Have you ever read Kipling's "Man Who Came Back"? If you have, you will
+have a better idea than I can give you of what this human being looked
+like. His face was covered with blood. One arm hung limply. Just as he
+made toward me, he fell exhausted by the roadside, like a dog that is
+spent. Literally, his tongue hung from his mouth. His shoes were cut up
+and his clothes dangled in ribbons beneath which red gashes showed in his
+flesh where he had torn it in the barbed-wire fences he had encountered,
+crossing fields.
+
+I asked him what had happened. His lips moved and his breath came in more
+difficult gasps, but no word could he utter. I wiped his face, and then I
+recognized in him an officer who had been a crack athlete when the
+Munsters were in India and against whom I had competed more than once. I
+pressed my water bottle to his lips. After a few moments he was able to
+speak.
+
+"They are gone!" he gasped; "all of them are gone! By God, they died like
+men; but--they--died."
+
+"Let me understand you, sir," I begged him. "Tell me just what happened."
+
+"Where are you going?" he almost shouted.
+
+"I am going back to get in touch with the Munster Fusiliers," I said.
+
+"You can't make the journey," he panted. "You'd have to go to heaven--or
+to hell. They caught them in a pocket. Shrapnel and machine-guns. _There
+are no Munster Fusiliers any more._"
+
+He was right, practically. The Germans had caught them between fires and
+the regiment was cut to pieces.
+
+Helping the officer as best I could, I hurried forward to catch up with my
+own regiment. When I got in touch with it I left the Fusilier officer with
+the commander of the first company I met. Then I hurried to the Company
+commander.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he asked.
+
+"I am here, to report, sir," I said. "There is no use trying to get in
+touch with the Fusiliers. They have been cut off."
+
+"Your orders were to go back until you got in touch with them," he said
+gruffly. "Consider yourself under arrest."
+
+A non-commissioned officer and two men, with fixed bayonets, were put on
+guard over me. I had disobeyed orders, technically, and during those
+first days in France many a stern act was necessary, for the army had to
+learn the discipline of war.
+
+I would have been tied to a spare wheel at the back of an artillery
+caisson, but as they were leading me away I asked to speak to my sergeant.
+I explained to him what had happened and he told my company commander, who
+found the officer of the Fusiliers. The latter, meanwhile, had been taken
+care of by our officers and was now in condition to talk. He spoke to the
+colonel (Col. Grant Duff), explaining just what had happened and telling
+him that he had directed me to return to my regiment. I was liberated, but
+it was a mighty close escape from disgrace, which, after all, is worse
+than death, especially to a soldier.
+
+After that I was sent out to scout on the left flank with my partner,
+Troolen, who was of a daredevil disposition and worked in a noisy fashion,
+and so when I saw something moving in the brushwood on a ridge we were
+approaching, and heard a sound like the trample of horses on the other
+side, I cautioned him to remain where he was while I explored it. Troolen
+swore he could hear nothing and was for muddling ahead and running into
+anything that might be there, but I was in command and I ordered him to
+wait. Sneaking from stone to stone and from tree to tree, I worked myself
+to a little pocket which seemed scalloped out of the crest of the ridge
+and found the ground there all freshly trampled, with other signs that
+horses had left it recently. There were no wheel marks, so I knew that it
+was cavalry, not artillery. From the marks of the iron shoes I could tell
+that they were of a different type from ours.
+
+Uhlans had been there.
+
+I signalled to Troolen and he joined me. Climbing to the crest of the
+ridge we saw the enemy in large numbers moving toward the road on which we
+were marching, and they were ahead of us. As we hurried toward our
+regiment we heard others in the rear.
+
+As fast as I could, I made my way to the Company commander and reported
+what I had seen. Almost at the same moment we were fired upon. The rifle
+fire was immediately followed by artillery shelling. Patrols on the other
+flank had made sketches of the country and orders were issued for the
+regiment to take cover in a gully which was across some fields and the
+other side of a small woods. The men ducked through a wire fence which was
+at the side of the road and sections of it were torn to let the combat
+wagons through.
+
+As we retreated we kept up a steady fire, forcing the Uhlans close to
+their cover, but the artillery continually sprayed over the field.
+
+Thus began for us the Battle of the Oise.
+
+We had little hope of any support. We knew we had to fight it out alone,
+and there was little enough ammunition. I was running and ducking for the
+next bit of cover from behind which I could use my rifle, when a shell
+exploded behind me. It threw me from my feet but I was unhurt and as I
+jumped up I heard a crashing and splintering a few feet away. One of the
+horses on an ammunition wagon had been struck. He was plunging on the
+ground, terrifying his team mate and kicking the wagon to pieces. The
+transport officer, C. R. B. Henderson, drew his revolver and shot the
+animal.
+
+The Uhlans must have had reinforcements for they were getting bolder. The
+bullets were cutting up little spurts of dust and turf all about us. They
+were singing overhead like a gale in the ropes and spars of a transport at
+sea. The Germans were firing at the ammunition wagon in the hope of
+blowing it up.
+
+I was just about to run for cover again when I saw Lieut. Henderson--he
+who had shot the transport horse--walk calmly up (leading his own animal)
+and cut the dead one from the traces. I didn't care about being killed,
+but I couldn't leave this officer, who was standing there as though he
+were on parade, except that his hands were working ten times as fast as
+they ever did at drill. Together we got the dead animal free and harnessed
+the lieutenant's horse to the wagon. We used one of the lieutenant's
+spiral puttees to mend the cut and broken harness. The driver of the
+ammunition wagon was holding the head of the other horse, shaking his fist
+at the Germans, and swearing at them with a heavy Scotch burr.
+
+Men were running past us like rabbits. Some of them were tumbling like
+rabbits, too, when a steel-nosed bullet found its mark. I saw others
+stoop, just long enough to get an arm under the shoulders of a comrade and
+then drag him along. A few lay still and a single look into their faces
+showed that it would be useless to carry them. The running men dropped
+behind stones, hillocks, trees--anything that was likely to afford cover
+and stop bullets--and their rifles snapped angrily at the Germans whose
+fire was getting heavier, but who still did not dare an open attack.
+
+At last the harness was ready. The ammunition driver leaped to his seat
+and the wagon went careening toward the ravine, swaying crazily, with a
+storm of shots tearing up the turf around its wheels. We needed that wagon
+badly. In a moment it would be over the crest of the rise and we would be
+sure of that much ammunition to fight with.
+
+"Get on to the wagon, sir," I shouted to the officer, as it dashed
+forward; but he did not heed me.
+
+"In a second we shall be where we can fight them off," was all he said.
+
+A Uhlan's horse, with empty saddle, galloped up to us. I seized the
+dangling reins.
+
+"Mount him, sir," I shouted. He took the reins from my hand and attempted
+to leap into the saddle. The horse was cut and bleeding, and unmanageable
+from terror. He backed toward the ammunition wagon, which had not yet made
+the ridge, dragging the officer with him. I followed.
+
+Just as we thus neared the wagon, a shell exploded close at hand. The
+wagon humped up in the middle as if it had been made of whalebone. It
+rocked from side to side, almost upsetting. Then it settled back upon its
+wrecked wheels. A high explosive shell had struck directly under it. The
+two horses fell, dead from shrapnel or shock, and the driver toppled from
+his seat, dead, between them, a red smear across his face.
+
+The small-arms ammunition in the wagon had not been exploded. The doors of
+the wagon were thrown open by the concussion of the shell, causing the
+bandoliers of cartridges to scatter. The officer motioned to me to help
+distribute the ammunition to our men as they ran past; upon finishing this
+task we joined the last of our party and were very soon over the crest.
+We had only a few machine guns, but we got them in place. The Uhlans were
+charging across the field.
+
+A shrill whistle blew.----The machine guns began to rattle. Down went
+horses and riders, plunging about where some of our own men lay. Our rifle
+fire, too, was getting stronger, better controlled, more co-ordinated. We
+were sheltered; the enemy was in the open. His artillery was useless, for
+we were coming to grips. Line after line, they broke into the field,
+lances set. The horses were stretching out low over the turf--over the
+turf where a moment later they were to kick out the last of their breath,
+pinning under them many a rider to whom we were paying the debt of the
+Munster Fusiliers.
+
+A bugle sounded.----Those that were left of the Uhlans galloped off. The
+little machine guns had done their work.
+
+Our attention was then attracted to a heavy fire, directed from some
+unknown quarter upon a near-by field in which was confined a large herd of
+light brown cattle, their colour identical with that of our khaki
+uniforms. The animals were milling about madly; a dozen of them already
+were down and others were falling each moment. Here was one of the humours
+of war. We laughed, believing that the Germans were firing upon the dying
+beasts, mistaking them for us--"The Ladies from Hell," as they called us.
+
+The Scots Greys, which regiment had come up at this critical moment to
+occupy the high ground on our right flank about six hundred yards away,
+through the fierceness of their enfilading fire, managed to keep the enemy
+at a standstill and so allowed the Black Watch to retreat to safety.
+
+We owed our lives to kind fate in bringing the Scots Greys to our timely
+aid, and to them all honour! But for them we should have met the fate of
+the Munster Fusiliers.
+
+Crawling on their bellies, some of our men went out and brought in those
+of the Black Watch who were lying wounded. The others we left, for their
+own men would be there presently. For us, it was retreat again. After
+traversing ditches, ravines and barbed-wire fences, we finally assembled
+on the road. The artillery was beginning to pound once more. We had to
+trudge on, watching for the next attack, planting one bleeding foot before
+another, with nobody knew how many days of forced marching before
+us--marching (so we thought) to let the Russians get to Berlin. I don't
+think anything else would have induced us to resume our retreat after the
+brush with the Uhlans.
+
+At evening we found ourselves at the village of Oise about six miles from
+the abovementioned scene. As we arrived at the bridge over the River Oise,
+the engineers who were on the other side, and who had fused the bridge,
+shouted to us to keep back, but our colonel gave us the order to double.
+We had cleared the bridge by about only two hundred yards, when it blew up
+into atoms!
+
+After trudging, mostly uphill, in a downpour of rain, we reached a place
+called Guise at 2 A.M. Here we managed to get some food. I was glad enough
+to throw my waterproof sheet over me and fall asleep. On being awakened, I
+felt as though I had slept for weeks, but found it had only been for one
+hour and twenty minutes. We then received some "gunfire" and our _first_
+issue of rum. We resumed the march. On arriving at La Grange, the
+Camerons, or what was left of them, joined us, taking the place of the
+annihilated Fusiliers in our brigade.
+
+We were so tired that night that I could have slept on a bed of nails,
+points up, but we had not been in our billets very long when we were
+ordered out, as the outpost had reported the approach of Uhlans in
+considerable numbers.
+
+We were half asleep as we ran down into the street to our allotted posts.
+One of the first persons we encountered in the town was a Frenchman,
+raving mad. We asked him what was the matter, but he could not reply. He
+jibbered like an ape; his twitching lips slavered and foamed. Some of his
+neighbours took him in hand and led him away. One of them told us his
+story:
+
+"The Prussians came in here yesterday. There was no one to resist them.
+They posted sentries. Then those who were not on duty broke into cellars.
+Casks of wine were rolled up into the streets, and, where squads gathered
+together, there were piles of bottles. The soldiers did not stop to pull
+the corks. They knocked off the necks of the bottles and filled their
+aluminum cups with red wine and white, mixing one type with another, and
+swilling it in as fast as they could drink. Dozens of them fell in the
+gutters, drunk. Others reeled through the village, abusing and insulting
+men and women alike. If a man resisted, he was shot. This poor fellow,
+whom you have seen, was in his door yard with his wife. A Prussian seized
+her about the waist. She struggled. He crushed her to him with his brutish
+arm. His companions, all drunk, laughed and jeered. The woman's clothes
+were ripped from her shoulders in her struggle. Meanwhile others bound the
+husband to one of his own fruit trees, so that he could not escape the
+horror of it. One--more drunken, more bestial than the others--slashed off
+the woman's breasts and threw them to a dog. The woman died."
+
+This of itself was enough to have made us rage against the enemy whom
+hitherto we had regarded as an honourable foe, but it was not all. I, with
+other members of my own company, came upon a nail driven into the wall of
+a barn from which hung, by the mouth, the lifeless form of a baby. The
+child was dead when we found it, but it had died hanging from the rusty
+nail. I know it had, because I saw upon the wall the marks of finger-nails
+where the baby had clawed and scratched. And besides, a dead body would
+not have bled. An officer ordered the removal of the child's body.
+
+I do not tell these things for the sake of the horror of them. I would
+rather not tell them. I have spent months trying to forget them. Now that
+I have recalled them, I wake in the night so horrified that I cannot move.
+But to relate them may serve one useful purpose. There are those in
+America, as there were in England, who believed that war to repel invasion
+was justified, but who were not enthusiastic for war abroad. America
+entered the war after her patience was absolutely exhausted, and Americans
+should be devoutly thankful that they can fight abroad and not have to
+endure the presence of a single Prussian soldier on American soil. What we
+saw and learned in Guise galvanized our weary bodies to new efforts
+against the vandals whom we were fighting. With clenched teeth and curses
+we turned to fight again.
+
+The Uhlans got into the outskirts of the town and cut down a number of our
+men, but, inch by inch, as they drove toward the centre of the village,
+our resistance became stiffer and stiffer. It was like a nightmare. The
+charging horses, the gruff shouts of the enemy, the groans of the men who
+fell beside me, were like their counterparts in a dream. My finger pressed
+the trigger of the rifle feverishly. Even when I saw the men I fired at
+topple from their saddles and sprawl on the cobblestones, I had only a
+dull sense that I had scored a hit.
+
+Just as we were throwing the enemy back in some confusion, a party of
+British worked round a back street and fired on them from the rear. A
+second later a machine gun began strewing the ground with horses and men.
+Squads of them threw up their hands and cried: "_Kamerad!
+Kamerad!_"--which was not a new cry on the part of the Prussians. A young
+fellow by my side stopped firing for a moment, but the rest of us knew
+better. The Camerons had lost a score of men the day before because they
+had taken the Germans at their word, and, when they went to make them
+prisoners, a whole company of Prussians had risen from behind the crest to
+a hill and shot the Camerons down. So bullets from our rifles answered the
+cries of "_Kamerad!_"
+
+A few of the enemy escaped down side streets, and a number of them
+remained lying where they had been shot. While we were on our way back to
+quarters, a Frenchman came up out of his basement and motioned us to
+follow him. We went into the cellar and found half a dozen Prussians lying
+there dead drunk. We made them prisoners and sent them to headquarters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+I had about got settled in the stable where I was billeted, when orders
+came to "stand to." No more sleep that night. We took the road and left La
+Grange behind us just as the sun was pinking the sky. It was Sunday, and,
+although we knew war was no respecter of the Sabbath, we had not been in
+the field long enough to get the idea quite out of our heads that Sunday,
+somehow, in the nature of things, was a little easier than other days.
+When we halted in a ravine at about ten o'clock in the morning, after
+marching four hours, we thought after all that it was going to be an
+easier day. I was on outpost duty on a side road a little way from the
+main thoroughfare we had been following.
+
+Suddenly an infernal racket broke out over to our left. First there came a
+few scattered cracks of rifle fire. Then I could hear clip firing and the
+rattle of machine guns. I learned later that the Scots Greys and the 12th
+Lancers had come across about seven thousand Germans resting in a wide
+gully. The Greys and the Lancers, catching them unawares by cutting down
+their sentries who had no opportunity even to give the alarm--charged
+through them, then back again. Three times they repeated their
+performance, while some of our brigade got on to the flanks and poured in
+such a rapid fire that the Prussians had no opportunity to re-form to meet
+each repetition of the attack. The details do not matter, but they made up
+for the annihilation of the Munster Fusiliers.
+
+In the newspaper accounts of the campaign this incident was described as
+the "Great St. Quentin Charge," in which, it was asserted, the Black Watch
+(foot soldiers) participated, holding onto the stirrups of the Scots
+Greys. This bit of colouring was an inaccuracy. We aided the Greys and the
+Lancers with rifle and machine-gun fire only. When the firing ceased and
+the Greys and the Lancers came cantering past, we learned from them the
+details of the Battle of "St. Quentin."
+
+At nightfall our section was still guarding the road at a point from
+which a cart road branched off at right angles to the main thoroughfare.
+It was here that the outpost received instructions in a few French
+phrases, the main one being "_Votre passe, s'il vous plait_." ("Your pass,
+please.") This was because the road was open to refugees who were fleeing
+from the Boches, and who had to show passes before being allowed to go on.
+The absence of the pass meant that the person would be sent to
+headquarters for examination.
+
+It was quite natural that some of us Scots should find it difficult to
+make ourselves familiar with these phrases. However, we were all willing
+to try. One strapping Highlander, weary and footsore but daunted by
+nothing, practised the phrases dutifully, though the French words were
+almost lost in the encounter with his native Scotch. We chuckled, but he
+merely glowered at us indignantly, and then went to take his place on
+sentry go. Two Frenchmen came along in a wagon. The Highlander blocked
+their way and sternly uttered what he conceived to be the phrase he had
+been told to use. The Frenchmen sat mystified. There was a roar of
+laughter when the Highlander, losing patience, shouted: "Pass us if ye
+daur!" Then his sergeant came to the rescue.
+
+These two Frenchmen in the wagon were the last refugees to pass. Soon
+afterward, from my station farther down the road, I heard a clatter of
+hoofs and caught a glimpse of Uhlans' helmets. I had barely time to pass
+the word to the man on the next post and to jump behind a log before they
+came into view. They were riding, full gallop into our lines, apparently
+having abandoned ordinary scouting precautions in their eagerness to
+strike where and when they might against our worn and lacerated forces.
+We, now, had fought so long that we fought mechanically. Over my
+protecting log, I aimed at the leading horseman as precisely and carefully
+as if I had been at rifle practice. When I pulled the trigger he tumbled
+into the road, rolled over awkwardly, and lay still. I did not feel as if
+I had killed a man. I felt only a mild sense of satisfaction with the
+accuracy of my aim. Bitter hate for the Huns had sprung in the heart of
+every one of us after what we had that day seen of their savagery.
+
+I had got my Uhlan at, perhaps, seventy yards. His fall checked the
+squad's advance for a moment only. The man nearest grasped at the bridle
+of the dead man's horse but missed it. On they all came, galloping
+recklessly and yelling, the riderless horse leading by a half dozen
+lengths. As they rode, they fired in my direction, but their bullets went
+wide. I felt real compunction as I aimed at the head of the leading
+horse--the one whose rider I had shot down with only a sense of
+satisfaction. I could hear our men crashing through the bushes by the road
+as they came to my support. I fired. My bullet must have struck the
+riderless horse in the brain, for he fell instantly, sprawled out in the
+path of the galloping Huns behind. The horses of the leaders stumbled over
+the fallen animal. A rattle of shots from our men completed the confusion
+of the Uhlans. They turned their horses and galloped away--some back along
+the road, others across the fields. Several fell under our fire; how many
+we had no time to ascertain.
+
+After that little affair we organized our position for a somewhat better
+defence. Leaving a few scouts, far advanced, we stationed our men in easy
+touch with each other and then cut down a number of trees and telegraph
+poles and barricaded the road with them. There were sixteen of us in the
+post near this barricade, concealed from view and able to communicate with
+each other in whispers. The hours dragged on to midnight and past. We were
+weary to the bone--half dead for want of sleep--but we dared not relax our
+vigilance for an instant.
+
+The surrounding country was dense with woods. The moon was almost new, so
+consequently the poles were quite invisible a few yards away.
+
+At about one o'clock in the morning I heard something crackling through
+the brush on the side road. My bayonet was fixed and I was ready to fire.
+The crackling came nearer. I crept stealthily forward to meet whatever it
+was. Presently a man stepped into the road. "Halt!" I cried. He halted at
+once, and gave the word "Friend." It was one of our sentries with a
+message that Uhlans were coming along the road. Three men were farther
+down the road; they had hidden so that the Uhlans would pass them, the
+sentry said.
+
+A section of us concealed ourselves--and waited. Presently the Uhlans came
+into sight, proceeding cautiously. Half of us were instructed to withhold
+fire until the Prussians should reach the barricade. The remainder began
+to fire. The horsemen scattered to each side of the road and returned the
+fire, but as we were not discernible, the shots went wild. I judged that
+they numbered about fifty. We dropped a few of them. They were becoming
+enraged--their fire ineffective. They mounted; and the leader spurred his
+horse, and, followed by the others, galloped in our direction. Their
+carbines spat red flashes into the night. Their bullets were coming closer
+now, because they could determine where we were lying in the ditches at
+the side of the road from the flashes of our rifles.
+
+"Will they see the trees across the roadway?" was the thought that darted
+through my mind. If they should, it would probably be all up with us. As
+they came very close to the barricade, they did notice it. They made a
+bold leap across, but having underestimated the number of logs there, they
+found themselves in great confusion. Some of them were pinned under their
+fallen horses. At this point, we opened fire, which completed their
+discomfiture. Above the sound of our rifle firing we could hear the
+now-familiar cry of "_Kamerad!_" "_Kamerad!_" It only served to infuriate
+us and made us shoot all the faster.
+
+This might well arouse against us the criticism of those who never
+witnessed atrocities committed by the Huns, but you must remember that our
+blood had not come down to normal from the effects of the sights we
+ourselves had come across.
+
+At last, we leaped out to make prisoners of the trapped Uhlans. Those who
+could, bolted back in the direction they came from, but it was a sure
+thing that twelve of them were missing when the roll was called.
+
+One might consider that a night's work, but it wasn't.
+
+It was now my turn for sentry go on the main road, which was still open
+for vehicles of our staff. This was a post where it was thought that, to
+use an American phrase, there would be "nothing doing"; yet it was here
+that I came face to face with one of the war's finest examples of Teutonic
+over-assurance--boldness that would have been splendid had it not been
+stupid.
+
+After I had been at my new post an hour, it then being near three o'clock
+in the morning, a motor car came swiftly toward me. I had been warned that
+I might expect staff officers to pass, and this, I thought, was
+undoubtedly some of them--otherwise the car would have advanced slowly. I
+stepped into the road and awaited its approach. As it neared me I saw that
+the two officers it contained wore the uniforms of the British staff. I
+could see the red tabs on their collars.
+
+There were two telegraph poles across the road near my post. Remembering
+this, I showed myself and called for the chauffeur to halt. He checked the
+car's speed but brought it ahead slowly. I shouted for the countersign. I
+was waiting for the occupants of the car to give it, intending to explain
+to them that they would have to stop until I called some one to help me
+remove the telegraph poles, when there was a sudden grinding of gears and
+the car shot ahead, full speed. I yelled a warning about the poles but the
+words left my lips at about the moment when the car bounced over them.
+
+Until that time I had no suspicion that the occupants of the car were not
+what they seemed. Even then, the manner in which they "rushed" my post
+seemed to me only due to some inexplicable misunderstanding. But I had
+marched, and fought, and gone sleepless and hungry until I was little more
+than a mechanical soldier. I was able to realize only that somebody, for
+some reason, had ignored my challenge and rushed a sentry post. I swung my
+rifle in the direction of the car, aimed accurately (in an automatic way),
+and pulled the trigger. The noise of an exploding tire followed the crack
+of my weapon. The car skidded, twisted for a moment, and then went
+on--faster than ever.
+
+My shot aroused our outpost. The alarm was given to the first of the
+connecting sentries and passed along quickly until it reached our company
+headquarters, on the roadside opposite to a château in which Brigade
+Staff headquarters had been established. Men half awake, tumbled into the
+roadway preparing to fire on something or somebody--they didn't know what.
+It was useless for the car to attempt to rush the crowd. Again the
+chauffeur checked it, this time bringing it to a full stop. One of the
+occupants (who, it will be remembered, were in staff uniform) demanded
+sharply of the sentry in front of the château:
+
+"What is the meaning of this? Are there nothing but blockheads about here?
+We have been fired on while looking for Brigade headquarters. Somebody
+should be court-martialled for this."
+
+The sentry saluted them and admitted them to the grounds of the château.
+
+Their car had disappeared within the gates when I came running down the
+road and informed my company commander what had happened. He instantly
+ordered our men to surround the château and rushed in himself, following
+the car up the avenue leading through the grounds. The "staff officers"
+had abandoned their car in the shadow of a clump of trees and were
+seeking to escape over the garden wall when our men captured them. One of
+them, speaking English without a trace of accent, still tried to "bluff"
+our men who seized him, and his assumed indignation was so convincing
+that, but for the direct orders from the company commander, the men might
+have released him, believing him really an officer of our forces. Each of
+the two wore the uniform of a staff major with all the proper badges and
+insignia. It was found that they were German spies with rough maps of the
+disposition of our retreating forces and other valuable information in
+their possession. I was informed, later, that they were shot.
+
+Before dawn, we got orders to retire again. It was always retire--retire.
+We were ready to fight ten times our number if only we could stop
+retiring.
+
+Shortly after leaving this position we saw an airplane overhead. A few
+minutes later shrapnel began bursting in our direction. We scattered to
+each side of the highway, keeping under cover as best we could.
+
+We marched all day--God knows how far--and finally, between one and two
+the following morning, reached a place which we believed to be Pinon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+As we neared Pinon, the sound of artillery fire could be heard, and the
+inhabitants were all leaving the town in any way that they could. Here I
+saw further effects of Prussian atrocities.
+
+At this spot, a French woman, supporting her mutilated husband as best she
+could, passed us in a buggy. The sight was awful! His face and body were
+almost entirely covered with gashes from the Prussians' bayonets. His
+wife's face was as white as death except where three cruel cuts had laid
+it open. Neither of this pitiful pair was less than sixty years old. Fine
+"enemies" for soldiers' weapons!
+
+Beyond this last village we lay in the open for a few hours' rest. We were
+so utterly exhausted that officers and men alike threw themselves upon the
+ground and instantly were asleep. My last waking recollection was of the
+sight of an officer of the guard striding wearily to and fro. He was
+afraid even to sit for fear sleep might conquer him. And my next
+recollection--seemingly coming right on the heels of the one I have
+mentioned--was of being shaken by the shoulders and having the warning
+shouted into my ear that we had got orders to force-march instantly.
+
+"They say some of the blighters have got round us by the flank," said the
+man who shook me. "Make haste!"
+
+We had rested less than three hours. Off we went on another "retirement."
+This time under the drive of urgent necessity for speed.
+
+We must have marched at an extraordinary rate, because it was not yet noon
+when we arrived at the outskirts of Soissons. From the high ground on our
+right flank, we could see cavalry and artillery in great numbers, but
+whether ours or the enemy's, none of us knew--not even the officers. As we
+arrived in the town we were greeted with artillery fire; then we knew who
+it was that awaited us.
+
+We got into a lumber yard and returned the fire, but I don't think either
+side did much damage. Their bullets sang through the lumber gallery. The
+melody was one that had become familiar to us.
+
+Retreating through Soissons, we kept up a stiff fight, arriving intact at
+the farther end of the town. Here we came upon fresh and terrible evidence
+of the ruthlessness and wanton cruelty of the foe which we had first
+confronted but a few days before, then believing that the traditions of
+honourable warfare still existed. We came across scores of refugees--old
+men and women--who had been beaten and driven from their homes without
+cause. We had passed the dead bodies of many townspeople--killed,
+seemingly, by artillery fire, yet, in some cases, exhibiting suspicious
+wounds, as if bayonets or lances had been used. It was not, however, until
+we were marching through the throng of refugees, outside the town, that
+indisputable and utterly shocking proofs of the inhumanity of the Huns
+came to our eyes. In perambulators we saw wailing children with mangled or
+missing hands. I know that it has been hotly disputed that such dastardly
+crimes as these were committed by the Germans. I know also that the
+disputants who contend against the truth of these reports never marched
+with us the weary and awful miles amid the fleeing and miserable people of
+Soissons.
+
+These mutilated children I, myself, and my comrades saw. Two at least, I
+recollect with bloody stumps where baby hands had been, and one whose foot
+had been severed at the ankle. _I saw these things._ I saw them; and I
+live to say that others with me saw them--brawny Highlanders whose tears
+of pity flowed with those of the mothers who wept for heart-break and with
+those of the babies who wept from the pain of the wounds which had maimed
+them. Ay, there were witnesses enough; and witnesses remain, though many
+of the Black Watch who that day saw and cursed the cowardly brutality of
+the Huns were to lie, but too soon, with their voices hushed for ever, so
+that they may not speak of it. But we who still live may tell of it--and
+dare a challenge of the truth of what we say! And those who saw, and
+died--paying the toll of that bloody passing from the Mons to the
+Marne--have told it, no doubt, ere this--before that Court whose judgment
+can impose the eternal punishment that the soulless crimes demand.
+
+There were thousands in the unhappy throng of refugees. Some few rode upon
+hay carts, surrounded by such of their belongings as they had been able
+hastily to gather. Others pushed handcarts containing their goods and
+household articles. Most of them however, went afoot, trudging wearily
+along and carrying what they might. There, in that sickening scene, it was
+as it is everywhere. The grotesque and the humorous mixed incongruously
+with the pathetic. For instance: Alongside one perambulator with a wounded
+child in it rolled another one loaded with huge rings of bread, on top of
+which perched a parrot, screaming at every one who passed.
+
+One old lady was trudging along carrying a baby which could not have been
+more than two and a half years old, though the weight of his chubby frame
+was bending her almost double. I could not speak her language, but I made
+her understand that I would carry the child a mile or two and leave him by
+the side of the road. The laughter and baby antics of the child brought a
+ray of sunshine to our section, and especially to fathers who had left
+tots behind them in Scotland. About an hour later I came to a group by the
+roadside, who recognized the baby, and I left him with them, making them
+understand that the old lady would be along later.
+
+One of the last things I remember in leaving Soissons was an old man who
+was carrying his furniture and household goods to what looked like a
+modern dug-out in an embankment and covering it with earth so that it
+would not be discovered. The boys made a lot of fun of him, but the laugh
+was not on their lips very long.
+
+We had just reached the top of a hill on the farther side of the city,
+overlooking the railroad yards and repair shops, when we came into direct
+view of the German artillery observers, and shrapnel began to storm down
+among us. It was like the sudden burst of a thunder cloud. There wasn't a
+moment's warning before the smoke puffs began appearing overhead and the
+ugly steel splinters and slugs whizzed over our heads.
+
+The regiment deployed in a corn field at one side of the road and
+scattered, moving some distance from the highway. The enemy continued to
+sprinkle the corn with shrapnel but we lay flat on the ground until the
+firing ceased. The company's cooks meanwhile, at some little distance
+ahead of us, had prepared "gunfire," and the various companies lined up in
+file to receive their well-earned and much-desired quota of it. As the
+cooks had to keep ahead of the regiment, there was no time lost in
+disposing of the tea, and many of the men had to drink it on the run.
+
+A little farther on we halted for a few hours' sleep, and at ten minutes
+to three we found ourselves again on the move. We marched all that day
+through a large and dense forest. Now and again we were surprised by
+occasional artillery shots at the more open sections, but the trees helped
+a great deal in protecting us from the enemy's airplanes, and proved a
+hindrance to their tactics. But with the cavalry it was a different
+matter. Uhlans harassed us every hour of the day. We had only about two
+machine guns to a battalion, and they were worked so steadily and so hard
+that they repeatedly jammed. Once we were almost cut off. A party of
+Uhlans came clattering down on our heels driving the rear guard in on the
+support, and for a few moments there was what approached a modern barrage
+fire of artillery on the road in our front. Luckily for us, the artillery
+fire slackened for some reason and we got ahead before the Uhlans could
+envelop us.
+
+Later in the day I was serving in the rear guard. Suddenly we heard the
+roaring of a motor. We took cover at the sides of the road. Our
+"point"--was in the rear, and, if there was anything wrong, we knew they
+would inform us. The roaring of the motor grew louder. We were so tired
+that our nerves jangled. I had never felt so jumpy. There it came around
+the bend with a Red Cross flag flying from it, but it was not one of our
+ambulances. It had great, heavy, double wheels and there were Red Crosses
+painted on its sides in addition to the flag flying from the front. Our
+impression was that it had gone off its course. The chauffeur had released
+the muffler cut-out and the engine was running very quietly now. A man
+sitting beside the driver and leaning far out over the side was yelling in
+broken English that they were lost, and he gesticulated toward the body
+of the car in such a way as to make us think that he had badly wounded men
+with him.
+
+We began scrambling back onto the road. Our war was not against the
+wounded and suffering, so we would let them pass.
+
+Suddenly the ambulance stopped; the sides of it quickly rose; machine guns
+showed their ugly muzzles.
+
+"Br-r-r-r-r t-t-t," they began to sputter.
+
+I leaped backward and fell headlong into the ditch. Everybody was jumping
+for cover. The bullets lashed the road and ricocheted far upon it.
+Scarcely a man of us was hit, but we were in wild confusion. I cannot
+describe the scene. No one seemed to think of putting his rifle to his
+shoulder. The horror of it--the passionate anger against such vile
+trickery--drove us into a rage; but--for the moment--it was an impotent
+rage. We seemed to be at their mercy.
+
+Then the platoon commander's voice rose above the rat-a-tat of the machine
+guns:
+
+"Steady, men! Fire at will, but pick your men carefully."
+
+We had heard him speak in the same tone on parade. It brought us to our
+senses. The edge of the ditch on each side of the road fairly flamed with
+the sputter of rifle fire. The "ambulance" was riddled. A Prussian officer
+toppled into the middle of the road. Half a dozen men sprang from the
+ditch and rushed at him with bayonets. They killed him like a rat. There
+was no compunction about it.
+
+There was now heard the thrumming of more motors approaching. Round the
+turn in the road they came. This time it was transports--laden with German
+troops. There was no attempt at disguise with this mob. They thought that
+their camouflaged battery would by now have done its dirty work. Sweating
+and tugging and straining, we managed to topple the "ambulance" over in
+the road. The trucks came dashing up as we retreated--retreated only to
+get in touch with our support. The men cheered wildly as two of our own
+machine guns came up. We turned the wee fellows loose on the Germans--gave
+them a taste of their own medicine.
+
+Some of them came running toward us shouting: "_Kamerad! Kamerad!_" We
+shot them down as they ran--shot them without hesitation--after the
+dastardly trick they had played on us. Probably they were even then trying
+another ruse.
+
+The fight surged backward and forward. The Germans tried to press ahead.
+
+Then something happened which we had not expected. A burst of shrapnel
+sprayed over the Germans. In a few seconds there was another. Then two
+shells exploded at once--three--four! A rain of fire, as the French say,
+was upon them. We were getting support from our own artillery. That was
+something new and it put heart into us.
+
+The regiment re-formed and proceeded with an orderly retirement, while the
+artillery, like a barrier of steel, held the enemy at his distance all the
+rest of the day. We were near to exhaustion and some of the men dropped
+out of the ranks only to die of the strain. Although our pipers were as
+weary as the rest of us, they sensed that we needed encouragement, and
+with great effort struck up a march. Very soon we had left the forest
+behind us.
+
+It is impossible to describe the effect of the skirl of those pipes that
+day. It was like a message from Heaven. We had not heard them since Mons,
+and now they were leading us out of a forest that was a picture of
+weirdness itself; leading us out into the beautiful open country. What joy
+we felt!
+
+At this time we were retiring almost directly toward Paris. For seventeen
+hours we marched with halts only when it was absolutely necessary. We had
+been in France four weeks, though it seemed like four years.
+
+One of our chief discomforts was the lack of water. Toward evening we
+halted alongside a cucumber patch. The men simply went wild, running into
+the field and sucking the juicy young cucumbers. I "drank" twelve myself,
+but we had not had time to satisfy ourselves when the Prussian artillery
+got the range again and we had to get out of the field--those of us who
+could. I have heard some "cussing" during my career in the army, but I
+don't think I ever listened to anything quite like the brand that
+accompanied our departure from that field.
+
+After marching a considerable distance, we were billeted in barns in a
+small village. This was a cheering circumstance, as the farmer gave us
+chickens and allowed us to get vegetables to make up a _real_ warm meal,
+which I can assure you was enjoyed royally. We expected to stay here some
+time, so we made for the barns and lay down among the hay.
+
+I don't think you could possibly form an idea of the _utter_ weariness of
+the men or of the manner in which we were incessantly harassed. We never
+got a decent chance to eat, drink, or rest. The incidents of the cornfield
+and the cucumber patch are typical. Many men died of sheer exhaustion.
+When we entered the barn I was so absolutely petered out that I went to
+sleep almost before my body touched the hay.
+
+We had been in the barn only about two hours when there was a great
+commotion. I waked up half suffocated, but I didn't care. Somebody kicked
+me in the ribs as I was turning over to sleep again.
+
+"_The barn's on fire!_" he yelled.
+
+There was an odour of paraffin. It seemed that some German agent had
+started the fire. Probably it was the owner of the place, using German
+"kultur." Germany had left scores of such spies planted in the country,
+after 1871.
+
+After the fire in the barn we got a couple of hours more sleep, then moved
+off again about three o'clock in the morning. We were on the Metz road
+going east, but did not know it until our officers informed us that we
+were heading toward the Franco-German frontier. They were ever optimistic
+and helped to lighten the burdens of men who were on the last lap by
+carrying sometimes the rifles of four of them at one time on their
+shoulders. In the afternoon we came to Coulommiers. Most of the
+inhabitants were leaving, and a herald--such as existed in the Middle
+Ages,--was going through the town beating a kettle-drum and crying to all
+the civilians to take everything they could carry and leave the place. But
+this herald was a middle-aged woman.
+
+About two o'clock that same day, we were on the banks of a stream and the
+whole regiment began making preparations for a swim. Some were already in
+the water, but had scarcely got entirely wet when the German artillery
+began churning the water with shrapnel. The bodies of many of my comrades
+went floating down stream.
+
+That night my company guarded a road protected by barbed-wire
+entanglements and lined with poplar trees; just the kind of road you so
+often see pictured in France or Belgium. The main body of the regiment was
+dug in the side of a hill overlooking this road. It was again the luck of
+my section to protect the road some two hundred yards in advance of the
+regiment. We entrenched ourselves on each side in such a manner that one
+could advance within ten yards without detecting our position. We placed a
+few strands of the barbed-wire fencing across the road a little distance
+ahead of us.
+
+About midnight, I was awakened by someone tugging at me. It was the
+sentry. He pointed far up the road, and, as there was a certain amount of
+moonlight, I could see something moving between the tall poplar trees. He
+asked me what it was and I told him that it was our cavalry. However, I
+told him he should inform the section commander; and then I rolled off to
+sleep again.
+
+Presently I felt a second tug at me. On looking up I found it was our
+sergeant; he whispered: "Be ready to spring up at a moment's notice." The
+others were already in position. In the dim light I could see the
+queer-shaped lance-caps that the Uhlans wore.
+
+"Halt! Who goes there?" shouted the sentry.
+
+"Freunden," said a voice in reply.
+
+With that they were almost on the barbed-wire, and we greeted them in the
+way such "friends" should be greeted. There was a tremendous turmoil. All
+but two fell into our hands. To be exact, fifteen were captured and three
+killed. Three of the captives were officers.
+
+One of the officers, when searched, was found to have in his possession a
+novelty mirror with the photograph of a girl on the back. He made no fuss
+about giving up anything but the mirror. This, however, he insisted upon
+having back. Finally the examining officer, Major Lord George Stewart
+Murray, became suspicious and decided that the Boche's sentiment was not
+on the level. He stripped the photograph off the back. Under it he found a
+thin sort of skin and, underneath that, pasted to the back of it, a paper
+covered with writing. He returned the mirror to the German officer, but he
+retained the paper; and the writing gave the staff much satisfaction.
+
+All night long we were troubled by similar parties of Uhlans. They were
+evidently feeling out for an attack, but, not being able to gauge our
+strength, they never made it. Some of our boys crawled out from the
+trenches to rescue a trooper with a broken leg, and they said that only a
+few paces away they could not distinguish the trench or tell how many men
+were there. If the Uhlans had only known the facts they could have swarmed
+over us. In the morning we collected souvenirs from the field. One of the
+fellows picked up a lance with two bullet holes clean through the steel
+tubing shaft.
+
+Our next stop was at Neslês. We drew up alongside a field of beets just
+before going into the village, and most of the men fell out of ranks and
+lay down alongside the road. Some were in the ploughed earth between the
+rows of beets. The artillery had been firing at us most of the day, but
+they hadn't found the range. There were some heavy guns hammering at us,
+as we could tell from the explosions of the shells.
+
+As usual, when it came time for a rest, the Germans began to locate us.
+One of the heaviest shells I had yet seen exploded in the field and
+scattered beets all over the surrounding country. A member of our company
+right near me was stunned for a few seconds.
+
+Before any one had recovered himself enough to go to his aid, he sat up
+unsteadily, his head wobbling, his face a mass of red. A few yards behind
+him was his forage cap. He put his shaking hand up to his head; withdrew
+it, then looked at his fingers which were dripping red.
+
+"Ah weel, lads, Ah've got it noo!" he lamented. "Ah'm sair-r-r-tainly din
+fur 'cause Ah dinna feel a theng. Ah on'y wesh Ah could 'a got ane o' the
+deevils tae me credit afore this!"
+
+By this time two or three of us had run forward and were wiping his head
+and face. There was no evidence of a wound. Then suddenly some one roared
+with laughter. The man was covered with the red juice of beets and was
+entirely unhurt. He had only been stunned. This is the way Mars jests. His
+humour is always mixed with grimness.
+
+We learned that we were to stop at Neslës overnight, and this, coupled
+with the fact that we had commenced advancing, put new enthusiasm into us.
+
+Before we arrived there were large vineyards at each side of the road
+leading up a hill overlooking a beautiful little town, on the south bank
+of the Petit Morin River. We had a few minutes' halt within reach of the
+lovely French grapes, which hung most temptingly in clusters, so it was
+quite natural that some of the boys who were extremely thirsty and warm
+from the scorching sun, should partake of this inviting fruit.
+
+Discipline in the British army is second to none; and we were commanded to
+observe it strictly while on the retreat. One of our orders was "not to
+pluck fruit," as it came under the category of "Looting." Very soon the
+few fellows who had disobeyed that order were rolling on the ground,
+holding their stomachs. Later we were told that the grapes on both sides
+of the road had been poisoned by the Germans. This was punishment enough
+for those who had eaten the fruit, and a lesson that every one of us "took
+home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+As we--the other scouts and I--advanced, firing details, which had been
+left behind under close cover by the Germans, did a good deal of execution
+amongst us. The hay-stacks, particularly, gave us a great deal of trouble.
+More than once, one of them would be disrupted as though by some sort of
+explosion from the inside, and machine guns would begin spraying our
+skirmishing lines. So it became an important part of our scouting
+operations to search all hay-stacks and farm houses. And continually we
+were under what, ordinarily, would be termed heavy fire.
+
+The ground over which we were passing had been the scene of sharp
+fighting, earlier. We came across scores of dead Germans and a few French.
+In the midst of a field dotted with a particularly large number of
+hay-stacks was a farm house. When we were about thirty or forty yards from
+it and on opposite sides, we leaped up and dashed toward it as hard as we
+could run. It is a fact that this is the safest way for patrols to
+approach a house. If any of the enemy are inside, they become excited when
+they see men rushing toward them and are likely to open fire--instead of
+waiting until the scouts get inside and then killing them noiselessly.
+Their aim is also more uncertain at a running man than it is at one
+sneaking along slowly, and, most important of all, whether the scouts are
+killed or not, the noise of the rifle fire alarms the main body and the
+party in the house is detected.
+
+Troolan (my scout partner) and I arrived at this particular farm house on
+a dead run without having drawn any fire or detected the least sign of
+life. We tried all the doors; they were locked. The windows, too, were
+bolted from the inside. Troolan smashed one in, got inside, and opened the
+door for me. We searched the building rather hurriedly and discovered no
+sign of any one having been there. Just as we were going out, I had a
+premonition that I ought to look further.
+
+"Wait outside and watch," I said to Troolan, "and I will take another look
+around."
+
+He posted himself outside. Very cautiously I stepped down the cellar
+stairs. The boards seemed to squeak and groan like a lumbering farm wagon.
+It was dark as pitch, but I did not dare to make a light. It would have
+been fatal if any one really was lurking there. Something scurried across
+the floor. I felt the hot blood surge under my scalp. For a second I
+expected to see a red flash in the utter darkness and feel a bullet smash
+into my body. Then I discovered that it was only a rat.
+
+I thought I heard breathing. I stood stock still, and strained my eyes on
+every side till they ached as if they would burst from their sockets. I
+was trying to catch the reflection of some stray beam of light from the
+eyes of a man or the barrel of an automatic, but I do not believe that so
+much as a pin point of light was diffused in that whole black pit.
+Suddenly I almost laughed aloud, although I knew that to do so might mean
+instant death. The breathing that I heard was my own. Cautiously I thrust
+out my foot to descend another step.
+
+There was a shout outside.
+
+"Run to the door quickly," Troolan was yelling.
+
+I leaped up the stairway regardless of what might be behind me and dashed
+toward the kitchen door to get outside the house. Just as I did so, I saw
+a shadow flit along the ground past the kitchen window. Guessing where the
+man must be who cast it, I fired through the wooden wall of the kitchen at
+about the height of the average man's breast. Then in a couple of bounds I
+was outside. There stood Troolan looking very much surprised and grieved
+when he saw me. His rifle was half drawn up to his shoulder, and he was in
+the attitude of getting ready to fire.
+
+Perspiration broke out on my forehead. I realised that the shadow had been
+Troolan's and from the look of him I had come very nigh to killing him.
+
+"What the h---- was that for, ye muckle galoot?" he threw at me.
+
+"I saw a shadow," I said, "and let drive."
+
+"Ye're an auld wife, that's what ye' are," said Troolan disgustedly,
+"a'firin' after shadows."
+
+"Never mind now," I said, "what did you see?"
+
+"I saw a big boche," said my scouting partner, "or, at least, I thocht I
+did. Maybe I've been takin' you fur him the same as you did me."
+
+"Maybe," I said, "but the best plan is for you to watch this house while I
+go and report."
+
+"All right," said Troolan. I started away. I had not gone a dozen paces
+when I heard scuffling behind me. I turned round and started to run back
+at the same instant. What I saw lent speed to my feet. The helmet of a
+German officer was just coming through a window. Troolan, who had
+evidently been concealed from the German's view, was aiming a blow at his
+head with the butt of his rifle.
+
+As usual, Troolan had lacked finesse. He had rushed so clumsily to the
+attack that both the officer and I had heard him. The German dodged just
+in time to evade the blow, and Troolan's rifle banged the window sill.
+
+How the boche did it, I do not know, but it seemed as though he was
+propelled by strong steel springs under his feet. He fairly shot out of
+the window like a dart from a catapult and landed on Troolan's neck. Both
+men went down. I dared not fire. They were rolling over and over one
+another, kicking and striking with their fists. The boche was fouling
+Troolan in a way that would be prohibited in wrestling. I jumped into the
+fray and tried to find the German's throat, but the men were so entwined
+that it was hard to get a hold on him. Suddenly a heavy boot struck me in
+the pit of the stomach, and I rolled over and over to find myself gasping
+for breath a dozen feet away.
+
+Painfully I got up and staggered toward the struggling men, but I was too
+late to be of any use. After a particularly frantic struggle Troolan
+managed to get on top of his adversary, with his right arm free. His
+mighty fist came smashing down full in the other's face. The German
+staggered to his feet, but Troolan leaped clear of him, seized his rifle,
+and, this time, brought the butt down with a thud on the other's skull.
+Then Troolan burst into some of the most profane Scotch it has been my
+doubtful privilege to hear.
+
+"What are you cursing about?" I asked him.
+
+"I want to mak shair that Deevil's deed!" he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Later that day we were relieved by other scouts.
+
+Toward nightfall troops began to arrive on either side of us in great
+numbers, and dispatch riders with various insignia continually dashed up
+on their speedy motorcycles to our brigade headquarters. Everyone realized
+that we must be approaching something big, for previous to this we had
+been fighting, for the most part, isolated engagements. As a matter of
+fact, it developed that we were preparing for the Battle of the Marne.
+
+We remained at this spot all night. At dawn, orders were given that we
+were to take the high ground the Germans were occupying a few miles ahead
+of us. Our brigade marched in skirmishing order, followed by the cavalry
+and artillery. We passed scores of dead--some French but the majority
+German. Dead horses were intermingled with the bodies of men.
+
+We were under heavy shell fire until we descended into the shelter of a
+gully. Here we met a few of the French Chasseurs. Four or five farms were
+clustered together, and the sights we encountered in the yards and on the
+roads were the worst we had yet seen. Pools of congealed blood; bodies of
+dead soldiers partly covered with sacks and straw; the barns so filled
+that the feet of dead men were protruding. The Chasseurs appeared very
+pale and silent.
+
+The ridge was densely covered with hazel-wood. We got the command to fix
+bayonets and extend into skirmishing formation. The Black Watch with the
+Camerons were to take the ridge, while the Coldstreams and Scots Guards
+were to be in reserve.
+
+An incident occurred during the ascent of the ridge which illustrated the
+reckless, devil-may-care spirit of the men in our battalion in a way
+which impressed even me. The front-line men came upon a lot of blackberry
+bushes. They began plucking and eating the berries, shouting gleefully to
+one another to signal the discovery of an especially well-laden bush.
+Until the officers sternly warned them of the peril they invited by such
+noise and incaution, you would have thought they were schoolboys on a
+lark.
+
+I was one of the scouts sent up the ridge to try to locate the position
+and number of the enemy and report at once. Wriggling along on my belly
+like a snake, I made my way foot by foot. I could hear our fellows
+shouting, and it rather disconcerted me as I felt they would attract the
+enemy's attention, but I continued on my way nevertheless.
+
+I never knew that so many sharp stones could be scattered in so short a
+distance. It seemed as though some of them were forcing themselves clean
+in between my ribs.
+
+Presently I came to a hastily constructed barbed-wire entanglement at the
+edge of a thicket. Ahead of me was a clear rising space of about fifty
+yards which did not show from below. Beyond this was a plateau. Before
+advancing farther I peered through the thicket and scanned the crest.
+
+Suddenly I heard a familiar, unmistakable rattling. It was the opening and
+closing of rifle bolts. My skin prickled all over. I knew that it meant
+troops getting ready to fire and I had no doubt the Germans had discovered
+me and were preparing to shoot. I wriggled backward a few feet into the
+thicket, expecting every second to hear the crash of a volley and to pass
+into oblivion. But the crash did not come. Evidently they had not seen me.
+
+Under cover of the underbrush I crept forward again until I could see the
+helmets of German troops in the woods atop of the ridge. They outnumbered
+our troops. I crawled to the left until I came to a point where I could
+command a view of the crest, where they were in waiting, but apparently
+unaware of our near approach. I crawled back until I was out of sight.
+Then I leaped to my feet and ran as if I were once more on a cinder track
+in the old barrack days. Brambles tore my hands and face and lacerated my
+bare knees, but I did not heed them.
+
+I had seen enough, and the sooner we could make the attack the better.
+Besides, they might even yet see me, and I preferred the scratching of
+brambles to the bite of a steel bullet.
+
+In safety I got back to our lines. The boys could see from my excitement
+that something was up.
+
+"Did you find them, Joe?" they shouted.
+
+"Where is the adjutant?" I demanded. Somebody told me, and I hurried to
+him.
+
+"How many of them are there?" he asked when I told what I had seen.
+
+"All I can say, sir, is that they outnumber us and are waiting," I
+answered.
+
+Orders were given for an immediate attack.
+
+I went forward again, but this time in my own place in the company, with
+men either side of me, and with real business ahead. We made our way in
+silence through the woods toward the terrace. Still the Germans did not
+fire. We wondered whether they were really unaware of our approach, or,
+just holding their fire for close range? This was the first time we had
+been in a big attack of this kind and we knew that bayonet work would be
+the end of it.
+
+The answer to our questioning soon came. It was in the form of a burst of
+fire from the ridge above us. Twigs fell all around us and here and there
+a man dropped too.
+
+We could not do much in the way of returning the fire, for we had not yet
+reached the open. The blood was pounding through my arteries. I felt much
+as I used to before the start of an important race. The second platoon to
+my right went forward, while our fire covered their advance. Crouching
+low, the men dashed on at full speed. Here and there one of them toppled
+backward. Then the platoon nearest to us advanced. It would be our turn
+next. We ceased firing and prepared to rush. Our lieutenant looked at the
+commander, whose whistle had just blown a shrill blast. He signalled for
+us to go forward.
+
+Like one man, we leaped to our feet. The thin line swept out onto the open
+terrace. Each man had but one friend then, his rifle with the bayonet
+fixed.
+
+We had arrived at the point where I had previously encountered the barbed
+wire. Throwing ourselves flat on the ground, we returned the enemy's fire.
+After cutting the barbed-wire, we awaited orders. The word came to charge.
+With one mighty shout, we made for the crest. When one goes out with the
+bayonet he goes to kill or to be killed, but with the former in mind.
+
+The German fire thundered out as though it had been tripled. The trees and
+bushes were cut as by scythes, but they were only shooting in a
+direction--they could not see us clearly. Up, up we went. Loose stones
+rattled under our feet, and went tumbling down the slope, but we picked
+ourselves up and pushed always forward and upward. At last we saw the
+Germans who were firing at us over their trenches. Our men were yelling
+like demons.
+
+Then the German fire stopped as though every man had, on the instant, been
+struck dead. An instant later, they leaped out of their trenches, with
+bayonets fixed, and dashed toward us. Every man among them looked a giant.
+One of our boys was ahead of all the others. He was a bow-legged little
+fellow, and, even at that moment, he looked ludicrous with his bare knees
+and kilts. A big German was over him. The little fellow seemed to drop his
+rifle. He had caught it in both hands, close under the handle of the
+bayonet. He straightened up, heaving his shoulders, brought up his
+forearms with a jerk, and the steel blade drove through the soft spot in
+the German's throat--just under the chin. The Prussian's last cry was
+drowned by the fierce yell of the little bow-legged man. It was the spirit
+of the bayonet which made him yell like a savage.
+
+There was no time to see what was going on around me any more. We were
+fighting knee to knee. I can but faintly recall the actual close fighting,
+but I seemed to make good use of my bayonet. Sometimes I was knocked off
+my feet, but the next instant I was up again. I was not thinking of what
+might happen to me. It was fight, fight, and keep on fighting. One seemed
+imbued with a superhuman strength.
+
+One of our boys seized a German's rifle, and wrested it from him by a
+trick which seemed to break his arm. A little farther away two Germans
+were rushing upon one man. Mechanically, I leaped into action. The butt of
+my rifle felled the nearest boche. Somebody knocked the rifle out of my
+hands. Somehow I ducked a thrust made at me and ran in on the German who
+made it, and smashed my fist on the point of his jaw.
+
+They began to waver now. They did not seem to care for our company with
+our kilts and our steel--we whom they later learned to call the "Ladies of
+Hell." (Because of our kilts.) At last they broke and ran. We were after
+them. A machine gun rattled away at the head of a path down which some of
+our boys were dashing. It almost wiped out _B_ company before we could
+silence it.
+
+Just over the crest of the ridge we came upon their combat wagons and a
+field gun. Three men and an officer were trying to save the gun. The men
+who were hitching the horses to it broke and ran. The officer did not
+hesitate a second to shoot them in the backs. Then _he_ fell with one of
+our bullets through his head. We captured the gun.
+
+By this time I was regaining my proper senses. A feeling of exhaustion
+seemed to envelop me; my legs wobbled. Then I dropped to the ground. Every
+bone, muscle, and nerve ached, and I felt as though I had just been
+through a tough wrestling match.
+
+When we had counted up, we found that two company officers, Captain
+Drummond and Captain Dalgleish, had been killed. We picked up about fifty
+German rifles and broke them over the trunks of trees. Our casualties were
+one hundred and fifty killed and only God knows how many wounded.
+
+Our prisoners amounted to about one hundred and forty. Among them was a
+man who had worked in London as a watchmaker. In very broken English, he
+asked if he could get his job back if he were sent to London. We told him
+that he would get a job all right, but that somebody else would see to the
+watchmaking.
+
+After capturing the crest, upon looking from the far side, we could see
+great numbers of German cavalry and infantry in retreat. The plateau was
+strewn with I should judge about five hundred dead bodies of the enemy.
+Their horses that had been wounded were left behind--left to die. We let
+go a few volleys of long-range fire to hurry the boches on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+We had very little rest after the fight I have just described. We were
+getting down to the real business of war. It was fighting, and not the
+incessant retreating, which had been sapping the life out of us for weeks.
+You must remember, also, the weight that each man carried during all those
+long wearisome retreats. Each of us had his heavily plaited kilt; his pack
+containing great coat, flannel shirt, two pairs of socks, waterproof
+sheet, extra shoes, and towel; his canteen, rifle, entrenching tool,
+bayonet, and ammunition--the whole totalling ninety pounds weight.
+
+Immediately after the fight, in shallow, narrow trenches, we began to bury
+our dead. Before the work was finished, a detachment of Uhlans fired on
+us, but one of our companies drove them across a rivulet and over the
+crest of the next ridge.
+
+One of our pipers--Dougall McLeod was his name--had lost his chum in the
+fight. McLeod was a sentimental sort of chap, with little heart for the
+work of killing. He was sitting on the ground fastening together a couple
+of strips of wood to make a little cross for his chum's grave--or rather
+his chum's share of the one long grave. The tears were trickling down his
+grimy, bloody cheeks, and he wasn't ashamed of them, nor of the furrows
+they cut in the caked dirt. It was just before he finished his work that
+the Uhlans opened fire. McLeod threw the loose pieces of the cross to the
+ground, and sprang to his place in the firing line. I had never seen the
+passion of hate in his eyes before. All that the Germans had made him
+suffer had never aroused him, but now that they interrupted him in the
+work of making a homely mark for his friend's grave, he was fired by the
+will to kill. I was only a few paces from him in the firing line, and,
+with the tears still streaming down his face, I could hear him mutter
+every time his rifle crashed:
+
+"Damn you! You will, will you?"
+
+We again took to the road. All that day we marched under occasional shell
+fire. Along the sides of the roads, we passed the wrecks of scores of
+German combat wagons and supply trains. Sometimes there was a field piece
+amid the débris. Toward evening we heard terrific firing on our right, but
+we were not called to enter the engagement. Later we learned that a French
+division had been pretty badly cut up in running the boches out of a
+strong position.
+
+Their wounded passed us on the road. You cannot imagine a more pitiful or
+a more noble sight. Limping along, supported by their comrades, came
+scores of men, whose every step was costing them agony but who smiled at
+us as we cheered them. Straggling down the road, as we swung along, came
+groups of wounded, each supporting the other as best he could. In one case
+in particular, a man who had been badly maimed and was using his rifle as
+a crutch, was also supported by a comrade who had been blinded. If there
+had ever been doubt in our minds as to the mettle of our allies, it was
+dispelled now, as the lame and the blind hour after hour filed past us.
+
+We billeted that night at a place, the name of which sounded like
+Villers. I remember that a detachment of French were there before us, and
+a peasant pointed out to me a row of trees where they had hung fifteen
+Germans captured there, because, when the Uhlans had taken the town
+fifteen of them had brutally assaulted and outraged a farmer's wife and
+his daughter, twelve years of age. The ropes were still dangling from the
+trees.
+
+Volunteers were asked for, to go down and get the mail. Practically every
+one offered his services. To get mail from home gave the same sensation as
+scoring a victory, and we were all eager to do our bit. This was about
+10.30 P.M. and the rain was coming down in torrents. About two miles
+behind us lay the mail strewn around the road. The ambulance carrying it
+had been struck by a shell. Our volunteer mail carriers gathered the
+letters up, and, needless to say, there was much excitement among us on
+their arrival. Nothing else was thought of for the moment except the news
+from home.
+
+The next few days were uneventful. Toward evening on the thirteenth of
+September, I was scouting on our left flank. The German heavy guns had
+been keeping up a steady searching fire all day, but little damage had
+been done.
+
+I had got so accustomed to the roar of the explosions that they did not
+bother me very much. After a while a man gets so used to the sound of a
+shrieking shell in the air that he can tell by instinct when one is coming
+his way in time to throw himself flat on the ground. I had not yet reached
+this stage of proficiency. A shell did come my way. How close it came I
+will never know, because all of a sudden I felt as though my head were
+bursting. I seemed to be tumbling end over end and being torn to pieces.
+My ear drums rang and pained excruciatingly. I thought to myself "I am
+dying," and I wondered how I kept feeling a sort of consciousness although
+I must be already torn to bits.
+
+Then I found myself sitting up on the ground with a man from my patrol
+supporting my head.
+
+Now, this is the strange thing. I was instantly and absolutely oblivious
+when the shell exploded. All the sensations I have described came when I
+was recovering consciousness. Surgeons have told me since then that they
+were exactly what the shell caused when it exploded, but that my brain did
+not register them until my senses returned. My clothes were scorched and
+even my hair was singed. I do not know why I was not killed, but in a few
+hours I was ready for duty once more. The man who picked me up said that
+the shell had burst some little distance overhead. If it had struck the
+ground close to me, it would doubtless have sent me "west."
+
+The game had now been turned about. We were the pursuers. Most of the
+fighting was between the enemy's rear guard and our contact patrols--until
+we reached the Aisne. The Huns crossed the river, but they blew up the
+bridges behind them. The last of the retreating troops were scarcely
+across before the detonators were set off.
+
+We were held up for a while on the Aisne while our engineers constructed
+pontoon bridges. The Germans had the range, and they almost wiped out our
+entire battalion of engineers before our troops could cross.
+
+I saw a working raft swing out into the river with about twelve men on it.
+A single burst of shrapnel exploded in their midst and there wasn't a man
+left standing. One of them crawled to the stern and began pushing the raft
+toward shore with a pole but he was so weak that the current kept swinging
+him down a stream. A sniper got him.
+
+The raft was drifting away. Nobody expected to see the men on it again,
+but, in the face of shrapnel and a nasty fire from snipers, three men,
+stark naked, jumped into the stream and struck out for the raft. The water
+around them was whipped by bullets, but our boys located the snipers and
+got the range and quieted them. The first man reached the raft. His hands
+were over the edge. He had just pushed his head and shoulders over the
+side when a rifle snapped and he slipped back into the water; then I saw
+the German who had fired at him topple out of a tree. A dozen shots must
+have struck him. The two other swimmers were alongside the raft now and
+climbed upon it. I could see that one was bleeding at the shoulder. Our
+men pulled the wounded man upon the raft, and brought it to shore. Their
+heroism saved the lives of five men who otherwise would have drifted away
+and probably died.
+
+Soon our own artillery began to locate the German guns, whose fire
+diminished. Then our infantry began to cross the river at a dozen points.
+On the opposite bank was a village by the name of Bourg. Up and down hills
+we worked our way, forcing the enemy off the ridges. The details of the
+operations would not be of interest. We wanted to close with the bayonets,
+but the boches weren't ready for that, and they dropped back foot by foot,
+keeping up a hot fire.
+
+On this side of the river were numerous stone quarries, and in these we
+found tons and tons of ammunition for the heavy German guns. The type and
+manufacturers' marks showed that some of it was made as far back as the
+Franco-Prussian war. It had been lying in caches in the quarries for
+years, the Prussians having bought titles to some of the land through
+spies who posed as Frenchmen. They had been making use of this ammunition
+against us. It shows how long ago the war was planned and by whom. In some
+of the quarries we uncovered re-enforced concrete fortification and
+emplacements for cannon.
+
+Our commander, Colonel Grant Duff, was in the thickest of the fighting. I
+saw him distributing bandoliers of ammunition along the firing line. His
+men tried to make him go to the rear, but we were having a tough time to
+keep fire superiority, and we needed every man in the line. Suddenly
+Colonel Duff staggered and slouched forward on his hands and knees. The
+bandoliers he was carrying, scattered. Several men rushed to him but he
+got to his feet himself and ordered them back to their posts. An ugly red
+stain was spreading over his tartan riding breeches and leggings, but he
+staggered onward with the ammunition. He had not gone a dozen steps when
+both his arms flew up into the air and he fell backward. This time he did
+not move. He had been shot straight through the heart, and another
+commander of the Black Watch had gone to join the long line of heroes who
+had so often led this regiment to victory.
+
+Many of our company commanders were picked off by the enemy because of
+their distinctive dress, their celluloid map cases affording excellent
+targets.
+
+My memory of this fight is somewhat fragmentary. There are phases which
+are all but blanks to me. Others stand out with startling clarity.
+
+We were advancing in skirmishing order through a wood. A pal of my old
+athletic days, Ned McD----, fighting a few yards from me in our scattered
+line, fell with a bullet through both thighs. I made him as comfortable as
+I could in a nook about twenty paces back from where our men, lying on
+their stomachs, were keeping up a steady rifle fire through the
+underbrush. I had hardly returned to the line when the whistle of our
+platoon commander sounded shrilly, and we were ordered to retire to the
+farther edge of the plateau, where our men could have better protection
+from the enemy fire. I hurriedly placed McD---- under the edge of a bank,
+where, at least, he would not be trampled on by men or horses.
+
+"Don't attempt to leave the spot, Ned," I said. "I'll get back to you
+to-night if there's an opportunity." The chance did come, but when I
+reached the spot he had disappeared. Our subsequent meeting--the story of
+which I shall tell--is one of my few agreeable recollections in the train
+of the tragedy of our campaign.
+
+But to go back to the fight.
+
+Soon after leaving the spot where McD---- lay, I joined in a charge on a
+line of hidden trenches. We were upon them, and it was steel and teeth
+again. I saw an officer run in under a bayonet thrust, and jab his thumbs
+into a German's eyes. The boche rolled upon the ground, screaming. How
+long we fought, I do not know. When it was over we began to pick up the
+wounded. It was night. The Prussian guns were still hammering at us, and
+some of the shells set fire to a number of haystacks in the field where we
+had crossed the open. It was Hell. In the red glare of the fire the
+stretcher bearers hurried here and there with the dying, while others who
+had been placed behind the hay-stacks for shelter burned to death when the
+stalks caught fire. The few who could, crawled away from the fire. Those
+of us who were able to do so, pulled others to safety, and many a man had
+his hands and face badly burned, rescuing a helpless comrade.
+
+The next morning we went at them again. In the first rush, I felt a sudden
+slap against my thigh. It did not feel like anything more than a blow from
+an open palm. I thought nothing more of it until after the fight, when
+some one told me I was bleeding. A bullet had struck the flesh of my
+thigh. The slight wound was dressed at the regimental station, and I was
+ready for duty again.
+
+That night I was assigned to outpost duty between the lines. The German
+artillery had so covered the roads and the bridge, that for two days the
+supply wagons had been unable to come up. I was almost starved. My stomach
+ached incessantly from sheer hunger and I was weak from the bleeding of my
+wound. It seems terrible, looking back at it, but, during the night, while
+my partner watched, I crawled out and searched the dead for rations. I
+found none. Fifty paces from our post lay a dead artillery horse. We had
+to eat--or drop. What could we do? Wriggling on my belly like a snake, I
+drew myself toward the smelling carcass, cut off enough with my jackknife
+to do the section, brought it back, and we ate it.
+
+There followed days of lying in the trenches. Every time one of us showed
+a head above the surface of the earth a single shot would ring out, and
+more than once it accomplished its mission. Two or three times I almost
+caught it myself. At last I made up my mind that the sniper must be in a
+sugar factory building which showed clearly above a ridge on the right
+front of our position. Jock Hunter and I volunteered to go there and
+investigate. Working our way under cover of a wooded patch, we reached the
+factory yard where we encountered an old Frenchman who seemed to be the
+owner of the place.
+
+"What do you want?" he demanded.
+
+"Have you seen a sniper anywhere about here?" I asked.
+
+"No," he answered in a surly manner, "and you get out of here."
+
+"We'll get out," I retorted, "and _you'll_ get with us."
+
+I searched the factory building from cellar to roof but wasn't able to
+discover anything incriminating. I didn't know much about sugar
+factories, but there was a lot of machinery in the place that didn't look
+to me as if it had anything to do with sugar.
+
+Back to our lines we went, with the supposed Frenchman making a lot of
+noise, but walking about two inches in front of the points of our
+bayonets. When he was searched we found notes to the value of fifteen
+thousand francs sewed in his clothes, but most important of all, there
+were papers upon his person which showed that he was a German spy left
+there by the Prussians in 1871. He held title to many acres of land,
+including some of the quarries where shells had been hidden.
+
+I told the company officer of the suspicious-looking machinery in the
+factory. He sent us back there with a subaltern of the engineers. The
+three of us approached the building by different routes. Suddenly, from a
+narrow window in the tower of the structure, a rifle cracked, and I saw
+the subaltern duck behind a bush. Hunter and I each began to run toward
+the factory. Zip! A bullet whistled past my ear, and a few seconds later
+Hunter was fired at.
+
+We all reached the place together. As the firing had been from the tower,
+we hurried to the upper storeys, but the subaltern saw at a glance that
+the machinery I had noticed was a wireless plant. Afterward we found that
+the numerous "lightning rods" on the factory were in reality wireless
+antennæ. We went to the top of the tower without finding a single soul,
+but in a little room in the cupola, there were a few bread crumbs
+scattered over the floor. A corner of the linoleum covering on the floor
+of this room looked a little uneven. The subaltern posted each of us in a
+different corner with orders to fire three rapid rounds from our rifles
+into different points of the floor. He himself was to discharge his
+revolver in a like manner. At his signal we all opened fire, splintering
+the floor in several places. Then we heard a groan.
+
+"Come up here!" called the subaltern, in English. There was no answer. He
+repeated the command in German. Very slowly the linoleum in the corner of
+the room where it was uneven began to hump up. We all stood ready to fire.
+A trap door was lifting. Presently the corner of the floor covering was
+pushed back completely and a man's face appeared. It was a very white,
+drawn face, and, as the shoulders rose above the floor level, we saw that
+the man had been struck by at least one of our bullets. His left arm hung
+limp by his side. We patched him up.
+
+The officer told Hunter and myself to cut all wires, which, after some
+search, we found had been laid at the bottom of the walls and cunningly
+concealed by the grass. Then we took our prisoner back to our lines. An
+hour later our howitzers had demolished the factory. Up to this time, the
+boche artillery had been planting one shell after another on our
+positions, no matter how often we shifted. After the factory was destroyed
+we made one more move and no shells found us.
+
+We dug ourselves into the ground, and the almost continual rain made mud
+holes out of the trenches. Our force was not large enough in those days to
+allow of the elaborate system of supports and reserves that exists to-day.
+The men in the firing trenches had to stay there, and there was no going
+back into bomb-proofs for a rest. At night we lay down all in our muddy
+clothes with a waterproof sheet beneath us and our greatcoats around us.
+The sheet didn't do much good, because after lying in it for a while, it
+got pressed down into the mud and slime, which came all over the edges.
+Every one had a cold, and many of the men suffered from rheumatism, but no
+complaints were heard. It is only when things are going smoothly and
+"fags" are lacking that the British Tommy kicks.
+
+Owing to the lack of supplies, the issues of cigarettes were so few and
+far between that the dry tea that was sent up as part rations was used to
+make "fags." Tommies would roll the tea in paper in the form of cigarettes
+and smoke it. As much as five francs would be offered for one "Woodbine"
+when our supplies were exhausted. A "fag" was a most precious thing, and
+guarded jealously. A fellow would get into a corner, take a couple of
+puffs, "nip" it, then hide it away in a safe place on his person for fear
+of thieves in the night! In one instance, I watched a scene that would
+have brought forth laughter as well as pity from a civilian. One Tommy
+was observed in a corner finishing a half-inch butt, holding it by a pin
+which was stuck through it. Three others immediately pounced upon him and
+his treasure. After a short argument they formed a truce in the following
+manner: each man in rotation was to take one puff. A cockney with a Walrus
+moustache was last on the line, and with great sadness on his face and a
+sob in his voice said: "Bli' me! w'ere the 'ell do _I_ come in?"
+
+Out in front of our trenches the mud was full of the bodies of the
+dead--mostly Germans, but a few of our men. At night, we went out to bury
+them, but the enemy fired on us, so we had to leave them there. The wind
+was blowing our way, and they knew the odours of the battlefield were as
+hard for us to bear as was their artillery or rifle fire. This scheme they
+had learned from the Russians, who practised it during their war with
+Japan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+Our trenches were pretty effective against rifle fire, but we had not yet
+learned to make them deep and narrow enough in proportion to protect us
+against shrapnel, which is not of much use against troops in the
+present-day trench. Our defence lay in leaning up close against the front
+wall of the trench, which caused most of the force of the shrapnel burst
+to go over our heads. One morning I was hugging the wall of the trench as
+close as I could stick, when a "coal box" burst near by. It tore down a
+long section of trench wall, killing a number of men. I saw the explosion
+and the next thing I knew I heard some one saying:
+
+"Ah'll bet ye' Joe's snuffed it noo', puir lad."
+
+I stuck my head up out of what seemed to me to be a ton or two of rock and
+dirt and yelled: "No; not this time!"
+
+You should have seen their faces. Some looked frightened and others
+relieved. In a second they began to laugh. Two or three of them helped me
+to my feet, and then the laughing became more boisterous.
+
+"It isn't so d---- funny as you think," I said, getting a little peeved.
+
+They turned me round and one of them held up the front part of my kilt in
+such a way that I could see the whole rear of the garment had been torn
+off. Certain portions of my anatomy were as guiltless of clothes as when I
+was born. A splinter of the shell, about fourteen pounds in weight, had
+given me a close crop. Then I had to laugh too, though I was somewhat
+battered and sore, but that night it wasn't so funny. I was almost frozen
+while on sentry go, and the next day it was just as bad.
+
+As I have already told you, the transports were scarce, and we had little
+to eat, and absolutely nothing in the way of new equipment. It was all we
+could do to get ammunition. After shivering all day, I determined to have
+some clothes. Right in front of our position, about twenty-five yards from
+the trench, lay a dead member of _H_ company whose name was Jock
+Drummond. Under cover of darkness, I sneaked out, and was almost beside
+the body, when a flare rocket went up. All of No Man's Land was lit up
+like day and I had to lie among the dead as if I had been one of them. It
+almost turned my stomach, but I did not dare to move. The Germans were
+searching the muddy ground and the least motion on my part would have
+brought a dozen or so bullets my way.
+
+Presently the light from the flare bombs died away, and I wriggled closer
+to what had been Drummond. I got my arm under the shoulders of the body,
+and started to crawl back to the trench. Twice a rocket went up, and I had
+to lie still for minutes with my ghastly companion. The second time, a
+German must have seen us move. Three bullets spattered against the ground
+a few inches from me, and one struck Drummond. I suppose I was twelve or
+fifteen minutes crawling back to the trench. It seemed fifteen years--an
+interminable time. I was not yet thoroughly hardened to war, and it went
+against my whole nature; but--I had to have clothes. We took the kilt
+from Drummond's body, and I wore it for weeks. Drummond, at least, got a
+decent burial, and a letter we found in his pocket we mailed to his
+mother, to whom it was addressed; so perhaps the deed done with a selfish
+purpose bore some good fruits after all. I may add that the stench of the
+dead lingered with me for a good many days.
+
+The night after I got Drummond's kilt, the Germans attacked us. We had
+erected barbed-wire entanglements in front of our position. We had empty
+jam and bully-beef tins, also empty shell cases from field guns, strung on
+the wire in such a way that the least touch would attract attention.
+
+In this manner we were notified that the Germans were in the act of
+striking at us. Now they were coming--hundreds of them. There was a thin
+edge of humanity first, like the sheeting of water which precedes a
+breaker up a gently sloping beach. Behind it came units--more closely
+bunched, and, still farther back, was a mass of soldiery almost like a
+battalion on parade.
+
+It was murder to fire into that wall of misty grey--but the men who made
+it were bent on murdering us. I was firing as fast as I could. On my right
+was a lad of nineteen, who was one of the 3rd battalion militia of the
+Black Watch--a detachment sent to replace our losses.
+
+"Pray God they may not pass the wire," he half sobbed with every breath.
+He was afraid, but he would not run. Every man is afraid in his first
+battle. The recruit's face was drawn and white--his lips a thin, pressed
+line--but he fired calmly. He did not mind the bullets, but he had not yet
+the "spirit of the bayonet," and he dreaded that they should pass the
+wire.
+
+The first of the thin line was at the entanglement. Most of them dropped
+before they touched a wire, but others cut a single strand before a bullet
+found its berth. They died; but they had succeeded in their mission. A
+thread of life cut to sever a strand of wire!
+
+The wave had risen and was breaking over the entanglement. They were
+beginning to get through. Here and there a man lumbered up the gentle
+slope toward our trenches only to fall before he reached them. The mass
+of them was worming through the wire now.
+
+A shrill whistle blew. From our trenches came a sound like the beating of
+a hundred pneumatic hammers. It was the music of Hell. The machine guns
+and artillery were making it, and they were spitting out death in streams
+to the accompaniment of their devilish music. God was answering the prayer
+of the little lad. The Germans were dropping at the wire; they would not
+pass.
+
+The wee death engines were playing just a foot or so above the bottom of
+the wire, and they were literally cutting the legs from under the mass of
+grey-clad men. The back wash from the wave which broke against the wire
+was thinner than the wash that had preceded it.
+
+"Thank God!" gasped the boy; "I did not have to use my bayonet."
+
+"It's guid steel wasted," growled a ginger-whiskered old-timer on my left,
+as he wiped the dampness from the blade with his sleeve and dropped the
+bayonet back into its scabbard.
+
+[To-day such an attack on the British lines would invariably be followed
+by a counter attack to show the Germans that the initiative lies--always
+must lie--with the Allies; but, in those days, we had not the men. Our
+lines were often so thin that, had they been pierced at a single point, we
+would have been crumpled up like paper.]
+
+After this fight, we were relieved by an East Yorkshire regiment and told
+that we would go to billets about three miles in the rear, but we had
+scarcely left the trenches when we received orders to get to billets and
+hold ourselves in readiness to occupy a new position in the line. The
+Black Watch at that time was again brought up to strength by the addition
+of a re-enforcement of five hundred men.
+
+A party of us was sent to guard a bridge that our engineers were
+repairing, it having been blown up the previous day by big shell fire. I
+had just got off duty and was sitting before the log fire in the
+block-house with a few other fellows, when in popped a little Algerian, as
+black as the ace of spades. On recognizing that we were Scots, he held out
+his hand and said:
+
+"My name's MacPherson; what's yours?"
+
+He made himself right at home, and we shared our bully beef and biscuit
+with him. We had just been warming it. Our black "Scotsman" insisted on
+staying with us, and so we adopted him as a sort of mascot.
+
+Shortly after we took up our new position in the line, a German sniper
+began to annoy us, and continued to do so almost ceaselessly. Every time
+anything showed so much as an inch above the crest, it drew fire, and a
+number of our men were shot passing traverses. There was a wood near our
+position, and we were pretty sure the fire was coming from there although
+we could not locate it. The Algerian was a crack shot, and wanted to prove
+it, so he went to our lieutenant and said:
+
+"Me get sniper, if you like."
+
+"Go ahead," said the lieutenant, half jokingly.
+
+It seemed ridiculous to think of "MacPherson"--with his tiny body and his
+face of a black angel "getting" anybody.
+
+The little Algerian disappeared. At the end of three hours, after we had
+all given him up as lost or strayed, he returned, clutching a small
+untidy package rolled in a French newspaper.
+
+"Well, then, he didn't eat you up, did he?" some one asked.
+
+The little Algerian understood English poorly, but he generally got the
+gist of things. This time he evidently thought he had been asked whether
+he had eaten up the sniper.
+
+"Ugh!" he exclaimed; "me no _eat_ sniper, but _git_ him. Look here."
+
+Very gingerly he unrolled his sheet of newspaper and, as evidence that he
+had landed his man, exposed to view a human ear. He wanted to present the
+ear to the lieutenant, but the officer declined the honour.[1]
+
+There was much night-patrol work to do on the Aisne. Often we ran into
+German reconnaissance patrols. One night I was scouting with another man.
+Five or six hundred yards from our lines, we came upon a boche sentry. He
+was a big, heavy fellow, and I remember thinking that he looked as if the
+hard army life had not yet worked the surfeit of beer out of his system.
+He was leaning on the parapet, and appeared to be asleep. We wanted to get
+beyond, as he was on the German advance listening post, but, as a
+reconnaissance patrol must conceal from the enemy all evidence of its
+proximity, we dared not shoot him. So we crawled to one side of him, and
+my partner, who was slightly ahead, gave him a thud on the side of the
+neck, which only, as we thought, made him sleep the more soundly. He
+dropped into the trench. The next moment a head bobbed up and the dose was
+repeated with the result that the boche (whom we had mistaken for the
+first man) slid back again. We looked over to see whether the second blow
+had done its work; there were two forms instead of one. My partner took a
+helmet as a souvenir. He kept it for one day and then abandoned it as
+inconvenient to carry. He found that a souvenir the size of a boche's
+helmet could not be put between the leaves of his St. John's Gospel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Being about the only Black Watch scout left of those that had first landed
+in France, I had been almost constantly on duty during the fighting at
+the Aisne. You can imagine then how happy I was when we were relieved from
+the trenches and billeted a short distance in the rear in hay lofts,
+cottages, and stables.
+
+On our way to billets we were looking forward to a "cushy" time, a good
+rest, a decent meal, and a wash, and hoping that the next section of
+trench we took over would be much quieter. It did not seem, however, as if
+I had had much more than the proverbial "forty winks" when we were sent
+back to support the Cameron Highlanders.
+
+It was the Camerons who had just relieved us and their headquarters were
+in a quarry where ours had been. A few "coal boxes" had landed in the
+quarry, and reduced it to a mass of débris. Only one officer and bugler
+had survived. It was here that Sergeant-Major Burt, of my native town, was
+killed. He was reputed to have the "best word of command" in the British
+army. We reached the scene in time to help the Scots Guards dig out some
+of them. It was a gruesome job. Some of the men had been pinned under
+heavy rocks for hours without losing consciousness.
+
+There was, in particular, one instance of an officer [I cannot recall his
+name] whose legs were crushed and pinned down. His head had been cut by a
+shell splinter. When we tried to dig him out, he ordered us to attend
+first to a private, a few feet away, whose ribs had been smashed in and
+who was bleeding from the nose and mouth.
+
+In all, about thirty officers and men lost their lives here.
+
+We were called from this scene of carnage to defend a trench line against
+the Prussian Guards who were threatening to break through. The machine-gun
+and shrapnel fire was terrific, and for a time we were glad to squeeze
+ourselves close against the parapet. Then suddenly everything seemed
+uncomfortably quiet. Wounded were screaming and groaning all about us;
+men, who had not been struck, were muttering to themselves--driven half
+mad by the bombardment; but, the instant the roar of the guns and shell
+explosions ceased, all seemed still. The Prussians were undoubtedly
+preparing to charge us, but they must have been slow in getting started.
+We got hurried orders to get ready to go over the top and surprise them.
+
+I thought of but one thing as I ran forward; that was--"Blighty." On going
+to billets it had been my intention to write to the folks at home the next
+day after getting a rest, but our stay had been so short that to do so had
+been impossible. And now my thought was: "Perhaps I sha'n't return."
+
+The Prussians seemed surprised by our quick attack, and the offensive was
+wrested from them. We became the assaulters. How I got through the
+entanglement I cannot tell. All I know is that I left part of my kilt
+dangling amid the wires. However, before we reached their trench line, the
+Prussians had scrambled over their parapet to meet us. In the general
+mix-up I found myself locked in the arms of a bear-like Prussian Guardsman
+who evidently had lost his rifle and bayonet. His knee was at my knee--his
+chest pressed against my chest. Our faces touched.
+
+I slid my hands up along the barrel of my rifle until they were almost
+under the hilt of the bayonet. Very slowly I shoved the butt back of me
+and to the side. Lower and lower I dropped it. The keen blade was between
+us. All the Hun seemed to know about wrestling was to hug. He dared not
+let go. Had he known a few tricks of the game, I should not be writing
+this to-day.
+
+Instinctively I felt that the point of my bayonet was in line with his
+throat. With every ounce of strength in my body, I wrenched my shoulders
+upward and straightened my knees. The action broke his hold, and my
+bayonet was driven into his greasy throat. His arms relaxed; I was
+drenched with blood, but it was not my own. I staggered away from him,
+wrenching my rifle free as he fell.
+
+The thrust I had used has come to be known as the "jab point"; they are
+teaching it to the American army to-day. It developed naturally from just
+such situations as I have described.
+
+It was an awful _mêlée_. There were men swinging rifles overhead; others,
+kicking, punching, and tearing at their adversaries; while others again,
+wrestling, had fallen to the ground, struggling one to master the other.
+One Highlander, who had been struck by a bullet just before reaching the
+enemy parapet, grasped his rifle, and crawled as best he could the
+intervening distance, waiting his chance to get his man. At last it came.
+His bayonet found its mark, before the bulky Hun could ward off the
+unexpected stroke from the wounded lad. In a moment they were both lying
+prone on the earth. The Highlander, I am sure, died content--content that
+he had got his quota at least.
+
+It was the wildest confusion, but its impressions were absolutely
+photographic. I can see it all, again, this moment.
+
+The Prussians were finally obliged to retire to their reserve trenches. We
+took their firing trench, but had to vacate it because it was subject to
+an enfilading fire from the enemy. As we retreated in company squads, we
+kept up a steady fire.
+
+While making for our trenches, I shouted to one of the fellows on my left
+to keep down as we were drawing the enemy's fire. The sentence was hardly
+completed, when something hot struck me on the left jaw. It seemed as if I
+had been hit with a sledge hammer. I spun round, stumbled, and fell to
+the ground. I realized that it was a bullet and tried to swear at the
+boches, but all I could do was to spit and cough, for the blood was almost
+choking me. The bullet, entering my cheek and shattering some of my teeth
+in passing, made its exit by way of my mouth. My warning, however, had
+saved the life of the lad I had shouted to. He flopped to the ground just
+in time to avoid a sweep of machine-gun fire, and managed to crawl to our
+trench, which was a very short distance off.
+
+I was sent to the regimental dressing station. There were scores there
+more seriously wounded than I, and they were, of course, attended to
+first. By the time it was my turn, my face was so completely smeared with
+congealed blood that the orderly couldn't locate the wound. He wiped my
+face with a bunch of grass and applied a dressing. I was relieved to hear
+that it was a clean wound.
+
+In the dressing station, suffering as I was, I noticed two men forcibly
+controlling a wounded comrade. After a moment I recognized him as the
+little recruit who had prayed that the Germans might not pass the wire
+and come to bayonet fighting with us. His features were so changed that he
+seemed aged a dozen years and--believe it or not, as you will--his hair,
+which had been sleek and black, was entirely white. He had been only
+slightly wounded but the heavy bombardment had driven him entirely mad. He
+was continually crying for his mother. I afterward learned that he and his
+mother, who was blind, had lived together and had been warmly devoted to
+each other, but at the outbreak of the war, his mother felt it her duty to
+send him to fight. The boy recovered his mental faculties a month or two
+after being sent home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+After the first dressing of my wound, I was sent to our transport station,
+a short distance behind the lines, being told that in a few days I would
+be fit for duty again. There was a farm here. By the time I reached the
+farm house the pain of my wound was terrific. It was like a toothache all
+over my head and down into my neck and shoulders. Nevertheless, I threw
+myself onto a pile of straw in the barn and, after tossing about a while,
+managed to fall asleep.
+
+When I awoke it was daylight again, the entire night having passed.
+Leaning over me was a little French girl--she must have been about eight
+years old--with a pitcher of milk, which she held out toward me. In spite
+of the condition of my mouth, I managed to swallow the milk. I was almost
+starved and very weak. I tried to persuade the little girl to accept a
+franc for the milk, but she shook her head, and skipped off. Following
+her out of the barn, I met her mother to whom, also, I offered payment;
+she, too, refused it.
+
+We could hear the rumbling of big guns; shells were exploding not far
+away; then came the noise of transport wagons approaching the farm. I
+turned back toward the barn and had not gone more than ten paces when
+there was a crash overhead. Splinters and shrapnel spattered into the farm
+yard. I ducked and hastened my pace. Then there was a thud behind me, as
+if a bag of potatoes had been dropped from a lorry. Almost simultaneously
+came a scream from the little girl.
+
+I turned just in time to see the mother of the child fall, roll down out
+of the doorway in which the two were standing, and lie ominously still.
+The little girl stood gazing in terror at the fallen woman. Her little
+hands were raised shoulder high before her and she shrieked--hysterically
+and helplessly. As I hastened toward them the child seemed to realize the
+awful thing that had happened and threw herself upon her mother's body,
+pressing her face against the dying woman's. I felt the tears trickling
+down my cheek and smarting in my wound as I heard the child's heartbroken
+exclamations--terms of endearment they seemed, and pitifully eloquent
+enough, though the tongue in which they were spoken was unknown to me.
+
+A lad of ten, barefoot and in overalls, came running from the house. He
+knelt and stared into his mother's face, then he turned a dumb,
+questioning glance at me. I could not meet his eyes. As I got my arms
+under the shoulders of the fallen woman and started to drag her body into
+the house, I could hear the little fellow sobbing softly but he didn't
+speak. Hoping that it still might be of use, he helped with all his little
+strength to move his mother's body. Inside the house, we pushed the
+tumbled hair back from her face. A shrapnel bullet had entered her
+forehead. It was useless to ask if human aid could serve her. Death had
+been almost instantaneous. Then I saw a sight that spoke a volume on the
+cruelty of war and the heroism of the sturdy French blood could I but tell
+it.
+
+The little lad gathered his sister in his protecting arms and
+sat--speaking, manfully, words of comfort to her--beside the dead body of
+their mother, shells meanwhile bursting all about the home which had been
+their childhood haven of love and safety, and brick and plaster falling
+about them from its shattered roof. The children were in serious danger,
+but they steadfastly refused to leave their mother. I did not know enough
+French to reason with them, and it was not until some French muleteers
+sought shelter behind the building that I was able, through them, to
+persuade the boy and girl to go farther to the rear, with them.
+
+After this experience, like one in a dream, I made my way back to the
+trenches, heedless of the shells whizzing overhead. The sight I had seen
+haunted me.
+
+Upon reaching my trench, I was brought back to my senses by some of my
+"muckin'-in" pals, who threw all sorts of questions at me in a jesting
+fashion, such as:
+
+"Hello, Reuter, been tae Blighty an' back? Ye're a better sprinter than Ah
+thocht"; "Hoo's aw wi' th' fokes at hame? Did ye remember the fags?"
+
+It was some time before I was sufficiently myself again to be able to
+answer them in the proper strain. My head looked like a cotton-and-bandage
+demonstration, and I was a sorry looking sight altogether. I lived for the
+next few days on bully beef biscuits, softened, and oxo cubes dissolved in
+water.
+
+In a few days we were relieved by French troops, and we force-marched
+north to stem the German thrust at Calais.
+
+After some stiff marching, we entrained "somewhere." Our "camions" were
+coal trucks, which had been only partially unloaded. Some of my more
+hygienic mates who were under the impression that they did not have as
+much grime-caked mud sticking to them as the rest, suggested that our
+truck be cleaned out, but the general eagerness for a corner "doss" put
+this suggestion out of consideration at once. There was a scrambling
+match, and when our allotment got entirely in, the quartermaster was
+soundly "cussed." It seemed as if the whole regiment had been detailed to
+this car. Even in these circumstances, the whimsical philosophy of the
+private soldier asserted itself. A little chap, jammed in a corner, said
+he wanted a place by the side door, so that he could "see the scenery"!
+
+We travelled all night, and on the following morning drew up at a junction
+where a body of recruits joined us. They regarded us with staring eyes,
+and I suppose we did look like a lot of cave men, being unshaven,
+long-haired, grimy, and black as sweeps with the coal dust. We did not
+mind this half so much as the recruits. At the junction, we got a sandwich
+and a canteen of coffee which had a most exquisite flavour of rum. This
+was so pronounced that some summoned their nerve sufficiently to go back
+for a "double attack," but were met with "Napoo."
+
+Conditions have changed now, so that Tommy is able to keep himself shaved
+and personally neat, even in the mud of the trenches. It helps keep up our
+morale and shatter that of the boches. There is a distinct psychological
+effect on the enemy when clean-shaven, tidily-dressed men come up out of
+the earth and fall upon them.
+
+Very soon we commenced our journey again. How long we were on the train I
+cannot recall, but finally we reached a large town where we got off. On
+our arrival we could hear the incessant rumbling of guns, and knew we were
+going to have another hot time of it. My face was better, but my beard! I
+had not had a shave since before Mons! While on the retreat, most of us,
+in order to lighten our loads, had thrown away the little items of our
+equipment that we did not urgently need. We kept only our greatcoats and
+such articles as we required for warmth.
+
+We force-marched until early morning, when we halted for a rest, as the
+feet of many of our men were skinned and in bad shape. For myself, I was
+walking on my uppers, as the soles and heels of my shoes were completely
+worn out.
+
+We resumed the march. We understood that we were in the vicinity of Ypres.
+We force-marched for all we were worth, and late in the afternoon we came
+to a village. Here we were billeted on the side nearest us. After getting
+rations, we needed no coaxing to sleep.
+
+It was still dark when we got orders to fall in and march at top speed.
+The village was being shelled.
+
+This seemed to have been a spot for concentrating for we met with other
+regiments there--one of them the King's Royal Rifles. Beyond the far side
+of the village at a certain distance one could see trees scattered here
+and there, but farther on the country was flat. It was in this direction
+we marched.
+
+Orders were whispered along the line that we were to maintain strict
+silence and no "fags" were to be lighted, as we were near the enemy, and
+were attempting to move without his knowledge. Our officers gave us the
+encouraging news that we were about to be up against some hard
+fighting--harder than we had so far experienced. Our commander, Major J.
+T. C. Murray, expressed the hope that we would keep the name of the "Black
+Watch" where our predecessors had placed it--in the foremost rank. And so
+we advanced in darkness, with our minds on serious things.
+
+We were in two lines of skirmishing order, one pace apart. Our object was
+to reach the flat ground beyond the trees and dig ourselves in before
+dawn. We did this. The digging was an easy matter as the earth was marshy
+and our entrenching tools proved fit enough for the task. Shells were
+flying overhead continually, making an awful humming noise, and some of
+them passed so low that the air disturbances blew caps from off the heads
+of our men.
+
+There was not a murmur or a word of complaint from our wearied and worn
+ranks. We had almost completed our shallow trenches when the boche opened
+fire at us with his field guns. It was hardly dawn. We kept on digging,
+crouching in all positions to keep under cover from the bombardment.
+
+I suppose that every one under shell fire, at one time or another, in some
+manner, prays. I know that I often have done so, although not so
+ostentatiously as some of the men. I have seen them, when the shells were
+rocking the earth and splinters were whistling past our ears, drop to
+their knees and swear to their Maker that, if they were spared, when they
+returned home they would go to church regularly and be kinder to their
+wives and children.
+
+Some of our men ceased digging after reaching what they thought a safe
+depth, and crouched against the parapet for safety. Others of us started
+making what are known to-day as dug-outs. Jock Hunter and I made one to
+hold both of us. We dug away under the parapet so that we could crawl in
+with only our feet sticking out. This not only sheltered us from the
+unceasing shrapnel, but from the rain also. Some of the boys lying in the
+trenches had been killed and some wounded from the shrapnel bursting
+overhead, so the officers gave orders that we were all to make these
+dug-outs.
+
+A man from each company had been detailed for look-out duty, at which we
+all took turn of an hour each. It was noon before we heard any response
+from our artillery, but then it checked the German fire considerably.
+
+The rain came down heavily, flooding us out of our dug-outs, and we were
+obliged to stand in the trench like a lot of half-drowned rats, our
+greatcoats on and our waterproof sheets over them. At first we were
+standing on earth, but before long the muck had reached over our ankles.
+
+There was at least one virtue in the rain--it softened our bully-beef
+biscuits, which we ate standing in the trenches, wet to the skin and with
+water dripping from our greatcoats and kilts.
+
+Toward night the rain ceased. We had expected to be attacked at any minute
+that day, but for some reason or another we escaped it. We got a rum
+issue. Then volunteers were asked for, to go and fetch some hot "gunfire."
+(It was hot when the ration party got it, but quite cold when it reached
+us.)
+
+That night I was given orders to go on night reconnaissance. While I was
+away on this duty, the engineers came up and our fellows dug in again in
+advance of the old trenches. The engineers then constructed a barbed-wire
+entanglement in front of our position.
+
+Wet and cold, and covered with mud, I went off on patrol duty, and many a
+shell hole I stumbled into to make me wetter. The enemy's position was
+about seven hundred yards from ours.
+
+When moving between the lines, I noticed the outline of a big man. I don't
+know why I didn't fall down upon seeing him. My instinct told me to go
+ahead to make sure who it was. We were making straight for each other; as
+we met we almost brushed sleeves; then, with no more than a glance at each
+other, we passed on; but you may be sure that I had my jackknife in the
+proper hand. I could not say even now whether or not he was a German.
+
+I returned to our lines and, after reporting, helped to finish the
+trenches. I heard the following morning that one of our patrols had
+captured a German. I wondered if he might be the big fellow I had passed
+in the dark.
+
+We received the order to "stand to" at dawn. Other troops had dug
+themselves in some distance behind us during the night. We got another rum
+issue just before "stand to"; it was highly appreciated.
+
+At dawn, the Germans attacked in mass formation, but our rifle and
+artillery fire made big gaps as they advanced. They did not reach our
+trenches. They retired, leaving piles of dead. The nearest of their dead
+were not more than one hundred yards from us.
+
+This time we had very few casualties in our battalion--largely on account
+of our having dug in ahead of our old position, the range of which the
+enemy had. Their fire constantly over-reached us.
+
+After this attack was over, we heard the buzzing of airplanes, and
+although we had been instructed not to look up--the white of faces being
+very conspicuous from above--we ventured to do so, and saw a British plane
+smash headlong into a boche machine. Both went end over end to earth, and
+the pilots undoubtedly were killed. The Englishman, in giving his life,
+had saved perhaps hundreds of us in the trenches.
+
+In the afternoon, after a heavy bombardment, which tore up some of our
+barbed wire, the enemy made another charge. This time they came over in
+wave formation. The order was passed along to "fix bayonets," and, as soon
+as the Germans reached the barbed wire, to spring out and meet them. This
+we did.
+
+We fought off line after line. The Black Watch suffered many casualties
+here, but not so many as the Germans. This crowd had less love for the
+bayonet than their brothers at the Aisne. Soon we were chasing them out
+beyond the barbed wire. We took many prisoners. If it had not been for the
+officer's whistle to retire, I think we would have driven them to Berlin,
+the way we felt that day. However, back we had to come.
+
+The enemy's artillery fire began to pound on us as we were making for our
+trenches, and some of our fellows were bowled over as the result of it. As
+many of the wounded as we could bring, we brought back with us.
+
+One fellow was lying about fifty yards away from the trench. Two of his
+mates volunteered to go out for him, but in the attempt they were wounded
+and forced to come back without him. Two others then went out; these
+managed to bring him in--but he was dead. He was a young lad--one of the
+latest to join our battalion. His equipment was practically new. I was
+given his shoes; they were much too big for me, but nevertheless I was
+grateful for them.
+
+That night I helped to carry back more of the wounded, and, with the rest,
+assisted the engineers to fix up the barbed wire. This, coupled with the
+fighting of the day, well nigh exhausted me, but I didn't get the rest
+which I so much desired and expected, as I was detailed as one of our
+company ration party, comprising six men and a non-commissioned officer.
+
+Owing to occasional shell fire, we were obliged to crawl close to the
+ground while on our way to the supply station. When we were coming back,
+the boches used flare lights which made us visible to them. I had a box of
+biscuits on my head. It made a fine target, and when I reached our
+trenches I found that bullets had pierced it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+For a day or two after this we had comparative quiet. Only bursts of shell
+fire threatened us, but these were so common as to be hardly noticed. The
+stench of the dead was terrible--worse than we had yet experienced. Men
+turned sick and were positively useless for hours, many being sent to the
+base hospital for treatment for their violent nausea. Others developed
+rheumatic fever from sleeping in the mud and water.
+
+Shortly after this, during the night time, we were relieved by an English
+regiment, composed of men who had not yet seen the worst of the fighting.
+They were fresh and inclined to be jovial. They asked rather carelessly
+about conditions as we had found them; we told them plainly what they had
+to expect. That seemed to sober them somewhat but not greatly. So we
+extended to them the conventional wish for the "best o' luck" and left
+them to find out for themselves that they were in a campaign which could
+only be called one of present desperation and ultimate sacrifice.
+
+Upon passing through an unidentified village, we found it deserted and
+nothing but a heap of ruins. The surrounding country as far as the eye
+could see resembled the lid of a pepper box, being full of shell holes.
+Many an oath came from the fellows, in the dark, as they stumbled into the
+shell holes full of water.
+
+At last we reached our billets. Here, at least, there were signs of life.
+Troops and transports were passing us continuously, but we knew
+nevertheless that we were near the firing line, for we could hear the
+bursting of shells and see the flashes. The country was a little more
+hilly here, as far as we could see in the semi-darkness. We were more than
+glad to get into a stable or barn; it meant a chance to get dry and to
+stretch our overworked limbs.
+
+After a little while we lined up in the farm yard and got some hot
+bully-beef stew in our canteens, a two-pound loaf among eight of us, some
+jam (needless to say "apple and plum"), and a "daud" of cheese; also a
+quarter-pound tin of Golden Flake cigarettes between two, and, as a sort
+of dessert, we got the mail from Blighty! Happy? why the word doesn't
+express it! We were simply elevated a million feet in the air--tired as we
+were.
+
+We discussed and played the different football league games over and over
+again as they were described in the newspapers we had just received. We
+imagined ourselves once more among the spectators at a cup-tie match
+between the Celtic and Dundee at Ibrox Park.
+
+For a time war was entirely forgotten; but only for a time! With a sudden
+"jerk" we would be brought back to our senses and our present whereabouts
+by the voice of the orderly corporal asking whether Private McNeil, or
+Lance-Corporal Watson, or perhaps Corporal McGregor had been seen down the
+line wounded; or was he dead? It was war, all right, and not football we
+were playing at!
+
+Jock Hunter and I were still "muckin'-in" pals, sharing our rations and
+troubles alike. Very soon the party broke, each man making for his
+allotted place to rest. I can recall so vividly the feeling that came
+over me as I lay down on that straw. It was identical with that which I
+had felt after coming back from a charge that had been a touch struggle! I
+fell asleep sighing and wondering how soon it would be when my letters
+would find no claimant for them!
+
+We passed the next day writing letters, scraping the mud off our clothes,
+and at rifle inspection. More men joined us. One of the new arrivals lent
+me his razor, and I performed, what was, to me, the awful task of shaving.
+It made me feel like a new man, and they said I looked it. We were told
+that we would no doubt have a few days' rest, and then move to Dixmude or
+some town with a name like that. We were instructed not to leave our
+billets, and told that whenever we heard a boche plane overhead we should
+make for cover, or stand perfectly still with our backs to the walls of
+the farm houses, without stirring, until the machine was out of sight.
+That day we noticed a few of Fritz's sausage balloons in the direction of
+the firing line.
+
+That night our officer, Lieutenant McRae, came round fully equipped; one
+look at him was enough; we knew there was to be no more "dossing" in the
+soft straw for us.
+
+"Fall in at the double, men! We have to take over a new section of
+trenches not far from here." Such was the greeting he gave us. We got into
+"harness" all right, but how we grouched and "cussed"!
+
+After lining up on the muddy road with the remainder of the battalion, the
+usual order was issued: "All fags out; no talking!"
+
+We started off, wading through mud; with every now and then an occasional
+halt and more grouching in the ranks. With three hours of this to our
+credit, we found ourselves zigzagging round little hillocks along narrow
+muddy cart roads. We passed a concealed battery of small howitzers. Some
+of the English chaps noticed that we were "jocks" (the name the English
+give the kilties) and began cheering us up with:
+
+"Down't wish y' enny 'arm--but ye'r gowin' ta 'ave an 'ell of an 'ot tyme,
+you Jocks!"
+
+We had ploughed our way through the mud only a few hundred yards beyond
+the battery when my nostrils sensed that there must have been some
+killing going on in the vicinity. A little farther on we came to an open
+section and turned to the right just before making a small incline. I
+could see a few wrecked transport wagons and dead horses. We remained
+behind a hillock and were told that we were near the enemy. We were about
+to enter trenches which lay quite close to the German lines our officer
+told us, adding that we could have reached this point from our billets in
+half an hour, but that it was necessary for us to make the exceedingly
+long détour. Most of us knew that this was the direction in which we had
+seen the sausage balloon, which brought back the memory of the heavy
+firing.
+
+We got into the natural ditches, which served us as trenches. We did not
+relieve any troops at this place, and there were no signs of any having
+been here, but on both flanks at some distance off, there were regiments
+entrenched. The situation was not one in the least to be desired. We were
+practically on an open space.
+
+We were just in the act of starting work with our entrenching tools when
+all at once--"s-c-ch-eew!"--and the sky was alight with a flare rocket.
+There was no necessity for orders to hug the earth; we just simply flopped
+on our faces. Then it seemed as if the whole of the German artillery
+opened fire. We did not dare even to look up for quite some time. However,
+it seemed that we were not the party at which the firing had been
+concentrated; one by one our boys ventured to peep over in the direction
+of the flashes. The whizzing and groaning of the shells overhead was
+terrific, but they passed high. During the flashes, I looked over the open
+space in front of us. We were occupying a sort of high ground with slight
+mounds. To our right flank the country seemed more regular.
+
+So far none of us had been struck, and we prepared to dig in properly. We
+had hardly levelled out our parapet, when an infernal noise of machine-gun
+and rifle fire let loose on our right flank some hundreds of yards off.
+Some of our look-out sentries seemingly got a bit nervous and commenced
+firing too--at nothing. Then the whole line took it up. This racket kept
+up fully twenty minutes--and we had not seen as much as a shadow. Shortly
+after this, Major Murray, our acting Commanding Officer, came along the
+line and gave orders to strengthen our position as the Germans were
+expected to make a big charge along the whole front in the morning. I was
+then told to select a man from my company (_D_) and go out between the
+lines to secure all the information possible with regard to the distance
+of the German lines from ours. Particularly, I was instructed to locate
+the places where they could crawl up in our direction without being seen.
+
+There was no use asking for a volunteer for no sane person longed for this
+risky job, so I approached a strapping young fellow by the name of Lawson
+and accosted him with:
+
+"Lawson, coming with me?"
+
+"I'm with you," was his reply. Taking up his rifle, which had been leaning
+against the parapet, he added, as an afterthought: "But, whaur are ye
+bound fur?"
+
+"We're bound for the German lines, to get information," I answered. I
+added that he had better hand over his keepsakes to a chum--the keepsakes
+that he'd want his mother or his lass to receive--as we might not come
+back again.
+
+Dark as it was, I yet could see his chin fall and his face pale. With a
+very serious look and without another word he emptied his pockets. Very
+thoughtfully he took two packets of "Woodbine" cigarettes out of his
+haversack and handed them over to a chap sitting on the fire step with:
+"Here, Donald, ye ken what tae dae wi' these if Ah'm not back afore
+mor-r-nin'."
+
+We crawled out for about fifty yards, then, as there were little mounds in
+front of and behind us, we got up to our feet.
+
+We proceeded very cautiously, round the many little mounds, stumbling
+through shallow ditches, and crawling over the higher spots.
+
+"Y' seem tae hae th' heng o' thees," said Lawson, as he stumbled and
+crawled behind me. "Ah'll dae ma' best tae follow your lead. It's a braw
+new beesness tae me." [He was referring to my method of keeping to natural
+cover.]
+
+"I've been trained in scouting," I replied. "Just do as I do, and with
+anything like luck we'll come out all whole."
+
+Memory took me back to the days I had spent in scouting practice in India,
+under Major Bruce, the famous scoutmaster of the 2nd Battalion, Fifth
+Gurkhas--forty days, once, from Dunga-Gully up to the borders of Cashmere
+and back. Little did I think, in those days, that I'd ever find myself
+sneaking my way through the flats of Flanders, hiding from enemies in the
+air as well as on the earth.
+
+Now and again we heard a rifle shot--at times quite a distance away; then
+again, quite close. Often we'd hear the "swish" until at last, the bullet
+found its mark, with a "click."
+
+We must have been out for over two hours, before we neared the German
+position. At last we could hear an occasional mumbling of hushed voices,
+and make out the dim outline of wire entanglements. The German position
+seemed to be on a little plateau.
+
+While we were lying on our bellies, my partner could turn his face and
+look at me, but neither of us dared utter a word.
+
+Fifteen minutes seemed like a century. I was more used to it than my
+partner, but even at that I must admit that I was as nervous as a man that
+is about to have a death sentence pronounced on him. It is the feeling
+that possesses every man that patrols "No Man's Land."
+
+I motioned to Lawson, and we crawled away like worms that had been
+overlooked by a hungry crow. We reached our trenches quickly after getting
+into the broken ground; it was not until we had actually entered them that
+he opened his mouth. Then, approaching his friend, Donald, he demanded his
+fags. In a whisper, he triumphantly announced that we had been near enough
+to hear the Germans talking in their trenches.
+
+I went to our officer and reported.
+
+It was in the morning after "stand down," when our rum issue had been
+passed, that we learned what the racket had been the previous night. The
+Germans had tried a night attack on the King's Royal Rifles.
+
+The morning was cold and misty. It was easy to see that we were about six
+hundred yards from Fritz's trenches, and that his, like ours, were on
+slightly higher ground than that which lay between the lines. There was a
+farm house here and there, behind us.
+
+I could see a line of trenches on either flank but the one on the right
+was most easily perceptible. There was an open space at the end of our
+battalion line on the right flank, and our left flank was bent back
+slightly. We also learned that we had moved into this position without the
+Huns knowing that we were near. I could see the boche balloons some
+distance behind the enemy lines.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+It was still morning when it was reported by one of our look-out men, who
+had been scanning the boche lines with a pair of field glasses (only his
+head showing above the top of the trench made for observation purposes),
+that the Germans were walking about the tops of their trenches in a
+careless fashion.
+
+Naturally some of the last batch of men to join us wanted to have a pop at
+them, but our officers said no--to let sleeping dogs lie. Most of us
+peeped over and saw them. Doing so, my eye caught a large number that had
+concentrated behind a mound to our right front--directly in advance of the
+English troops that held a section of trenches on our right flank. I
+should judge that there were about a hundred of the enemy,--some holding
+up white handkerchiefs in the lead, and a mass of them a little distance
+behind. My heart was in my throat, and I wondered whether the K. R. R.'s
+were aware of their presence. I had heard stories of Germans with flags of
+truce. But so, evidently, had the commanders of the Rifles, for soon there
+was enacted before me a tragedy which I shall never forget.
+
+About one hundred of the Rifles went forward to bring in this batch of
+Germans who were advancing apparently to surrender. They advanced very
+slowly and cautiously. Just when they were within short range, the Germans
+in front, bearing white flags but no arms, threw themselves onto the
+ground, machine guns began firing over their heads and those with rifles
+began firing point blank into the ranks of the British.
+
+The K. R. R.'s were ready for them. They opened up like a fan, their
+machine guns and rifles began crashing and the Huns were thrown into
+confusion. They dropped like clay pipes in a shooting gallery. The crews
+of the boche machine guns were picked off by the riflemen, and the K. R.
+R.'s machine guns kept on pouring lead into the mass. It was dreadful! I
+saw piles of Huns, dead and wounded, the latter waving like a shock of
+hay with some one underneath it trying to get out. Their officers, in the
+rear, shot down man after man who tried to run. They drove them forward
+like bullocks to the slaughter, for many of the Germans were too confused
+to shoot and scores had thrown away their rifles. Suddenly the K. R. R.'s
+machine guns became silent. For a few seconds the rifle fire became faster
+and more furious. Then it stopped. Steel bayonets glinted as the K. R.
+R.'s charged. There was no mercy shown. There were no prisoners taken. Of
+the five thousand Germans, who had gone out to do murder in cold blood, I
+do not believe five hundred got away. They were practically annihilated.
+The bayonets finished the work that the machine guns and rifles had
+started. What would you have? Men would not spare a nest of venomous
+snakes. It was a just retribution, but my stomach turned at it. None who
+had not seen it could even picture the sight.
+
+For the next few days we had it "cushy," except for boche shrapnel
+showering our trenches at intervals, daily.
+
+The cold, however, had increased enough to cause much discomfort. It was
+always cold, and especially so when there was a fierce wind and the rain
+drenched us. It was the common thing for the men to be up to their knees
+in water and slush.
+
+We had been almost two weeks in this position when we noticed queer
+happenings in a farm house a few hundred yards behind our lines. The
+watchfulness of our officers revealed the significance of some apparently
+trifling things.
+
+In the daytime, the shade on a window facing the German line would
+frequently be moved. Sometimes it would be drawn the full length of the
+window; then, if the German artillery had been pounding away at our right
+flank, immediately it would switch in the direction of our batteries.
+Sometimes the shade would be only half way down. More than once I saw a
+woman at this same window; and sometimes she would be leading a cow about
+some distance behind our lines. At night a light would be seen now and
+again moving past the window.
+
+Agents of the British Intelligence Department, summoned to the front by
+our officers, discovered that a complete system of signalling was carried
+on between the people in the isolated farm house and the Germans. Three
+men and a woman were marched out of the house and taken away. After that,
+our concealed batteries, in new positions, hadn't a single casualty for
+days, whereas, previously, they had been almost constantly under heavy and
+accurate fire!
+
+During the few days following the "white flag" affair, when the boches'
+shelling was not quite so steady, we passed our time playing cards.
+Occasionally one of the fellows, who had split a piece of wood at one end,
+would insert a card in it and hold it over the parapet. Nine times out of
+ten a German sniper--there were many of them in the vicinity--would put a
+hole in it with a bullet.
+
+These snipers caused us a great deal of trouble, particularly when we
+wanted water, which was procurable only at a little brook on our left
+flank. To get it was such a risky proposition that there were no "detail
+parties" formed in the daytime, and any one who went in quest of it, did
+so at his own risk. Many a one who did so venture paid for his daring
+with his life. The snipers were always busy, even at night, and seemed to
+have a line on this spot.
+
+A few of the fellows, rather than risk going to the brook, filled their
+water bottles from a duck pond--full of a dirty, green, slimy
+liquid--situated behind our line. The result was sickness to most of those
+that drank it and nearly all had to be sent to hospital.
+
+Late one afternoon our section (thirteen men) was all together. Four of us
+were playing cards in an effort at distraction, for we were nearly insane
+from the lack of drinking water. For two days we had had to eat our bully
+beef and biscuits dry. We made it up that we should play a game of "phat"
+(a common card game among the Tommies), and that the one with the lowest
+count would have to take the section's water bottles and fill them at the
+brook. This--to use a Yankee expression--was a "cinch" for me, or at least
+I thought so at the beginning of the game; and so did the others, who,
+because of my record as a winner at the game were of the opinion that I
+couldn't lose.
+
+However, toward the middle of the game I became nervous. So far I had
+taken only two tricks. Things got worse as the playing progressed, and it
+wound up with me the loser.
+
+Without a word, they collected the thirteen bottles and hung them on my
+left shoulder like decorations on a Christmas tree.
+
+Silently I made off. I reached the brook without mishap.
+
+I had almost half of the bottles filled when--zip--a bullet struck very
+close to me. I tumbled into the water, pulling the bottles with me, and,
+in a lying position, continued filling them. This was not what one might
+call a comfortable or a convenient position in which to fill water
+bottles. They filled very slowly indeed.
+
+As soon as they were full, I placed them on my shoulders; rose, dripping,
+from the water; and made for our line. I had not gone more than twenty
+paces when a bullet struck close at my heels. I jumped and looked upward,
+hoping to fool the sniper into thinking he was firing too high, causing
+him to set his sight for a shorter range. The next shot fell shorter
+still. I looked up again and hastened my pace. A third shot visibly
+struck a rock and enabled the sniper to correct his range.
+
+Almost immediately after came another bullet, which I knew had got
+something about me. Instantly I flopped down and lay still. There was more
+scattered firing from the German lines and I was trembling with "nerves."
+
+At last, I could not stand it longer. I was afraid the sniper would fire
+at me again--not an uncommon practice with the boche sniper, who, when he
+drops his man, usually sends over a make-sure shot. So I sprang to my feet
+and rushed for the trenches, arriving there in safety.
+
+When I got into our section I found my pals sitting around and looking
+very gloomy. Upon seeing me they greeted me with:
+
+"Ye've been a h---- o' a time awa'. We were juist beginnin' tae think we'd
+lost our watter bottles."
+
+When I unloaded my cargo I found that two of the bottles had been pierced
+by a bullet. Each man of the section made a thirsty effort to lay hands on
+his own bottle. I was left with the two damaged ones besides my own. Then
+they told me how a shell had exploded and killed two of the card
+players--the owners of the damaged bottles. The water that was left in
+these was distributed among the others.
+
+Patrol work, mostly at night, continued to be my chief duty. On one
+occasion I lost my bearings, and presently found myself almost upon one of
+the boche listening posts.
+
+"So long as I have come thus far, I will edge in and take a chance," I
+said to myself.
+
+I knew it would be almost as dangerous to go back as to go forward, for at
+any moment a man might crane his neck above the parapet, see me moving,
+and fire. Then there was the momentary chance that a star bomb would light
+the heavens and all the earth between the lines, in which case a thousand
+rifles would begin sputtering at everything that moved or seemed to be
+alive. Each second I expected it to come. My nerves felt as if they were
+drawn taut--taut as the barbed wire which the boches string so tight that
+if it is cut in the night it will twang like the string of a violin. But
+the quick shot in the night did not come, and I wriggled forward through
+the wire.
+
+I was almost at the edge of the parapet of the listening post. I heard
+voices whispering in German. Some one was scrambling up over the parapet.
+How was I to get away? I could not, so I lay on my belly and buried my
+face in the earth--the earth which should be wholesome and life giving,
+but which stunk with unspeakable things.
+
+Three heads appeared above the parapet. Shoulders followed, and cautiously
+a patrol of three men wriggled out from the listening post and then
+separated. One of them, in getting out, slipped, and I could hear him
+"strafing" under his breath, as he vanished into the night. Another head
+thrust itself above the parapet. I was sure a pair of eyes were staring at
+me, though I could not see them in the dark.
+
+Once more I lay as if dead. "What's the difference?" I thought; in a few
+moments, probably, I would be, and then I should not mind the sight or the
+odour of what was around me.
+
+The man in the listening post reached down for something at his feet. I
+was sure that he was going to hurl a grenade in my direction. Something
+came hurtling through the air. I sunk my teeth into my lip to keep from
+crying out, and wondered how the explosion would feel--whether there was
+any anguish in being torn to bits instantaneously. The dark object plumped
+onto the ground at my side and bumped against my ribs. How long it took
+for it to explode! Then I knew it was only a stone. I continued to lie as
+still as one dead.
+
+Another stone struck my shoulders. The sentry did not wish to rouse the
+whole line and start a wastage of ammunition by causing a thousand rounds
+or so to be fired uselessly into the night, as would probably be the case
+should he discharge his rifle or throw a grenade. He crawled up over the
+parapet and wriggled toward me. I tried to prepare myself to spring up
+when the time came, but I dared not so much as move a foot to get a better
+grip on the ground. He himself did not dare to rise. He knew that his
+silhouette would draw fire from the trenches. It would be like a battle
+between snakes, both of us on the ground there, fighting each other on our
+bellies.
+
+I saw the dull gleam of his bayonet. Still I did not dare to let him know
+I was alive. He was only inches from me. I could hear his deep breathing.
+He was not sure whether or not I was a corpse, but he was going to take no
+chances. He lunged with the steel. I managed to jam the butt of my rifle
+against his head. It disconcerted him, but there was not enough force
+behind the blow, struck from my awkward position, to stun him. He rolled
+upon me. I felt for his throat. He was a big, greasy boche and my fingers
+could scarcely encircle his neck, but I squeezed and squeezed, for my life
+depended upon my eight fingers and my two thumbs. If I did not throttle
+him, he would kill me.
+
+He was getting weaker. I felt his muscles relax. I could see his eyes. I
+do not think I shall ever forget them. They bulged from their sockets and
+it seemed that they would pop from his head and strike me in the face. It
+sickened me, but it was his life or mine. He was clawing frantically but
+weakly. Now he was still. It was brutal, but war is brutal.
+
+After emptying his pockets I crawled to the edge of the dugout listening
+post. Inside were three men, two lying in the bottom of the hole, the
+third sitting with his back against the wall of the excavation. The boche
+I had just left probably had disobeyed orders in crawling out without
+awakening one of them. The error cost him his life and saved mine.
+
+For a second as I peered over the edge of the hole I had thoughts of a
+daring deed, but it was better to get back to our lines with the contents
+of the first man's pockets, which no doubt afforded information for our
+staff, and so I returned--battered and torn and exhausted.
+
+After this, in recognition of my work as a scout, I was offered the rank
+of a non-commissioned officer, but I did not wish it. They were picking
+off the non-coms too fast to suit me, and there was danger enough in the
+work I was doing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+After spending a few more days in this last, very warm position, we moved
+to billets a little way off behind our left flank, and we certainly needed
+the rest. There was no indication that these billets had been used before
+by our troops. Jock Hunter and I were assigned to a barn, and you may be
+sure I was delighted at the prospect of literally "hitting the hay" as the
+Americans say.
+
+As there were chickens running around, even over every part of the
+thatched house, Jock and I went in search of eggs, for oh! how we longed
+for a change of diet! For weeks it had been bully beef and biscuits, and
+then biscuits and bully beef. In our search, we climbed up the ladder to
+the attic, which we found to be very spacious, with heaps of straw on the
+floor here and there. The walls of the structure, I should judge, were
+about four feet thick, and there was a space that wide where the parapet
+of the wall and thatching came near together.
+
+On reaching the attic we could hear the voices of our fellows in the farm
+yard below. The noise came through the opening between the parapet and
+thatching which was supported by beams. The aperture must have been about
+a foot in height. Approaching this--with the intention of playing a trick
+on the boys by throwing a piece of stone from the top of the wall--I
+noticed, dangling over the edge, a black leather strap. Carelessly I gave
+it a sharp tug, when out came a "Colt," the handle of which I instantly
+caught. I scarcely had it in my hands when a man's head popped up and I
+found myself facing a German soldier. He started to reach to his side but
+I had him covered. I do not know whether he or I was the more greatly
+surprised.
+
+"Hands up, ye swine!" I shouted, holding him cowed with his own revolver,
+although I was entirely ignorant of its mechanism, and did not even know
+how to release the safety catch.
+
+He slid out of the recess under the thatch which he had been occupying
+and stood on the floor. With his hands up, he kept muttering:
+
+"Mercy! _Kamerad! Kamerad!_"
+
+Jock seemed stunned at this sudden and unthought of "find."
+
+I asked him to tie the boche's hands, which he did with his rifle
+pull-through, and we marched him down to the officers' quarters. The
+officers were just preparing to eat, and were astounded at the sudden
+appearance of the boche in the doorway, as we made him walk in first. We
+left the prisoner and his Colt with the officers. Then we returned to
+search the loft.
+
+In the deep recess over the wall we found a French rifle, a British rifle,
+several days' rations, ammunition, and a warm blanket--which Jock and I
+snuggled under that night. It was a sniper's post and afforded an
+excellent view of part of our lines, especially the spot at the brook
+where so many of our boys "went West" in the act of getting water, and
+where I had had a narrow escape.
+
+The next morning, after reveille, a corporal and three men who had done
+guard over the sniper got orders to take him to a given place, which was
+about three miles behind our lines. Also they were ordered to report back
+within "fifteen minutes from starting time."
+
+We were promised a few days' rest here, but the following day, toward
+nightfall, we were shelled out of the place by the boches' heavy
+artillery, the "coal boxes" landing all around the place. We had scarcely
+time to get out of it. Luckily enough, no one "clicked." We then moved to
+trenches near La Bassée. Here also was a great number of troops
+concentrating.
+
+We had heard that our native troops from India were to hold part of the
+lines near us. Also we had been told of the great work the Canadians had
+done recently around this section, and we were looked upon to do the same.
+It was now December, and the sleet and rain poured on us for the first few
+days without cessation.
+
+In the trenches here, in some parts we were knee deep in slush, and this
+had a very dispiriting effect. It, together with the continuous downpour
+of rain and sleet and Fritz's shelling--which never ceased--reduced us to
+a state of positive misery. We fared badly enough, but we wondered how the
+native troops (who were now on our left flank), used to a warm climate,
+could stand it.
+
+We got more tinned rations and in greater variety, here, than I can
+remember ever having before. There was "Maconochie"--a soup with
+directions to boil fifteen minutes before opening the tin;--which, of
+course, was merely satirical. The "Maconochie" was never warmed until it
+had reached our stomachs. However, it proved a very acceptable change from
+our "bully beef." That is, it did when it came. It didn't come often. We
+also had tins of _muckin_ (butter) which Tommy says is a very good
+quality.
+
+Another tinned product, but not a ration, reached us here. It was the
+famous jam-tin hand grenade which came into use at about that time.
+
+Preparations were now in progress for an attack of greater magnitude than
+any we had yet taken part in. With a number of other scouts, I was sent
+out to examine the terrain over which our men would advance. The party
+was discovered by German snipers, and we ran back to our lines as fast as
+we could go. A piece of a ricochet shot struck my left ankle, but only
+slightly injured it on account of my heavy spats and leather shoes, so
+that by having a tight bandage applied at once I was able to take part in
+the attack.
+
+Hitherto most of our engagements had been more or less surprise
+affairs--that is, we would get word of the enemy just about in time to be
+ready for him when the actual charge came. This time it was different. We
+had been told what time we would go over at them. We had to sit around and
+wait. Some of the men were carefully cleaning their rifles. Others ran
+their thumbs along the edges of their bayonets. Many were writing letters.
+But almost every face that I could see was pale. The greater part of them
+were nervously puffing away at fags, very often unlit.
+
+Here and there a man would glance at his watch--furtively, as if afraid it
+would be thought that he was hoping the time had not yet come. Others were
+swearing softly and grumbling because they could not charge at once.
+
+Occasionally a man would joke or tell a funny story. Those who heard him
+either looked as if they hadn't heard or laughed rather thinly. It is one
+thing to go at them with steel and rifle, but quite another to sit around
+and wait for the short blast of the whistle which sends you out to kill or
+to be killed.
+
+Our artillery was pouring shells and shrapnel upon the Huns and their guns
+were replying. The combat wagons with the ammunition and the wagons with
+the rations had to reach us through a curtain of fire. One hundred extra
+cartridges were distributed to every man, also extra tins of "bully." I
+was on my way to regimental headquarters with a message, when a shell
+squarely struck a transport wagon. It was obliterated. Men were torn into
+shreds. I saw the whole fore-quarters of a horse blown high into a tree
+and caught there in a crotch. The stretcher bearers picked up some of the
+men. Some they could not even find. I was soon back again in the firing
+trench. We had gouged out little footholds to help us over the top.
+
+At last it came--the little shrill metallic blast we had been waiting for.
+It could be heard distinctly above the roar of the artillery. The blood
+surged back into the faces of the pale men. We were fighting now. It was
+different from the waiting and thinking--the thinking of what we may be
+leaving behind us for always.
+
+I was the first man out of the trench--not that I was brave, but because I
+had already learned that it was the last man up and the last man down who
+usually are shot. I sped ahead of all the platoon; for in that lay safety.
+
+It is a fact that men in trenches will fire at the mass in rear rather
+than stop to aim at a single runner out ahead. Each man seems to feel that
+he is sure to hit someone if he fires into the mass and that another will
+pick off the leader.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were back again in our own trenches. What had happened in the charge I
+did not know. I can honestly state that my mind is a blank for the period
+of time which elapsed after I ran the first fifty yards toward the
+boches.
+
+I was sitting on the fire-step. We had taken their trenches and had been
+recalled after our troops from the rear had gone forward to prepare the
+captured position against the counter attack which would surely come.
+
+My chum, Jock Hunter, was sitting near me.
+
+"Blow 'Coffee up,'" he said to me, laughing. I thought he had lost his
+senses. I stared at him blankly.
+
+"Blow 'Coffee up,'" he repeated, pointing to my side.
+
+I glanced down at my hip. There was a battered bugle hanging from a cord
+over my shoulder. I was more bewildered than ever, but I unslung the
+instrument and we examined it. It was a bugle of the Potsdam Guards and
+there were thirteen bullet holes in it.
+
+Jock would not believe that I did not know how I came by the thing, and
+you may find it difficult, too, to accept my statement, but it is a fact.
+I do not know how I got it. The period of the charge is a slice of my life
+which is completely gone from my memory. I do not know what sights I saw
+nor what sounds I heard.
+
+On our first Sunday in this position, the German artillery became quiet
+about ten o'clock, and, about half an hour later, we heard strains of
+music from beyond the slightly risen ground on Fritz's lines. They were
+holding a Sunday service. But as soon as it was over, we were greeted with
+a couple of hundred shells from their artillery, so we came to the
+conclusion that the sermon must have been rotten.
+
+The weather conditions here were so bad that a number of our fellows were
+sent to the base hospital with frost-bite, or what is known now as "trench
+feet." They suffered excruciating pain. I saw one fellow who had to have
+his shoe cut off; the foot swelled up instantly to very great size and was
+almost entirely black.
+
+As a supposed protection against the conditions which had caused so many
+cases of "trench feet" some bureau expert over in England had a supply of
+rubber boots forwarded to us. I have seen many things which were useless
+supplied to soldiers but never anything to equal these boots. They were so
+loose and clumsy that they materially interfered with the action of
+walking and they were just of a height to be entirely submerged in the
+trench mud, leaving the wearer with an individual and separate bucketful
+of the stuff to lift with each foot. I heard many a pair wished on the
+Kaiser's feet. Big ladles with long handles also were distributed among us
+to be used in scraping out the water from the trenches, and each of us
+took our turn in acting as "chef," that is, ladling the water out behind
+the trench wall. Occasionally where a fellow, slow in throwing it over,
+would hold the ladle up a few seconds too long--ping!--a bullet would go
+through it. If we wanted to sit down the only thing we could do was to
+place our packs and equipment on the fire-step and sit on them.
+
+Our position was somewhat lower than that of the Germans, as they occupied
+a sort of ridge. For days and nights at a time we did nothing but wait,
+with an occasional raiding party or artillery encounter, with now and
+again a heavy bombardment, to break the tedium.
+
+We were sitting around in the mud one day when, all of a sudden, a heavy
+rifle and machine-gun fire swept along our trench. Then we heard a dull
+muffled roar as if some tremendous weight, padded heavily with bales of
+cotton, had fallen a great height. That is the only way I can describe the
+sound. Instantly, I wondered what had happened. I do not suppose it was a
+second later before I knew, but it seemed as if it were a full minute. The
+earth seemed to rock. There was a swashing, hissing noise. Mud, water, and
+stones poured down all around us. Muddy water cascaded into our trench.
+Clambering out of it and through a storm of bullets, we made for our
+reserve trench. Many of our men fell in the act of fleeing for shelter.
+This was the result of the Germans having dammed up their own trench which
+was filled with water, and dug tunnels in our direction as far as they
+possibly could without our being aware of it. They opened the dams just
+after commencing the firing. Their intention was to catch with the fire
+those that escaped drowning, and thus annihilate us, so that they could
+break through our lines at this point. No doubt it was a clever ruse,
+but--it did not work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+Our regiment was now shifted from the position where the Germans had tried
+to drown us out to another section near a place which we afterwards
+christened "The Glory Hole." The German lines and ours were very near to
+each other here. On the night of our arrival we could hear the Huns
+talking, and after we had settled ourselves in our trenches, we could hear
+them now and again whistling "Highland Laddie." It was evident that they
+knew who we were, as that is the tune to which we "march past."
+
+I was now initiated into the use of the hand grenades. The kind we got
+were later termed the "hair-brush." Now and again, the Germans would take
+a mad turn and lob a few of their grenades over at us, and in turn, we
+returned the compliment. This form of fighting was then in its infancy,
+and we nearly all had our own ways of doing it. I used to tie two or three
+of the bomb handles together with a rope; get hold of the end of it,
+which was knotted; and, in the same way as an American athlete throws the
+hammer, I would swing the bombs over my head and let go in the direction
+of Fritz. In this way I could accomplish a few yards more than anyone who
+threw in the ordinary way. Sandbags were piled about three feet high on
+top of the parapet with loopholes through which we fired our rifles. When
+I wanted to throw the grenades in the fashion I have just described, I
+would go to the more level ground at the back, throw them, and jump back
+into the trench where I always had ample room, as the others, with varying
+criticisms of my enterprise, gladly cleared the way before I started
+operations. They fully expected me at some time to make a mistake and land
+the grenades among them instead of in the boches' trench.
+
+As we did not have one common system of throwing these grenades, a few of
+the non-coms and men were selected to practise--a little way behind the
+lines--the proper method. Our Acting-Colonel, J. T. C. Murray, and three
+men were killed when a lance-corporal, in swinging a grenade,
+accidentally struck the ground with it, causing it to explode.
+
+At times we were treated to some lyddite shells by the boches (at least we
+believed them to be lyddite, though I have since learned that they were
+gas shells). I was never caught in the fumes myself, but I saw many men
+who had been. This particular gas simply snuffed the life out of the men
+without their even knowing what had happened. As they lost consciousness,
+they turned a yellow-brown colour, and never made any attempt to
+stir--just went to sleep and did not awaken--while those who got just a
+slight touch of it, would stagger about, as if deeply intoxicated.
+
+Volunteers were asked, one day, to go to a V-shaped sector where the
+British and the German lines were so close that grenades could be easily
+thrown from one trench to another--and they were! Thinking that it would
+be an easier job than what I had been doing, I gave in my name. I think
+nearly half of my company volunteered, but I was among the first eighteen
+to be picked. We were armed with grenades enough to do an hour's bombing.
+Two of the men were detailed to keep renewing the sandbags as they were
+torn down by the boches' constant bombing. The German grenades, set with a
+time fuse, exploded a few seconds after leaving the thrower's hand. The
+boches were evidently nervous about these grenades, for they almost
+invariably cut the time fuse too long or threw the bomb too soon after
+cutting it, so that our men frequently caught the unexploded grenades and
+hurled them back at the Germans.
+
+The first two to go "west" when our volunteer party got into action were
+the sandbag men, and at the end of that hour there were only four of us
+left to come out of that Hell, ten being killed and four badly wounded.
+After our turn, volunteers were entirely out of the question, so each
+section had to take an hour at it. The trench point where the bombing
+occurred was called the "Glory Hole," and it was well named.
+
+Upon getting back to the trench, I swore off "bombing," and decided that I
+would stick to scouting, although almost all the old scouts had been
+killed. Why I was not, is still a mystery to me. After a few days at the
+"Glory Hole" we were sent to the rear to billets.
+
+You will remember that there were thirteen bullet holes in the Potsdam
+bugle which I brought back from the charge on the German trenches near La
+Bassée. How many of them were made after the bugle came into my possession
+and was put in my pack, I do not know, but, at any rate, I believe that
+thirteen is my lucky number. This is the reason: After a short rest in
+billets, we were returned to a portion of the trench near a part we had
+occupied before. The regiment had been recruited up to full strength
+again, and I can tell you that there were very few of the original Black
+Watch left. In fact, the personnel that we now had was almost a third
+regiment. In order to reach the high broken ground to our right, where
+there was a great deal of patrolling and scouting to be done, it was
+necessary to cross an absolutely exposed strip of ground about thirty
+yards long. So many men had been killed here that we called it "crossing
+the bar" when we had to traverse this neck of land. You must remember, we
+did not have a decent air fleet in those days and infantry patrolling and
+scouting were much more important than they are to-day. From the high
+ground to the right, much information of the movements of German troops
+could be gained. Whenever they saw even a single man "crossing the bar,"
+the Huns would let loose a salvo of artillery fire.
+
+I usually waited until it was dark enough to see the flashes of their guns
+before crossing this strip, and whenever I saw the first flash I would
+sprint a few paces toward it and then flop down. The Germans had the range
+exactly. By sprinting, I stood a good chance of getting in ahead of the
+burst, and as shrapnel carried forward, the ruse worked nicely. In order
+to show a party of the new scouts the way across the bar, I was sent out
+with twelve of them, _thus making a party of thirteen_. Before we started
+I drew a rough sketch for them and told them, as exactly as I could, just
+what to do when we were fired upon. That we would be fired upon was a
+certainty.
+
+About the centre of this open strip was the dried bed of a stream between
+deeply worn banks and this afforded the only protection on the way across.
+When the light was just right, we moved out to the edge of the bar. I gave
+my men a few last instructions. It was time to go. I took one last look
+across the ground which was literally covered with shell splinters and
+deeply furrowed.
+
+"Rush!" I yelled. We went forward in a thin line.
+
+I saw the expected flash of the guns.
+
+"Straight toward them!" I shouted; and we all ran madly in the direction
+from which the shells were coming.
+
+"Down!" I roared with every bit of voice that was in me, at the same time
+flopping down flat on my face.
+
+There was a terrific crash! It seemed all around me. I could not tell
+whether it was in front or behind. I was surprised that I was not hurt. I
+heard groaning behind me. One of my men was wounded. There was not another
+sound. I thought the others must have kept on running despite my
+instructions, and were now in the little bed of the stream waiting for
+me. I dared not move. I had to lie as one dead or the guns would have
+begun crashing again and they would get me and the wounded man behind me.
+Flare rockets illumined the sky. I prayed that the man who was hurt would
+lie still. If he hadn't done so it would have been all over with both of
+us.
+
+Half an hour I lay there in the mud until the rockets were no longer going
+up and I thought it safe to move. I crept a few feet over the ground. My
+hands were upon the body of a man, but he was not groaning. Yet the
+groaning continued from nearby. I realized that one of my men had been
+killed. I crept farther in the direction of the groaning. I bumped into a
+huddled mass. It was another body.
+
+Still I groped around. I had found three now. At last I reached the man
+who was hurt. He wasn't moving, only groaning. I thought that there were
+others of the little party who needed help. In the darkness I wriggled
+here and there. I found another body. That made four. Then
+five--six--seven--and so on till I found eleven. There were only two of
+us left--the wounded man and myself!
+
+I stood up despairing and like one lost. I almost wished that I had been
+one of the eleven who had "crossed the bar" once for all. I got the
+wounded man onto my shoulder in the style which is known as "the fireman's
+carry," and started back with him, walking erect. I had forgotten the
+danger of shells. Luckily it was inky dark and I was not seen.
+
+I staggered against a part of our barbed wire entanglements. I called for
+help. Four men crawled over the parapet to meet me. They dragged the
+wounded man to the edge of the parapet. He was still groaning faintly
+though he lay as one dead. As we lifted him over the edge of the trench,
+the groaning ceased. He was dead! _I alone of the thirteen had come back
+alive!_
+
+While we were laying out the corpse, we heard the look-out sentry halting
+some one. I jumped onto the fire-step and plainly saw a figure
+straightening up on our side of the barbed wire, with his hands over his
+head, coming right forward. He dropped into our trench, of course with the
+sentry holding his bayonet pointed at him. It was plain to be seen that
+the young German was giving himself up, no doubt being sick of the
+fighting. He made a motion as if to put his hand inside his coat, but the
+man with the bayonet was taking no chances and made a lunge at him, which
+greatly frightened the lad. So he made us understand as well as he might,
+still holding his hands aloft, that he had something in his pocket he
+wanted to show us. The sergeant stepped over and took out the contents of
+the pocket. He did not have any firearms at all. Among the few things in
+his pocket was a worn plain envelope, and at this he pointed. Inside was a
+sheet of paper and on it was written in good English:
+
+"English soldiers, please be kind to my boy."
+
+The sergeant asked me to take the boy back to the officers' quarters with
+him, as I had yet to report my sad experience in "Crossing the Bar." The
+case of the boy prisoner proved an extraordinary one. An officer of the
+engineers attached to the Black Watch, who could speak German, questioned
+him. The boy had not the least idea what the fighting was about. He told
+the officer that his mother had given him the letter as she felt sure that
+the English would be kind to him. She had told him that he should give
+himself up at the first opportunity. He was her only son.
+
+We learned from him of preparations for an attack by the Germans at dawn,
+which corroborated the information our staff already had. He was treated
+very kindly. He seemed very much taken aback at the kind treatment
+accorded him, and asked if it was the custom of the English to treat
+prisoners kindly before torturing and putting them to death. Upon hearing
+this, the officer he was speaking to laughed uproariously for fully a
+minute, and the others wanted to know the joke. He told them and some
+joined in the laugh. The officer patted the boy on the back; gave him his
+letter, telling him at the same time to treasure it; and said that he
+would no doubt meet his mother again.
+
+The boy fell upon his knees and tried to kiss the officer's hand, sobbing
+like a child. But the officer nearly turned a backward somersault, getting
+away from the hand kissing, and swore as if he would eat the lad up.
+
+Sure enough, the next morning the attack came off, but we were prepared
+for it. Just at "stand to" before dawn, our artillery opened fire and kept
+pounding at them until about eight o'clock; the enemy replying very
+vigorously. They attempted to get over their parapet, but gave it up until
+about noon. They tried it again. Our artillery opened up on them, and some
+forces along our line charged the Germans.
+
+The Black Watch had supports up and were to make a charge at two o'clock
+that day, but the sleet came on with an awful wind, and this prevented it.
+Instead, the regiment in support came up and took our place in the
+trenches. We moved along some distance to the right flank. The sleet and
+rain continued, also the wind. We were cold, miserable, and grousing in
+good style because we found we had to take another part of the trench,
+instead of going, as we thought, to billets. However, we got an extra
+issue of rum.
+
+This place was pitted with big shell holes. It looked extremely weird.
+One _sigarree_ (fire box with charcoal) was issued to a company, and we
+would take our turn in getting warmed up from it. This lasted only a few
+days, for very soon the Germans sighted the smoke, which drew their shell
+fire, and so we were glad to abandon the _sigarrees_ and suffer the cold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+
+We were by no means well acquainted with our new position, and one night
+shortly after our arrival, two of the men who had been sent out to
+reconnoitre, were captured by the enemy, who let them go, however, after
+stripping them to the skin.
+
+When they returned they had big bayonet wounds in their hips, and were
+suffering greatly both from the wounds and exposure. You can imagine our
+feelings at such wanton cruelty.
+
+Previous to this for some time I hadn't been given any scouting duty and
+had been resting, but a few nights after this occurrence, shortly after
+dusk, I was sent to a listening post, which was situated to the right
+front of our open flank. The ground was very broken and the temperature
+was touching on the zero mark. Before starting out, we had just got our
+night issue of rum. A lance-corporal accompanied me, and after lots of
+manoeuvring and stumbling through shell holes half filled with slush, we
+arrived at the place where I had to listen for movements of German
+artillery, transports, troops, etc.
+
+We crawled to the edge of the bank, which overlooked a creek or canal. We
+knew the German lines were just across that short space. The
+lance-corporal said he would see that some one should be sent to relieve
+me in half an hour; then he departed. He had not gone more than a hundred
+paces, I should judge, when the German artillery let loose. It seemed as
+if a thousand hells had erupted. I was dumbfounded. I wiggled backward on
+my stomach, until I slid into a shell hole full of water and mud. I did
+not mind the cold; it helped to brace me--to realize fully the situation
+in which I was placed. The shell fire was lighting up the heavens;
+splinters, slugs, and bullets filled the air.
+
+I began saying my prayers. (I thought this would be my last listening duty
+on earth.) I crouched as low as the slush in the hole would allow me. Even
+while in this position, bullets and shrapnel embedded themselves so near
+me that, had I lifted my head, I should have been plugged instantly.
+
+The hellish bombardment seemed unceasing. I was cramped and numb. How long
+the firing lasted I do not know. At last, however, I became conscious that
+the clouds were clearing away and I discerned a pale moon. I tried to drag
+myself out of the freezing slush, but couldn't. All the power in my body
+seemed gone. The shelling had ceased and there was a dead silence. I knew
+I was freezing to death. I once even tried to place the muzzle of my rifle
+under my chin and blow my head off, but I was unable to feel for the
+rifle. My hands had lost sense of touch. My lower limbs were insensible. I
+gave up all hopes of help or of ever leaving the shell hole--alive.
+
+What seemed a long time after I had deemed myself lost I heard some one in
+the vicinity. I wasn't able to lift my head. I tried to speak. I was as
+one dead, with the exception of my brain.
+
+The next thing I knew something was being poured down my throat. Some one
+was attending to me but I was unconcerned. I wanted only to die. If I
+could but have spoken, I would have begged the men who were attending me
+to put me out of my agony. After a while, I recognized them as our men.
+They were rubbing and slapping my body for all they were worth. Now and
+again one of them put his water bottle to my mouth. At first I could not
+make out what he was trying to pour down my throat, but at last I
+recognized it as rum. I forced myself to drink it. Then they rubbed my
+abdomen and legs with some of it as briskly as they could. One of them
+exchanged his kilt for mine; then they both wrapped their greatcoats
+around me, and, between them, managed to carry me back to the trenches--to
+safety.
+
+The jolting on the way back started my blood circulating. It is beyond me
+to explain exactly the feeling. My stomach began aching as if it contained
+boiling lead; then a feeling as if a million electrically charged wires
+had commenced to burn in the lower part of my abdomen and down to my lower
+limbs. I had the desire to shout out loud; whether or not I did, to this
+day I cannot tell. I must have gone completely insane with the pain for a
+while, for later I found myself struggling with a group of men, and they
+were urging me to keep quiet. They poured lots of rum into me, and I began
+to feel much better; in fact, more like myself, except that my legs and
+feet were like lumps of lead.
+
+During this time--since my rescue from the shell hole--the Germans had
+made a charge and were repulsed. The Black Watch had taken a line of their
+trench and were holding it. Two men had been sent out to find what had
+happened to the lance-corporal and myself, as the company commander had
+been expecting our report. They found the lance-corporal, riddled with
+bullets, not far from where he had left me. When they came across me I had
+done an eight hours' stretch of duty.
+
+I stayed in the reserve trench until we went to billets, a couple of days
+after this. We were looking forward to spending Christmas in billets, but
+were disappointed.
+
+We had hardly been "cushy" three days, when we were sent to hold a
+position on the left flank of an English battalion of what we believed to
+be the Sussex Regiment. It was just two days before Christmas when we took
+up this position.
+
+It was much quieter here. Snow had fallen during the night, giving the
+ground a sort of peaceful appearance, except for a few dark patches where
+some "Jack Johnsons" or "Black Marias" had landed toward dawn. (It was
+Christmas Day.) Just after "stand down," our mail was issued. It consisted
+mostly of parcels. Our part of the trench was very fortunate. Every man
+had at least two letters and as many parcels. I received three in the same
+handwriting and a two-pound box of chocolate almonds. Parcels containing
+socks, mittens, scarfs, etc., were pounced upon by all hands, as these
+articles were very much needed at this time. Next in importance came the
+cigarettes, of which we received a goodly supply.
+
+I need hardly say that we all tasted one another's luxuries--shortbread,
+chocolates, and currant cakes (which had to be eaten mostly with a spoon
+because of the rough handling they had had)--and we exchanged confidences
+about our letters whether they were from Miss Campbell, Mrs. Low, or
+Uncle Sandy.
+
+Every Tommy, every Jock, learns to know and to love his trench mate as a
+brother. The men in the "ditches" feel as if they all belonged to the one
+mother, sharing each other's confidences, both pleasant and sad. There is
+no selfishness--not even a thought of it--"over there."
+
+We were all sitting round the fire-steps of our trenches, thinking, ever
+thinking, and wondering how many of us would live to see the same sun rise
+on another Christmas Day. The sun was red. It appeared to be
+dripping-red--with blood, when a slight commotion started up along to the
+right. I grasped my rifle and at the same time looked round the little
+traverse. I saw a few chaps with their heads over the parapet--which
+seemed unwise and extremely dangerous. I thought we had been surprised by
+the Huns, and took a glance in the direction of their trenches, which
+looked as quiet as our own. But I could see thin lines of smoke rising up
+at irregular intervals from the fires they had built. Almost at the same
+instant my eye caught sight of a figure some six hundred yards to our
+right proceeding in the direction of the boches' trenches; and, to crown
+all, he was a British Tommy!
+
+I thought the man must have gone out of his mind, and when I looked at
+where he came from, it seemed as if the whole regiment was viewing the
+daring proceedings of this solitary individual "between the lines." At
+that part the trenches were much nearer than at ours. They seemed there
+about two hundred yards apart, while ours were about five hundred yards
+distant from Fritz.
+
+I saw the solitary Tommy walk right on to within a few yards of the German
+entanglements and pause a minute; then a boche's head could be seen. At
+this, Tommy picked his way over the entanglements very cautiously.
+
+My heart was in my mouth! I could scarcely keep from shouting when he
+reached the edge of the enemy parapet and--disappeared!
+
+By this time our regiment was practically all on the fire-step,
+breathlessly watching and ready for what might happen after the
+disappearance of this "madcap."
+
+Five minutes more elapsed. Then a head bobbed up at the same spot we had
+been watching, and out of the trench came--the selfsame Tommy. He was
+carrying something in his hand. My eyes kept steady on him until he
+reached his own parapet, where he stood a moment flourishing this article;
+then, clasping it to him as if prizing it, he got down into the trench.
+While he had stood there for a moment, his fellow trench-mates threw out
+their arms to take his precious bundle from him, but as I say, he seemed
+to hold tightly on to it. When I looked back at the place he had just
+left, the Germans were waving their helmets, with heads above the parapet.
+It was Christmas all right! and we certainly got a Santa Claus surprise in
+watching these unusual proceedings.
+
+They were getting bolder on both sides at this part of the line, and a few
+men began walking on their parapets, finally coming closer and then
+meeting men from the enemy trench. Then followed a football match with
+regimental shirts tied up. To see those Tommies charging with their
+shoulders and explaining the game to the Germans, who were not so well
+acquainted with it, was a Christmas festival in itself that will never be
+forgotten by those who witnessed it.
+
+[We found out afterward that "Spud" Smith--who had just received a lovely
+"currant bun" from home and was overjoyed with it--was jumping round and
+making so much noise about it, that the fellows dared him to take it over
+to the Germans and wish them "A Merry Christmas." He at once threw off his
+equipment and made toward them, where he received his Christmas present in
+the form of a bottle of "schnapps." "Spud" Smith was the madcap of his
+regiment.]
+
+A few minutes after midnight, we were brought back to war again by the
+Germans shelling us all along the line.
+
+Everything was tolerably quiet, with the exception of an occasional
+shelling from either side, until New Year's Eve, when an infernal row got
+up and on New Year's Day we had about one hundred and thirty casualties.
+The shelling grew worse, and we discovered that the Saxons had been
+relieved by the Prussians. Twice they charged us in mass formation, and we
+were forced to retire to our second-line trenches. It was their idea and
+intention to break through our lines to get to Calais in time for the
+Kaiser's birthday. This was the beginning of their big drive. Although we
+got a severe cutting up, we managed to hold all the ground we had, despite
+their mass formation, which is a stern and dreadful thing to face.
+
+One morning, about the middle of January, the coal boxes, Jack Johnsons
+and Black Marias were just simply shaking the earth. The German airplanes
+had been very active these last few days, and it seemed they were giving
+their heavy artillery the proper range on our lines. The Jack Johnsons
+were landing to the right of our regiment and were gradually working their
+way up toward us. We could see them tearing up parts of the
+trenches--smashing up men, whose limbs were sent flying up through the
+air. The sight was really too frightful to recall.
+
+Orders were given that the Black Watch should stand to its post and that
+no man was to retire. But as the heavy shells drew nearer, smashing
+everything up, they proved too much for the recruits who had joined us
+only within the last few days, and they made for the reserve trenches. By
+this time the Germans were beginning to make their advance in waves. Word
+was passed along that our regiment should retire to its reserve trenches,
+but it came too late for a few of us,--as we were already pumping it into
+the Germans. Those who had retired were firing over our heads at the
+advancing Huns, thus making it dangerous for us to withdraw.
+
+Just as I had made up my mind that we must get back somehow, Sergeant
+Johnstone crept to my side and said; "Cassells, let's stick it out. This
+might last only a few minutes more and then it'll be all right again."
+
+"All right, Johnstone," I said; and we shook hands.
+
+Our own shells were bursting so close to our front that they were
+showering us with earth and stones.
+
+I saw the nearest Germans about a couple of hundred yards away.
+
+Then suddenly a dark curtain dropped before my eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+
+I seemed to awake from a long sleep, only to discover that instead of
+being in a trench or a billet I was in a hospital; one of the kind made of
+canvas. There were two great marquee tents, with nurses flitting about
+quietly--like angels they seemed to me, for the moment.
+
+The pain that racked my body was awful. I lay there trying to determine in
+what part of me the pain was located but it seemed to be all over me. I
+noticed that either a nurse or an orderly was constantly in attendance at
+my cot.
+
+As my comprehension of things about me became clearer, I realized that my
+neighbour was a German. His moaning, coupled with his muttering of "_Ach,
+mein Gott in Himmel!_" got on my nerves, but I decided to say nothing, as
+I had not yet learned whether it was an enemy hospital or one of our own.
+I decided that if it was the former, the quietest way to die was the
+best, if die I must. During one of the moaning spells of my neighbour, I
+seemed to lose consciousness. When I "came back," a soft voice whispered
+in my ear: "It's all right; keep still; we are only taking a plate of your
+leg."
+
+An _English_ voice!--and with such kindness in it! Our own hospital! Not a
+prisoner! I just wanted to cry out, from sheer happiness.
+
+When next I found myself in my cot, that awful pain was unnerving me, but
+the doctor, Captain Allen, assured me that I would be all right after a
+few weeks' rest in Blighty. I immediately asked when I was to go. His
+reply was: "When your temperature goes down. It has been 104 for about a
+week."
+
+I said I would like to write home, and my soft-voiced nurse thereupon
+brought me paper and envelope. I moved to extend my right hand for the
+paper, and with dismay found it in splints and bandages, with a strong
+resemblance to a huge boxing glove. Quickly I glanced at the left hand, to
+find with relief that it, at least, was whole.
+
+I had of course never learned to use my left hand for writing. Observing
+my need of assistance, the nurse sat on the edge of my bed and took pen
+and paper to write for me. I had not even to ask her to do this service.
+The tears came into my eyes at her willing, quiet helpfulness.
+
+After she had finished writing my letter, I asked her about my condition.
+She seemed reluctant to tell me, but as I urged her to do so she finally
+said:
+
+"Your leg will probably have to be amputated, as it has been completely
+turned round and the knee badly shattered. Some splinters of shell still
+remain in it."
+
+She left me--but not for long. She had gone for the plate with the
+impression of my knee. This she held up to what light could get through
+the roof of the yellow canvas, and the picture I saw quite startled me. I
+counted four little black specks around the joint, and to one piece in
+particular she called my attention. It was about the size of a one-carat
+diamond pointed at both ends and was embedded in the knee cap. This tiny
+object was giving me nearly all of my pain.
+
+The medical officer on his rounds approached us and greeted me with "You
+certainly had a miraculous escape."
+
+Later, one of my mates in the hospital, who was with my regiment, told me
+how I got mine. He had witnessed it. A Jack Johnson striking about fifteen
+yards in front of the trench I was in, exploded, caving the trench in for
+a length of about thirty yards. I, with Sergeant Johnstone, who had come
+up the previous day with reinforcements, was buried completely. Then the
+Germans charged over the trench at our fellows, who retired to their
+reserve trenches. However, the enemy was repulsed and had to retire to
+their own lines again. This fight started about 2 P.M., and it was not
+until about nine o'clock that night that our company came up and began to
+re-open the trench. It seems that one fellow was about to use his pick
+when another close by with a shovel noticed something in the form of a
+head. He stayed the hand with the pick just in time. It was a head--and
+mine at that. They completely unearthed me, and, as I looked to be dead,
+placed me to one side with a waterproof sheet over me, to be buried later.
+Luckily enough, a medical officer examined me and found there was still a
+little life left. He used artificial respiration, put my legs in splints
+made up of empty ration boxes, bandaged my damaged right hand, and sent me
+to the Rouen Hospital, unconscious, but with a spark of life still in me.
+
+Even after two weeks' stay in the hospital my condition was still very
+critical, but I had the courage and optimism peculiar to the Scot and my
+hopes for recovery endured stubbornly. The moans of my German neighbour,
+mixed with cries for "_Das Ei_," didn't allay my fever at all. No one knew
+what he wanted. Latterly one of our wounded fellows called the nurse over
+and suggested very earnestly that perhaps he had a glass eye and it needed
+some attention. The nurse at once examined his eyes, but found them all
+right.
+
+However, the next medical officer on duty understood German and acquainted
+the nurse with the fact that the patient had been calling for an egg. He
+marked on his chart that he should be given two fresh eggs every morning.
+
+This German was accorded first attention, while our own boys had to be
+content with being next in line. We could not kick, however, as the
+doctors and nurses stretched their ability to do for others to the utmost.
+After our prisoner had had his hunger appeased with the "Ei," he seemed
+content to die, for that is just what he did. From what I could learn, his
+injury had been a bad one, a large piece of shell having pierced his
+chest.
+
+I felt sure, when I saw him carried out, that my turn was next. Then I
+discovered that the number of my cot was _13_, so--recalling the many
+escapes from death I had had and how this number had been concerned in
+them, my hopes for recovery went soaring high.
+
+Now I was recovering enough to take an interest in other cases in the
+ward, and one in particular, a Royal Irish Fusilier, in the cot opposite
+me. He had forty-eight bullet wounds in his body. He had already been in
+this ward six weeks, so I knew then I wasn't the worst case there. My
+temperature had now dropped to 100, and I was informed that an orderly
+would bring my clothes and get me ready for a journey. This meant
+Blighty!
+
+A couple of the Royal Army Medical Corps men came into the tent and very
+gently laid me in a stretcher, then carried me out along narrow pathways
+bordered by neatly whitewashed stones and rows of double-linked marquee
+tents with similar neat arrangements of stones at the entrances. There
+seemed to be a city of tents on the Rouen _Champ de Course_ (race course),
+and outside of it too, as far as my eyes could see.
+
+At the end farthest from the cook-house huts, I noticed a large boiler
+arrangement with a funnel sticking up at one end and on the door some
+large print, but I could not read the lettering. I asked one of the men
+what the object was. I was informed that it was used for disinfecting
+Tommy's clothes and exterminating the cooties that they sheltered. Tommy
+gets a change to hospital clothing as soon as he enters the base hospital.
+On taking a second look at the sign, I made out "Germ-Hun Exterminator."
+So when Tommy gets his clothes out of "dock" (hospital), and grumbles at
+the R. A. M. C. orderlies when he finds his collection of souvenirs
+depleted, they promptly put the blame on the "Germ-Hun."
+
+As soon as I was placed in an ambulance, a tag was fastened to my lapel
+and I was ready for the road along with other lucky chaps. It seemed as if
+we were hardly settled when we arrived at the railway station. An
+ambulance train was waiting here for us, and before many minutes had
+elapsed we found ourselves en route for Le Havre. We arrived here the same
+night and were placed aboard the S.S. _Asturias_.
+
+When we were about mid-channel, a torpedo from a German submarine just
+cleared the bow of our ship by a few feet. Even a hospital ship is a
+target for the missiles of the enemy.
+
+We arrived next morning at Southampton without further occurrences of
+moment.
+
+Each patient was asked where he wished to be sent. It was natural that
+each should give his home district. We were placed in rows in the large
+shed on the wharf, and our destination marked on our tickets. We were now
+ready for our next part of the journey.
+
+Suddenly my attention was attracted by vigorous exclamations. From the
+patient in the stretcher next to me I heard vociferous "bly'me-ing" in a
+very strong cockney accent. I asked the disturber what he was making all
+the row about.
+
+"Bli' me," he said, "they've gawn an' gyve me a ticket to th' bloomink end
+o' Scotland!"
+
+"Is it a mistake?" I asked.
+
+"Mistyke!" said he. "Is it a mistyke? Hit's a mistyke that tykes in th'
+whole bloomink ge-hography of Britain."
+
+He communed with himself a moment in eloquent but inelegant language. Then
+he asked:
+
+"Where've they ticketed you to, myte?"
+
+I hadn't thought of looking at my ticket, but now I noted that I was
+destined for "Chelsea, London, S. W." So he outlined a scheme to which I
+readily agreed. We exchanged tickets.
+
+I adopted his name "Bill Mortimer" of the Rifle Brigade and soon I was
+making for "th' bloomink end o' Scotland," while he was en route for
+Chelsea under his assumed name.
+
+When I arrived in an Aberdeen Hospital, they were a good few days trying
+to account for me, as my papers had naturally gone to Chelsea. Ultimately
+they came to the conclusion that there must have been an error at
+Southampton; and sure enough, my record was finally located at the London
+hospital.
+
+It was one of the best errors that could have happened, for very soon I
+found myself in the "Craigleith Military Hospital" within commuting
+distance of my relatives and friends. I never heard any more of my friend
+"Bill Mortimer," but I have no doubt the "error" proved a good one to him
+also.
+
+Two medical officers looked me over very carefully the first day. The next
+day they came back accompanied by the chief medical officer, Colonel
+Cottrill. After the latter examined me carefully he said that "an
+immediate amputation would be the wisest plan." He asked me whether other
+examining physicians had told me the same thing.
+
+I said: "Yes; but I think it will be all right. See, I can wiggle my
+toes." And I pointed out that this was a sure sign of hope for a recovery
+without amputation.
+
+Then commenced a daily routine of bandaging which stretched into months;
+every conceivable treatment for my betterment was given me; a
+plaster-of-Paris cast was put on my knee, and after it was on a week or
+two, the effect was simply wonderful.
+
+By this time, my hand could be used a little, but I found myself minus a
+finger and with two others broken. They, however, healed to normal.
+
+Every week, during our long stay in the hospital, entertainments were
+given for us by professional actors and actresses. Visitors were permitted
+to call Wednesdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 P.M.; on other days from 1 to 3
+P.M. I cannot describe the generosity and kindness of the people of
+Edinburgh.
+
+Every day came armfuls of flowers--the most soothing offering a
+convalescent Tommy can receive, outside of the occasional kiss some dear
+wee lass would imprint on his cheek. Both are wonderful in their ability
+to cheer a lonesome Tommy, who, perhaps, finds himself far from his home
+folk! Every day the ladies and young girls of the town came to sit by our
+cots and read to us or write our letters. It was an enormous hospital,
+having often as many as 1100 patients and every man in it, even those who
+were strangers in Scotland, had daily visitors in plenty. English and
+Welsh soldiers, too far from home to receive the attention of their own
+people, were given even more favours than the Scots. Every day, a flock of
+big motor cars drew up and carried away those who were far enough toward
+recovery for a ride. We had many delightful hours rolling swiftly through
+the picturesque city of Edinburgh, along the banks of the Forth and up
+through the beautiful Pentland Hills.
+
+Our lockers were well filled, and we never wanted for such dainties as
+chocolates and fancy biscuits, and we had magazines, and--above
+all--cigarettes.
+
+A party of our lady visitors brought us wool and volunteered to teach us
+the art of knitting to while away our idle time. Most of the boys took
+kindly enough to it, but I wanted to learn embroidery. It caused no end of
+merriment that a man should want to sew. However, I persuaded them to try
+me, and one of them offered to do so.
+
+In India I had done quite a little at sketching, and my teacher found me
+an apt pupil in this allied art. Very soon I had mastered the art of
+making long and short stitches, French knots, border and buttonhole
+stitches, etc. I was so highly commended that I received many requests
+from these ladies for cushion covers, doilies, etc. They brought the
+materials and I plied the needle. It was such enticing work that very soon
+two other fellows "joined in."
+
+We had many other ways of passing the time. Visitors would ask us to write
+or sketch something in their autograph books, which we did with much
+pleasure, and I can tell you that some very, very funny local sketches and
+poetry--composed on the spur of the moment, with fellow mates, nurses, and
+doctors as the subjects--were carried away from that hospital. They were
+highly prized by the recipients. We had also a monthly _Gazette_ recording
+the events of the daily life of the hospital in a breezy and interesting
+way.
+
+I saw many a bad case brought in, get well, and sent home, but still I
+remained, and so Corporal Charles Palmer, who had been there the longest,
+promoted himself to be "Commander-in-Chief" and took me as second in
+command, I being next to him in length of time there. One of his legs had
+been blown off six inches above the knee and the pain he suffered at times
+was excruciating. Another lad, a German, sixteen years of age, had had
+both legs blown off below the knees by one of the Germans' own shells just
+as he was about to give himself up to the British. He spoke very good
+English and was surprisingly cheery. The fair sex found him very
+attractive and he always got an ample share of the dainties they brought.
+
+I was still in the hospital when the awful "Gretna Green" disaster
+happened. Perhaps you remember it. A regiment of the Royal Scots was on
+its way to the front. Their train collided with another at Gretna Green
+near the Carlisle Junction, resulting in the loss of more than one hundred
+lives. Some of those that required medical attention were sent to
+Craigleith, and among the few that found themselves in our ward was a
+very broad-spoken Scot. He was on seven days' leave, but being "full of
+happiness," somehow or another got mixed in at Edinburgh station with the
+lads of the wreck. He spied an empty cot which he immediately made for and
+fell asleep upon it. Soon afterward, Colonel Sir Joseph Farrer, Commandant
+of the hospital, came along to see the Gretna lads. When he came to this
+cot he slowly uncovered the face of the presumed patient and asked: "How
+are you?" The Scot, so rudely aroused, sat up, exclaiming: "Fine, mon;
+hoo's yersel'?" The colonel was nonplussed for the moment, but hastily
+recovered himself however, and shook the extended hand of the erstwhile
+patient, much to the amusement of the rest of us.
+
+Among the "padres" to visit the hospital was a Major Chaplain of the
+Church of England. He seemed particularly interested in our ward (G ward)
+and made as many as three visits a week.
+
+Thursdays, after tea, was prayer meeting for us, as well as for a few of
+the other wards. Of course, it was impossible for all the wards to have
+the meeting on the same evening, owing to the large number of them and the
+scarcity of clergymen, so many of whom were with the boys in France. On
+one Thursday evening in particular, the Church of England chaplain I have
+just mentioned was about to commence the service when the absence of the
+organ (which was a little portable one, such as is used by the Salvation
+Army) was discovered.
+
+A couple of men who could walk volunteered to go in search of the organ,
+but they couldn't find it. Then Sister Brian, a most accommodating nurse,
+whose Cockney accent was an unmistakable mark of her early upbringing,
+went out to locate the missing organ. After a few minutes she returned and
+startled the ward by announcing, from the doorway: "You men 'ad hall
+better go to 'Hell' (meaning _L_ ward). Th' horgan's in 'Hell,' an' th'
+services habout to begin."
+
+There was a general roar of laughter and the reverend gentleman
+strenuously refused the invitation.
+
+When the patients were well on the road to recovery, they would be sent to
+one of the many mansions opened by the owners as homes for convalescents.
+Here they would remain for a few weeks, perhaps a month, before being sent
+to their homes. This stay will be among the pleasantest memories of those
+who experienced it. The beautifully-laid-out and spacious grounds and the
+auto rides! How it all helped to hasten recovery!
+
+I cannot conclude without trying to express the praise which most
+certainly belongs to the medical officers of "Craigleith." At the outbreak
+of the war, Colonel Cottrill had been retired ten years, but he was found
+ready when the first note of the nation's rally sounded, and there he
+remained when I left, serving his king and country in relieving, by his
+expert skill, the sufferings of those who come under his care. He was over
+seventy years of age, but he most truly was seventy years young.
+
+Of the nurses and sisters I could not say enough. Sister Lauder, for
+instance; I have seen her do thirty-six hours' duty at one stretch,
+without the slightest rest, at a time when streams of wounded were pouring
+in day and night. Once she collapsed in the middle of the ward. Such
+devotion, such wonderful spirit these women exhibited!
+
+I was discharged on August 5th, 1915, being "no longer physically fit for
+war service." (Para. 392, XVI, K.R.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+
+On a day in February, 1916--a week prior to the sailing of the S.S.
+_Tuscania_, on which I had taken passage to the United States--I had left
+the office of the Anchor Line and was proceeding up the High Street, of
+Cowdenbeath (across the river from Edinburgh), bent on an errand
+pertaining to the preparations for my departure, when I noticed across the
+way something familiar in the appearance of a tall man in khaki. Twice or
+thrice I gazed at him, with a sense of dim recollection, and then I went
+walking--or, rather, limping--on my way. There were uniforms everywhere
+and one, even though it seemed in some way distinctive, could not hold my
+attention. I started to cross the street but when I was in the car track,
+in the middle, a sound arrested me.
+
+"Reuter! Reuter!" called a voice which was strangely familiar.
+
+Who, thought I, is this, calling me by my nickname? I turned and saw the
+tall soldier whom I had noticed, limping toward me at the best gait his
+lameness permitted. I perceived that he wore a Black Watch forage cap. As
+I stood, awaiting his approach, I suddenly recognized him as my chum, Ned
+MacD----; the same Ned whom I had left in a hollow, in a wood, in France,
+grievously wounded, and who had mysteriously disappeared when I found
+opportunity to return in search of him.
+
+I had long believed him dead, for his name had appeared in our casualty
+lists among those of the killed. I was so overcome at seeing him that I
+stood as one struck dumb. In a moment, however, we were clasped in each
+other's arms like a couple of bairns, the tears trickling down our faces.
+
+There we stood, speaking to each other as Scots will, in excitement, in
+the broad Scotch of our childhood days, until a sharp clang awakened us.
+It was from a tramcar bell. We were standing in the middle of the single
+line, and completely blocking traffic. Linking our arms together we made
+for the pavement.
+
+"I'm mighty glad I met ye, Joe," was his first comment. "I've been trying
+to find out your whereabouts. To think that Fate should have been kind
+enough to put you in my way, like that; man, it's just grand!"
+
+I told him of my mission in Cowdenbeath.
+
+"Weel, I'm glad I've caught ye in time, ye bounder, cause I dinna think I
+could have followed ye to the States to make a visit on ye," he said.
+
+By this time I had fully recovered myself and scrutinized him carefully.
+"You've got the same smile, Ned, but my how you've grown! You look at
+least two inches taller than when I saw you last."
+
+"And that I might," he replied; "come on and I'll tell ye all about it."
+
+So we limped into Cook's tea rooms, secured a table in a quiet corner, and
+he told me his story. He spoke in a halting manner, for it brought back
+many of his sufferings, but to me it is so striking that I felt, in
+finishing the tale of my war experience, you would like to know about a
+war romance--for romance it surely was--with as happy an ending as any
+novelist might conceive. I will tell to you, as nearly as possible in his
+own words, the remarkable story he unfolded to me.
+
+"Do ye mind when ye left me in the nook after bandaging my wounds?" he
+asked. "Weel, I lay there thinking and wondering. Ye ken, Reuter, what I
+was wondering about--about ye're coming back; or maybe someone else might
+find me and take me back to the lines. But no help came. Then I got to
+thinking of the lass, and I managed to take her letters, as well as a few
+fags, from my haversack. I smoked the fags one after the other, and read
+her dear kind words over and over again. My mind kept dwelling on what was
+to have been our marriage day. Reuter, remember I told ye about it. It was
+to have been on the 7th of August, and then on account of the war, we put
+it off until after I should come back.
+
+"And now, I thought to myself, maybe I'll never get back. All sorts of
+possibilities passed through my mind, and between this and the awful pain
+that throbbed all over me, I felt like as if I'd go mad.
+
+"It began to get dark and my patience got exhausted. Then the idea came
+into my head that I could maybe drag myself along with my hands a wee bit
+nearer our lines. I thought of your promise, Reuter, but I couldn't stay.
+A few of the lads around me pegged out one after the other, and it made me
+feel fair frenzied.
+
+"Do ye remember Stanley Stenning, an English fellow of C company? Weel, he
+crawled out a wee while before me. I've heard since that he was home, but
+minus a leg, but I haven't heard so far of any of the other wounded
+fellows that were in the nook with me.
+
+"Weel, to get back to my own experience. It was awful--the pain--it racked
+me through and through, as I tried to move ahead by the aid of my hands. I
+would take a grip on anything I could get hold of and drag myself on a wee
+bit at a time. I had managed to do about a hundred yards, when I seemed to
+sense that I had taken the wrong direction, and oh! how weak I was about
+that time--it's past telling. I just simply had to lie there--I couldn't
+drag myself another inch.
+
+"I remember seeing a few bushes about fifteen yards ahead--it seemed so
+far!--and at first I wished I could manage to get to them, thinking I
+might get out of the way of the enemy, should any of them come along. But
+after a few minutes I decided it was perhaps as well that I was exhausted,
+because if I got there and should lose consciousness, ye might not find
+me, and that it was just as weel I was in the open. So I tried to content
+myself, but it was maddening.
+
+"In dragging myself to this spot I passed here and there one of our
+lads--then again I would make out one of the Camerons--and Reuter, they
+were so--still! But I crawled on, and as the vision of the lass came to
+me, I felt braver, and made up my mind to hold out as long as I possibly
+could.
+
+"By this time it was night--the time seemed to drag so! Then I remember
+hearing the sound of some one moving about, and I was just in the act of
+calling for help when the thought flashed through my brain that maybe they
+were Germans; so I kept still. The sound soon died away. My! how often,
+since then, I've wished I _had_ called out.
+
+"I lay there wishing and hoping that I might be found before morning, but
+the hours dragged on. I was growing fainter and fainter, and more
+feverish.
+
+"At last, I dimly distinguished the presence of a party. Then I saw them
+turn over some of the dead Highlanders as they came across them, give each
+a kick, and pass on. By this time I could see they were
+stretcher-bearers--and Prussians, at that. I was already on my back and
+therefore hoped they would pass me--praying all the time that they would,
+I kept staring up at the stars. The Huns _were_ passing, but it was over
+my body. The carrier at the front of the empty stretcher stepped over me,
+but the man in the rear stepped directly on one of my wounded legs. The
+pain caused me to groan out. At this they halted and spoke, gruffly, in
+German.
+
+"They took the contents out of my pockets and haversack, opened the
+stretcher, laid it alongside of me, rolled me very roughly onto it, and
+picked it up. Every once in a while during the journey to the dressing
+station which was quite some distance over broken ground, they would stop
+and drop the stretcher on the ground, which caused me to groan more and
+more. There were hundreds of wounded Germans at the station.
+
+"Here I was rolled out of the stretcher. I could feel that the pleats of
+my kilt were soaked with blood. Presently a little insignificant-looking
+German with spectacles on looked at me, and asked in English: 'What is the
+nature of your wounds?'
+
+"I told him. He looked at them very hastily, then said: 'You are lucky.
+They should have been eight inches farther up.' With a grunt he went to
+attend to the Prussian patients.
+
+"With that, the Hun lying next to me--he had been wounded through the arm
+and foot--noticed me and commenced spitting on me and cursing in German. I
+made no protest. I was too utterly weak and exhausted.
+
+"At last ambulances drew up near by, and the wounded Germans, after having
+their wounds dressed, were placed in them. My turn came to be carried onto
+the ambulance, without, however, any attention having been given to my
+wounds. After a great deal of jolting about, our ambulance drew up near a
+railway siding, and the German patients were served with some hot coffee,
+then we were all put on board a train. By this time it was daylight.
+Almost as soon as I was put on the train it began to move off.
+
+"Shortly afterward, a tall, lean German doctor came over and looked at me,
+then renewed my dressing, which was the first since yours, Reuter. He
+asked me in broken English if I had had anything to eat. When I answered
+in the negative, he walked away and looked over the other patients and
+talked to them. After quite some time, a German orderly came to me with
+some hot milk and a sandwich of black bread and very bad-smelling cheese.
+I was given the same treatment as the others while on the train. The
+doctor told me there were more English wounded on the train, but that was
+all he said. I cannot say how long I was on the train, but at last, after
+a lot of shunting, it halted, and all the German wounded were taken off.
+
+"An armed guard of two men came in and took their posts beside me. I was
+given coffee and more black bread and cheese. I was transferred into a
+sort of truck, the guard being with me. They cut a few buttons off my
+jacket as souvenirs.
+
+"After another considerable journey, I was put into a motor ambulance,
+which brought me to my destination. It was dark when I reached this place
+and I could not see my surroundings. I was carried into a hut-like
+arrangement, where I found others, German and British soldiers, and some
+French also.
+
+"I was only a few minutes in this 'hut' when a big fat, over-fed,
+severe-looking German officer came in and growled out something in a rough
+voice. A nurse rushed up to his side. He growled out something else, and
+she immediately went out. In less time than it takes to tell, she came
+back with what no doubt he had been growling for. It was a sheet of paper
+and he commenced reading from it. It was to the effect that the English
+prisoners would not be allowed to disobey any of the officers, soldiers,
+orderlies or nurses--that if they should do so they would be instantly put
+to death. If they wished to make complaints they were to do so through
+the orderlies. However, if the complaint should not be a proper and
+truthful one, the prisoner making it would be liable to be put to death.
+He also strongly emphasized the fact that if any prisoner was caught
+attempting to smuggle or write letters, the sentence of death would
+instantly be imposed on him. At this point he went away.[2]
+
+"My heart sank. I got so homesick and much weaker; my hopes gave out
+entirely. I had been thinking that, on reaching my destination, I would be
+allowed to write home; and now----?
+
+"I must have lost consciousness, for it was day time when I awoke, to find
+two doctors examining my legs, with a number of young students standing
+around me. One of the doctors, an old man, who spoke excellent English,
+said that both my thighs were badly fractured and that it would be
+necessary to operate on me the next morning. Then he commenced explaining
+to the young doctors. After the explanation was over, they all walked
+away.
+
+"The next morning I was taken to the operating theatre, which had a
+gallery all 'round packed with young German students. On the floor there
+were only a nurse, the old doctor who had spoken to me the previous day,
+and a few attendants. I was lying on a sort of high-wheel stretcher. The
+young students were laughing and jeering, when suddenly the old doctor
+turned on them furiously, using some hot German language, and instantly
+there was quietness. Then a cap was put under my nose.
+
+"When I came out of the chloroform there was a cage arrangement over my
+legs and I had no pillow for my head. At the moment I thought it was a
+very mean trick to do me out of it, but after some experience in the
+hospital I learned that it was to prevent me from getting sick upon
+recovering from the effects of the anaesthetic.
+
+"There were about eighteen patients and two nurses in the hut where I was.
+The nurses took turns of night duty week about. The day nurse during my
+first week there was a very severe and sour-faced creature. She could
+speak a little English, and I'm sure she did not speak to me more than
+twenty times, and not once kindly. The night nurse was a woman about forty
+years of age. She could speak only a very little English, but she was
+pleasant and good-natured. She took more care of me than any of them and
+would bring me a glass of milk now and again when the guards were not
+looking. She also informed me that this was the place that students came
+to, for practising and experimenting on the wounded prisoners, and added
+that I would have a lot more operations--which I had.
+
+"Conditions became worse as months dragged on. It was now summer of 1915,
+and still my legs were not allowed to set. One operation followed another.
+I saw an iron plate with rusty screw nails an inch long, that had been
+used to patch up my thigh bones. I suffered much physically--but worse
+than that was the mental suffering I experienced, worrying about my folks
+at home.
+
+"Every other day, young sarcastic doctors would come in, take the splints
+off, and commence squeezing and turning my broken legs in a painful
+fashion. Some would shout: 'English swine, why don't you cry out?' but I
+don't remember doing so when any of them were near me.
+
+"The food got worse and worse toward winter. I got three meals a day.
+Breakfast consisted of weak coffee and a slice of black bread with some
+kind of lard spread on it. Dinner was herring bone or potato-peel soup, or
+ham-bone soup with a slice of heavy potato bread. Supper was a repetition
+of breakfast except that very often the lard was absent.
+
+"There were two German patients who got the best of attention. I learned
+though, that they were wounded in the act of deserting, and were to be
+court-martialed upon recovery. After they were able to sit up they would
+get a large jug of beer with their midday meal and this was a keen torture
+to me.
+
+"I became determined to find some way of communicating with my sweetheart
+and friends at home, to let them know I was still alive. The night nurse
+told me she expected to go near the firing line for duty, so I asked her
+if she could try to smuggle out a letter for me so that it would reach my
+friends. At first, she very positively refused, saying that should the
+effort be found out, she would be instantly shot, but after I explained my
+case to her and pleaded with her she brought me a pencil and note paper
+and watched a chance when all was quiet. She put a screen round me and
+whispered in my ear to praise the commandant, and the doctors, and write
+in the brightest manner of everyone there. Thus, she said, the censor
+might allow the letter to go through.
+
+"While she watched the guards, I scribbled, doing all she told me to. I
+described the place and commandant something in the following manner:
+
+     This is a most beautiful place. I think it's the prettiest hospital
+     in the great German Empire. It is even more elaborate than the
+     wonderful Peterhead sanatorium at home, and the commandant is the
+     nicest old gentleman. The staff, here, is also superior. We get the
+     best of food and plenty of it and all kinds of recreation. Even
+     visitors bring English magazines and treat me like a relative.
+
+"After finishing it, I gave it to the nurse to read. I had written all the
+sheet could contain. She looked it over and seemed very pleased with it
+and said that it would pass the censor all right. She sealed it, then
+affixed a stamp, and hid it away in her dress, promising to post it next
+morning.
+
+"I thought it was rather neat, my working in the Peterhead prison in
+Aberdeenshire, as a sanatorium.
+
+"After the nurse's departure, I slept peacefully and with an easy mind, as
+if a great burden had been lifted from it.
+
+"When the usual batch of sarcastic young German students came next morning
+and started in jeering at me, I smiled. One of them instantly leaped
+forward and gave me a stinging blow on the face with his open palm. I
+managed to contain myself--but how I did it, I don't know.
+
+"That same evening, the commandant came in raging. He nearly ate me up,
+while in the act of producing the letter I had written the previous night.
+I longed so for the ground to open and swallow me up. He said the penalty
+for the offence was death. At first I denied that I knew anything about
+the letter, but he shouted: 'Do you not remember giving the same address
+upon coming here?'
+
+"I did, only too well.
+
+"After blazing out on me, he left, cursing in German. I made up my mind
+that I was doomed, but decided to lie as long as I could on my cot, as I
+felt that I would no doubt be shot as soon as I was able to get out of
+bed. That night a big masculine-looking nurse came on duty, and she was a
+perfect virago.
+
+"I learned with deep regret that the kind nurse was moved--perhaps shot. I
+watched my chance, and at night, when no one had eyes on me, I twisted in
+such a fashion that my thigh bones could not possibly get a chance to knit
+together. The agony I suffered was fearful, but I did not care. In the
+morning my temperature would go up and further operations would follow. I
+continued doing this for a week or so but at last I could not stand it. I
+just had to lie still.
+
+"In December I began to get up for a few hours daily. It was torture to me
+when I tried to move around. I was so very weak and all the-muscle and
+flesh had left my body. I was reduced to almost skin and bone.
+
+"I was not even given a stick to support me. I limped about for a few
+weeks, then received my uniform and was moved to the prisoners' enclosure,
+where there were one thousand British prisoners. Like myself, none of
+these fellows was allowed to write home, and I don't suppose they will
+be--until they are set free. We were crowded into tents. The food was
+terrible; I have seen pigs get better. But we ate it just the same.
+
+"The next morning after breakfast, we were all marched out to make roads,
+chop wood, and do all kinds of convict work. Some of the men had a leg
+off, others had an arm off as well as being otherwise crippled; but they
+all had to work.
+
+"I wasn't able to keep up with the rest while marching out to the place
+where I was to work and one of the German guards started poking the butt
+of his rifle into my ribs. This was his way of making me keep up with the
+rest of them. I tried hard and finally managed to reach the spot where our
+men were working. I was given wood to saw.
+
+"I managed to stick to it about half an hour, then I fainted. When I came
+to myself again a big dirty Prussian was kicking me and telling me to get
+on with my work. But I couldn't. Upon seeing this, a man from our squad
+was ordered to wheel me back to camp in a barrow with a German walking
+alongside with his rifle slung over his shoulder, smoking a long pipe and
+jeering all the way. I was at once classed as 'worthless.'
+
+"Our officers had to work like the other men, but the special job given
+them was road-sweeping. I was given some dirty work to do around the
+prison camp for a few days, until at last I had to be put in the hospital
+again on account of weakness. One of my legs was shorter than the other,
+owing to the manner in which they had practised on me.
+
+"This time I was in the hospital only about two weeks. Then I got my
+clothes, and the commandant came in and informed me that he got orders to
+supply six worthless English prisoners from the camp for exchange. 'You
+are the first on the list,' he said. 'You are no good to anybody. You
+cannot even work for the food you get.'
+
+"I could hardly realize my good fortune. I wept with joy. To think of
+being sent home as an exchanged prisoner!
+
+"I 'fell in' along with five more fellows, one was stone blind; his face
+was an awful sight--all dark blue as if it had been tattooed. The other
+four had body injuries. We were placed in a motor truck which conveyed us
+to a railway station, then we were packed in trucks with a few sentries
+over us.
+
+"One of the sentries, out of pity, gave one of our men a cigarette. The
+poor fellow had just lighted it off the stump the sentry was about to
+throw away, when a German officer rushed forward and knocked it out of his
+mouth with his glove, and had him taken away at once. The sentry who had
+given him the fag was ordered to take off his equipment, and two of the
+German guards marched the British prisoner and German sentry away.
+
+"Two nights later we landed at a port and were marched on to a steamer. I
+think it was a Dutch boat, as I did not see any Germans on board until we
+were out at sea, when we were gathered together, and a German staff
+officer of the navy gave us a lecture. He finished up by saying that we
+were not free of the German Government until we landed in England, and
+should any of us disobey while on board, we would at once be sent back to
+Germany. You may depend upon it that we obeyed.
+
+"After we boarded the boat we were given some Capstan Navy-Cut
+Cigarettes--and got a good meal, the first since I had been taken
+prisoner. I was so overjoyed that I sat in a corner and did not utter a
+word until I landed on British soil, then I prayed silently and thanked
+God for bringing me back to a civilized country. I think there were over
+six hundred exchanged British prisoners on the same boat.
+
+"When we landed in England, we were taken to a hospital, and those of us
+who were able to travel were asked if we wanted to go straight home for a
+few days, and report for medical treatment in our own districts. I think
+all those who weren't able to do much more than crawl said they preferred
+to go straight home. Next morning at 8 o'clock I was given two sovereigns
+and a furlough, pending discharge.
+
+"After receiving the money, I boarded the first train for Auchterarder,
+where 'the lass' lived. She had opened a millinery business in my absence.
+The train left at 10 A.M., and I arrived at Auchterarder depot at 8.15
+P.M. It was about a mile from the station to Jeanie's house. I wanted to
+get there as soon as I could, and walking was out of the question. So I
+managed to coax a teamster to go a little bit out of his way and let me
+off near her home. I wanted to surprise her, so went on upstairs in her
+house quietly.
+
+"As I climbed up I could hear the sound of much merriment coming from the
+upper rooms. The first thought that struck me was that perhaps she had
+been already notified and was preparing a surprise for me. Yet it seemed
+strange, as I had sent no word ahead of me--not even a telegram.
+
+"I felt real nervous upon reaching the door, and wondered what I should
+say on entering it. At last I summoned up courage and opened the door. I
+stood still. The sight that met me dazed me. I couldn't believe my own
+eyes.
+
+"In the room there were many young ladies--most of them dressed in white.
+I recognized some of their faces. Jeanie was standing in the centre,
+dressed as a bride with a bouquet clasped in her arm.
+
+"I was beginning to think that it surely was a most heavenly surprise. But
+they caught sight of me and it seemed as if they all made for the farthest
+corners of the room. They looked at me in what seemed to be terror.
+
+"Jeanie stared at me for a moment. She was very pale. I wondered why she
+didn't rush forward and greet me--as I felt she ought--with outstretched
+arms. At that I started to make for her side. She gasped out 'Ned'--and
+sank to the floor in a faint.
+
+"While I was leaning over her, there was a commotion at the door. I looked
+around and saw the clergyman enter, with one of my old-time chums dressed
+as a bridegroom. Upon recognizing me the bridegroom looked bewildered, but
+the next moment he had recovered himself. He approached me and shook
+hands, telling me, with an odd and embarrassed manner that my arrival was
+timely. He added: 'If you had been delayed half an hour, Jeanie and I
+would have been married by now. It seems as if Fate has taken a hand in
+this.'
+
+"He told me that Jeanie had been worrying and was continually talking
+about me, and that she didn't believe I was dead, although I had been
+reported 'killed or missing' since September, 1914. He had told her that
+she was foolish to keep up this thought, and finally had persuaded her to
+become engaged to him. The date for the marriage was fixed for the night
+on which I arrived.
+
+"During this time the bride was being attended by some of the other young
+ladies and had been revived.
+
+"The intended bridegroom went to her side and asked if she still cared for
+me. Her answer was: 'If he loves me, _yes_.' He approached me again,
+asking whether I cared for her still. Oh, I wanted to say how I loved her
+and how anxiously and hurriedly I had made my way to her on reaching
+British soil, but I was too overcome for words; I could only nod an
+assent. Do you know, Reuter, what this old pal did? He withdrew, giving
+me his place, and he acted as Best Man.
+
+"Since then I've wondered whether, if it had been any other man, he would
+have stepped aside so. He loved her as I did, no doubt, but it seems she
+couldn't forget me, no matter how he tried to make her do so; so,
+realizing all this at the time, he did what he thought would give her the
+greatest happiness. I had suffered sorely, Reuter, but surely I was well
+rewarded. The pal who had expected to have my place gave us a hundred
+pounds as his gift to help us along in business. We were married that same
+night--only three days ago. So you see, Reuter, I lost no time in trying
+to find you to tell you of my complete happiness."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We left the tea rooms, and I accompanied Ned to the railway station, where
+he took the train for his home town. As we parted he wished me the best of
+success in America, and hoped that he would hear of my getting married
+very soon, for he assured me he was so happy that he wished to know that
+such happiness was mine also.
+
+I made for home then, and in less than a week's time I was on my way to
+the States.
+
+Ned's good wishes for me have certainly been fulfilled. I have since
+married, and it is my wife who has proved my sole inspiration and help in
+writing this book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+
+No doubt, if I had been trained in writing rather than in the tactical
+requirements for service in the British army, I should call this the
+appendix of my book. I prefer not to do so, having found in my own
+experience that readers may be inclined to view the appendix in literature
+as similar to the appendix in surgery--something which is unnecessary.
+
+I cannot so regard this chapter. It is to me a component and interesting
+part of the whole, for it goes to the source of the splendid and unique
+traditions of the regiment in which I have been privileged to serve as a
+soldier of my country.
+
+A great deal has been written about the Black Watch. Even poets have been
+inspired to sing of its deeds in stanzas which are undying. Men of
+Highland birth, glorying in its history, have set down the facts of its
+achievements under England's banner. Yet most of these records are
+composed of dry facts, with no expressed sense of the romantic and the
+unusual which enter so largely into the history of the most famous
+fighting organization in the world. And most of them, also, might be
+written from the viewpoint of a century ago. They do not bring the recital
+of the achievements of the Black Watch into the atmosphere of to-day, with
+due regard for the interesting and almost startling effect of contrast.
+
+This thought came to me one day when I was riding on a trolley through one
+of the busy districts of that part of Greater New York which lies east of
+the bridged river, and suddenly realized that I was passing over the very
+ground upon which the Black Watch had its first important engagement in
+the war of the American Revolution--the Battle of Brooklyn. I recalled
+that on this very spot, where clanging trolleys, quick motor cars and
+hurrying pedestrians made a confusing rush of traffic, the men of the
+Black Watch fought, in the fashion of their forefathers, with broadsword
+and pistol, against the sturdy pioneers whose descendants are now the
+allies of our nation in a war for world freedom. In the annals of our
+regiment, the use of the broadsword and pistol in the Battle of Brooklyn
+is duly recorded, for it was after this engagement that the regiment was
+required to lay aside these mediæval weapons--a fact which occasioned such
+discontent among the veterans of the Watch that there was even fear that
+the Highland stubbornness might manifest itself as markedly in protest as
+on the occasion--in England, in 1743--when the men of the regiment,
+confronted with orders issued in ignorance of the Highland characteristics
+and customs, departed quietly, in a body, without the knowledge of their
+officers, and marched as far as Northampton with the intention of
+returning to their Highland homes, relinquishing the purpose only when
+prolonged negotiations had made the facts of the situation plain to their
+stubborn minds.
+
+On the whole, however, this disposition on the part of the men of the
+Black Watch could hardly be called surprising, in view of the ignorance
+regarding the Highland character then prevalent in England. Three years
+before, King George the Second, having never seen a Scotch
+Highlander--although the Black Watch had already been organized in the
+Highlands as the Forty-third regiment of the British army--asked to have
+some examples of the race sent to appear before him and his court. Two
+Highlanders, Gregor MacGregor and John Campbell, appeared in response to
+the King's command. (A third, John Grant, began the journey to London with
+them but died on the way.) MacGregor and Campbell gave exhibitions of
+their dexterity with the broadsword and the Lochaber axe, in the presence
+of the King and his Court. When they had finished the King gave each a
+gold guinea as a gratuity. They gave the coins as a tip to the porter, on
+their departure. The King had not understood that his guests were Highland
+gentlemen.
+
+Sitting at the window of the house where I now pass the peaceful and
+uneventful days of the soldier who has fought until wounds incapacitate
+him for further service afield, I smiled, one day, at another thought in
+which the past and the present incongruously came into association. From
+this window, I viewed the populous, close-built residential stretches of
+Washington Heights, typical of the city life of to-day. And, amid all
+this, my eye could seek out the very spot where occurred the grimly
+humorous adventure of Major Murray, most corpulent of the officers of the
+Black Watch, when the command was fighting against Washington's rebellious
+patriots. Having to scale the heights which were later to become famous as
+the habitat of the hardy goats of Harlem, Major Murray was at a great
+disadvantage because of his weight and girth. "Soldiers, would you leave
+me behind?" he appealed, pathetically, when he needed assistance. And then
+his husky Highlanders would boost him upward toward the fray. It was,
+consequently, in a somewhat breathless and confused condition that the
+valiant major attained the spot upon the heights where the conflict raged.
+Rushing forward to close with some antagonist in the Colonials, Major
+Murray discovered that his only weapon, his dirk, had got twisted behind
+him in the strenuous struggles of the ascent and that, because of his
+excessive fatness, he couldn't reach it. The records of the regiment, at
+the home station, Perth, state that the major, on this occasion, tore a
+sword from the grasp of one of three Colonials who attacked him and put
+all three to flight. With no thought to cast aspersion upon the major's
+valour, I have always been inclined to the belief that the writer of the
+regimental reports may have compensated in a certain generosity of
+statement for his earlier description of the major's comic predicament.
+
+Study of the history of the Black Watch, gathered, largely, in a
+fragmentary way, has always had a fascination for me. I have felt in the
+greatest degree the pride of membership in the organization--and the world
+knows that the men of the Black Watch have always made much of the name. I
+feel that tradition had well prepared the regiment for its sacrificial and
+almost superhuman efforts between Mons and the Marne. For hard fighting
+and long fighting--in every quarter of the globe and with opponents of
+almost every race--civilized and uncivilized--no organized fighting force
+has ever had a record to equal that of the Black Watch.
+
+The regiment got its name in 1729, when six companies of Highlanders which
+had constituted a sort of military police along the highland border, were
+joined together into a more or less homogeneous command. Four of these
+companies had been in existence for a few years. Two were of organization
+of that year. They were called the Independent Companies of Highlanders
+but it was their purpose to co-operate to preserve order among the
+turbulent spirits of the border and to enforce the disarming act.
+Highlanders from the broken clans flocked to the banners of the
+Independent Companies, as this gave them the right still to bear arms.
+Many of them were Highland gentlemen, who came with their servants to
+carry their arms and belongings. The companies were commanded by Lord
+Lovat, Campbell of Lochnell, Grant of Ballindalloch, Campbell of Fonab,
+Campbell of Carrick, and Munro of Culcairn. Approximately, there were a
+hundred men in each company. They wore the dark tartan of the clan
+Campbell, and thus came to be called the _Freaceadan Dubh_, or Black
+Watch, as distinguished from the _saighdearan dearg_, or red soldiers.
+
+For ten years, these six companies served on the border, constituting a
+slender but effective bulwark between two neighbouring but utterly
+different peoples. In this day--when it is but a pleasant outing to motor
+from England into the Highlands--it seems almost unbelievable that the
+laws, language, customs, and social usages of the Highlanders should for
+centuries have remained utterly different from those of England and the
+lowlands, and that the people of the lowlands should have almost no
+knowledge of neighbours so near. The sturdy and soldierly qualities of the
+Highlanders of the six companies, however, couldn't escape the notice of
+England's generals, ever seeking new drafts for England's fighting forces.
+
+In 1739 it was decided that a foot regiment of Highlanders should be added
+to the regular establishment of the army, the six Independent Companies
+being augmented by four new companies to constitute the regimental
+strength.
+
+In 1740 this regiment--commanded by the Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, as
+colonel--was paraded for the first time on a field, near Aberfeldy. Until
+then, the Black Watch had been uniformed only in the fact that each member
+wore the _philleadh mor_ or belted plaid, of the Campbell tartan. No one
+but a Highlander could ever adjust this dress. It consisted of twelve
+yards of tartan, two-thirds of it gathered in pleats, held by a belt round
+the waist, and the other third folded around the body and clasped with a
+buckle, on the left shoulder.
+
+The uniform and individual equipment of the new regiment, which was called
+the Forty-third Foot, is described in detail in an old order of the day.
+It consisted of "scarlet jacket and waistcoat, with buff facings and white
+lace; the _phileag beag_, or little kilt; a blue bonnet, with check border
+of red, white, and green, and a tuft of feathers; musket, bayonet, pistol,
+broadsword, dirk and target." The first march of the regiment was from
+beside the waters of the Tay--where it had encamped for more than a
+year--to Perth, in which city the home station of the regiment was then
+established and still is maintained.
+
+When I outfitted there, with my contingent of first reserve men, at the
+outbreak of this war, the thought came to my mind that, three times
+before, the Black Watch had moved from Perth to fight in Flanders.
+
+I have never seen a succinct summary of the activities of the Black Watch.
+Though far abler writers than I have described its separate campaigns,
+each of these writers has given but a limited view of the long vista of
+sturdy fighting which visualizes the regiment's history. From such sources
+of information as I have had, the following summary has been extracted.
+Surely it will tell a story of interest to every man who is interested in
+the traditions of Britain's "far-flung battle line."
+
+The regiment marched from Perth to London, in 1743, and, after a
+mutiny--due to tales of scandal-mongers that the Highlanders were to be
+sent to the American plantations--made its first journey overseas, going
+to fight in Flanders under the command of the Earl of Stair. After
+Fontenoy, the regiment covered the British retreat and lost, among their
+officers, five Campbells. In this battle they were commanded by Sir Robert
+Munro.
+
+The Black Watch, then called the 43rd Highlanders, was transferred to
+England, and most of the companies were kept in Kent, during the Jacobite
+uprising. Three companies were engaged in Scotland in putting down the
+insurrection, and one was at the battle of Prestonpans. I quote from a
+story of the Black Watch written by Lauchlan MacLean Watt in saying that
+"the other two companies had an unwilling share in the deplorable outrages
+in the Highland Glens after Culloden, which made the name of the Duke of
+Cumberland worthy to be placed amongst those of his blood who have won
+similar distinction in Belgium, to-day."
+
+The Black Watch was sent to France, in 1746, thence to Ireland and back to
+Flanders in 1747.
+
+In 1749 it was returned to Ireland where it remained eight years. In this
+year the regimental number was changed to the 42nd.
+
+In 1757 the regiment was a part of the expeditionary force sent to America
+for the French and Indian war. At Ticonderoga it served so valiantly and
+suffered such terrific losses that the name "The Royal Highlanders" was
+conferred upon it.
+
+The regiment next fought at Martinique and Guadaloupe, returning to fight
+again in Canada and take an important part in the battle which compelled
+the surrender of Montreal. Altogether, it served seven years in the West
+Indies and North America. It was only at this period that company
+sergeants were given carbines instead of the Lochaber axes which they had
+always carried.
+
+In 1775 the regiment returned to Scotland, having been absent 32 years.
+
+In April, 1776, the regiment embarked again for America, this time to
+fight in the revolution of the American colonists. They were disembarked
+on Staten Island, and, as I have said, they were engaged and suffered some
+losses in the Battle of Brooklyn. They also suffered heavily in the Battle
+of the Brandywine.
+
+The Black Watch next fought against Hyder Ali, in India, in 1782.
+
+In 1795 it took part in the defence of Nieuport, in Flanders, and suffered
+much in the Gildersmalsen retreat, in that campaign.
+
+Back again, the regiment went, after this, to the West Indies and in this
+campaign the men were first given a uniform suitable to wear in the
+tropics. Its principal features were white duck trousers and round hats.
+The mutations of world warfare had had their effect. The Highlanders were
+willing to put on pantaloons. There were but five companies of the
+regiment on this expedition. The whole regiment was reassembled, however,
+in the following year, at Gibraltar, and fought as a whole in the capture
+of Minorca.
+
+The year 1800 found the regiment, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, in Egypt.
+During the fighting with Napoleon's armies, there, the regiment lost its
+commander in action.
+
+In 1808 the Black Watch was among the British forces in the Peninsula and
+suffered extreme privation and heavy losses on the retreat from Corunna.
+
+In the following year the regiment was on the ill-fated expedition to
+Walcheren, returning with less than one-third of its original strength.
+Three years later they were in Portugal again.
+
+After the escape of Napoleon the regiment fought through to Waterloo,
+though without playing an important part in that last great battle.
+
+It then fought through the campaign of the Crimea as a part of Sir Colin
+Campbell's Highland brigade.
+
+Within a year it was in the lead of the force of six thousand men which
+Sir Colin led against twenty-five thousand mutineers at Cawnpore.
+
+Its next hard fighting was in the Ashanti campaign, under General Sir
+Garnet Wolseley.
+
+In 1881 it was combined with the 73rd Highland regiment (formerly the 2nd
+battalion of the Black Watch) and in the next year was back, fighting in
+Egypt. Through the whole of that war in Egypt it was in the fore-front,
+fighting with distinction up to the end of the expedition which was
+organized for the relief of Gordon at Khartoum.
+
+The regiment suffered its most terrific losses--up to those of the retreat
+from Mons--in the South African campaign. The slaughter of the Black
+Watch, at Magersfontein, when the Boers ambushed it in close formation,
+was the most shocking news that came to England from the Cape.
+
+The story of the 2nd Battalion of the regiment and its deeds is a separate
+one, through several decades. It sailed to India in 1780 and was in action
+in all of the big and little Indian wars of that early and troublous time.
+In 1809 it was made a separate regiment and called the 73rd Highlanders.
+As such it served at Waterloo, and it remained a separate unit until 1881,
+when it was reunited with the original 1st Battalion.
+
+The Black Watch, as now organized, might almost be called a small army.
+There is a depot battalion at Perth, four territorial battalions in
+Scotland and six service battalions.
+
+In 1905, I enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch--the same
+"Royal Highlanders" that had won its designation at Ticonderoga. In 1907,
+I was transferred to the 2nd Battalion, which had been known as the 73rd
+Highlanders. I joined them at their station at Peshawar, near the mouth of
+the famous Kyber Pass, in Afghanistan. In the athletic contests for which
+the regiment was famous, I met as a competitor, Ned MacD---- the same Ned
+MacD---- whose romantic story I have told in a previous chapter. After a
+time we were the regimental champions, and, many a day in India, we
+strenuously upheld the honour of the Black Watch in competition with the
+men of other regiments.
+
+My athletic days and my fighting days are over. But ever my blood will
+quicken with the thought that I have played my part and done my service
+and shed my blood in the ranks of the Black Watch, fighting for Right and
+for the Freedom of Mankind. The pain of old wounds will ever vanish, the
+regrets for departed comrades will ever fade into forgetfulness when I
+read, again, the verses which paraphrase the title conferred by the bodies
+upon the Black watch--upon us!
+
+  There's a toss o' th' sporran,
+    A swing o' th' kilt,
+  A screech frae th' pipers
+    In blood-stirrin' lilt;
+  They step out together
+    As pibroch notes swell--
+  Oh, they're bonny, braw fighters,
+    "The ladies from Hell."
+
+  They're far frae th' heather
+    An' far frae th' moor;
+  As th' rocks o' their hillsides
+    Their faces are dour.
+  Oh, Th' Campbells are Comin'
+    Frae corrie an' fell--
+  What a thrill to their slogan!
+    These "Ladies from Hell."
+
+  As they charged at Culloden
+    Like fire o'er th' brae,
+  Their brothers are charging
+    In Flanders to-day.
+  One lesson in manners
+    The boche has learned well:
+  'Tis: Make way for the ladies--
+    "The Ladies from Hell."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+  THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
+  GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Since my discharge and residence here in America, I have heard several
+other cases of this kind, but the one narrated above is the only one I
+actually came in contact with. THE AUTHOR.
+
+[2] This was Ned's individual experience. Prisoners in other hospitals and
+prison camps may have been allowed to write home even at that time. In
+talking to others I have learned that the prison camps in Germany vary a
+great deal.--THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "in in" corrected to "in" (page 33)
+  "sightest" corrected to "slightest" (page 211)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
+hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Watch, by Scout Joe Cassells
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Watch, by Scout Joe Cassells
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Black Watch
+       A Record in Action
+
+Author: Scout Joe Cassells
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #33278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK WATCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>THE BLACK WATCH</h1>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i004.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcaplc">SCOUT JOE CASSELLS</span><br /><small><span class="smcaplc">OF THE BLACK WATCH</span></small></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>THE BLACK WATCH</h1>
+<h3>A RECORD IN ACTION</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h2>SCOUT JOE CASSELLS</h2>
+<p class="center"><i>One of the few survivors of that<br />&#8220;contemptible little army&#8221;</i></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i005.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><i>Frontispiece</i></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Garden City</span><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span><span class="smcap">New York</span><br />
+DOUBLEDAY, PAGE &amp; COMPANY<br />1918</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1918, by</i><br />
+<span class="smcap">Doubleday, Page &amp; Company</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>All rights reserved, including that of<br />
+translation into foreign languages,<br />
+including the Scandinavian</i></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p>
+<h2>FOREWORD</h2>
+
+<p>From Mons to the Marne lies the bloodiest trail of sacrifice in history.
+In all the records of war, there stands forth no more magnificent and no
+more melancholy achievement than that of the British regular army, which
+bled its heroic way in ever-diminishing numbers from the challenge to the
+check of the initial German sweep upon Paris. It could not hope for
+decisive victory; it could only clog the wheels of the Juggernaut with
+lives and lives and lives, sold bravely and dearly. Before a countless
+superiority of numbers and an incalculable advantage in enemy
+preparedness, it could only stand, and fall&mdash;and stand again, and
+fall&mdash;until the end; when the cause of the Allies was saved for the hour,
+and of French&#8217;s hundred thousand there remained barely a little leaven of
+trained men for the British forces then assembling to learn the trade of
+warfare.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>The ablest pens writing of the Great War have paid tribute to this
+splendid deed which changed the course of its beginning. French&#8217;s retreat
+from Mons has been a topic to inspire the highest eloquence of the
+patriotic historian and the most profound admiration of the militarist.
+Everything, from the point of the onlooker, has been said of it. And
+everything that has been said retires into the perspective of the
+academic, when one reads, in this volume, the words of a trained British
+soldier who experienced and survived it. For stark and simple strength,
+for realism of detail, for a complete picturization of the desperate and
+heroic resistance of the sacrificial army, this soldier&#8217;s tale is, and
+will remain, unequalled and unique. This prefatory emphasis is not vain or
+extravagant. It need not fear the fact that there is but the turning of a
+page between promise and performance. Here is a writing which is <i>of</i> the
+war, and therefore differs from all writings which can only be <i>about</i> the
+war. It conveys to the reader an almost paralyzing sense of wonder at the
+steadfastness of Britain&#8217;s military traditions,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> put to an unexampled
+test. It shows how marvellously well a soldier may learn his business in
+advance&mdash;when his business is to die. Concerning one of the most
+noteworthy accomplishments of the arms of Britain, there will survive in
+print no more compelling and convincing narrative than this, the utterance
+of one whose trade was fighting and not writing.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h1>THE BLACK WATCH</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+<h2>THE BLACK WATCH</h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>CHAPTER ONE</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">For</span> more than two years now, I have been trying to forget those first
+months of the war. The months when the Black Watch and other regiments of
+the immortal &#8220;contemptible little army&#8221; marched into the unknown against
+the fiercest, most efficient military power the world, up to that time,
+had known; the months when hidden enemies struck swiftly mystifying blows
+with strange weapons, the more terrible because we did not understand them
+and had never imagined their power and numbers.</p>
+
+<p>For more than two years I have habitually sought to keep my mind upon
+other subjects, yet I can recall those days now in the minutest detail. I
+can hear the sudden thrum of the masked machine guns like giant partridges
+drumming; can hear the singing roar of the Prussian airplanes to which, in
+those days,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> because of the scarcity of British planes, there could be
+practically no answer; and I can live again the frightful nights when we
+made our stand upon the Marne, and, sneaking into German outpost trenches,
+slew the guards with jack-knives, thrusting gags into their mouths and
+cutting their throats to prevent outcry.</p>
+
+<p>Those were the days of picturesque and shifty fighting. There was
+movement, the rush of cannon from the rear, the charges of cavalry, the
+perils of scouting and patrolling. It was little like the slow trench
+warfare which followed.</p>
+
+<p>The Black Watch&mdash;the regiment to which I belong&mdash;was one of the first to
+cross the Channel. War was declared August 4th, which was Tuesday. The
+first-class reservists, of which I was one, received their mobilization
+orders the next day.</p>
+
+<p>We assembled at Queens Barracks, Perth, the historic headquarters of what
+we proudly maintain is the world&#8217;s most famous fighting organization.
+Twice before, since 1742, the Black Watch had outfitted in Perth to fight
+in Flanders. Almost constantly since that date,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> battalions of the
+regiment have been fighting for Britain in some far-off quarter of the
+globe. For the third adventure in Flanders, which was to see the existing
+personnel of the regiment practically wiped out in an imperatively
+necessary campaign of blood sacrifice, our preparations were brisk and
+businesslike. Within three hours of my arrival at the depot at Perth, I
+was one of a thousand men, uniformed, armed, and fully equipped, who
+entrained for Aldershot to join our first battalion stationed there.</p>
+
+<p>On the thirteenth of August, after a week&#8217;s stiff training, we boarded the
+steamship <i>Italian Prince</i> and the next day disembarked at Havre.</p>
+
+<p>What awaited us there was much like the reception later given to the first
+American troops to land in France. What followed was quite different. The
+American troops, and millions of their friends and relatives, are all
+wondering what awaits them&mdash;what war really will be like&mdash;what they will
+have to do and the conditions under which they will do it.</p>
+
+<p>It is an axiom of war that the first troops almost invariably suffer the
+greatest losses.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> The first American units to go into the trenches have
+suffered a low average of casualties. In one respect they are far better
+off than were the first British and French troops to meet the Germans.
+They know what they are going up against. Modern warfare is a determined
+quantity. They know the methods of the men they will fight against and
+they have allies able to instruct them in the art of fighting as it is
+practised to-day.</p>
+
+<p>We had nothing like that. It was as though we were groping in the dark
+while an unseen foe was striking at us. For days we tramped through France
+and Belgium hearing the roar of the German guns, feeling the sting of the
+shrapnel, but not seeing our foes. Then came the shifty, open fighting,
+now almost forgotten, which will not be resumed until the Germans are on
+the run. When it comes it will be a welcome relief to the men who have
+been battling, like rats, in trenches not fit for human beings to inhabit.</p>
+
+<p>Well, to get back to what happened to us, the first &#8220;contemptible little
+army,&#8221; in France and Flanders.</p>
+
+<p>The 19th of August found us billeted in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> town called Bou&eacute;. We had to
+remain here a few days because the roads were blocked with transports
+going toward the front. The entire regiment was allowed to go swimming in
+a near-by canal and, as my chum and I were dressing, an old Frenchman gave
+us each a half-franc piece, saying that it would give us good luck and
+bring us through alive. It was the first money he had made as a boy and he
+had kept it ever since. The last I heard of my chum was that he had been
+discharged from active service because of wounds, and so it would appear
+his half-franc piece really did bring him through, just as mine did me.</p>
+
+<p>We left Bou&eacute; on the twenty-first at three o&#8217;clock in the morning, and we
+marched until three o&#8217;clock the next morning. All the time we could hear
+the muffled booming of the German heavy artillery. It sounded just like
+the noise they make on the stage when a battle is supposed to be in
+progress in the distance. It excited the men and buoyed them up
+wonderfully, but twenty-four hours is a long time to march without sleep,
+and whenever we halted the men lay down in the mud of the road and lost
+consciousness&mdash;but not for long.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> Within a few minutes after every halt,
+the officers would come among us and rouse us, saying that we were badly
+needed up where the guns were growling. It was hard, tiring work, but it
+wasn&#8217;t half so bad as what we got later, when we were retreating.</p>
+
+<p>We didn&#8217;t know it, but we were on our way to Mons to hold the left flank.</p>
+
+<p>It was during a short halt in Grande Range that we had our first sight of
+a German airplane. We were billeted in the houses and stables of the
+village, and every one came running out to look at the plane when the
+thrumming of the engine was heard. When it was right over our heads it let
+fly a rack full of steel darts and they came clattering down into the
+village streets. One stuck into the pavement in front of our quarters. It
+was so deeply imbedded that not a man in the company could pull it out. [I
+have seen one of these missiles go right through a house from roof to
+cellar. They have been known to go through a horse and then bury
+themselves in the ground.]</p>
+
+<p>These steel darts were from eight inches to a foot long, cut so that they
+would fall point<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> downward. Dozens of them were contained in a single
+rack, which the aviator released when he was over his target; the speed of
+the machine caused them to scatter. They would go through anything they
+hit, but they were found to be too inaccurate and not so economical as
+explosives.</p>
+
+<p>After the plane had passed we were rushed to the outskirts of the village,
+where we began to entrench. By morning, we had nearly finished the shallow
+trenches which, in that day, were regarded as sufficient protection for
+infantry in the field. At daybreak our High Command had information that
+our position along the highway would prove untenable. Wearily enough, we
+marched to a range of wooded hills where we again entrenched. German heavy
+shells found us there, so we were compelled to retire to another village,
+near which we entrenched once more, on still higher ground. The German air
+scouts were watching us, however, and in this new position a heavier fire
+from long-range artillery found us.</p>
+
+<p>All of this was on August 25th, two days after our forced march of
+twenty-four hours.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> The weather was extremely hot and we were well-nigh
+exhausted by the work of digging three sets of trenches. We lay and &#8220;took&#8221;
+the German fire. We had already had some casualties, the wooden steeple of
+the church in the village on our right was in flames, and several houses
+had been destroyed by the German shelling&mdash;and we hadn&#8217;t <i>yet</i> seen a
+German, except the airplane scouts. But they were not long coming into
+view.</p>
+
+<p>As we lay in our shallow trenches, a big shell every now and then falling
+amongst us, another regiment, retreating under heavy fire, broke into view
+from the woods, a mile or more in front of our line. We soon made them
+out&mdash;the Scots Guards, hotly pursued by a superior force of Uhlans, and,
+as the German commander fondly believed, near capture. We, in our
+trenches, were in a fever to get our fire on the Germans but they were so
+close upon the Guards that we dared not fire a shot. The Guards, putting
+up a stiff fight directly in front of our position, checked the Uhlans
+sufficiently to enable their own organization to continue its retreat,
+swinging over in the direction of our left flank. This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> gave us our chance
+and we poured a hot rifle and machine-gun fire into the pursuing force.</p>
+
+<p>We were in action against the Boches, at last! and, furthermore, we had
+the satisfaction of seeing that our fire was effective. The Uhlans, whose
+attention now was forcibly distracted from the hard-pressed Guards to us,
+immediately advanced in our direction, dismounting at 1,200 yards distance
+and returning our fire. Leaving their horses behind a ridge, they crept up
+on us to within 500 yards.</p>
+
+<p>At this point, a water cart belonging to the Guards, which had been hidden
+in a thicket, popped out, and was being driven in the direction of their
+regiment. A party of about thirty Uhlans galloped after it. We turned some
+of our fire on them. I think they were all toppled over, horses and men
+alike. Then another party of about five thousand Uhlans made toward us at
+a gallop and charged, but there were few of them that got to within one
+hundred yards of our single shallow trench. By this time the Scots Guards
+had got into position and opened fire on the Boche cavalry.</p>
+
+<p>Three times the Germans tried to secure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> the water cart, thinking no doubt
+it was an ammunition wagon. When the cart was about one hundred and fifty
+yards from our trench the horses were shot down by the Uhlans. One of the
+men on it was wounded through the arm, and the other coolly filled his
+water bottle and bathed his comrade&#8217;s wound, regardless of the Huns who
+were still peppering away. We shouted to the two boys to hurry and come
+into safety. The wounded one&#8217;s answer was:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Safety be damned! Some of you Jocks come out here and give us a pull with
+the water cart.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Men of our <i>H</i> company, nearest to the cart, asked permission to go to the
+rescue. Their officers acquiesced and sixteen of them rushed out, cut the
+cart loose from the dead horses, and dragged it to safety behind the ridge
+which we were holding. Three of the sixteen were hit. There were especial
+reasons for this bit of valour. Our own water bottles were empty, our
+water cart drained dry, and we were choking with thirst.</p>
+
+<p>It was now the time of the Scots Guards to help us. They kept a steady
+fire on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> Uhlans while we retired behind the ridge to fall in on the
+main road to Hautmont and retreat to the next spot where we could make a
+temporary stand. While we were falling back to the main road, a man from
+each section filled three water bottles from the rescued cart. We didn&#8217;t
+know when we would get water again, nor how far our tired feet must carry
+us. In this exhausted state we began the furious fatal struggle against an
+overwhelming and irresistible enemy which is known in history as the
+Retreat from Mons.</p>
+
+<p>Of that fearful time, I have lost track of dates. I do not want to
+remember them. All I recollect is that, under a blazing August sun&mdash;our
+mouths caked, our tongues parched&mdash;day after day we dragged ourselves
+along, always fighting rear-guard actions, our feet bleeding, our backs
+breaking, our hearts sore. Our unmounted officers limped amongst us, blood
+oozing through their spats. With a semblance of cheeriness they told us
+that we must retreat because the Russians were on their way to Berlin and
+we must keep the Germans moving in the opposite direction. When we got a
+few minutes&#8217; respite there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> would be an issue of &#8220;gunfire&#8221;&mdash;the
+traditional British army term for tea served out to men in action. It was
+of a nondescript flavour, commingling the negative qualities of
+&#8220;bully-beef stew&#8221; and the very positive taste of kerosene oil, the cooks&#8217;
+hurricane lamps being stored in the camp-kettles during each of our
+retirements. Invariably&mdash;and I mean in twenty instances&mdash;the shells would
+begin to drop amongst us before we could finish our portions, eating,
+though we did, with ravenous haste; and when it was not artillery fire
+that stopped our feeding it would be a charge of Uhlans, compelling us to
+drop half-emptied mess-tins and seize rifles.</p>
+
+<p>We had no artillery to speak of, and very few airplanes. If we had had
+more of the latter, there might have been another story. The Germans
+seemed to know every move we made, but we were blind. We dropped into a
+field and killed a bullock, skinned it and were cooking it. There came the
+roar of a powerful engine; a German plane circled over us and went sailing
+back, signalling our position. A few minutes later shrapnel fell among us
+and we went on, some of the men in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> ambulances. Those that were killed we
+hurriedly buried, but there was not time even to put improvised wooden
+crosses at their heads.</p>
+
+<p>One of our slightly wounded, in the broad accents of lowland Scotch,
+cursed the Germans&mdash;not for wounding him, but for knocking over his
+canteen of tea. A hail of flying shrapnel struck down a cook; the men of
+his section cursed in chorus for the misfortune which meant that hunger
+would be added to their other miseries.</p>
+
+<p>Not once alone did we spring up from eating to fight the Uhlans with rifle
+fire and bayonet. It happened a dozen times. Whenever the Uhlans came, we
+fought them off, but always we had to retreat in the end, for the German
+reserves were numberless while ours scarcely existed.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TWO</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Most</span> of the time while we were dragging our exhausted, diminishing numbers
+ahead of the German wave of shot and steel, I was on scout duty. For a
+while, I was &#8220;connecting file&#8221; between the Black Watch and the Munster
+Fusiliers who were in rear of us and <i>almost constantly</i> in touch with the
+enemy. I had more than one narrow escape from capture or death.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion the regiment had been deployed to beat off a flank attack.
+When we resumed the march I was sent back to get in touch with the
+Fusiliers. My orders were to go to the rear until I got in touch with
+them. I was proceeding cautiously along the road when suddenly around a
+curve something appeared before me. My rifle was at my shoulder ready to
+fire. Then I recognized what had been a uniform of the Fusiliers.</p>
+
+<p>Have you ever read Kipling&#8217;s &#8220;Man Who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> Came Back&#8221;? If you have, you will
+have a better idea than I can give you of what this human being looked
+like. His face was covered with blood. One arm hung limply. Just as he
+made toward me, he fell exhausted by the roadside, like a dog that is
+spent. Literally, his tongue hung from his mouth. His shoes were cut up
+and his clothes dangled in ribbons beneath which red gashes showed in his
+flesh where he had torn it in the barbed-wire fences he had encountered,
+crossing fields.</p>
+
+<p>I asked him what had happened. His lips moved and his breath came in more
+difficult gasps, but no word could he utter. I wiped his face, and then I
+recognized in him an officer who had been a crack athlete when the
+Munsters were in India and against whom I had competed more than once. I
+pressed my water bottle to his lips. After a few moments he was able to
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They are gone!&#8221; he gasped; &#8220;all of them are gone! By God, they died like
+men; but&mdash;they&mdash;died.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let me understand you, sir,&#8221; I begged him. &#8220;Tell me just what happened.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where are you going?&#8221; he almost shouted.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>&#8220;I am going back to get in touch with the Munster Fusiliers,&#8221; I said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t make the journey,&#8221; he panted. &#8220;You&#8217;d have to go to heaven&mdash;or
+to hell. They caught them in a pocket. Shrapnel and machine-guns. <i>There
+are no Munster Fusiliers any more.</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He was right, practically. The Germans had caught them between fires and
+the regiment was cut to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>Helping the officer as best I could, I hurried forward to catch up with my
+own regiment. When I got in touch with it I left the Fusilier officer with
+the commander of the first company I met. Then I hurried to the Company
+commander.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you doing here?&#8221; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am here, to report, sir,&#8221; I said. &#8220;There is no use trying to get in
+touch with the Fusiliers. They have been cut off.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your orders were to go back until you got in touch with them,&#8221; he said
+gruffly. &#8220;Consider yourself under arrest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A non-commissioned officer and two men, with fixed bayonets, were put on
+guard over me. I had disobeyed orders, technically, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> during those
+first days in France many a stern act was necessary, for the army had to
+learn the discipline of war.</p>
+
+<p>I would have been tied to a spare wheel at the back of an artillery
+caisson, but as they were leading me away I asked to speak to my sergeant.
+I explained to him what had happened and he told my company commander, who
+found the officer of the Fusiliers. The latter, meanwhile, had been taken
+care of by our officers and was now in condition to talk. He spoke to the
+colonel (Col. Grant Duff), explaining just what had happened and telling
+him that he had directed me to return to my regiment. I was liberated, but
+it was a mighty close escape from disgrace, which, after all, is worse
+than death, especially to a soldier.</p>
+
+<p>After that I was sent out to scout on the left flank with my partner,
+Troolen, who was of a daredevil disposition and worked in a noisy fashion,
+and so when I saw something moving in the brushwood on a ridge we were
+approaching, and heard a sound like the trample of horses on the other
+side, I cautioned him to remain where he was while I explored<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> it. Troolen
+swore he could hear nothing and was for muddling ahead and running into
+anything that might be there, but I was in command and I ordered him to
+wait. Sneaking from stone to stone and from tree to tree, I worked myself
+to a little pocket which seemed scalloped out of the crest of the ridge
+and found the ground there all freshly trampled, with other signs that
+horses had left it recently. There were no wheel marks, so I knew that it
+was cavalry, not artillery. From the marks of the iron shoes I could tell
+that they were of a different type from ours.</p>
+
+<p>Uhlans had been there.</p>
+
+<p>I signalled to Troolen and he joined me. Climbing to the crest of the
+ridge we saw the enemy in large numbers moving toward the road on which we
+were marching, and they were ahead of us. As we hurried toward our
+regiment we heard others in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>As fast as I could, I made my way to the Company commander and reported
+what I had seen. Almost at the same moment we were fired upon. The rifle
+fire was immediately followed by artillery shelling. Patrols on the other
+flank had made sketches of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> country and orders were issued for the
+regiment to take cover in a gully which was across some fields and the
+other side of a small woods. The men ducked through a wire fence which was
+at the side of the road and sections of it were torn to let the combat
+wagons through.</p>
+
+<p>As we retreated we kept up a steady fire, forcing the Uhlans close to
+their cover, but the artillery continually sprayed over the field.</p>
+
+<p>Thus began for us the Battle of the Oise.</p>
+
+<p>We had little hope of any support. We knew we had to fight it out alone,
+and there was little enough ammunition. I was running and ducking for the
+next bit of cover from behind which I could use my rifle, when a shell
+exploded behind me. It threw me from my feet but I was unhurt and as I
+jumped up I heard a crashing and splintering a few feet away. One of the
+horses on an ammunition wagon had been struck. He was plunging on the
+ground, terrifying his team mate and kicking the wagon to pieces. The
+transport officer, C. R. B. Henderson, drew his revolver and shot the
+animal.</p>
+
+<p>The Uhlans must have had reinforcements<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> for they were getting bolder. The
+bullets were cutting up little spurts of dust and turf all about us. They
+were singing overhead like a gale in the ropes and spars of a transport at
+sea. The Germans were firing at the ammunition wagon in the hope of
+blowing it up.</p>
+
+<p>I was just about to run for cover again when I saw Lieut. Henderson&mdash;he
+who had shot the transport horse&mdash;walk calmly up (leading his own animal)
+and cut the dead one from the traces. I didn&#8217;t care about being killed,
+but I couldn&#8217;t leave this officer, who was standing there as though he
+were on parade, except that his hands were working ten times as fast as
+they ever did at drill. Together we got the dead animal free and harnessed
+the lieutenant&#8217;s horse to the wagon. We used one of the lieutenant&#8217;s
+spiral puttees to mend the cut and broken harness. The driver of the
+ammunition wagon was holding the head of the other horse, shaking his fist
+at the Germans, and swearing at them with a heavy Scotch burr.</p>
+
+<p>Men were running past us like rabbits. Some of them were tumbling like
+rabbits,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> too, when a steel-nosed bullet found its mark. I saw others
+stoop, just long enough to get an arm under the shoulders of a comrade and
+then drag him along. A few lay still and a single look into their faces
+showed that it would be useless to carry them. The running men dropped
+behind stones, hillocks, trees&mdash;anything that was likely to afford cover
+and stop bullets&mdash;and their rifles snapped angrily at the Germans whose
+fire was getting heavier, but who still did not dare an open attack.</p>
+
+<p>At last the harness was ready. The ammunition driver leaped to his seat
+and the wagon went careening toward the ravine, swaying crazily, with a
+storm of shots tearing up the turf around its wheels. We needed that wagon
+badly. In a moment it would be over the crest of the rise and we would be
+sure of that much ammunition to fight with.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get on to the wagon, sir,&#8221; I shouted to the officer, as it dashed
+forward; but he did not heed me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In a second we shall be where we can fight them off,&#8221; was all he said.</p>
+
+<p>A Uhlan&#8217;s horse, with empty saddle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> galloped up to us. I seized the
+dangling reins.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mount him, sir,&#8221; I shouted. He took the reins from my hand and attempted
+to leap into the saddle. The horse was cut and bleeding, and unmanageable
+from terror. He backed toward the ammunition wagon, which had not yet made
+the ridge, dragging the officer with him. I followed.</p>
+
+<p>Just as we thus neared the wagon, a shell exploded close at hand. The
+wagon humped up in the middle as if it had been made of whalebone. It
+rocked from side to side, almost upsetting. Then it settled back upon its
+wrecked wheels. A high explosive shell had struck directly under it. The
+two horses fell, dead from shrapnel or shock, and the driver toppled from
+his seat, dead, between them, a red smear across his face.</p>
+
+<p>The small-arms ammunition in the wagon had not been exploded. The doors of
+the wagon were thrown open by the concussion of the shell, causing the
+bandoliers of cartridges to scatter. The officer motioned to me to help
+distribute the ammunition to our men as they ran past; upon finishing this
+task we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> joined the last of our party and were very soon over the crest.
+We had only a few machine guns, but we got them in place. The Uhlans were
+charging across the field.</p>
+
+<p>A shrill whistle blew.&mdash;&mdash;The machine guns began to rattle. Down went
+horses and riders, plunging about where some of our own men lay. Our rifle
+fire, too, was getting stronger, better controlled, more co-ordinated. We
+were sheltered; the enemy was in the open. His artillery was useless, for
+we were coming to grips. Line after line, they broke into the field,
+lances set. The horses were stretching out low over the turf&mdash;over the
+turf where a moment later they were to kick out the last of their breath,
+pinning under them many a rider to whom we were paying the debt of the
+Munster Fusiliers.</p>
+
+<p>A bugle sounded.&mdash;&mdash;Those that were left of the Uhlans galloped off. The
+little machine guns had done their work.</p>
+
+<p>Our attention was then attracted to a heavy fire, directed from some
+unknown quarter upon a near-by field in which was confined a large herd of
+light brown cattle, their colour identical with that of our khaki<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>
+uniforms. The animals were milling about madly; a dozen of them already
+were down and others were falling each moment. Here was one of the humours
+of war. We laughed, believing that the Germans were firing upon the dying
+beasts, mistaking them for us&mdash;&#8220;The Ladies from Hell,&#8221; as they called us.</p>
+
+<p>The Scots Greys, which regiment had come up at this critical moment to
+occupy the high ground on our right flank about six hundred yards away,
+through the fierceness of their enfilading fire, managed to keep the enemy
+at a standstill and so allowed the Black Watch to retreat to safety.</p>
+
+<p>We owed our lives to kind fate in bringing the Scots Greys to our timely
+aid, and to them all honour! But for them we should have met the fate of
+the Munster Fusiliers.</p>
+
+<p>Crawling on their bellies, some of our men went out and brought in those
+of the Black Watch who were lying wounded. The others we left, for their
+own men would be there presently. For us, it was retreat again. After
+traversing ditches, ravines and barbed-wire fences, we finally assembled
+on the road. The artillery was beginning to pound once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> more. We had to
+trudge on, watching for the next attack, planting one bleeding foot before
+another, with nobody knew how many days of forced marching before
+us&mdash;marching (so we thought) to let the Russians get to Berlin. I don&#8217;t
+think anything else would have induced us to resume our retreat after the
+brush with the Uhlans.</p>
+
+<p>At evening we found ourselves at the village of Oise about six miles from
+the abovementioned scene. As we arrived at the bridge over the River Oise,
+the engineers who were on the other side, and who had fused the bridge,
+shouted to us to keep back, but our colonel gave us the order to double.
+We had cleared the bridge by about only two hundred yards, when it blew up
+into atoms!</p>
+
+<p>After trudging, mostly uphill, in a downpour of rain, we reached a place
+called Guise at 2 <span class="smcaplc">A.M.</span> Here we managed to get some food. I was glad enough
+to throw my waterproof sheet over me and fall asleep. On being awakened, I
+felt as though I had slept for weeks, but found it had only been for one
+hour and twenty minutes. We then received<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> some &#8220;gunfire&#8221; and our <i>first</i>
+issue of rum. We resumed the march. On arriving at La Grange, the
+Camerons, or what was left of them, joined us, taking the place of the
+annihilated Fusiliers in our brigade.</p>
+
+<p>We were so tired that night that I could have slept on a bed of nails,
+points up, but we had not been in our billets very long when we were
+ordered out, as the outpost had reported the approach of Uhlans in
+considerable numbers.</p>
+
+<p>We were half asleep as we ran down into the street to our allotted posts.
+One of the first persons we encountered in the town was a Frenchman,
+raving mad. We asked him what was the matter, but he could not reply. He
+jibbered like an ape; his twitching lips slavered and foamed. Some of his
+neighbours took him in hand and led him away. One of them told us his
+story:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Prussians came in here yesterday. There was no one to resist them.
+They posted sentries. Then those who were not on duty broke into cellars.
+Casks of wine were rolled up into the streets, and, where squads gathered
+together, there were piles of bottles.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> The soldiers did not stop to pull
+the corks. They knocked off the necks of the bottles and filled their
+aluminum cups with red wine and white, mixing one type with another, and
+swilling it in as fast as they could drink. Dozens of them fell in the
+gutters, drunk. Others reeled through the village, abusing and insulting
+men and women alike. If a man resisted, he was shot. This poor fellow,
+whom you have seen, was in his door yard with his wife. A Prussian seized
+her about the waist. She struggled. He crushed her to him with his brutish
+arm. His companions, all drunk, laughed and jeered. The woman&#8217;s clothes
+were ripped from her shoulders in her struggle. Meanwhile others bound the
+husband to one of his own fruit trees, so that he could not escape the
+horror of it. One&mdash;more drunken, more bestial than the others&mdash;slashed off
+the woman&#8217;s breasts and threw them to a dog. The woman died.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This of itself was enough to have made us rage against the enemy whom
+hitherto we had regarded as an honourable foe, but it was not all. I, with
+other members of my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> own company, came upon a nail driven into the wall of
+a barn from which hung, by the mouth, the lifeless form of a baby. The
+child was dead when we found it, but it had died hanging from the rusty
+nail. I know it had, because I saw upon the wall the marks of finger-nails
+where the baby had clawed and scratched. And besides, a dead body would
+not have bled. An officer ordered the removal of the child&#8217;s body.</p>
+
+<p>I do not tell these things for the sake of the horror of them. I would
+rather not tell them. I have spent months trying to forget them. Now that
+I have recalled them, I wake in the night so horrified that I cannot move.
+But to relate them may serve one useful purpose. There are those in
+America, as there were in England, who believed that war to repel invasion
+was justified, but who were not enthusiastic for war abroad. America
+entered the war after her patience was absolutely exhausted, and Americans
+should be devoutly thankful that they can fight abroad and not have to
+endure the presence of a single Prussian soldier on American soil. What we
+saw and learned in Guise galvanized our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> weary bodies to new efforts
+against the vandals whom we were fighting. With clenched teeth and curses
+we turned to fight again.</p>
+
+<p>The Uhlans got into the outskirts of the town and cut down a number of our
+men, but, inch by inch, as they drove toward the centre of the village,
+our resistance became stiffer and stiffer. It was like a nightmare. The
+charging horses, the gruff shouts of the enemy, the groans of the men who
+fell beside me, were like their counterparts in a dream. My finger pressed
+the trigger of the rifle feverishly. Even when I saw the men I fired at
+topple from their saddles and sprawl on the cobblestones, I had only a
+dull sense that I had scored a hit.</p>
+
+<p>Just as we were throwing the enemy back in some confusion, a party of
+British worked round a back street and fired on them from the rear. A
+second later a machine gun began strewing the ground with horses and men.
+Squads of them threw up their hands and cried: &#8220;<i>Kamerad!
+Kamerad!</i>&#8221;&mdash;which was not a new cry on the part of the Prussians. A young
+fellow by my side stopped firing for a moment, but the rest of us knew
+better.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> The Camerons had lost a score of men the day before because they
+had taken the Germans at their word, and, when they went to make them
+prisoners, a whole company of Prussians had risen from behind the crest to
+a hill and shot the Camerons down. So bullets from our rifles answered the
+cries of &#8220;<i>Kamerad!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A few of the enemy escaped down side streets, and a number of them
+remained lying where they had been shot. While we were on our way back to
+quarters, a Frenchman came up out of his basement and motioned us to
+follow him. We went into the cellar and found half a dozen Prussians lying
+there dead drunk. We made them prisoners and sent them to headquarters.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER THREE</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">I had</span> about got settled in the stable where I was billeted, when orders
+came to &#8220;stand to.&#8221; No more sleep that night. We took the road and left La
+Grange behind us just as the sun was pinking the sky. It was Sunday, and,
+although we knew war was no respecter of the Sabbath, we had not been in
+the field long enough to get the idea quite out of our heads that Sunday,
+somehow, <ins class="correction" title="original: in in">in</ins> the nature of things, was a little easier than other days.
+When we halted in a ravine at about ten o&#8217;clock in the morning, after
+marching four hours, we thought after all that it was going to be an
+easier day. I was on outpost duty on a side road a little way from the
+main thoroughfare we had been following.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly an infernal racket broke out over to our left. First there came a
+few scattered cracks of rifle fire. Then I could hear clip firing and the
+rattle of machine guns. I learned later that the Scots Greys and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> 12th
+Lancers had come across about seven thousand Germans resting in a wide
+gully. The Greys and the Lancers, catching them unawares by cutting down
+their sentries who had no opportunity even to give the alarm&mdash;charged
+through them, then back again. Three times they repeated their
+performance, while some of our brigade got on to the flanks and poured in
+such a rapid fire that the Prussians had no opportunity to re-form to meet
+each repetition of the attack. The details do not matter, but they made up
+for the annihilation of the Munster Fusiliers.</p>
+
+<p>In the newspaper accounts of the campaign this incident was described as
+the &#8220;Great St. Quentin Charge,&#8221; in which, it was asserted, the Black Watch
+(foot soldiers) participated, holding onto the stirrups of the Scots
+Greys. This bit of colouring was an inaccuracy. We aided the Greys and the
+Lancers with rifle and machine-gun fire only. When the firing ceased and
+the Greys and the Lancers came cantering past, we learned from them the
+details of the Battle of &#8220;St. Quentin.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At nightfall our section was still guarding<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> the road at a point from
+which a cart road branched off at right angles to the main thoroughfare.
+It was here that the outpost received instructions in a few French
+phrases, the main one being &#8220;<i>Votre passe, s&#8217;il vous plait</i>.&#8221; (&#8220;Your pass,
+please.&#8221;) This was because the road was open to refugees who were fleeing
+from the Boches, and who had to show passes before being allowed to go on.
+The absence of the pass meant that the person would be sent to
+headquarters for examination.</p>
+
+<p>It was quite natural that some of us Scots should find it difficult to
+make ourselves familiar with these phrases. However, we were all willing
+to try. One strapping Highlander, weary and footsore but daunted by
+nothing, practised the phrases dutifully, though the French words were
+almost lost in the encounter with his native Scotch. We chuckled, but he
+merely glowered at us indignantly, and then went to take his place on
+sentry go. Two Frenchmen came along in a wagon. The Highlander blocked
+their way and sternly uttered what he conceived to be the phrase he had
+been told to use. The Frenchmen sat mystified. There was a roar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> of
+laughter when the Highlander, losing patience, shouted: &#8220;Pass us if ye
+daur!&#8221; Then his sergeant came to the rescue.</p>
+
+<p>These two Frenchmen in the wagon were the last refugees to pass. Soon
+afterward, from my station farther down the road, I heard a clatter of
+hoofs and caught a glimpse of Uhlans&#8217; helmets. I had barely time to pass
+the word to the man on the next post and to jump behind a log before they
+came into view. They were riding, full gallop into our lines, apparently
+having abandoned ordinary scouting precautions in their eagerness to
+strike where and when they might against our worn and lacerated forces.
+We, now, had fought so long that we fought mechanically. Over my
+protecting log, I aimed at the leading horseman as precisely and carefully
+as if I had been at rifle practice. When I pulled the trigger he tumbled
+into the road, rolled over awkwardly, and lay still. I did not feel as if
+I had killed a man. I felt only a mild sense of satisfaction with the
+accuracy of my aim. Bitter hate for the Huns had sprung in the heart of
+every one of us after what we had that day seen of their savagery.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>I had got my Uhlan at, perhaps, seventy yards. His fall checked the
+squad&#8217;s advance for a moment only. The man nearest grasped at the bridle
+of the dead man&#8217;s horse but missed it. On they all came, galloping
+recklessly and yelling, the riderless horse leading by a half dozen
+lengths. As they rode, they fired in my direction, but their bullets went
+wide. I felt real compunction as I aimed at the head of the leading
+horse&mdash;the one whose rider I had shot down with only a sense of
+satisfaction. I could hear our men crashing through the bushes by the road
+as they came to my support. I fired. My bullet must have struck the
+riderless horse in the brain, for he fell instantly, sprawled out in the
+path of the galloping Huns behind. The horses of the leaders stumbled over
+the fallen animal. A rattle of shots from our men completed the confusion
+of the Uhlans. They turned their horses and galloped away&mdash;some back along
+the road, others across the fields. Several fell under our fire; how many
+we had no time to ascertain.</p>
+
+<p>After that little affair we organized our position for a somewhat better
+defence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> Leaving a few scouts, far advanced, we stationed our men in easy
+touch with each other and then cut down a number of trees and telegraph
+poles and barricaded the road with them. There were sixteen of us in the
+post near this barricade, concealed from view and able to communicate with
+each other in whispers. The hours dragged on to midnight and past. We were
+weary to the bone&mdash;half dead for want of sleep&mdash;but we dared not relax our
+vigilance for an instant.</p>
+
+<p>The surrounding country was dense with woods. The moon was almost new, so
+consequently the poles were quite invisible a few yards away.</p>
+
+<p>At about one o&#8217;clock in the morning I heard something crackling through
+the brush on the side road. My bayonet was fixed and I was ready to fire.
+The crackling came nearer. I crept stealthily forward to meet whatever it
+was. Presently a man stepped into the road. &#8220;Halt!&#8221; I cried. He halted at
+once, and gave the word &#8220;Friend.&#8221; It was one of our sentries with a
+message that Uhlans were coming along the road. Three men were farther
+down the road; they had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> hidden so that the Uhlans would pass them, the
+sentry said.</p>
+
+<p>A section of us concealed ourselves&mdash;and waited. Presently the Uhlans came
+into sight, proceeding cautiously. Half of us were instructed to withhold
+fire until the Prussians should reach the barricade. The remainder began
+to fire. The horsemen scattered to each side of the road and returned the
+fire, but as we were not discernible, the shots went wild. I judged that
+they numbered about fifty. We dropped a few of them. They were becoming
+enraged&mdash;their fire ineffective. They mounted; and the leader spurred his
+horse, and, followed by the others, galloped in our direction. Their
+carbines spat red flashes into the night. Their bullets were coming closer
+now, because they could determine where we were lying in the ditches at
+the side of the road from the flashes of our rifles.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will they see the trees across the roadway?&#8221; was the thought that darted
+through my mind. If they should, it would probably be all up with us. As
+they came very close to the barricade, they did notice it. They<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> made a
+bold leap across, but having underestimated the number of logs there, they
+found themselves in great confusion. Some of them were pinned under their
+fallen horses. At this point, we opened fire, which completed their
+discomfiture. Above the sound of our rifle firing we could hear the
+now-familiar cry of &#8220;<i>Kamerad!</i>&#8221; &#8220;<i>Kamerad!</i>&#8221; It only served to infuriate
+us and made us shoot all the faster.</p>
+
+<p>This might well arouse against us the criticism of those who never
+witnessed atrocities committed by the Huns, but you must remember that our
+blood had not come down to normal from the effects of the sights we
+ourselves had come across.</p>
+
+<p>At last, we leaped out to make prisoners of the trapped Uhlans. Those who
+could, bolted back in the direction they came from, but it was a sure
+thing that twelve of them were missing when the roll was called.</p>
+
+<p>One might consider that a night&#8217;s work, but it wasn&#8217;t.</p>
+
+<p>It was now my turn for sentry go on the main road, which was still open
+for vehicles of our staff. This was a post where it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> thought that, to
+use an American phrase, there would be &#8220;nothing doing&#8221;; yet it was here
+that I came face to face with one of the war&#8217;s finest examples of Teutonic
+over-assurance&mdash;boldness that would have been splendid had it not been
+stupid.</p>
+
+<p>After I had been at my new post an hour, it then being near three o&#8217;clock
+in the morning, a motor car came swiftly toward me. I had been warned that
+I might expect staff officers to pass, and this, I thought, was
+undoubtedly some of them&mdash;otherwise the car would have advanced slowly. I
+stepped into the road and awaited its approach. As it neared me I saw that
+the two officers it contained wore the uniforms of the British staff. I
+could see the red tabs on their collars.</p>
+
+<p>There were two telegraph poles across the road near my post. Remembering
+this, I showed myself and called for the chauffeur to halt. He checked the
+car&#8217;s speed but brought it ahead slowly. I shouted for the countersign. I
+was waiting for the occupants of the car to give it, intending to explain
+to them that they would have to stop until I called some one to help me
+remove the telegraph<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> poles, when there was a sudden grinding of gears and
+the car shot ahead, full speed. I yelled a warning about the poles but the
+words left my lips at about the moment when the car bounced over them.</p>
+
+<p>Until that time I had no suspicion that the occupants of the car were not
+what they seemed. Even then, the manner in which they &#8220;rushed&#8221; my post
+seemed to me only due to some inexplicable misunderstanding. But I had
+marched, and fought, and gone sleepless and hungry until I was little more
+than a mechanical soldier. I was able to realize only that somebody, for
+some reason, had ignored my challenge and rushed a sentry post. I swung my
+rifle in the direction of the car, aimed accurately (in an automatic way),
+and pulled the trigger. The noise of an exploding tire followed the crack
+of my weapon. The car skidded, twisted for a moment, and then went
+on&mdash;faster than ever.</p>
+
+<p>My shot aroused our outpost. The alarm was given to the first of the
+connecting sentries and passed along quickly until it reached our company
+headquarters, on the roadside opposite<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> to a ch&acirc;teau in which Brigade
+Staff headquarters had been established. Men half awake, tumbled into the
+roadway preparing to fire on something or somebody&mdash;they didn&#8217;t know what.
+It was useless for the car to attempt to rush the crowd. Again the
+chauffeur checked it, this time bringing it to a full stop. One of the
+occupants (who, it will be remembered, were in staff uniform) demanded
+sharply of the sentry in front of the ch&acirc;teau:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is the meaning of this? Are there nothing but blockheads about here?
+We have been fired on while looking for Brigade headquarters. Somebody
+should be court-martialled for this.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sentry saluted them and admitted them to the grounds of the ch&acirc;teau.</p>
+
+<p>Their car had disappeared within the gates when I came running down the
+road and informed my company commander what had happened. He instantly
+ordered our men to surround the ch&acirc;teau and rushed in himself, following
+the car up the avenue leading through the grounds. The &#8220;staff officers&#8221;
+had abandoned their car in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> shadow of a clump of trees and were
+seeking to escape over the garden wall when our men captured them. One of
+them, speaking English without a trace of accent, still tried to &#8220;bluff&#8221;
+our men who seized him, and his assumed indignation was so convincing
+that, but for the direct orders from the company commander, the men might
+have released him, believing him really an officer of our forces. Each of
+the two wore the uniform of a staff major with all the proper badges and
+insignia. It was found that they were German spies with rough maps of the
+disposition of our retreating forces and other valuable information in
+their possession. I was informed, later, that they were shot.</p>
+
+<p>Before dawn, we got orders to retire again. It was always retire&mdash;retire.
+We were ready to fight ten times our number if only we could stop
+retiring.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after leaving this position we saw an airplane overhead. A few
+minutes later shrapnel began bursting in our direction. We scattered to
+each side of the highway, keeping under cover as best we could.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>We marched all day&mdash;God knows how far&mdash;and finally, between one and two
+the following morning, reached a place which we believed to be Pinon.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FOUR</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">As we</span> neared Pinon, the sound of artillery fire could be heard, and the
+inhabitants were all leaving the town in any way that they could. Here I
+saw further effects of Prussian atrocities.</p>
+
+<p>At this spot, a French woman, supporting her mutilated husband as best she
+could, passed us in a buggy. The sight was awful! His face and body were
+almost entirely covered with gashes from the Prussians&#8217; bayonets. His
+wife&#8217;s face was as white as death except where three cruel cuts had laid
+it open. Neither of this pitiful pair was less than sixty years old. Fine
+&#8220;enemies&#8221; for soldiers&#8217; weapons!</p>
+
+<p>Beyond this last village we lay in the open for a few hours&#8217; rest. We were
+so utterly exhausted that officers and men alike threw themselves upon the
+ground and instantly were asleep. My last waking recollection was of the
+sight of an officer of the guard striding wearily to and fro. He was
+afraid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> even to sit for fear sleep might conquer him. And my next
+recollection&mdash;seemingly coming right on the heels of the one I have
+mentioned&mdash;was of being shaken by the shoulders and having the warning
+shouted into my ear that we had got orders to force-march instantly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They say some of the blighters have got round us by the flank,&#8221; said the
+man who shook me. &#8220;Make haste!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We had rested less than three hours. Off we went on another &#8220;retirement.&#8221;
+This time under the drive of urgent necessity for speed.</p>
+
+<p>We must have marched at an extraordinary rate, because it was not yet noon
+when we arrived at the outskirts of Soissons. From the high ground on our
+right flank, we could see cavalry and artillery in great numbers, but
+whether ours or the enemy&#8217;s, none of us knew&mdash;not even the officers. As we
+arrived in the town we were greeted with artillery fire; then we knew who
+it was that awaited us.</p>
+
+<p>We got into a lumber yard and returned the fire, but I don&#8217;t think either
+side did much damage. Their bullets sang through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> the lumber gallery. The
+melody was one that had become familiar to us.</p>
+
+<p>Retreating through Soissons, we kept up a stiff fight, arriving intact at
+the farther end of the town. Here we came upon fresh and terrible evidence
+of the ruthlessness and wanton cruelty of the foe which we had first
+confronted but a few days before, then believing that the traditions of
+honourable warfare still existed. We came across scores of refugees&mdash;old
+men and women&mdash;who had been beaten and driven from their homes without
+cause. We had passed the dead bodies of many townspeople&mdash;killed,
+seemingly, by artillery fire, yet, in some cases, exhibiting suspicious
+wounds, as if bayonets or lances had been used. It was not, however, until
+we were marching through the throng of refugees, outside the town, that
+indisputable and utterly shocking proofs of the inhumanity of the Huns
+came to our eyes. In perambulators we saw wailing children with mangled or
+missing hands. I know that it has been hotly disputed that such dastardly
+crimes as these were committed by the Germans. I know also that the
+disputants who contend<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> against the truth of these reports never marched
+with us the weary and awful miles amid the fleeing and miserable people of
+Soissons.</p>
+
+<p>These mutilated children I, myself, and my comrades saw. Two at least, I
+recollect with bloody stumps where baby hands had been, and one whose foot
+had been severed at the ankle. <i>I saw these things.</i> I saw them; and I
+live to say that others with me saw them&mdash;brawny Highlanders whose tears
+of pity flowed with those of the mothers who wept for heart-break and with
+those of the babies who wept from the pain of the wounds which had maimed
+them. Ay, there were witnesses enough; and witnesses remain, though many
+of the Black Watch who that day saw and cursed the cowardly brutality of
+the Huns were to lie, but too soon, with their voices hushed for ever, so
+that they may not speak of it. But we who still live may tell of it&mdash;and
+dare a challenge of the truth of what we say! And those who saw, and
+died&mdash;paying the toll of that bloody passing from the Mons to the
+Marne&mdash;have told it, no doubt, ere this&mdash;before that Court whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> judgment
+can impose the eternal punishment that the soulless crimes demand.</p>
+
+<p>There were thousands in the unhappy throng of refugees. Some few rode upon
+hay carts, surrounded by such of their belongings as they had been able
+hastily to gather. Others pushed handcarts containing their goods and
+household articles. Most of them however, went afoot, trudging wearily
+along and carrying what they might. There, in that sickening scene, it was
+as it is everywhere. The grotesque and the humorous mixed incongruously
+with the pathetic. For instance: Alongside one perambulator with a wounded
+child in it rolled another one loaded with huge rings of bread, on top of
+which perched a parrot, screaming at every one who passed.</p>
+
+<p>One old lady was trudging along carrying a baby which could not have been
+more than two and a half years old, though the weight of his chubby frame
+was bending her almost double. I could not speak her language, but I made
+her understand that I would carry the child a mile or two and leave him by
+the side of the road. The laughter and baby antics of the child brought a
+ray of sunshine to our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> section, and especially to fathers who had left
+tots behind them in Scotland. About an hour later I came to a group by the
+roadside, who recognized the baby, and I left him with them, making them
+understand that the old lady would be along later.</p>
+
+<p>One of the last things I remember in leaving Soissons was an old man who
+was carrying his furniture and household goods to what looked like a
+modern dug-out in an embankment and covering it with earth so that it
+would not be discovered. The boys made a lot of fun of him, but the laugh
+was not on their lips very long.</p>
+
+<p>We had just reached the top of a hill on the farther side of the city,
+overlooking the railroad yards and repair shops, when we came into direct
+view of the German artillery observers, and shrapnel began to storm down
+among us. It was like the sudden burst of a thunder cloud. There wasn&#8217;t a
+moment&#8217;s warning before the smoke puffs began appearing overhead and the
+ugly steel splinters and slugs whizzed over our heads.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment deployed in a corn field at one side of the road and
+scattered, moving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> some distance from the highway. The enemy continued to
+sprinkle the corn with shrapnel but we lay flat on the ground until the
+firing ceased. The company&#8217;s cooks meanwhile, at some little distance
+ahead of us, had prepared &#8220;gunfire,&#8221; and the various companies lined up in
+file to receive their well-earned and much-desired quota of it. As the
+cooks had to keep ahead of the regiment, there was no time lost in
+disposing of the tea, and many of the men had to drink it on the run.</p>
+
+<p>A little farther on we halted for a few hours&#8217; sleep, and at ten minutes
+to three we found ourselves again on the move. We marched all that day
+through a large and dense forest. Now and again we were surprised by
+occasional artillery shots at the more open sections, but the trees helped
+a great deal in protecting us from the enemy&#8217;s airplanes, and proved a
+hindrance to their tactics. But with the cavalry it was a different
+matter. Uhlans harassed us every hour of the day. We had only about two
+machine guns to a battalion, and they were worked so steadily and so hard
+that they repeatedly jammed. Once we were almost cut off. A party of
+Uhlans came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> clattering down on our heels driving the rear guard in on the
+support, and for a few moments there was what approached a modern barrage
+fire of artillery on the road in our front. Luckily for us, the artillery
+fire slackened for some reason and we got ahead before the Uhlans could
+envelop us.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day I was serving in the rear guard. Suddenly we heard the
+roaring of a motor. We took cover at the sides of the road. Our
+&#8220;point&#8221;&mdash;was in the rear, and, if there was anything wrong, we knew they
+would inform us. The roaring of the motor grew louder. We were so tired
+that our nerves jangled. I had never felt so jumpy. There it came around
+the bend with a Red Cross flag flying from it, but it was not one of our
+ambulances. It had great, heavy, double wheels and there were Red Crosses
+painted on its sides in addition to the flag flying from the front. Our
+impression was that it had gone off its course. The chauffeur had released
+the muffler cut-out and the engine was running very quietly now. A man
+sitting beside the driver and leaning far out over the side was yelling in
+broken English that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> were lost, and he gesticulated toward the body
+of the car in such a way as to make us think that he had badly wounded men
+with him.</p>
+
+<p>We began scrambling back onto the road. Our war was not against the
+wounded and suffering, so we would let them pass.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly the ambulance stopped; the sides of it quickly rose; machine guns
+showed their ugly muzzles.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Br-r-r-r-r t-t-t,&#8221; they began to sputter.</p>
+
+<p>I leaped backward and fell headlong into the ditch. Everybody was jumping
+for cover. The bullets lashed the road and ricocheted far upon it.
+Scarcely a man of us was hit, but we were in wild confusion. I cannot
+describe the scene. No one seemed to think of putting his rifle to his
+shoulder. The horror of it&mdash;the passionate anger against such vile
+trickery&mdash;drove us into a rage; but&mdash;for the moment&mdash;it was an impotent
+rage. We seemed to be at their mercy.</p>
+
+<p>Then the platoon commander&#8217;s voice rose above the rat-a-tat of the machine
+guns:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Steady, men! Fire at will, but pick your men carefully.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>We had heard him speak in the same tone on parade. It brought us to our
+senses. The edge of the ditch on each side of the road fairly flamed with
+the sputter of rifle fire. The &#8220;ambulance&#8221; was riddled. A Prussian officer
+toppled into the middle of the road. Half a dozen men sprang from the
+ditch and rushed at him with bayonets. They killed him like a rat. There
+was no compunction about it.</p>
+
+<p>There was now heard the thrumming of more motors approaching. Round the
+turn in the road they came. This time it was transports&mdash;laden with German
+troops. There was no attempt at disguise with this mob. They thought that
+their camouflaged battery would by now have done its dirty work. Sweating
+and tugging and straining, we managed to topple the &#8220;ambulance&#8221; over in
+the road. The trucks came dashing up as we retreated&mdash;retreated only to
+get in touch with our support. The men cheered wildly as two of our own
+machine guns came up. We turned the wee fellows loose on the Germans&mdash;gave
+them a taste of their own medicine.</p>
+
+<p>Some of them came running toward us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> shouting: &#8220;<i>Kamerad! Kamerad!</i>&#8221; We
+shot them down as they ran&mdash;shot them without hesitation&mdash;after the
+dastardly trick they had played on us. Probably they were even then trying
+another ruse.</p>
+
+<p>The fight surged backward and forward. The Germans tried to press ahead.</p>
+
+<p>Then something happened which we had not expected. A burst of shrapnel
+sprayed over the Germans. In a few seconds there was another. Then two
+shells exploded at once&mdash;three&mdash;four! A rain of fire, as the French say,
+was upon them. We were getting support from our own artillery. That was
+something new and it put heart into us.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment re-formed and proceeded with an orderly retirement, while the
+artillery, like a barrier of steel, held the enemy at his distance all the
+rest of the day. We were near to exhaustion and some of the men dropped
+out of the ranks only to die of the strain. Although our pipers were as
+weary as the rest of us, they sensed that we needed encouragement, and
+with great effort struck up a march. Very soon we had left the forest
+behind us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>It is impossible to describe the effect of the skirl of those pipes that
+day. It was like a message from Heaven. We had not heard them since Mons,
+and now they were leading us out of a forest that was a picture of
+weirdness itself; leading us out into the beautiful open country. What joy
+we felt!</p>
+
+<p>At this time we were retiring almost directly toward Paris. For seventeen
+hours we marched with halts only when it was absolutely necessary. We had
+been in France four weeks, though it seemed like four years.</p>
+
+<p>One of our chief discomforts was the lack of water. Toward evening we
+halted alongside a cucumber patch. The men simply went wild, running into
+the field and sucking the juicy young cucumbers. I &#8220;drank&#8221; twelve myself,
+but we had not had time to satisfy ourselves when the Prussian artillery
+got the range again and we had to get out of the field&mdash;those of us who
+could. I have heard some &#8220;cussing&#8221; during my career in the army, but I
+don&#8217;t think I ever listened to anything quite like the brand that
+accompanied our departure from that field.</p>
+
+<p>After marching a considerable distance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> we were billeted in barns in a
+small village. This was a cheering circumstance, as the farmer gave us
+chickens and allowed us to get vegetables to make up a <i>real</i> warm meal,
+which I can assure you was enjoyed royally. We expected to stay here some
+time, so we made for the barns and lay down among the hay.</p>
+
+<p>I don&#8217;t think you could possibly form an idea of the <i>utter</i> weariness of
+the men or of the manner in which we were incessantly harassed. We never
+got a decent chance to eat, drink, or rest. The incidents of the cornfield
+and the cucumber patch are typical. Many men died of sheer exhaustion.
+When we entered the barn I was so absolutely petered out that I went to
+sleep almost before my body touched the hay.</p>
+
+<p>We had been in the barn only about two hours when there was a great
+commotion. I waked up half suffocated, but I didn&#8217;t care. Somebody kicked
+me in the ribs as I was turning over to sleep again.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>The barn&#8217;s on fire!</i>&#8221; he yelled.</p>
+
+<p>There was an odour of paraffin. It seemed that some German agent had
+started the fire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> Probably it was the owner of the place, using German
+&#8220;kultur.&#8221; Germany had left scores of such spies planted in the country,
+after 1871.</p>
+
+<p>After the fire in the barn we got a couple of hours more sleep, then moved
+off again about three o&#8217;clock in the morning. We were on the Metz road
+going east, but did not know it until our officers informed us that we
+were heading toward the Franco-German frontier. They were ever optimistic
+and helped to lighten the burdens of men who were on the last lap by
+carrying sometimes the rifles of four of them at one time on their
+shoulders. In the afternoon we came to Coulommiers. Most of the
+inhabitants were leaving, and a herald&mdash;such as existed in the Middle
+Ages,&mdash;was going through the town beating a kettle-drum and crying to all
+the civilians to take everything they could carry and leave the place. But
+this herald was a middle-aged woman.</p>
+
+<p>About two o&#8217;clock that same day, we were on the banks of a stream and the
+whole regiment began making preparations for a swim. Some were already in
+the water,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> but had scarcely got entirely wet when the German artillery
+began churning the water with shrapnel. The bodies of many of my comrades
+went floating down stream.</p>
+
+<p>That night my company guarded a road protected by barbed-wire
+entanglements and lined with poplar trees; just the kind of road you so
+often see pictured in France or Belgium. The main body of the regiment was
+dug in the side of a hill overlooking this road. It was again the luck of
+my section to protect the road some two hundred yards in advance of the
+regiment. We entrenched ourselves on each side in such a manner that one
+could advance within ten yards without detecting our position. We placed a
+few strands of the barbed-wire fencing across the road a little distance
+ahead of us.</p>
+
+<p>About midnight, I was awakened by someone tugging at me. It was the
+sentry. He pointed far up the road, and, as there was a certain amount of
+moonlight, I could see something moving between the tall poplar trees. He
+asked me what it was and I told him that it was our cavalry. However, I
+told him he should inform the section<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> commander; and then I rolled off to
+sleep again.</p>
+
+<p>Presently I felt a second tug at me. On looking up I found it was our
+sergeant; he whispered: &#8220;Be ready to spring up at a moment&#8217;s notice.&#8221; The
+others were already in position. In the dim light I could see the
+queer-shaped lance-caps that the Uhlans wore.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Halt! Who goes there?&#8221; shouted the sentry.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Freunden,&#8221; said a voice in reply.</p>
+
+<p>With that they were almost on the barbed-wire, and we greeted them in the
+way such &#8220;friends&#8221; should be greeted. There was a tremendous turmoil. All
+but two fell into our hands. To be exact, fifteen were captured and three
+killed. Three of the captives were officers.</p>
+
+<p>One of the officers, when searched, was found to have in his possession a
+novelty mirror with the photograph of a girl on the back. He made no fuss
+about giving up anything but the mirror. This, however, he insisted upon
+having back. Finally the examining officer, Major Lord George Stewart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
+Murray, became suspicious and decided that the Boche&#8217;s sentiment was not
+on the level. He stripped the photograph off the back. Under it he found a
+thin sort of skin and, underneath that, pasted to the back of it, a paper
+covered with writing. He returned the mirror to the German officer, but he
+retained the paper; and the writing gave the staff much satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>All night long we were troubled by similar parties of Uhlans. They were
+evidently feeling out for an attack, but, not being able to gauge our
+strength, they never made it. Some of our boys crawled out from the
+trenches to rescue a trooper with a broken leg, and they said that only a
+few paces away they could not distinguish the trench or tell how many men
+were there. If the Uhlans had only known the facts they could have swarmed
+over us. In the morning we collected souvenirs from the field. One of the
+fellows picked up a lance with two bullet holes clean through the steel
+tubing shaft.</p>
+
+<p>Our next stop was at Nesl&ecirc;s. We drew up alongside a field of beets just
+before going into the village, and most of the men fell out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> of ranks and
+lay down alongside the road. Some were in the ploughed earth between the
+rows of beets. The artillery had been firing at us most of the day, but
+they hadn&#8217;t found the range. There were some heavy guns hammering at us,
+as we could tell from the explosions of the shells.</p>
+
+<p>As usual, when it came time for a rest, the Germans began to locate us.
+One of the heaviest shells I had yet seen exploded in the field and
+scattered beets all over the surrounding country. A member of our company
+right near me was stunned for a few seconds.</p>
+
+<p>Before any one had recovered himself enough to go to his aid, he sat up
+unsteadily, his head wobbling, his face a mass of red. A few yards behind
+him was his forage cap. He put his shaking hand up to his head; withdrew
+it, then looked at his fingers which were dripping red.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah weel, lads, Ah&#8217;ve got it noo!&#8221; he lamented. &#8220;Ah&#8217;m sair-r-r-tainly din
+fur &#8217;cause Ah dinna feel a theng. Ah on&#8217;y wesh Ah could &#8217;a got ane o&#8217; the
+deevils tae me credit afore this!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>By this time two or three of us had run forward and were wiping his head
+and face. There was no evidence of a wound. Then suddenly some one roared
+with laughter. The man was covered with the red juice of beets and was
+entirely unhurt. He had only been stunned. This is the way Mars jests. His
+humour is always mixed with grimness.</p>
+
+<p>We learned that we were to stop at Nesl&euml;s overnight, and this, coupled
+with the fact that we had commenced advancing, put new enthusiasm into us.</p>
+
+<p>Before we arrived there were large vineyards at each side of the road
+leading up a hill overlooking a beautiful little town, on the south bank
+of the Petit Morin River. We had a few minutes&#8217; halt within reach of the
+lovely French grapes, which hung most temptingly in clusters, so it was
+quite natural that some of the boys who were extremely thirsty and warm
+from the scorching sun, should partake of this inviting fruit.</p>
+
+<p>Discipline in the British army is second to none; and we were commanded to
+observe it strictly while on the retreat. One of our orders was &#8220;not to
+pluck fruit,&#8221; as it came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> under the category of &#8220;Looting.&#8221; Very soon the
+few fellows who had disobeyed that order were rolling on the ground,
+holding their stomachs. Later we were told that the grapes on both sides
+of the road had been poisoned by the Germans. This was punishment enough
+for those who had eaten the fruit, and a lesson that every one of us &#8220;took
+home.&#8221;</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FIVE</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">As we</span>&mdash;the other scouts and I&mdash;advanced, firing details, which had been
+left behind under close cover by the Germans, did a good deal of execution
+amongst us. The hay-stacks, particularly, gave us a great deal of trouble.
+More than once, one of them would be disrupted as though by some sort of
+explosion from the inside, and machine guns would begin spraying our
+skirmishing lines. So it became an important part of our scouting
+operations to search all hay-stacks and farm houses. And continually we
+were under what, ordinarily, would be termed heavy fire.</p>
+
+<p>The ground over which we were passing had been the scene of sharp
+fighting, earlier. We came across scores of dead Germans and a few French.
+In the midst of a field dotted with a particularly large number of
+hay-stacks was a farm house. When we were about thirty or forty yards from
+it and on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> opposite sides, we leaped up and dashed toward it as hard as we
+could run. It is a fact that this is the safest way for patrols to
+approach a house. If any of the enemy are inside, they become excited when
+they see men rushing toward them and are likely to open fire&mdash;instead of
+waiting until the scouts get inside and then killing them noiselessly.
+Their aim is also more uncertain at a running man than it is at one
+sneaking along slowly, and, most important of all, whether the scouts are
+killed or not, the noise of the rifle fire alarms the main body and the
+party in the house is detected.</p>
+
+<p>Troolan (my scout partner) and I arrived at this particular farm house on
+a dead run without having drawn any fire or detected the least sign of
+life. We tried all the doors; they were locked. The windows, too, were
+bolted from the inside. Troolan smashed one in, got inside, and opened the
+door for me. We searched the building rather hurriedly and discovered no
+sign of any one having been there. Just as we were going out, I had a
+premonition that I ought to look further.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>&#8220;Wait outside and watch,&#8221; I said to Troolan, &#8220;and I will take another look
+around.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He posted himself outside. Very cautiously I stepped down the cellar
+stairs. The boards seemed to squeak and groan like a lumbering farm wagon.
+It was dark as pitch, but I did not dare to make a light. It would have
+been fatal if any one really was lurking there. Something scurried across
+the floor. I felt the hot blood surge under my scalp. For a second I
+expected to see a red flash in the utter darkness and feel a bullet smash
+into my body. Then I discovered that it was only a rat.</p>
+
+<p>I thought I heard breathing. I stood stock still, and strained my eyes on
+every side till they ached as if they would burst from their sockets. I
+was trying to catch the reflection of some stray beam of light from the
+eyes of a man or the barrel of an automatic, but I do not believe that so
+much as a pin point of light was diffused in that whole black pit.
+Suddenly I almost laughed aloud, although I knew that to do so might mean
+instant death. The breathing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> that I heard was my own. Cautiously I thrust
+out my foot to descend another step.</p>
+
+<p>There was a shout outside.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Run to the door quickly,&#8221; Troolan was yelling.</p>
+
+<p>I leaped up the stairway regardless of what might be behind me and dashed
+toward the kitchen door to get outside the house. Just as I did so, I saw
+a shadow flit along the ground past the kitchen window. Guessing where the
+man must be who cast it, I fired through the wooden wall of the kitchen at
+about the height of the average man&#8217;s breast. Then in a couple of bounds I
+was outside. There stood Troolan looking very much surprised and grieved
+when he saw me. His rifle was half drawn up to his shoulder, and he was in
+the attitude of getting ready to fire.</p>
+
+<p>Perspiration broke out on my forehead. I realised that the shadow had been
+Troolan&#8217;s and from the look of him I had come very nigh to killing him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What the h&mdash;&mdash; was that for, ye muckle galoot?&#8221; he threw at me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I saw a shadow,&#8221; I said, &#8220;and let drive.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>&#8220;Ye&#8217;re an auld wife, that&#8217;s what ye&#8217; are,&#8221; said Troolan disgustedly,
+&#8220;a&#8217;firin&#8217; after shadows.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Never mind now,&#8221; I said, &#8220;what did you see?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I saw a big boche,&#8221; said my scouting partner, &#8220;or, at least, I thocht I
+did. Maybe I&#8217;ve been takin&#8217; you fur him the same as you did me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe,&#8221; I said, &#8220;but the best plan is for you to watch this house while I
+go and report.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; said Troolan. I started away. I had not gone a dozen paces
+when I heard scuffling behind me. I turned round and started to run back
+at the same instant. What I saw lent speed to my feet. The helmet of a
+German officer was just coming through a window. Troolan, who had
+evidently been concealed from the German&#8217;s view, was aiming a blow at his
+head with the butt of his rifle.</p>
+
+<p>As usual, Troolan had lacked finesse. He had rushed so clumsily to the
+attack that both the officer and I had heard him. The German dodged just
+in time to evade the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> blow, and Troolan&#8217;s rifle banged the window sill.</p>
+
+<p>How the boche did it, I do not know, but it seemed as though he was
+propelled by strong steel springs under his feet. He fairly shot out of
+the window like a dart from a catapult and landed on Troolan&#8217;s neck. Both
+men went down. I dared not fire. They were rolling over and over one
+another, kicking and striking with their fists. The boche was fouling
+Troolan in a way that would be prohibited in wrestling. I jumped into the
+fray and tried to find the German&#8217;s throat, but the men were so entwined
+that it was hard to get a hold on him. Suddenly a heavy boot struck me in
+the pit of the stomach, and I rolled over and over to find myself gasping
+for breath a dozen feet away.</p>
+
+<p>Painfully I got up and staggered toward the struggling men, but I was too
+late to be of any use. After a particularly frantic struggle Troolan
+managed to get on top of his adversary, with his right arm free. His
+mighty fist came smashing down full in the other&#8217;s face. The German
+staggered to his feet, but Troolan leaped clear of him, seized<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> his rifle,
+and, this time, brought the butt down with a thud on the other&#8217;s skull.
+Then Troolan burst into some of the most profane Scotch it has been my
+doubtful privilege to hear.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you cursing about?&#8221; I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I want to mak shair that Deevil&#8217;s deed!&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Later that day we were relieved by other scouts.</p>
+
+<p>Toward nightfall troops began to arrive on either side of us in great
+numbers, and dispatch riders with various insignia continually dashed up
+on their speedy motorcycles to our brigade headquarters. Everyone realized
+that we must be approaching something big, for previous to this we had
+been fighting, for the most part, isolated engagements. As a matter of
+fact, it developed that we were preparing for the Battle of the Marne.</p>
+
+<p>We remained at this spot all night. At dawn, orders were given that we
+were to take the high ground the Germans were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> occupying a few miles ahead
+of us. Our brigade marched in skirmishing order, followed by the cavalry
+and artillery. We passed scores of dead&mdash;some French but the majority
+German. Dead horses were intermingled with the bodies of men.</p>
+
+<p>We were under heavy shell fire until we descended into the shelter of a
+gully. Here we met a few of the French Chasseurs. Four or five farms were
+clustered together, and the sights we encountered in the yards and on the
+roads were the worst we had yet seen. Pools of congealed blood; bodies of
+dead soldiers partly covered with sacks and straw; the barns so filled
+that the feet of dead men were protruding. The Chasseurs appeared very
+pale and silent.</p>
+
+<p>The ridge was densely covered with hazel-wood. We got the command to fix
+bayonets and extend into skirmishing formation. The Black Watch with the
+Camerons were to take the ridge, while the Coldstreams and Scots Guards
+were to be in reserve.</p>
+
+<p>An incident occurred during the ascent of the ridge which illustrated the
+reckless, devil-may-care spirit of the men in our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> battalion in a way
+which impressed even me. The front-line men came upon a lot of blackberry
+bushes. They began plucking and eating the berries, shouting gleefully to
+one another to signal the discovery of an especially well-laden bush.
+Until the officers sternly warned them of the peril they invited by such
+noise and incaution, you would have thought they were schoolboys on a
+lark.</p>
+
+<p>I was one of the scouts sent up the ridge to try to locate the position
+and number of the enemy and report at once. Wriggling along on my belly
+like a snake, I made my way foot by foot. I could hear our fellows
+shouting, and it rather disconcerted me as I felt they would attract the
+enemy&#8217;s attention, but I continued on my way nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>I never knew that so many sharp stones could be scattered in so short a
+distance. It seemed as though some of them were forcing themselves clean
+in between my ribs.</p>
+
+<p>Presently I came to a hastily constructed barbed-wire entanglement at the
+edge of a thicket. Ahead of me was a clear rising space of about fifty
+yards which did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> show from below. Beyond this was a plateau. Before
+advancing farther I peered through the thicket and scanned the crest.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly I heard a familiar, unmistakable rattling. It was the opening and
+closing of rifle bolts. My skin prickled all over. I knew that it meant
+troops getting ready to fire and I had no doubt the Germans had discovered
+me and were preparing to shoot. I wriggled backward a few feet into the
+thicket, expecting every second to hear the crash of a volley and to pass
+into oblivion. But the crash did not come. Evidently they had not seen me.</p>
+
+<p>Under cover of the underbrush I crept forward again until I could see the
+helmets of German troops in the woods atop of the ridge. They outnumbered
+our troops. I crawled to the left until I came to a point where I could
+command a view of the crest, where they were in waiting, but apparently
+unaware of our near approach. I crawled back until I was out of sight.
+Then I leaped to my feet and ran as if I were once more on a cinder track
+in the old barrack days. Brambles tore my hands and face and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> lacerated my
+bare knees, but I did not heed them.</p>
+
+<p>I had seen enough, and the sooner we could make the attack the better.
+Besides, they might even yet see me, and I preferred the scratching of
+brambles to the bite of a steel bullet.</p>
+
+<p>In safety I got back to our lines. The boys could see from my excitement
+that something was up.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did you find them, Joe?&#8221; they shouted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where is the adjutant?&#8221; I demanded. Somebody told me, and I hurried to him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How many of them are there?&#8221; he asked when I told what I had seen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All I can say, sir, is that they outnumber us and are waiting,&#8221; I answered.</p>
+
+<p>Orders were given for an immediate attack.</p>
+
+<p>I went forward again, but this time in my own place in the company, with
+men either side of me, and with real business ahead. We made our way in
+silence through the woods toward the terrace. Still the Germans did not
+fire. We wondered whether they were really unaware of our approach, or,
+just holding their fire for close range? This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> was the first time we had
+been in a big attack of this kind and we knew that bayonet work would be
+the end of it.</p>
+
+<p>The answer to our questioning soon came. It was in the form of a burst of
+fire from the ridge above us. Twigs fell all around us and here and there
+a man dropped too.</p>
+
+<p>We could not do much in the way of returning the fire, for we had not yet
+reached the open. The blood was pounding through my arteries. I felt much
+as I used to before the start of an important race. The second platoon to
+my right went forward, while our fire covered their advance. Crouching
+low, the men dashed on at full speed. Here and there one of them toppled
+backward. Then the platoon nearest to us advanced. It would be our turn
+next. We ceased firing and prepared to rush. Our lieutenant looked at the
+commander, whose whistle had just blown a shrill blast. He signalled for
+us to go forward.</p>
+
+<p>Like one man, we leaped to our feet. The thin line swept out onto the open
+terrace. Each man had but one friend then, his rifle with the bayonet
+fixed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>We had arrived at the point where I had previously encountered the barbed
+wire. Throwing ourselves flat on the ground, we returned the enemy&#8217;s fire.
+After cutting the barbed-wire, we awaited orders. The word came to charge.
+With one mighty shout, we made for the crest. When one goes out with the
+bayonet he goes to kill or to be killed, but with the former in mind.</p>
+
+<p>The German fire thundered out as though it had been tripled. The trees and
+bushes were cut as by scythes, but they were only shooting in a
+direction&mdash;they could not see us clearly. Up, up we went. Loose stones
+rattled under our feet, and went tumbling down the slope, but we picked
+ourselves up and pushed always forward and upward. At last we saw the
+Germans who were firing at us over their trenches. Our men were yelling
+like demons.</p>
+
+<p>Then the German fire stopped as though every man had, on the instant, been
+struck dead. An instant later, they leaped out of their trenches, with
+bayonets fixed, and dashed toward us. Every man among them looked a giant.
+One of our boys was ahead of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> the others. He was a bow-legged little
+fellow, and, even at that moment, he looked ludicrous with his bare knees
+and kilts. A big German was over him. The little fellow seemed to drop his
+rifle. He had caught it in both hands, close under the handle of the
+bayonet. He straightened up, heaving his shoulders, brought up his
+forearms with a jerk, and the steel blade drove through the soft spot in
+the German&#8217;s throat&mdash;just under the chin. The Prussian&#8217;s last cry was
+drowned by the fierce yell of the little bow-legged man. It was the spirit
+of the bayonet which made him yell like a savage.</p>
+
+<p>There was no time to see what was going on around me any more. We were
+fighting knee to knee. I can but faintly recall the actual close fighting,
+but I seemed to make good use of my bayonet. Sometimes I was knocked off
+my feet, but the next instant I was up again. I was not thinking of what
+might happen to me. It was fight, fight, and keep on fighting. One seemed
+imbued with a superhuman strength.</p>
+
+<p>One of our boys seized a German&#8217;s rifle, and wrested it from him by a
+trick which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> seemed to break his arm. A little farther away two Germans
+were rushing upon one man. Mechanically, I leaped into action. The butt of
+my rifle felled the nearest boche. Somebody knocked the rifle out of my
+hands. Somehow I ducked a thrust made at me and ran in on the German who
+made it, and smashed my fist on the point of his jaw.</p>
+
+<p>They began to waver now. They did not seem to care for our company with
+our kilts and our steel&mdash;we whom they later learned to call the &#8220;Ladies of
+Hell.&#8221; (Because of our kilts.) At last they broke and ran. We were after
+them. A machine gun rattled away at the head of a path down which some of
+our boys were dashing. It almost wiped out <i>B</i> company before we could
+silence it.</p>
+
+<p>Just over the crest of the ridge we came upon their combat wagons and a
+field gun. Three men and an officer were trying to save the gun. The men
+who were hitching the horses to it broke and ran. The officer did not
+hesitate a second to shoot them in the backs. Then <i>he</i> fell with one of
+our bullets through his head. We captured the gun.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>By this time I was regaining my proper senses. A feeling of exhaustion
+seemed to envelop me; my legs wobbled. Then I dropped to the ground. Every
+bone, muscle, and nerve ached, and I felt as though I had just been
+through a tough wrestling match.</p>
+
+<p>When we had counted up, we found that two company officers, Captain
+Drummond and Captain Dalgleish, had been killed. We picked up about fifty
+German rifles and broke them over the trunks of trees. Our casualties were
+one hundred and fifty killed and only God knows how many wounded.</p>
+
+<p>Our prisoners amounted to about one hundred and forty. Among them was a
+man who had worked in London as a watchmaker. In very broken English, he
+asked if he could get his job back if he were sent to London. We told him
+that he would get a job all right, but that somebody else would see to the
+watchmaking.</p>
+
+<p>After capturing the crest, upon looking from the far side, we could see
+great numbers of German cavalry and infantry in retreat. The plateau was
+strewn with I should judge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> about five hundred dead bodies of the enemy.
+Their horses that had been wounded were left behind&mdash;left to die. We let
+go a few volleys of long-range fire to hurry the boches on their way.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER SIX</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">We</span> had very little rest after the fight I have just described. We were
+getting down to the real business of war. It was fighting, and not the
+incessant retreating, which had been sapping the life out of us for weeks.
+You must remember, also, the weight that each man carried during all those
+long wearisome retreats. Each of us had his heavily plaited kilt; his pack
+containing great coat, flannel shirt, two pairs of socks, waterproof
+sheet, extra shoes, and towel; his canteen, rifle, entrenching tool,
+bayonet, and ammunition&mdash;the whole totalling ninety pounds weight.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately after the fight, in shallow, narrow trenches, we began to bury
+our dead. Before the work was finished, a detachment of Uhlans fired on
+us, but one of our companies drove them across a rivulet and over the
+crest of the next ridge.</p>
+
+<p>One of our pipers&mdash;Dougall McLeod was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> his name&mdash;had lost his chum in the
+fight. McLeod was a sentimental sort of chap, with little heart for the
+work of killing. He was sitting on the ground fastening together a couple
+of strips of wood to make a little cross for his chum&#8217;s grave&mdash;or rather
+his chum&#8217;s share of the one long grave. The tears were trickling down his
+grimy, bloody cheeks, and he wasn&#8217;t ashamed of them, nor of the furrows
+they cut in the caked dirt. It was just before he finished his work that
+the Uhlans opened fire. McLeod threw the loose pieces of the cross to the
+ground, and sprang to his place in the firing line. I had never seen the
+passion of hate in his eyes before. All that the Germans had made him
+suffer had never aroused him, but now that they interrupted him in the
+work of making a homely mark for his friend&#8217;s grave, he was fired by the
+will to kill. I was only a few paces from him in the firing line, and,
+with the tears still streaming down his face, I could hear him mutter
+every time his rifle crashed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Damn you! You will, will you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We again took to the road. All that day we marched under occasional shell
+fire. Along<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> the sides of the roads, we passed the wrecks of scores of
+German combat wagons and supply trains. Sometimes there was a field piece
+amid the d&eacute;bris. Toward evening we heard terrific firing on our right, but
+we were not called to enter the engagement. Later we learned that a French
+division had been pretty badly cut up in running the boches out of a
+strong position.</p>
+
+<p>Their wounded passed us on the road. You cannot imagine a more pitiful or
+a more noble sight. Limping along, supported by their comrades, came
+scores of men, whose every step was costing them agony but who smiled at
+us as we cheered them. Straggling down the road, as we swung along, came
+groups of wounded, each supporting the other as best he could. In one case
+in particular, a man who had been badly maimed and was using his rifle as
+a crutch, was also supported by a comrade who had been blinded. If there
+had ever been doubt in our minds as to the mettle of our allies, it was
+dispelled now, as the lame and the blind hour after hour filed past us.</p>
+
+<p>We billeted that night at a place, the name<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> of which sounded like
+Villers. I remember that a detachment of French were there before us, and
+a peasant pointed out to me a row of trees where they had hung fifteen
+Germans captured there, because, when the Uhlans had taken the town
+fifteen of them had brutally assaulted and outraged a farmer&#8217;s wife and
+his daughter, twelve years of age. The ropes were still dangling from the
+trees.</p>
+
+<p>Volunteers were asked for, to go down and get the mail. Practically every
+one offered his services. To get mail from home gave the same sensation as
+scoring a victory, and we were all eager to do our bit. This was about
+10.30 <span class="smcaplc">P.M.</span> and the rain was coming down in torrents. About two miles
+behind us lay the mail strewn around the road. The ambulance carrying it
+had been struck by a shell. Our volunteer mail carriers gathered the
+letters up, and, needless to say, there was much excitement among us on
+their arrival. Nothing else was thought of for the moment except the news
+from home.</p>
+
+<p>The next few days were uneventful. Toward evening on the thirteenth of
+September, I was scouting on our left flank. The German<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> heavy guns had
+been keeping up a steady searching fire all day, but little damage had
+been done.</p>
+
+<p>I had got so accustomed to the roar of the explosions that they did not
+bother me very much. After a while a man gets so used to the sound of a
+shrieking shell in the air that he can tell by instinct when one is coming
+his way in time to throw himself flat on the ground. I had not yet reached
+this stage of proficiency. A shell did come my way. How close it came I
+will never know, because all of a sudden I felt as though my head were
+bursting. I seemed to be tumbling end over end and being torn to pieces.
+My ear drums rang and pained excruciatingly. I thought to myself &#8220;I am
+dying,&#8221; and I wondered how I kept feeling a sort of consciousness although
+I must be already torn to bits.</p>
+
+<p>Then I found myself sitting up on the ground with a man from my patrol
+supporting my head.</p>
+
+<p>Now, this is the strange thing. I was instantly and absolutely oblivious
+when the shell exploded. All the sensations I have described came when I
+was recovering consciousness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> Surgeons have told me since then that they
+were exactly what the shell caused when it exploded, but that my brain did
+not register them until my senses returned. My clothes were scorched and
+even my hair was singed. I do not know why I was not killed, but in a few
+hours I was ready for duty once more. The man who picked me up said that
+the shell had burst some little distance overhead. If it had struck the
+ground close to me, it would doubtless have sent me &#8220;west.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The game had now been turned about. We were the pursuers. Most of the
+fighting was between the enemy&#8217;s rear guard and our contact patrols&mdash;until
+we reached the Aisne. The Huns crossed the river, but they blew up the
+bridges behind them. The last of the retreating troops were scarcely
+across before the detonators were set off.</p>
+
+<p>We were held up for a while on the Aisne while our engineers constructed
+pontoon bridges. The Germans had the range, and they almost wiped out our
+entire battalion of engineers before our troops could cross.</p>
+
+<p>I saw a working raft swing out into the river with about twelve men on it.
+A single<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> burst of shrapnel exploded in their midst and there wasn&#8217;t a man
+left standing. One of them crawled to the stern and began pushing the raft
+toward shore with a pole but he was so weak that the current kept swinging
+him down a stream. A sniper got him.</p>
+
+<p>The raft was drifting away. Nobody expected to see the men on it again,
+but, in the face of shrapnel and a nasty fire from snipers, three men,
+stark naked, jumped into the stream and struck out for the raft. The water
+around them was whipped by bullets, but our boys located the snipers and
+got the range and quieted them. The first man reached the raft. His hands
+were over the edge. He had just pushed his head and shoulders over the
+side when a rifle snapped and he slipped back into the water; then I saw
+the German who had fired at him topple out of a tree. A dozen shots must
+have struck him. The two other swimmers were alongside the raft now and
+climbed upon it. I could see that one was bleeding at the shoulder. Our
+men pulled the wounded man upon the raft, and brought it to shore. Their
+heroism saved the lives of five men who otherwise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> would have drifted away
+and probably died.</p>
+
+<p>Soon our own artillery began to locate the German guns, whose fire
+diminished. Then our infantry began to cross the river at a dozen points.
+On the opposite bank was a village by the name of Bourg. Up and down hills
+we worked our way, forcing the enemy off the ridges. The details of the
+operations would not be of interest. We wanted to close with the bayonets,
+but the boches weren&#8217;t ready for that, and they dropped back foot by foot,
+keeping up a hot fire.</p>
+
+<p>On this side of the river were numerous stone quarries, and in these we
+found tons and tons of ammunition for the heavy German guns. The type and
+manufacturers&#8217; marks showed that some of it was made as far back as the
+Franco-Prussian war. It had been lying in caches in the quarries for
+years, the Prussians having bought titles to some of the land through
+spies who posed as Frenchmen. They had been making use of this ammunition
+against us. It shows how long ago the war was planned and by whom. In some
+of the quarries we uncovered re-enforced <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>concrete fortification and
+emplacements for cannon.</p>
+
+<p>Our commander, Colonel Grant Duff, was in the thickest of the fighting. I
+saw him distributing bandoliers of ammunition along the firing line. His
+men tried to make him go to the rear, but we were having a tough time to
+keep fire superiority, and we needed every man in the line. Suddenly
+Colonel Duff staggered and slouched forward on his hands and knees. The
+bandoliers he was carrying, scattered. Several men rushed to him but he
+got to his feet himself and ordered them back to their posts. An ugly red
+stain was spreading over his tartan riding breeches and leggings, but he
+staggered onward with the ammunition. He had not gone a dozen steps when
+both his arms flew up into the air and he fell backward. This time he did
+not move. He had been shot straight through the heart, and another
+commander of the Black Watch had gone to join the long line of heroes who
+had so often led this regiment to victory.</p>
+
+<p>Many of our company commanders were picked off by the enemy because of
+their <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>distinctive dress, their celluloid map cases affording excellent
+targets.</p>
+
+<p>My memory of this fight is somewhat fragmentary. There are phases which
+are all but blanks to me. Others stand out with startling clarity.</p>
+
+<p>We were advancing in skirmishing order through a wood. A pal of my old
+athletic days, Ned McD&mdash;&mdash;, fighting a few yards from me in our scattered
+line, fell with a bullet through both thighs. I made him as comfortable as
+I could in a nook about twenty paces back from where our men, lying on
+their stomachs, were keeping up a steady rifle fire through the
+underbrush. I had hardly returned to the line when the whistle of our
+platoon commander sounded shrilly, and we were ordered to retire to the
+farther edge of the plateau, where our men could have better protection
+from the enemy fire. I hurriedly placed McD&mdash;&mdash; under the edge of a bank,
+where, at least, he would not be trampled on by men or horses.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t attempt to leave the spot, Ned,&#8221; I said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll get back to you
+to-night if there&#8217;s an opportunity.&#8221; The chance did come, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> when I
+reached the spot he had disappeared. Our subsequent meeting&mdash;the story of
+which I shall tell&mdash;is one of my few agreeable recollections in the train
+of the tragedy of our campaign.</p>
+
+<p>But to go back to the fight.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after leaving the spot where McD&mdash;&mdash; lay, I joined in a charge on a
+line of hidden trenches. We were upon them, and it was steel and teeth
+again. I saw an officer run in under a bayonet thrust, and jab his thumbs
+into a German&#8217;s eyes. The boche rolled upon the ground, screaming. How
+long we fought, I do not know. When it was over we began to pick up the
+wounded. It was night. The Prussian guns were still hammering at us, and
+some of the shells set fire to a number of haystacks in the field where we
+had crossed the open. It was Hell. In the red glare of the fire the
+stretcher bearers hurried here and there with the dying, while others who
+had been placed behind the hay-stacks for shelter burned to death when the
+stalks caught fire. The few who could, crawled away from the fire. Those
+of us who were able to do so, pulled others to safety, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> many a man had
+his hands and face badly burned, rescuing a helpless comrade.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning we went at them again. In the first rush, I felt a sudden
+slap against my thigh. It did not feel like anything more than a blow from
+an open palm. I thought nothing more of it until after the fight, when
+some one told me I was bleeding. A bullet had struck the flesh of my
+thigh. The slight wound was dressed at the regimental station, and I was
+ready for duty again.</p>
+
+<p>That night I was assigned to outpost duty between the lines. The German
+artillery had so covered the roads and the bridge, that for two days the
+supply wagons had been unable to come up. I was almost starved. My stomach
+ached incessantly from sheer hunger and I was weak from the bleeding of my
+wound. It seems terrible, looking back at it, but, during the night, while
+my partner watched, I crawled out and searched the dead for rations. I
+found none. Fifty paces from our post lay a dead artillery horse. We had
+to eat&mdash;or drop. What could we do? Wriggling on my belly like a snake, I
+drew myself toward the smelling carcass, cut off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> enough with my jackknife
+to do the section, brought it back, and we ate it.</p>
+
+<p>There followed days of lying in the trenches. Every time one of us showed
+a head above the surface of the earth a single shot would ring out, and
+more than once it accomplished its mission. Two or three times I almost
+caught it myself. At last I made up my mind that the sniper must be in a
+sugar factory building which showed clearly above a ridge on the right
+front of our position. Jock Hunter and I volunteered to go there and
+investigate. Working our way under cover of a wooded patch, we reached the
+factory yard where we encountered an old Frenchman who seemed to be the
+owner of the place.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do you want?&#8221; he demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you seen a sniper anywhere about here?&#8221; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; he answered in a surly manner, &#8220;and you get out of here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll get out,&#8221; I retorted, &#8220;and <i>you&#8217;ll</i> get with us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I searched the factory building from cellar to roof but wasn&#8217;t able to
+discover anything incriminating. I didn&#8217;t know much about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> sugar
+factories, but there was a lot of machinery in the place that didn&#8217;t look
+to me as if it had anything to do with sugar.</p>
+
+<p>Back to our lines we went, with the supposed Frenchman making a lot of
+noise, but walking about two inches in front of the points of our
+bayonets. When he was searched we found notes to the value of fifteen
+thousand francs sewed in his clothes, but most important of all, there
+were papers upon his person which showed that he was a German spy left
+there by the Prussians in 1871. He held title to many acres of land,
+including some of the quarries where shells had been hidden.</p>
+
+<p>I told the company officer of the suspicious-looking machinery in the
+factory. He sent us back there with a subaltern of the engineers. The
+three of us approached the building by different routes. Suddenly, from a
+narrow window in the tower of the structure, a rifle cracked, and I saw
+the subaltern duck behind a bush. Hunter and I each began to run toward
+the factory. Zip! A bullet whistled past my ear, and a few seconds later
+Hunter was fired at.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>We all reached the place together. As the firing had been from the tower,
+we hurried to the upper storeys, but the subaltern saw at a glance that
+the machinery I had noticed was a wireless plant. Afterward we found that
+the numerous &#8220;lightning rods&#8221; on the factory were in reality wireless
+antenn&aelig;. We went to the top of the tower without finding a single soul,
+but in a little room in the cupola, there were a few bread crumbs
+scattered over the floor. A corner of the linoleum covering on the floor
+of this room looked a little uneven. The subaltern posted each of us in a
+different corner with orders to fire three rapid rounds from our rifles
+into different points of the floor. He himself was to discharge his
+revolver in a like manner. At his signal we all opened fire, splintering
+the floor in several places. Then we heard a groan.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come up here!&#8221; called the subaltern, in English. There was no answer. He
+repeated the command in German. Very slowly the linoleum in the corner of
+the room where it was uneven began to hump up. We all stood ready to fire.
+A trap door was lifting.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> Presently the corner of the floor covering was
+pushed back completely and a man&#8217;s face appeared. It was a very white,
+drawn face, and, as the shoulders rose above the floor level, we saw that
+the man had been struck by at least one of our bullets. His left arm hung
+limp by his side. We patched him up.</p>
+
+<p>The officer told Hunter and myself to cut all wires, which, after some
+search, we found had been laid at the bottom of the walls and cunningly
+concealed by the grass. Then we took our prisoner back to our lines. An
+hour later our howitzers had demolished the factory. Up to this time, the
+boche artillery had been planting one shell after another on our
+positions, no matter how often we shifted. After the factory was destroyed
+we made one more move and no shells found us.</p>
+
+<p>We dug ourselves into the ground, and the almost continual rain made mud
+holes out of the trenches. Our force was not large enough in those days to
+allow of the elaborate system of supports and reserves that exists to-day.
+The men in the firing trenches had to stay there, and there was no going
+back into bomb-proofs for a rest. At night we lay<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> down all in our muddy
+clothes with a waterproof sheet beneath us and our greatcoats around us.
+The sheet didn&#8217;t do much good, because after lying in it for a while, it
+got pressed down into the mud and slime, which came all over the edges.
+Every one had a cold, and many of the men suffered from rheumatism, but no
+complaints were heard. It is only when things are going smoothly and
+&#8220;fags&#8221; are lacking that the British Tommy kicks.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the lack of supplies, the issues of cigarettes were so few and
+far between that the dry tea that was sent up as part rations was used to
+make &#8220;fags.&#8221; Tommies would roll the tea in paper in the form of cigarettes
+and smoke it. As much as five francs would be offered for one &#8220;Woodbine&#8221;
+when our supplies were exhausted. A &#8220;fag&#8221; was a most precious thing, and
+guarded jealously. A fellow would get into a corner, take a couple of
+puffs, &#8220;nip&#8221; it, then hide it away in a safe place on his person for fear
+of thieves in the night! In one instance, I watched a scene that would
+have brought forth laughter as well as pity from a civilian. One Tommy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>
+was observed in a corner finishing a half-inch butt, holding it by a pin
+which was stuck through it. Three others immediately pounced upon him and
+his treasure. After a short argument they formed a truce in the following
+manner: each man in rotation was to take one puff. A cockney with a Walrus
+moustache was last on the line, and with great sadness on his face and a
+sob in his voice said: &#8220;Bli&#8217; me! w&#8217;ere the &#8217;ell do <i>I</i> come in?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Out in front of our trenches the mud was full of the bodies of the
+dead&mdash;mostly Germans, but a few of our men. At night, we went out to bury
+them, but the enemy fired on us, so we had to leave them there. The wind
+was blowing our way, and they knew the odours of the battlefield were as
+hard for us to bear as was their artillery or rifle fire. This scheme they
+had learned from the Russians, who practised it during their war with
+Japan.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER SEVEN</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Our</span> trenches were pretty effective against rifle fire, but we had not yet
+learned to make them deep and narrow enough in proportion to protect us
+against shrapnel, which is not of much use against troops in the
+present-day trench. Our defence lay in leaning up close against the front
+wall of the trench, which caused most of the force of the shrapnel burst
+to go over our heads. One morning I was hugging the wall of the trench as
+close as I could stick, when a &#8220;coal box&#8221; burst near by. It tore down a
+long section of trench wall, killing a number of men. I saw the explosion
+and the next thing I knew I heard some one saying:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah&#8217;ll bet ye&#8217; Joe&#8217;s snuffed it noo&#8217;, puir lad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I stuck my head up out of what seemed to me to be a ton or two of rock and
+dirt and yelled: &#8220;No; not this time!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>You should have seen their faces. Some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> looked frightened and others
+relieved. In a second they began to laugh. Two or three of them helped me
+to my feet, and then the laughing became more boisterous.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t so d&mdash;&mdash; funny as you think,&#8221; I said, getting a little peeved.</p>
+
+<p>They turned me round and one of them held up the front part of my kilt in
+such a way that I could see the whole rear of the garment had been torn
+off. Certain portions of my anatomy were as guiltless of clothes as when I
+was born. A splinter of the shell, about fourteen pounds in weight, had
+given me a close crop. Then I had to laugh too, though I was somewhat
+battered and sore, but that night it wasn&#8217;t so funny. I was almost frozen
+while on sentry go, and the next day it was just as bad.</p>
+
+<p>As I have already told you, the transports were scarce, and we had little
+to eat, and absolutely nothing in the way of new equipment. It was all we
+could do to get ammunition. After shivering all day, I determined to have
+some clothes. Right in front of our position, about twenty-five yards from
+the trench, lay a dead member of <i>H</i> company<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> whose name was Jock
+Drummond. Under cover of darkness, I sneaked out, and was almost beside
+the body, when a flare rocket went up. All of No Man&#8217;s Land was lit up
+like day and I had to lie among the dead as if I had been one of them. It
+almost turned my stomach, but I did not dare to move. The Germans were
+searching the muddy ground and the least motion on my part would have
+brought a dozen or so bullets my way.</p>
+
+<p>Presently the light from the flare bombs died away, and I wriggled closer
+to what had been Drummond. I got my arm under the shoulders of the body,
+and started to crawl back to the trench. Twice a rocket went up, and I had
+to lie still for minutes with my ghastly companion. The second time, a
+German must have seen us move. Three bullets spattered against the ground
+a few inches from me, and one struck Drummond. I suppose I was twelve or
+fifteen minutes crawling back to the trench. It seemed fifteen years&mdash;an
+interminable time. I was not yet thoroughly hardened to war, and it went
+against my whole nature; but&mdash;I had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> to have clothes. We took the kilt
+from Drummond&#8217;s body, and I wore it for weeks. Drummond, at least, got a
+decent burial, and a letter we found in his pocket we mailed to his
+mother, to whom it was addressed; so perhaps the deed done with a selfish
+purpose bore some good fruits after all. I may add that the stench of the
+dead lingered with me for a good many days.</p>
+
+<p>The night after I got Drummond&#8217;s kilt, the Germans attacked us. We had
+erected barbed-wire entanglements in front of our position. We had empty
+jam and bully-beef tins, also empty shell cases from field guns, strung on
+the wire in such a way that the least touch would attract attention.</p>
+
+<p>In this manner we were notified that the Germans were in the act of
+striking at us. Now they were coming&mdash;hundreds of them. There was a thin
+edge of humanity first, like the sheeting of water which precedes a
+breaker up a gently sloping beach. Behind it came units&mdash;more closely
+bunched, and, still farther back, was a mass of soldiery almost like a
+battalion on parade.</p>
+
+<p>It was murder to fire into that wall of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> misty grey&mdash;but the men who made
+it were bent on murdering us. I was firing as fast as I could. On my right
+was a lad of nineteen, who was one of the 3rd battalion militia of the
+Black Watch&mdash;a detachment sent to replace our losses.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pray God they may not pass the wire,&#8221; he half sobbed with every breath.
+He was afraid, but he would not run. Every man is afraid in his first
+battle. The recruit&#8217;s face was drawn and white&mdash;his lips a thin, pressed
+line&mdash;but he fired calmly. He did not mind the bullets, but he had not yet
+the &#8220;spirit of the bayonet,&#8221; and he dreaded that they should pass the
+wire.</p>
+
+<p>The first of the thin line was at the entanglement. Most of them dropped
+before they touched a wire, but others cut a single strand before a bullet
+found its berth. They died; but they had succeeded in their mission. A
+thread of life cut to sever a strand of wire!</p>
+
+<p>The wave had risen and was breaking over the entanglement. They were
+beginning to get through. Here and there a man lumbered up the gentle
+slope toward our trenches only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> to fall before he reached them. The mass
+of them was worming through the wire now.</p>
+
+<p>A shrill whistle blew. From our trenches came a sound like the beating of
+a hundred pneumatic hammers. It was the music of Hell. The machine guns
+and artillery were making it, and they were spitting out death in streams
+to the accompaniment of their devilish music. God was answering the prayer
+of the little lad. The Germans were dropping at the wire; they would not
+pass.</p>
+
+<p>The wee death engines were playing just a foot or so above the bottom of
+the wire, and they were literally cutting the legs from under the mass of
+grey-clad men. The back wash from the wave which broke against the wire
+was thinner than the wash that had preceded it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank God!&#8221; gasped the boy; &#8220;I did not have to use my bayonet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s guid steel wasted,&#8221; growled a ginger-whiskered old-timer on my left,
+as he wiped the dampness from the blade with his sleeve and dropped the
+bayonet back into its scabbard.</p>
+
+<p>[To-day such an attack on the British lines<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> would invariably be followed
+by a counter attack to show the Germans that the initiative lies&mdash;always
+must lie&mdash;with the Allies; but, in those days, we had not the men. Our
+lines were often so thin that, had they been pierced at a single point, we
+would have been crumpled up like paper.]</p>
+
+<p>After this fight, we were relieved by an East Yorkshire regiment and told
+that we would go to billets about three miles in the rear, but we had
+scarcely left the trenches when we received orders to get to billets and
+hold ourselves in readiness to occupy a new position in the line. The
+Black Watch at that time was again brought up to strength by the addition
+of a re-enforcement of five hundred men.</p>
+
+<p>A party of us was sent to guard a bridge that our engineers were
+repairing, it having been blown up the previous day by big shell fire. I
+had just got off duty and was sitting before the log fire in the
+block-house with a few other fellows, when in popped a little Algerian, as
+black as the ace of spades. On recognizing that we were Scots, he held out
+his hand and said:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>&#8220;My name&#8217;s MacPherson; what&#8217;s yours?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He made himself right at home, and we shared our bully beef and biscuit
+with him. We had just been warming it. Our black &#8220;Scotsman&#8221; insisted on
+staying with us, and so we adopted him as a sort of mascot.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after we took up our new position in the line, a German sniper
+began to annoy us, and continued to do so almost ceaselessly. Every time
+anything showed so much as an inch above the crest, it drew fire, and a
+number of our men were shot passing traverses. There was a wood near our
+position, and we were pretty sure the fire was coming from there although
+we could not locate it. The Algerian was a crack shot, and wanted to prove
+it, so he went to our lieutenant and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Me get sniper, if you like.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go ahead,&#8221; said the lieutenant, half jokingly.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed ridiculous to think of &#8220;MacPherson&#8221;&mdash;with his tiny body and his
+face of a black angel &#8220;getting&#8221; anybody.</p>
+
+<p>The little Algerian disappeared. At the end of three hours, after we had
+all given him up as lost or strayed, he returned,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> clutching a small
+untidy package rolled in a French newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, then, he didn&#8217;t eat you up, did he?&#8221; some one asked.</p>
+
+<p>The little Algerian understood English poorly, but he generally got the
+gist of things. This time he evidently thought he had been asked whether
+he had eaten up the sniper.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ugh!&#8221; he exclaimed; &#8220;me no <i>eat</i> sniper, but <i>git</i> him. Look here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Very gingerly he unrolled his sheet of newspaper and, as evidence that he
+had landed his man, exposed to view a human ear. He wanted to present the
+ear to the lieutenant, but the officer declined the honour.<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small></p>
+
+<p>There was much night-patrol work to do on the Aisne. Often we ran into
+German reconnaissance patrols. One night I was scouting with another man.
+Five or six hundred yards from our lines, we came upon a boche sentry. He
+was a big, heavy fellow, and I remember thinking that he looked as if the
+hard army life had not yet worked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> the surfeit of beer out of his system.
+He was leaning on the parapet, and appeared to be asleep. We wanted to get
+beyond, as he was on the German advance listening post, but, as a
+reconnaissance patrol must conceal from the enemy all evidence of its
+proximity, we dared not shoot him. So we crawled to one side of him, and
+my partner, who was slightly ahead, gave him a thud on the side of the
+neck, which only, as we thought, made him sleep the more soundly. He
+dropped into the trench. The next moment a head bobbed up and the dose was
+repeated with the result that the boche (whom we had mistaken for the
+first man) slid back again. We looked over to see whether the second blow
+had done its work; there were two forms instead of one. My partner took a
+helmet as a souvenir. He kept it for one day and then abandoned it as
+inconvenient to carry. He found that a souvenir the size of a boche&#8217;s
+helmet could not be put between the leaves of his St. John&#8217;s Gospel.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Being about the only Black Watch scout left of those that had first landed
+in France,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> I had been almost constantly on duty during the fighting at
+the Aisne. You can imagine then how happy I was when we were relieved from
+the trenches and billeted a short distance in the rear in hay lofts,
+cottages, and stables.</p>
+
+<p>On our way to billets we were looking forward to a &#8220;cushy&#8221; time, a good
+rest, a decent meal, and a wash, and hoping that the next section of
+trench we took over would be much quieter. It did not seem, however, as if
+I had had much more than the proverbial &#8220;forty winks&#8221; when we were sent
+back to support the Cameron Highlanders.</p>
+
+<p>It was the Camerons who had just relieved us and their headquarters were
+in a quarry where ours had been. A few &#8220;coal boxes&#8221; had landed in the
+quarry, and reduced it to a mass of d&eacute;bris. Only one officer and bugler
+had survived. It was here that Sergeant-Major Burt, of my native town, was
+killed. He was reputed to have the &#8220;best word of command&#8221; in the British
+army. We reached the scene in time to help the Scots Guards dig out some
+of them. It was a gruesome job. Some of the men had been pinned under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+heavy rocks for hours without losing consciousness.</p>
+
+<p>There was, in particular, one instance of an officer [I cannot recall his
+name] whose legs were crushed and pinned down. His head had been cut by a
+shell splinter. When we tried to dig him out, he ordered us to attend
+first to a private, a few feet away, whose ribs had been smashed in and
+who was bleeding from the nose and mouth.</p>
+
+<p>In all, about thirty officers and men lost their lives here.</p>
+
+<p>We were called from this scene of carnage to defend a trench line against
+the Prussian Guards who were threatening to break through. The machine-gun
+and shrapnel fire was terrific, and for a time we were glad to squeeze
+ourselves close against the parapet. Then suddenly everything seemed
+uncomfortably quiet. Wounded were screaming and groaning all about us;
+men, who had not been struck, were muttering to themselves&mdash;driven half
+mad by the bombardment; but, the instant the roar of the guns and shell
+explosions ceased, all seemed still. The Prussians were undoubtedly
+preparing to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> charge us, but they must have been slow in getting started.
+We got hurried orders to get ready to go over the top and surprise them.</p>
+
+<p>I thought of but one thing as I ran forward; that was&mdash;&#8220;Blighty.&#8221; On going
+to billets it had been my intention to write to the folks at home the next
+day after getting a rest, but our stay had been so short that to do so had
+been impossible. And now my thought was: &#8220;Perhaps I sha&#8217;n&#8217;t return.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Prussians seemed surprised by our quick attack, and the offensive was
+wrested from them. We became the assaulters. How I got through the
+entanglement I cannot tell. All I know is that I left part of my kilt
+dangling amid the wires. However, before we reached their trench line, the
+Prussians had scrambled over their parapet to meet us. In the general
+mix-up I found myself locked in the arms of a bear-like Prussian Guardsman
+who evidently had lost his rifle and bayonet. His knee was at my knee&mdash;his
+chest pressed against my chest. Our faces touched.</p>
+
+<p>I slid my hands up along the barrel of my rifle until they were almost
+under the hilt of the bayonet. Very slowly I shoved the butt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> back of me
+and to the side. Lower and lower I dropped it. The keen blade was between
+us. All the Hun seemed to know about wrestling was to hug. He dared not
+let go. Had he known a few tricks of the game, I should not be writing
+this to-day.</p>
+
+<p>Instinctively I felt that the point of my bayonet was in line with his
+throat. With every ounce of strength in my body, I wrenched my shoulders
+upward and straightened my knees. The action broke his hold, and my
+bayonet was driven into his greasy throat. His arms relaxed; I was
+drenched with blood, but it was not my own. I staggered away from him,
+wrenching my rifle free as he fell.</p>
+
+<p>The thrust I had used has come to be known as the &#8220;jab point&#8221;; they are
+teaching it to the American army to-day. It developed naturally from just
+such situations as I have described.</p>
+
+<p>It was an awful <i>m&ecirc;l&eacute;e</i>. There were men swinging rifles overhead; others,
+kicking, punching, and tearing at their adversaries; while others again,
+wrestling, had fallen to the ground, struggling one to master the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> other.
+One Highlander, who had been struck by a bullet just before reaching the
+enemy parapet, grasped his rifle, and crawled as best he could the
+intervening distance, waiting his chance to get his man. At last it came.
+His bayonet found its mark, before the bulky Hun could ward off the
+unexpected stroke from the wounded lad. In a moment they were both lying
+prone on the earth. The Highlander, I am sure, died content&mdash;content that
+he had got his quota at least.</p>
+
+<p>It was the wildest confusion, but its impressions were absolutely
+photographic. I can see it all, again, this moment.</p>
+
+<p>The Prussians were finally obliged to retire to their reserve trenches. We
+took their firing trench, but had to vacate it because it was subject to
+an enfilading fire from the enemy. As we retreated in company squads, we
+kept up a steady fire.</p>
+
+<p>While making for our trenches, I shouted to one of the fellows on my left
+to keep down as we were drawing the enemy&#8217;s fire. The sentence was hardly
+completed, when something hot struck me on the left jaw. It seemed as if I
+had been hit with a sledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> hammer. I spun round, stumbled, and fell to
+the ground. I realized that it was a bullet and tried to swear at the
+boches, but all I could do was to spit and cough, for the blood was almost
+choking me. The bullet, entering my cheek and shattering some of my teeth
+in passing, made its exit by way of my mouth. My warning, however, had
+saved the life of the lad I had shouted to. He flopped to the ground just
+in time to avoid a sweep of machine-gun fire, and managed to crawl to our
+trench, which was a very short distance off.</p>
+
+<p>I was sent to the regimental dressing station. There were scores there
+more seriously wounded than I, and they were, of course, attended to
+first. By the time it was my turn, my face was so completely smeared with
+congealed blood that the orderly couldn&#8217;t locate the wound. He wiped my
+face with a bunch of grass and applied a dressing. I was relieved to hear
+that it was a clean wound.</p>
+
+<p>In the dressing station, suffering as I was, I noticed two men forcibly
+controlling a wounded comrade. After a moment I recognized him as the
+little recruit who had prayed that the Germans might not pass the wire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+and come to bayonet fighting with us. His features were so changed that he
+seemed aged a dozen years and&mdash;believe it or not, as you will&mdash;his hair,
+which had been sleek and black, was entirely white. He had been only
+slightly wounded but the heavy bombardment had driven him entirely mad. He
+was continually crying for his mother. I afterward learned that he and his
+mother, who was blind, had lived together and had been warmly devoted to
+each other, but at the outbreak of the war, his mother felt it her duty to
+send him to fight. The boy recovered his mental faculties a month or two
+after being sent home.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">After</span> the first dressing of my wound, I was sent to our transport station,
+a short distance behind the lines, being told that in a few days I would
+be fit for duty again. There was a farm here. By the time I reached the
+farm house the pain of my wound was terrific. It was like a toothache all
+over my head and down into my neck and shoulders. Nevertheless, I threw
+myself onto a pile of straw in the barn and, after tossing about a while,
+managed to fall asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When I awoke it was daylight again, the entire night having passed.
+Leaning over me was a little French girl&mdash;she must have been about eight
+years old&mdash;with a pitcher of milk, which she held out toward me. In spite
+of the condition of my mouth, I managed to swallow the milk. I was almost
+starved and very weak. I tried to persuade the little girl to accept a
+franc for the milk, but she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> shook her head, and skipped off. Following
+her out of the barn, I met her mother to whom, also, I offered payment;
+she, too, refused it.</p>
+
+<p>We could hear the rumbling of big guns; shells were exploding not far
+away; then came the noise of transport wagons approaching the farm. I
+turned back toward the barn and had not gone more than ten paces when
+there was a crash overhead. Splinters and shrapnel spattered into the farm
+yard. I ducked and hastened my pace. Then there was a thud behind me, as
+if a bag of potatoes had been dropped from a lorry. Almost simultaneously
+came a scream from the little girl.</p>
+
+<p>I turned just in time to see the mother of the child fall, roll down out
+of the doorway in which the two were standing, and lie ominously still.
+The little girl stood gazing in terror at the fallen woman. Her little
+hands were raised shoulder high before her and she shrieked&mdash;hysterically
+and helplessly. As I hastened toward them the child seemed to realize the
+awful thing that had happened and threw herself upon her mother&#8217;s body,
+pressing her face against the dying woman&#8217;s.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> I felt the tears trickling
+down my cheek and smarting in my wound as I heard the child&#8217;s heartbroken
+exclamations&mdash;terms of endearment they seemed, and pitifully eloquent
+enough, though the tongue in which they were spoken was unknown to me.</p>
+
+<p>A lad of ten, barefoot and in overalls, came running from the house. He
+knelt and stared into his mother&#8217;s face, then he turned a dumb,
+questioning glance at me. I could not meet his eyes. As I got my arms
+under the shoulders of the fallen woman and started to drag her body into
+the house, I could hear the little fellow sobbing softly but he didn&#8217;t
+speak. Hoping that it still might be of use, he helped with all his little
+strength to move his mother&#8217;s body. Inside the house, we pushed the
+tumbled hair back from her face. A shrapnel bullet had entered her
+forehead. It was useless to ask if human aid could serve her. Death had
+been almost instantaneous. Then I saw a sight that spoke a volume on the
+cruelty of war and the heroism of the sturdy French blood could I but tell
+it.</p>
+
+<p>The little lad gathered his sister in his protecting arms and
+sat&mdash;speaking, manfully,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> words of comfort to her&mdash;beside the dead body of
+their mother, shells meanwhile bursting all about the home which had been
+their childhood haven of love and safety, and brick and plaster falling
+about them from its shattered roof. The children were in serious danger,
+but they steadfastly refused to leave their mother. I did not know enough
+French to reason with them, and it was not until some French muleteers
+sought shelter behind the building that I was able, through them, to
+persuade the boy and girl to go farther to the rear, with them.</p>
+
+<p>After this experience, like one in a dream, I made my way back to the
+trenches, heedless of the shells whizzing overhead. The sight I had seen
+haunted me.</p>
+
+<p>Upon reaching my trench, I was brought back to my senses by some of my
+&#8220;muckin&#8217;-in&#8221; pals, who threw all sorts of questions at me in a jesting
+fashion, such as:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello, Reuter, been tae Blighty an&#8217; back? Ye&#8217;re a better sprinter than Ah
+thocht&#8221;; &#8220;Hoo&#8217;s aw wi&#8217; th&#8217; fokes at hame? Did ye remember the fags?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was some time before I was sufficiently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> myself again to be able to
+answer them in the proper strain. My head looked like a cotton-and-bandage
+demonstration, and I was a sorry looking sight altogether. I lived for the
+next few days on bully beef biscuits, softened, and oxo cubes dissolved in
+water.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days we were relieved by French troops, and we force-marched
+north to stem the German thrust at Calais.</p>
+
+<p>After some stiff marching, we entrained &#8220;somewhere.&#8221; Our &#8220;camions&#8221; were
+coal trucks, which had been only partially unloaded. Some of my more
+hygienic mates who were under the impression that they did not have as
+much grime-caked mud sticking to them as the rest, suggested that our
+truck be cleaned out, but the general eagerness for a corner &#8220;doss&#8221; put
+this suggestion out of consideration at once. There was a scrambling
+match, and when our allotment got entirely in, the quartermaster was
+soundly &#8220;cussed.&#8221; It seemed as if the whole regiment had been detailed to
+this car. Even in these circumstances, the whimsical philosophy of the
+private soldier asserted itself. A little chap, jammed in a corner, said
+he wanted a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> place by the side door, so that he could &#8220;see the scenery&#8221;!</p>
+
+<p>We travelled all night, and on the following morning drew up at a junction
+where a body of recruits joined us. They regarded us with staring eyes,
+and I suppose we did look like a lot of cave men, being unshaven,
+long-haired, grimy, and black as sweeps with the coal dust. We did not
+mind this half so much as the recruits. At the junction, we got a sandwich
+and a canteen of coffee which had a most exquisite flavour of rum. This
+was so pronounced that some summoned their nerve sufficiently to go back
+for a &#8220;double attack,&#8221; but were met with &#8220;Napoo.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conditions have changed now, so that Tommy is able to keep himself shaved
+and personally neat, even in the mud of the trenches. It helps keep up our
+morale and shatter that of the boches. There is a distinct psychological
+effect on the enemy when clean-shaven, tidily-dressed men come up out of
+the earth and fall upon them.</p>
+
+<p>Very soon we commenced our journey again. How long we were on the train I
+cannot recall, but finally we reached a large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> town where we got off. On
+our arrival we could hear the incessant rumbling of guns, and knew we were
+going to have another hot time of it. My face was better, but my beard! I
+had not had a shave since before Mons! While on the retreat, most of us,
+in order to lighten our loads, had thrown away the little items of our
+equipment that we did not urgently need. We kept only our greatcoats and
+such articles as we required for warmth.</p>
+
+<p>We force-marched until early morning, when we halted for a rest, as the
+feet of many of our men were skinned and in bad shape. For myself, I was
+walking on my uppers, as the soles and heels of my shoes were completely
+worn out.</p>
+
+<p>We resumed the march. We understood that we were in the vicinity of Ypres.
+We force-marched for all we were worth, and late in the afternoon we came
+to a village. Here we were billeted on the side nearest us. After getting
+rations, we needed no coaxing to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>It was still dark when we got orders to fall in and march at top speed.
+The village was being shelled.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>This seemed to have been a spot for concentrating for we met with other
+regiments there&mdash;one of them the King&#8217;s Royal Rifles. Beyond the far side
+of the village at a certain distance one could see trees scattered here
+and there, but farther on the country was flat. It was in this direction
+we marched.</p>
+
+<p>Orders were whispered along the line that we were to maintain strict
+silence and no &#8220;fags&#8221; were to be lighted, as we were near the enemy, and
+were attempting to move without his knowledge. Our officers gave us the
+encouraging news that we were about to be up against some hard
+fighting&mdash;harder than we had so far experienced. Our commander, Major J.
+T. C. Murray, expressed the hope that we would keep the name of the &#8220;Black
+Watch&#8221; where our predecessors had placed it&mdash;in the foremost rank. And so
+we advanced in darkness, with our minds on serious things.</p>
+
+<p>We were in two lines of skirmishing order, one pace apart. Our object was
+to reach the flat ground beyond the trees and dig ourselves in before
+dawn. We did this. The digging was an easy matter as the earth was marshy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
+and our entrenching tools proved fit enough for the task. Shells were
+flying overhead continually, making an awful humming noise, and some of
+them passed so low that the air disturbances blew caps from off the heads
+of our men.</p>
+
+<p>There was not a murmur or a word of complaint from our wearied and worn
+ranks. We had almost completed our shallow trenches when the boche opened
+fire at us with his field guns. It was hardly dawn. We kept on digging,
+crouching in all positions to keep under cover from the bombardment.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose that every one under shell fire, at one time or another, in some
+manner, prays. I know that I often have done so, although not so
+ostentatiously as some of the men. I have seen them, when the shells were
+rocking the earth and splinters were whistling past our ears, drop to
+their knees and swear to their Maker that, if they were spared, when they
+returned home they would go to church regularly and be kinder to their
+wives and children.</p>
+
+<p>Some of our men ceased digging after reaching what they thought a safe
+depth,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> and crouched against the parapet for safety. Others of us started
+making what are known to-day as dug-outs. Jock Hunter and I made one to
+hold both of us. We dug away under the parapet so that we could crawl in
+with only our feet sticking out. This not only sheltered us from the
+unceasing shrapnel, but from the rain also. Some of the boys lying in the
+trenches had been killed and some wounded from the shrapnel bursting
+overhead, so the officers gave orders that we were all to make these
+dug-outs.</p>
+
+<p>A man from each company had been detailed for look-out duty, at which we
+all took turn of an hour each. It was noon before we heard any response
+from our artillery, but then it checked the German fire considerably.</p>
+
+<p>The rain came down heavily, flooding us out of our dug-outs, and we were
+obliged to stand in the trench like a lot of half-drowned rats, our
+greatcoats on and our waterproof sheets over them. At first we were
+standing on earth, but before long the muck had reached over our ankles.</p>
+
+<p>There was at least one virtue in the rain&mdash;it softened our bully-beef
+biscuits, which we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> ate standing in the trenches, wet to the skin and with
+water dripping from our greatcoats and kilts.</p>
+
+<p>Toward night the rain ceased. We had expected to be attacked at any minute
+that day, but for some reason or another we escaped it. We got a rum
+issue. Then volunteers were asked for, to go and fetch some hot &#8220;gunfire.&#8221;
+(It was hot when the ration party got it, but quite cold when it reached
+us.)</p>
+
+<p>That night I was given orders to go on night reconnaissance. While I was
+away on this duty, the engineers came up and our fellows dug in again in
+advance of the old trenches. The engineers then constructed a barbed-wire
+entanglement in front of our position.</p>
+
+<p>Wet and cold, and covered with mud, I went off on patrol duty, and many a
+shell hole I stumbled into to make me wetter. The enemy&#8217;s position was
+about seven hundred yards from ours.</p>
+
+<p>When moving between the lines, I noticed the outline of a big man. I don&#8217;t
+know why I didn&#8217;t fall down upon seeing him. My instinct told me to go
+ahead to make sure who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> it was. We were making straight for each other; as
+we met we almost brushed sleeves; then, with no more than a glance at each
+other, we passed on; but you may be sure that I had my jackknife in the
+proper hand. I could not say even now whether or not he was a German.</p>
+
+<p>I returned to our lines and, after reporting, helped to finish the
+trenches. I heard the following morning that one of our patrols had
+captured a German. I wondered if he might be the big fellow I had passed
+in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>We received the order to &#8220;stand to&#8221; at dawn. Other troops had dug
+themselves in some distance behind us during the night. We got another rum
+issue just before &#8220;stand to&#8221;; it was highly appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn, the Germans attacked in mass formation, but our rifle and
+artillery fire made big gaps as they advanced. They did not reach our
+trenches. They retired, leaving piles of dead. The nearest of their dead
+were not more than one hundred yards from us.</p>
+
+<p>This time we had very few casualties in our battalion&mdash;largely on account
+of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> having dug in ahead of our old position, the range of which the
+enemy had. Their fire constantly over-reached us.</p>
+
+<p>After this attack was over, we heard the buzzing of airplanes, and
+although we had been instructed not to look up&mdash;the white of faces being
+very conspicuous from above&mdash;we ventured to do so, and saw a British plane
+smash headlong into a boche machine. Both went end over end to earth, and
+the pilots undoubtedly were killed. The Englishman, in giving his life,
+had saved perhaps hundreds of us in the trenches.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoon, after a heavy bombardment, which tore up some of our
+barbed wire, the enemy made another charge. This time they came over in
+wave formation. The order was passed along to &#8220;fix bayonets,&#8221; and, as soon
+as the Germans reached the barbed wire, to spring out and meet them. This
+we did.</p>
+
+<p>We fought off line after line. The Black Watch suffered many casualties
+here, but not so many as the Germans. This crowd had less love for the
+bayonet than their brothers at the Aisne. Soon we were chasing them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> out
+beyond the barbed wire. We took many prisoners. If it had not been for the
+officer&#8217;s whistle to retire, I think we would have driven them to Berlin,
+the way we felt that day. However, back we had to come.</p>
+
+<p>The enemy&#8217;s artillery fire began to pound on us as we were making for our
+trenches, and some of our fellows were bowled over as the result of it. As
+many of the wounded as we could bring, we brought back with us.</p>
+
+<p>One fellow was lying about fifty yards away from the trench. Two of his
+mates volunteered to go out for him, but in the attempt they were wounded
+and forced to come back without him. Two others then went out; these
+managed to bring him in&mdash;but he was dead. He was a young lad&mdash;one of the
+latest to join our battalion. His equipment was practically new. I was
+given his shoes; they were much too big for me, but nevertheless I was
+grateful for them.</p>
+
+<p>That night I helped to carry back more of the wounded, and, with the rest,
+assisted the engineers to fix up the barbed wire. This, coupled with the
+fighting of the day, well nigh exhausted me, but I didn&#8217;t get the rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
+which I so much desired and expected, as I was detailed as one of our
+company ration party, comprising six men and a non-commissioned officer.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to occasional shell fire, we were obliged to crawl close to the
+ground while on our way to the supply station. When we were coming back,
+the boches used flare lights which made us visible to them. I had a box of
+biscuits on my head. It made a fine target, and when I reached our
+trenches I found that bullets had pierced it.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER NINE</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">For</span> a day or two after this we had comparative quiet. Only bursts of shell
+fire threatened us, but these were so common as to be hardly noticed. The
+stench of the dead was terrible&mdash;worse than we had yet experienced. Men
+turned sick and were positively useless for hours, many being sent to the
+base hospital for treatment for their violent nausea. Others developed
+rheumatic fever from sleeping in the mud and water.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after this, during the night time, we were relieved by an English
+regiment, composed of men who had not yet seen the worst of the fighting.
+They were fresh and inclined to be jovial. They asked rather carelessly
+about conditions as we had found them; we told them plainly what they had
+to expect. That seemed to sober them somewhat but not greatly. So we
+extended to them the conventional wish for the &#8220;best o&#8217; luck&#8221; and left
+them to find out for themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> that they were in a campaign which could
+only be called one of present desperation and ultimate sacrifice.</p>
+
+<p>Upon passing through an unidentified village, we found it deserted and
+nothing but a heap of ruins. The surrounding country as far as the eye
+could see resembled the lid of a pepper box, being full of shell holes.
+Many an oath came from the fellows, in the dark, as they stumbled into the
+shell holes full of water.</p>
+
+<p>At last we reached our billets. Here, at least, there were signs of life.
+Troops and transports were passing us continuously, but we knew
+nevertheless that we were near the firing line, for we could hear the
+bursting of shells and see the flashes. The country was a little more
+hilly here, as far as we could see in the semi-darkness. We were more than
+glad to get into a stable or barn; it meant a chance to get dry and to
+stretch our overworked limbs.</p>
+
+<p>After a little while we lined up in the farm yard and got some hot
+bully-beef stew in our canteens, a two-pound loaf among eight of us, some
+jam (needless to say &#8220;apple and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> plum&#8221;), and a &#8220;daud&#8221; of cheese; also a
+quarter-pound tin of Golden Flake cigarettes between two, and, as a sort
+of dessert, we got the mail from Blighty! Happy? why the word doesn&#8217;t
+express it! We were simply elevated a million feet in the air&mdash;tired as we
+were.</p>
+
+<p>We discussed and played the different football league games over and over
+again as they were described in the newspapers we had just received. We
+imagined ourselves once more among the spectators at a cup-tie match
+between the Celtic and Dundee at Ibrox Park.</p>
+
+<p>For a time war was entirely forgotten; but only for a time! With a sudden
+&#8220;jerk&#8221; we would be brought back to our senses and our present whereabouts
+by the voice of the orderly corporal asking whether Private McNeil, or
+Lance-Corporal Watson, or perhaps Corporal McGregor had been seen down the
+line wounded; or was he dead? It was war, all right, and not football we
+were playing at!</p>
+
+<p>Jock Hunter and I were still &#8220;muckin&#8217;-in&#8221; pals, sharing our rations and
+troubles alike. Very soon the party broke, each man making for his
+allotted place to rest. I can recall<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> so vividly the feeling that came
+over me as I lay down on that straw. It was identical with that which I
+had felt after coming back from a charge that had been a touch struggle! I
+fell asleep sighing and wondering how soon it would be when my letters
+would find no claimant for them!</p>
+
+<p>We passed the next day writing letters, scraping the mud off our clothes,
+and at rifle inspection. More men joined us. One of the new arrivals lent
+me his razor, and I performed, what was, to me, the awful task of shaving.
+It made me feel like a new man, and they said I looked it. We were told
+that we would no doubt have a few days&#8217; rest, and then move to Dixmude or
+some town with a name like that. We were instructed not to leave our
+billets, and told that whenever we heard a boche plane overhead we should
+make for cover, or stand perfectly still with our backs to the walls of
+the farm houses, without stirring, until the machine was out of sight.
+That day we noticed a few of Fritz&#8217;s sausage balloons in the direction of
+the firing line.</p>
+
+<p>That night our officer, Lieutenant McRae,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> came round fully equipped; one
+look at him was enough; we knew there was to be no more &#8220;dossing&#8221; in the
+soft straw for us.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fall in at the double, men! We have to take over a new section of
+trenches not far from here.&#8221; Such was the greeting he gave us. We got into
+&#8220;harness&#8221; all right, but how we grouched and &#8220;cussed&#8221;!</p>
+
+<p>After lining up on the muddy road with the remainder of the battalion, the
+usual order was issued: &#8220;All fags out; no talking!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We started off, wading through mud; with every now and then an occasional
+halt and more grouching in the ranks. With three hours of this to our
+credit, we found ourselves zigzagging round little hillocks along narrow
+muddy cart roads. We passed a concealed battery of small howitzers. Some
+of the English chaps noticed that we were &#8220;jocks&#8221; (the name the English
+give the kilties) and began cheering us up with:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Down&#8217;t wish y&#8217; enny &#8217;arm&mdash;but ye&#8217;r gowin&#8217; ta &#8217;ave an &#8217;ell of an &#8217;ot tyme,
+you Jocks!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We had ploughed our way through the mud only a few hundred yards beyond
+the battery when my nostrils sensed that there must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> have been some
+killing going on in the vicinity. A little farther on we came to an open
+section and turned to the right just before making a small incline. I
+could see a few wrecked transport wagons and dead horses. We remained
+behind a hillock and were told that we were near the enemy. We were about
+to enter trenches which lay quite close to the German lines our officer
+told us, adding that we could have reached this point from our billets in
+half an hour, but that it was necessary for us to make the exceedingly
+long d&eacute;tour. Most of us knew that this was the direction in which we had
+seen the sausage balloon, which brought back the memory of the heavy
+firing.</p>
+
+<p>We got into the natural ditches, which served us as trenches. We did not
+relieve any troops at this place, and there were no signs of any having
+been here, but on both flanks at some distance off, there were regiments
+entrenched. The situation was not one in the least to be desired. We were
+practically on an open space.</p>
+
+<p>We were just in the act of starting work with our entrenching tools when
+all at once&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>&#8220;s-c-ch-eew!&#8221;&mdash;and the sky was alight with a flare rocket.
+There was no necessity for orders to hug the earth; we just simply flopped
+on our faces. Then it seemed as if the whole of the German artillery
+opened fire. We did not dare even to look up for quite some time. However,
+it seemed that we were not the party at which the firing had been
+concentrated; one by one our boys ventured to peep over in the direction
+of the flashes. The whizzing and groaning of the shells overhead was
+terrific, but they passed high. During the flashes, I looked over the open
+space in front of us. We were occupying a sort of high ground with slight
+mounds. To our right flank the country seemed more regular.</p>
+
+<p>So far none of us had been struck, and we prepared to dig in properly. We
+had hardly levelled out our parapet, when an infernal noise of machine-gun
+and rifle fire let loose on our right flank some hundreds of yards off.
+Some of our look-out sentries seemingly got a bit nervous and commenced
+firing too&mdash;at nothing. Then the whole line took it up. This racket kept
+up fully twenty minutes&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>and we had not seen as much as a shadow. Shortly
+after this, Major Murray, our acting Commanding Officer, came along the
+line and gave orders to strengthen our position as the Germans were
+expected to make a big charge along the whole front in the morning. I was
+then told to select a man from my company (<i>D</i>) and go out between the
+lines to secure all the information possible with regard to the distance
+of the German lines from ours. Particularly, I was instructed to locate
+the places where they could crawl up in our direction without being seen.</p>
+
+<p>There was no use asking for a volunteer for no sane person longed for this
+risky job, so I approached a strapping young fellow by the name of Lawson
+and accosted him with:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lawson, coming with me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m with you,&#8221; was his reply. Taking up his rifle, which had been leaning
+against the parapet, he added, as an afterthought: &#8220;But, whaur are ye
+bound fur?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re bound for the German lines, to get information,&#8221; I answered. I
+added that he had better hand over his keepsakes to a chum&mdash;the keepsakes
+that he&#8217;d want his mother<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> or his lass to receive&mdash;as we might not come
+back again.</p>
+
+<p>Dark as it was, I yet could see his chin fall and his face pale. With a
+very serious look and without another word he emptied his pockets. Very
+thoughtfully he took two packets of &#8220;Woodbine&#8221; cigarettes out of his
+haversack and handed them over to a chap sitting on the fire step with:
+&#8220;Here, Donald, ye ken what tae dae wi&#8217; these if Ah&#8217;m not back afore
+mor-r-nin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We crawled out for about fifty yards, then, as there were little mounds in
+front of and behind us, we got up to our feet.</p>
+
+<p>We proceeded very cautiously, round the many little mounds, stumbling
+through shallow ditches, and crawling over the higher spots.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Y&#8217; seem tae hae th&#8217; heng o&#8217; thees,&#8221; said Lawson, as he stumbled and
+crawled behind me. &#8220;Ah&#8217;ll dae ma&#8217; best tae follow your lead. It&#8217;s a braw
+new beesness tae me.&#8221;[He was referring to my method of keeping to natural
+cover.]</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been trained in scouting,&#8221; I replied. &#8220;Just do as I do, and with
+anything like luck we&#8217;ll come out all whole.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>Memory took me back to the days I had spent in scouting practice in India,
+under Major Bruce, the famous scoutmaster of the 2nd Battalion, Fifth
+Gurkhas&mdash;forty days, once, from Dunga-Gully up to the borders of Cashmere
+and back. Little did I think, in those days, that I&#8217;d ever find myself
+sneaking my way through the flats of Flanders, hiding from enemies in the
+air as well as on the earth.</p>
+
+<p>Now and again we heard a rifle shot&mdash;at times quite a distance away; then
+again, quite close. Often we&#8217;d hear the &#8220;swish&#8221; until at last, the bullet
+found its mark, with a &#8220;click.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We must have been out for over two hours, before we neared the German
+position. At last we could hear an occasional mumbling of hushed voices,
+and make out the dim outline of wire entanglements. The German position
+seemed to be on a little plateau.</p>
+
+<p>While we were lying on our bellies, my partner could turn his face and
+look at me, but neither of us dared utter a word.</p>
+
+<p>Fifteen minutes seemed like a century. I was more used to it than my
+partner, but even at that I must admit that I was as nervous as a man that
+is about to have a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> death sentence pronounced on him. It is the feeling
+that possesses every man that patrols &#8220;No Man&#8217;s Land.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I motioned to Lawson, and we crawled away like worms that had been
+overlooked by a hungry crow. We reached our trenches quickly after getting
+into the broken ground; it was not until we had actually entered them that
+he opened his mouth. Then, approaching his friend, Donald, he demanded his
+fags. In a whisper, he triumphantly announced that we had been near enough
+to hear the Germans talking in their trenches.</p>
+
+<p>I went to our officer and reported.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the morning after &#8220;stand down,&#8221; when our rum issue had been
+passed, that we learned what the racket had been the previous night. The
+Germans had tried a night attack on the King&#8217;s Royal Rifles.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was cold and misty. It was easy to see that we were about six
+hundred yards from Fritz&#8217;s trenches, and that his, like ours, were on
+slightly higher ground than that which lay between the lines. There was a
+farm house here and there, behind us.</p>
+
+<p>I could see a line of trenches on either<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> flank but the one on the right
+was most easily perceptible. There was an open space at the end of our
+battalion line on the right flank, and our left flank was bent back
+slightly. We also learned that we had moved into this position without the
+Huns knowing that we were near. I could see the boche balloons some
+distance behind the enemy lines.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TEN</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">It</span> was still morning when it was reported by one of our look-out men, who
+had been scanning the boche lines with a pair of field glasses (only his
+head showing above the top of the trench made for observation purposes),
+that the Germans were walking about the tops of their trenches in a
+careless fashion.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally some of the last batch of men to join us wanted to have a pop at
+them, but our officers said no&mdash;to let sleeping dogs lie. Most of us
+peeped over and saw them. Doing so, my eye caught a large number that had
+concentrated behind a mound to our right front&mdash;directly in advance of the
+English troops that held a section of trenches on our right flank. I
+should judge that there were about a hundred of the enemy,&mdash;some holding
+up white handkerchiefs in the lead, and a mass of them a little distance
+behind. My heart was in my throat, and I wondered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> whether the K. R. R.&#8217;s
+were aware of their presence. I had heard stories of Germans with flags of
+truce. But so, evidently, had the commanders of the Rifles, for soon there
+was enacted before me a tragedy which I shall never forget.</p>
+
+<p>About one hundred of the Rifles went forward to bring in this batch of
+Germans who were advancing apparently to surrender. They advanced very
+slowly and cautiously. Just when they were within short range, the Germans
+in front, bearing white flags but no arms, threw themselves onto the
+ground, machine guns began firing over their heads and those with rifles
+began firing point blank into the ranks of the British.</p>
+
+<p>The K. R. R.&#8217;s were ready for them. They opened up like a fan, their
+machine guns and rifles began crashing and the Huns were thrown into
+confusion. They dropped like clay pipes in a shooting gallery. The crews
+of the boche machine guns were picked off by the riflemen, and the K. R.
+R.&#8217;s machine guns kept on pouring lead into the mass. It was dreadful! I
+saw piles of Huns, dead and wounded, the latter waving like a shock of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
+hay with some one underneath it trying to get out. Their officers, in the
+rear, shot down man after man who tried to run. They drove them forward
+like bullocks to the slaughter, for many of the Germans were too confused
+to shoot and scores had thrown away their rifles. Suddenly the K. R. R.&#8217;s
+machine guns became silent. For a few seconds the rifle fire became faster
+and more furious. Then it stopped. Steel bayonets glinted as the K. R.
+R.&#8217;s charged. There was no mercy shown. There were no prisoners taken. Of
+the five thousand Germans, who had gone out to do murder in cold blood, I
+do not believe five hundred got away. They were practically annihilated.
+The bayonets finished the work that the machine guns and rifles had
+started. What would you have? Men would not spare a nest of venomous
+snakes. It was a just retribution, but my stomach turned at it. None who
+had not seen it could even picture the sight.</p>
+
+<p>For the next few days we had it &#8220;cushy,&#8221; except for boche shrapnel
+showering our trenches at intervals, daily.</p>
+
+<p>The cold, however, had increased enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> to cause much discomfort. It was
+always cold, and especially so when there was a fierce wind and the rain
+drenched us. It was the common thing for the men to be up to their knees
+in water and slush.</p>
+
+<p>We had been almost two weeks in this position when we noticed queer
+happenings in a farm house a few hundred yards behind our lines. The
+watchfulness of our officers revealed the significance of some apparently
+trifling things.</p>
+
+<p>In the daytime, the shade on a window facing the German line would
+frequently be moved. Sometimes it would be drawn the full length of the
+window; then, if the German artillery had been pounding away at our right
+flank, immediately it would switch in the direction of our batteries.
+Sometimes the shade would be only half way down. More than once I saw a
+woman at this same window; and sometimes she would be leading a cow about
+some distance behind our lines. At night a light would be seen now and
+again moving past the window.</p>
+
+<p>Agents of the British Intelligence Department, summoned to the front by
+our officers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> discovered that a complete system of signalling was carried
+on between the people in the isolated farm house and the Germans. Three
+men and a woman were marched out of the house and taken away. After that,
+our concealed batteries, in new positions, hadn&#8217;t a single casualty for
+days, whereas, previously, they had been almost constantly under heavy and
+accurate fire!</p>
+
+<p>During the few days following the &#8220;white flag&#8221; affair, when the boches&#8217;
+shelling was not quite so steady, we passed our time playing cards.
+Occasionally one of the fellows, who had split a piece of wood at one end,
+would insert a card in it and hold it over the parapet. Nine times out of
+ten a German sniper&mdash;there were many of them in the vicinity&mdash;would put a
+hole in it with a bullet.</p>
+
+<p>These snipers caused us a great deal of trouble, particularly when we
+wanted water, which was procurable only at a little brook on our left
+flank. To get it was such a risky proposition that there were no &#8220;detail
+parties&#8221; formed in the daytime, and any one who went in quest of it, did
+so at his own risk.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Many a one who did so venture paid for his daring
+with his life. The snipers were always busy, even at night, and seemed to
+have a line on this spot.</p>
+
+<p>A few of the fellows, rather than risk going to the brook, filled their
+water bottles from a duck pond&mdash;full of a dirty, green, slimy
+liquid&mdash;situated behind our line. The result was sickness to most of those
+that drank it and nearly all had to be sent to hospital.</p>
+
+<p>Late one afternoon our section (thirteen men) was all together. Four of us
+were playing cards in an effort at distraction, for we were nearly insane
+from the lack of drinking water. For two days we had had to eat our bully
+beef and biscuits dry. We made it up that we should play a game of &#8220;phat&#8221;
+(a common card game among the Tommies), and that the one with the lowest
+count would have to take the section&#8217;s water bottles and fill them at the
+brook. This&mdash;to use a Yankee expression&mdash;was a &#8220;cinch&#8221; for me, or at least
+I thought so at the beginning of the game; and so did the others, who,
+because of my record as a winner at the game were of the opinion that I
+couldn&#8217;t lose.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>However, toward the middle of the game I became nervous. So far I had
+taken only two tricks. Things got worse as the playing progressed, and it
+wound up with me the loser.</p>
+
+<p>Without a word, they collected the thirteen bottles and hung them on my
+left shoulder like decorations on a Christmas tree.</p>
+
+<p>Silently I made off. I reached the brook without mishap.</p>
+
+<p>I had almost half of the bottles filled when&mdash;zip&mdash;a bullet struck very
+close to me. I tumbled into the water, pulling the bottles with me, and,
+in a lying position, continued filling them. This was not what one might
+call a comfortable or a convenient position in which to fill water
+bottles. They filled very slowly indeed.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they were full, I placed them on my shoulders; rose, dripping,
+from the water; and made for our line. I had not gone more than twenty
+paces when a bullet struck close at my heels. I jumped and looked upward,
+hoping to fool the sniper into thinking he was firing too high, causing
+him to set his sight for a shorter range. The next shot fell shorter
+still. I looked up again and hastened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> my pace. A third shot visibly
+struck a rock and enabled the sniper to correct his range.</p>
+
+<p>Almost immediately after came another bullet, which I knew had got
+something about me. Instantly I flopped down and lay still. There was more
+scattered firing from the German lines and I was trembling with &#8220;nerves.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At last, I could not stand it longer. I was afraid the sniper would fire
+at me again&mdash;not an uncommon practice with the boche sniper, who, when he
+drops his man, usually sends over a make-sure shot. So I sprang to my feet
+and rushed for the trenches, arriving there in safety.</p>
+
+<p>When I got into our section I found my pals sitting around and looking
+very gloomy. Upon seeing me they greeted me with:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ye&#8217;ve been a h&mdash;&mdash; o&#8217; a time awa&#8217;. We were juist beginnin&#8217; tae think we&#8217;d
+lost our watter bottles.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When I unloaded my cargo I found that two of the bottles had been pierced
+by a bullet. Each man of the section made a thirsty effort to lay hands on
+his own bottle. I was left with the two damaged ones besides my own.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> Then
+they told me how a shell had exploded and killed two of the card
+players&mdash;the owners of the damaged bottles. The water that was left in
+these was distributed among the others.</p>
+
+<p>Patrol work, mostly at night, continued to be my chief duty. On one
+occasion I lost my bearings, and presently found myself almost upon one of
+the boche listening posts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So long as I have come thus far, I will edge in and take a chance,&#8221; I
+said to myself.</p>
+
+<p>I knew it would be almost as dangerous to go back as to go forward, for at
+any moment a man might crane his neck above the parapet, see me moving,
+and fire. Then there was the momentary chance that a star bomb would light
+the heavens and all the earth between the lines, in which case a thousand
+rifles would begin sputtering at everything that moved or seemed to be
+alive. Each second I expected it to come. My nerves felt as if they were
+drawn taut&mdash;taut as the barbed wire which the boches string so tight that
+if it is cut in the night it will twang like the string of a violin. But
+the quick shot in the night did not come, and I wriggled forward through
+the wire.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>I was almost at the edge of the parapet of the listening post. I heard
+voices whispering in German. Some one was scrambling up over the parapet.
+How was I to get away? I could not, so I lay on my belly and buried my
+face in the earth&mdash;the earth which should be wholesome and life giving,
+but which stunk with unspeakable things.</p>
+
+<p>Three heads appeared above the parapet. Shoulders followed, and cautiously
+a patrol of three men wriggled out from the listening post and then
+separated. One of them, in getting out, slipped, and I could hear him
+&#8220;strafing&#8221; under his breath, as he vanished into the night. Another head
+thrust itself above the parapet. I was sure a pair of eyes were staring at
+me, though I could not see them in the dark.</p>
+
+<p>Once more I lay as if dead. &#8220;What&#8217;s the difference?&#8221; I thought; in a few
+moments, probably, I would be, and then I should not mind the sight or the
+odour of what was around me.</p>
+
+<p>The man in the listening post reached down for something at his feet. I
+was sure that he was going to hurl a grenade in my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> direction. Something
+came hurtling through the air. I sunk my teeth into my lip to keep from
+crying out, and wondered how the explosion would feel&mdash;whether there was
+any anguish in being torn to bits instantaneously. The dark object plumped
+onto the ground at my side and bumped against my ribs. How long it took
+for it to explode! Then I knew it was only a stone. I continued to lie as
+still as one dead.</p>
+
+<p>Another stone struck my shoulders. The sentry did not wish to rouse the
+whole line and start a wastage of ammunition by causing a thousand rounds
+or so to be fired uselessly into the night, as would probably be the case
+should he discharge his rifle or throw a grenade. He crawled up over the
+parapet and wriggled toward me. I tried to prepare myself to spring up
+when the time came, but I dared not so much as move a foot to get a better
+grip on the ground. He himself did not dare to rise. He knew that his
+silhouette would draw fire from the trenches. It would be like a battle
+between snakes, both of us on the ground there, fighting each other on our
+bellies.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>I saw the dull gleam of his bayonet. Still I did not dare to let him know
+I was alive. He was only inches from me. I could hear his deep breathing.
+He was not sure whether or not I was a corpse, but he was going to take no
+chances. He lunged with the steel. I managed to jam the butt of my rifle
+against his head. It disconcerted him, but there was not enough force
+behind the blow, struck from my awkward position, to stun him. He rolled
+upon me. I felt for his throat. He was a big, greasy boche and my fingers
+could scarcely encircle his neck, but I squeezed and squeezed, for my life
+depended upon my eight fingers and my two thumbs. If I did not throttle
+him, he would kill me.</p>
+
+<p>He was getting weaker. I felt his muscles relax. I could see his eyes. I
+do not think I shall ever forget them. They bulged from their sockets and
+it seemed that they would pop from his head and strike me in the face. It
+sickened me, but it was his life or mine. He was clawing frantically but
+weakly. Now he was still. It was brutal, but war is brutal.</p>
+
+<p>After emptying his pockets I crawled to the edge of the dugout listening
+post. Inside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> were three men, two lying in the bottom of the hole, the
+third sitting with his back against the wall of the excavation. The boche
+I had just left probably had disobeyed orders in crawling out without
+awakening one of them. The error cost him his life and saved mine.</p>
+
+<p>For a second as I peered over the edge of the hole I had thoughts of a
+daring deed, but it was better to get back to our lines with the contents
+of the first man&#8217;s pockets, which no doubt afforded information for our
+staff, and so I returned&mdash;battered and torn and exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>After this, in recognition of my work as a scout, I was offered the rank
+of a non-commissioned officer, but I did not wish it. They were picking
+off the non-coms too fast to suit me, and there was danger enough in the
+work I was doing.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER ELEVEN</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">After</span> spending a few more days in this last, very warm position, we moved
+to billets a little way off behind our left flank, and we certainly needed
+the rest. There was no indication that these billets had been used before
+by our troops. Jock Hunter and I were assigned to a barn, and you may be
+sure I was delighted at the prospect of literally &#8220;hitting the hay&#8221; as the
+Americans say.</p>
+
+<p>As there were chickens running around, even over every part of the
+thatched house, Jock and I went in search of eggs, for oh! how we longed
+for a change of diet! For weeks it had been bully beef and biscuits, and
+then biscuits and bully beef. In our search, we climbed up the ladder to
+the attic, which we found to be very spacious, with heaps of straw on the
+floor here and there. The walls of the structure, I should judge, were
+about four feet thick, and there was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> space that wide where the parapet
+of the wall and thatching came near together.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the attic we could hear the voices of our fellows in the farm
+yard below. The noise came through the opening between the parapet and
+thatching which was supported by beams. The aperture must have been about
+a foot in height. Approaching this&mdash;with the intention of playing a trick
+on the boys by throwing a piece of stone from the top of the wall&mdash;I
+noticed, dangling over the edge, a black leather strap. Carelessly I gave
+it a sharp tug, when out came a &#8220;Colt,&#8221; the handle of which I instantly
+caught. I scarcely had it in my hands when a man&#8217;s head popped up and I
+found myself facing a German soldier. He started to reach to his side but
+I had him covered. I do not know whether he or I was the more greatly
+surprised.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hands up, ye swine!&#8221; I shouted, holding him cowed with his own revolver,
+although I was entirely ignorant of its mechanism, and did not even know
+how to release the safety catch.</p>
+
+<p>He slid out of the recess under the thatch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> which he had been occupying
+and stood on the floor. With his hands up, he kept muttering:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mercy! <i>Kamerad! Kamerad!</i>&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jock seemed stunned at this sudden and unthought of &#8220;find.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I asked him to tie the boche&#8217;s hands, which he did with his rifle
+pull-through, and we marched him down to the officers&#8217; quarters. The
+officers were just preparing to eat, and were astounded at the sudden
+appearance of the boche in the doorway, as we made him walk in first. We
+left the prisoner and his Colt with the officers. Then we returned to
+search the loft.</p>
+
+<p>In the deep recess over the wall we found a French rifle, a British rifle,
+several days&#8217; rations, ammunition, and a warm blanket&mdash;which Jock and I
+snuggled under that night. It was a sniper&#8217;s post and afforded an
+excellent view of part of our lines, especially the spot at the brook
+where so many of our boys &#8220;went West&#8221; in the act of getting water, and
+where I had had a narrow escape.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning, after reveille, a corporal and three men who had done
+guard over the sniper got orders to take him to a given<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> place, which was
+about three miles behind our lines. Also they were ordered to report back
+within &#8220;fifteen minutes from starting time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We were promised a few days&#8217; rest here, but the following day, toward
+nightfall, we were shelled out of the place by the boches&#8217; heavy
+artillery, the &#8220;coal boxes&#8221; landing all around the place. We had scarcely
+time to get out of it. Luckily enough, no one &#8220;clicked.&#8221; We then moved to
+trenches near La Bass&eacute;e. Here also was a great number of troops
+concentrating.</p>
+
+<p>We had heard that our native troops from India were to hold part of the
+lines near us. Also we had been told of the great work the Canadians had
+done recently around this section, and we were looked upon to do the same.
+It was now December, and the sleet and rain poured on us for the first few
+days without cessation.</p>
+
+<p>In the trenches here, in some parts we were knee deep in slush, and this
+had a very dispiriting effect. It, together with the continuous downpour
+of rain and sleet and Fritz&#8217;s shelling&mdash;which never ceased&mdash;reduced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> us to
+a state of positive misery. We fared badly enough, but we wondered how the
+native troops (who were now on our left flank), used to a warm climate,
+could stand it.</p>
+
+<p>We got more tinned rations and in greater variety, here, than I can
+remember ever having before. There was &#8220;Maconochie&#8221;&mdash;a soup with
+directions to boil fifteen minutes before opening the tin;&mdash;which, of
+course, was merely satirical. The &#8220;Maconochie&#8221; was never warmed until it
+had reached our stomachs. However, it proved a very acceptable change from
+our &#8220;bully beef.&#8221; That is, it did when it came. It didn&#8217;t come often. We
+also had tins of <i>muckin</i> (butter) which Tommy says is a very good
+quality.</p>
+
+<p>Another tinned product, but not a ration, reached us here. It was the
+famous jam-tin hand grenade which came into use at about that time.</p>
+
+<p>Preparations were now in progress for an attack of greater magnitude than
+any we had yet taken part in. With a number of other scouts, I was sent
+out to examine the terrain over which our men would advance. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> party
+was discovered by German snipers, and we ran back to our lines as fast as
+we could go. A piece of a ricochet shot struck my left ankle, but only
+slightly injured it on account of my heavy spats and leather shoes, so
+that by having a tight bandage applied at once I was able to take part in
+the attack.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto most of our engagements had been more or less surprise
+affairs&mdash;that is, we would get word of the enemy just about in time to be
+ready for him when the actual charge came. This time it was different. We
+had been told what time we would go over at them. We had to sit around and
+wait. Some of the men were carefully cleaning their rifles. Others ran
+their thumbs along the edges of their bayonets. Many were writing letters.
+But almost every face that I could see was pale. The greater part of them
+were nervously puffing away at fags, very often unlit.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there a man would glance at his watch&mdash;furtively, as if afraid it
+would be thought that he was hoping the time had not yet come. Others were
+swearing softly and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> grumbling because they could not charge at once.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally a man would joke or tell a funny story. Those who heard him
+either looked as if they hadn&#8217;t heard or laughed rather thinly. It is one
+thing to go at them with steel and rifle, but quite another to sit around
+and wait for the short blast of the whistle which sends you out to kill or
+to be killed.</p>
+
+<p>Our artillery was pouring shells and shrapnel upon the Huns and their guns
+were replying. The combat wagons with the ammunition and the wagons with
+the rations had to reach us through a curtain of fire. One hundred extra
+cartridges were distributed to every man, also extra tins of &#8220;bully.&#8221; I
+was on my way to regimental headquarters with a message, when a shell
+squarely struck a transport wagon. It was obliterated. Men were torn into
+shreds. I saw the whole fore-quarters of a horse blown high into a tree
+and caught there in a crotch. The stretcher bearers picked up some of the
+men. Some they could not even find. I was soon back again in the firing
+trench. We had gouged out little footholds to help us over the top.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>At last it came&mdash;the little shrill metallic blast we had been waiting for.
+It could be heard distinctly above the roar of the artillery. The blood
+surged back into the faces of the pale men. We were fighting now. It was
+different from the waiting and thinking&mdash;the thinking of what we may be
+leaving behind us for always.</p>
+
+<p>I was the first man out of the trench&mdash;not that I was brave, but because I
+had already learned that it was the last man up and the last man down who
+usually are shot. I sped ahead of all the platoon; for in that lay safety.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fact that men in trenches will fire at the mass in rear rather
+than stop to aim at a single runner out ahead. Each man seems to feel that
+he is sure to hit someone if he fires into the mass and that another will
+pick off the leader.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>We were back again in our own trenches. What had happened in the charge I
+did not know. I can honestly state that my mind is a blank for the period
+of time which elapsed after I ran the first fifty yards toward the
+boches.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>I was sitting on the fire-step. We had taken their trenches and had been
+recalled after our troops from the rear had gone forward to prepare the
+captured position against the counter attack which would surely come.</p>
+
+<p>My chum, Jock Hunter, was sitting near me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Blow &#8216;Coffee up,&#8217;&#8221; he said to me, laughing. I thought he had lost his
+senses. I stared at him blankly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Blow &#8216;Coffee up,&#8217;&#8221; he repeated, pointing to my side.</p>
+
+<p>I glanced down at my hip. There was a battered bugle hanging from a cord
+over my shoulder. I was more bewildered than ever, but I unslung the
+instrument and we examined it. It was a bugle of the Potsdam Guards and
+there were thirteen bullet holes in it.</p>
+
+<p>Jock would not believe that I did not know how I came by the thing, and
+you may find it difficult, too, to accept my statement, but it is a fact.
+I do not know how I got it. The period of the charge is a slice of my life
+which is completely gone from my memory. I do not know what sights I saw
+nor what sounds I heard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>On our first Sunday in this position, the German artillery became quiet
+about ten o&#8217;clock, and, about half an hour later, we heard strains of
+music from beyond the slightly risen ground on Fritz&#8217;s lines. They were
+holding a Sunday service. But as soon as it was over, we were greeted with
+a couple of hundred shells from their artillery, so we came to the
+conclusion that the sermon must have been rotten.</p>
+
+<p>The weather conditions here were so bad that a number of our fellows were
+sent to the base hospital with frost-bite, or what is known now as &#8220;trench
+feet.&#8221; They suffered excruciating pain. I saw one fellow who had to have
+his shoe cut off; the foot swelled up instantly to very great size and was
+almost entirely black.</p>
+
+<p>As a supposed protection against the conditions which had caused so many
+cases of &#8220;trench feet&#8221; some bureau expert over in England had a supply of
+rubber boots forwarded to us. I have seen many things which were useless
+supplied to soldiers but never anything to equal these boots. They were so
+loose and clumsy that they materially<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> interfered with the action of
+walking and they were just of a height to be entirely submerged in the
+trench mud, leaving the wearer with an individual and separate bucketful
+of the stuff to lift with each foot. I heard many a pair wished on the
+Kaiser&#8217;s feet. Big ladles with long handles also were distributed among us
+to be used in scraping out the water from the trenches, and each of us
+took our turn in acting as &#8220;chef,&#8221; that is, ladling the water out behind
+the trench wall. Occasionally where a fellow, slow in throwing it over,
+would hold the ladle up a few seconds too long&mdash;ping!&mdash;a bullet would go
+through it. If we wanted to sit down the only thing we could do was to
+place our packs and equipment on the fire-step and sit on them.</p>
+
+<p>Our position was somewhat lower than that of the Germans, as they occupied
+a sort of ridge. For days and nights at a time we did nothing but wait,
+with an occasional raiding party or artillery encounter, with now and
+again a heavy bombardment, to break the tedium.</p>
+
+<p>We were sitting around in the mud one day when, all of a sudden, a heavy
+rifle and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> machine-gun fire swept along our trench. Then we heard a dull
+muffled roar as if some tremendous weight, padded heavily with bales of
+cotton, had fallen a great height. That is the only way I can describe the
+sound. Instantly, I wondered what had happened. I do not suppose it was a
+second later before I knew, but it seemed as if it were a full minute. The
+earth seemed to rock. There was a swashing, hissing noise. Mud, water, and
+stones poured down all around us. Muddy water cascaded into our trench.
+Clambering out of it and through a storm of bullets, we made for our
+reserve trench. Many of our men fell in the act of fleeing for shelter.
+This was the result of the Germans having dammed up their own trench which
+was filled with water, and dug tunnels in our direction as far as they
+possibly could without our being aware of it. They opened the dams just
+after commencing the firing. Their intention was to catch with the fire
+those that escaped drowning, and thus annihilate us, so that they could
+break through our lines at this point. No doubt it was a clever ruse,
+but&mdash;it did not work.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER TWELVE</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Our</span> regiment was now shifted from the position where the Germans had tried
+to drown us out to another section near a place which we afterwards
+christened &#8220;The Glory Hole.&#8221; The German lines and ours were very near to
+each other here. On the night of our arrival we could hear the Huns
+talking, and after we had settled ourselves in our trenches, we could hear
+them now and again whistling &#8220;Highland Laddie.&#8221; It was evident that they
+knew who we were, as that is the tune to which we &#8220;march past.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I was now initiated into the use of the hand grenades. The kind we got
+were later termed the &#8220;hair-brush.&#8221; Now and again, the Germans would take
+a mad turn and lob a few of their grenades over at us, and in turn, we
+returned the compliment. This form of fighting was then in its infancy,
+and we nearly all had our own ways of doing it. I used to tie two or three
+of the bomb handles <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>together with a rope; get hold of the end of it,
+which was knotted; and, in the same way as an American athlete throws the
+hammer, I would swing the bombs over my head and let go in the direction
+of Fritz. In this way I could accomplish a few yards more than anyone who
+threw in the ordinary way. Sandbags were piled about three feet high on
+top of the parapet with loopholes through which we fired our rifles. When
+I wanted to throw the grenades in the fashion I have just described, I
+would go to the more level ground at the back, throw them, and jump back
+into the trench where I always had ample room, as the others, with varying
+criticisms of my enterprise, gladly cleared the way before I started
+operations. They fully expected me at some time to make a mistake and land
+the grenades among them instead of in the boches&#8217; trench.</p>
+
+<p>As we did not have one common system of throwing these grenades, a few of
+the non-coms and men were selected to practise&mdash;a little way behind the
+lines&mdash;the proper method. Our Acting-Colonel, J. T. C. Murray, and three
+men were killed when a lance-corporal,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> in swinging a grenade,
+accidentally struck the ground with it, causing it to explode.</p>
+
+<p>At times we were treated to some lyddite shells by the boches (at least we
+believed them to be lyddite, though I have since learned that they were
+gas shells). I was never caught in the fumes myself, but I saw many men
+who had been. This particular gas simply snuffed the life out of the men
+without their even knowing what had happened. As they lost consciousness,
+they turned a yellow-brown colour, and never made any attempt to
+stir&mdash;just went to sleep and did not awaken&mdash;while those who got just a
+slight touch of it, would stagger about, as if deeply intoxicated.</p>
+
+<p>Volunteers were asked, one day, to go to a V-shaped sector where the
+British and the German lines were so close that grenades could be easily
+thrown from one trench to another&mdash;and they were! Thinking that it would
+be an easier job than what I had been doing, I gave in my name. I think
+nearly half of my company volunteered, but I was among the first eighteen
+to be picked. We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> were armed with grenades enough to do an hour&#8217;s bombing.
+Two of the men were detailed to keep renewing the sandbags as they were
+torn down by the boches&#8217; constant bombing. The German grenades, set with a
+time fuse, exploded a few seconds after leaving the thrower&#8217;s hand. The
+boches were evidently nervous about these grenades, for they almost
+invariably cut the time fuse too long or threw the bomb too soon after
+cutting it, so that our men frequently caught the unexploded grenades and
+hurled them back at the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>The first two to go &#8220;west&#8221; when our volunteer party got into action were
+the sandbag men, and at the end of that hour there were only four of us
+left to come out of that Hell, ten being killed and four badly wounded.
+After our turn, volunteers were entirely out of the question, so each
+section had to take an hour at it. The trench point where the bombing
+occurred was called the &#8220;Glory Hole,&#8221; and it was well named.</p>
+
+<p>Upon getting back to the trench, I swore off &#8220;bombing,&#8221; and decided that I
+would stick to scouting, although almost all the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> scouts had been
+killed. Why I was not, is still a mystery to me. After a few days at the
+&#8220;Glory Hole&#8221; we were sent to the rear to billets.</p>
+
+<p>You will remember that there were thirteen bullet holes in the Potsdam
+bugle which I brought back from the charge on the German trenches near La
+Bass&eacute;e. How many of them were made after the bugle came into my possession
+and was put in my pack, I do not know, but, at any rate, I believe that
+thirteen is my lucky number. This is the reason: After a short rest in
+billets, we were returned to a portion of the trench near a part we had
+occupied before. The regiment had been recruited up to full strength
+again, and I can tell you that there were very few of the original Black
+Watch left. In fact, the personnel that we now had was almost a third
+regiment. In order to reach the high broken ground to our right, where
+there was a great deal of patrolling and scouting to be done, it was
+necessary to cross an absolutely exposed strip of ground about thirty
+yards long. So many men had been killed here that we called it &#8220;crossing
+the bar&#8221; when we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> had to traverse this neck of land. You must remember, we
+did not have a decent air fleet in those days and infantry patrolling and
+scouting were much more important than they are to-day. From the high
+ground to the right, much information of the movements of German troops
+could be gained. Whenever they saw even a single man &#8220;crossing the bar,&#8221;
+the Huns would let loose a salvo of artillery fire.</p>
+
+<p>I usually waited until it was dark enough to see the flashes of their guns
+before crossing this strip, and whenever I saw the first flash I would
+sprint a few paces toward it and then flop down. The Germans had the range
+exactly. By sprinting, I stood a good chance of getting in ahead of the
+burst, and as shrapnel carried forward, the ruse worked nicely. In order
+to show a party of the new scouts the way across the bar, I was sent out
+with twelve of them, <i>thus making a party of thirteen</i>. Before we started
+I drew a rough sketch for them and told them, as exactly as I could, just
+what to do when we were fired upon. That we would be fired upon was a
+certainty.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>About the centre of this open strip was the dried bed of a stream between
+deeply worn banks and this afforded the only protection on the way across.
+When the light was just right, we moved out to the edge of the bar. I gave
+my men a few last instructions. It was time to go. I took one last look
+across the ground which was literally covered with shell splinters and
+deeply furrowed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rush!&#8221; I yelled. We went forward in a thin line.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the expected flash of the guns.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Straight toward them!&#8221; I shouted; and we all ran madly in the direction
+from which the shells were coming.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Down!&#8221; I roared with every bit of voice that was in me, at the same time
+flopping down flat on my face.</p>
+
+<p>There was a terrific crash! It seemed all around me. I could not tell
+whether it was in front or behind. I was surprised that I was not hurt. I
+heard groaning behind me. One of my men was wounded. There was not another
+sound. I thought the others must have kept on running despite my
+instructions, and were now in the little bed of the stream<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> waiting for
+me. I dared not move. I had to lie as one dead or the guns would have
+begun crashing again and they would get me and the wounded man behind me.
+Flare rockets illumined the sky. I prayed that the man who was hurt would
+lie still. If he hadn&#8217;t done so it would have been all over with both of
+us.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour I lay there in the mud until the rockets were no longer going
+up and I thought it safe to move. I crept a few feet over the ground. My
+hands were upon the body of a man, but he was not groaning. Yet the
+groaning continued from nearby. I realized that one of my men had been
+killed. I crept farther in the direction of the groaning. I bumped into a
+huddled mass. It was another body.</p>
+
+<p>Still I groped around. I had found three now. At last I reached the man
+who was hurt. He wasn&#8217;t moving, only groaning. I thought that there were
+others of the little party who needed help. In the darkness I wriggled
+here and there. I found another body. That made four. Then
+five&mdash;six&mdash;seven&mdash;and so on till I found eleven. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> were only two of
+us left&mdash;the wounded man and myself!</p>
+
+<p>I stood up despairing and like one lost. I almost wished that I had been
+one of the eleven who had &#8220;crossed the bar&#8221; once for all. I got the
+wounded man onto my shoulder in the style which is known as &#8220;the fireman&#8217;s
+carry,&#8221; and started back with him, walking erect. I had forgotten the
+danger of shells. Luckily it was inky dark and I was not seen.</p>
+
+<p>I staggered against a part of our barbed wire entanglements. I called for
+help. Four men crawled over the parapet to meet me. They dragged the
+wounded man to the edge of the parapet. He was still groaning faintly
+though he lay as one dead. As we lifted him over the edge of the trench,
+the groaning ceased. He was dead! <i>I alone of the thirteen had come back
+alive!</i></p>
+
+<p>While we were laying out the corpse, we heard the look-out sentry halting
+some one. I jumped onto the fire-step and plainly saw a figure
+straightening up on our side of the barbed wire, with his hands over his
+head, coming right forward. He dropped into our trench, of course with the
+sentry holding his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> bayonet pointed at him. It was plain to be seen that
+the young German was giving himself up, no doubt being sick of the
+fighting. He made a motion as if to put his hand inside his coat, but the
+man with the bayonet was taking no chances and made a lunge at him, which
+greatly frightened the lad. So he made us understand as well as he might,
+still holding his hands aloft, that he had something in his pocket he
+wanted to show us. The sergeant stepped over and took out the contents of
+the pocket. He did not have any firearms at all. Among the few things in
+his pocket was a worn plain envelope, and at this he pointed. Inside was a
+sheet of paper and on it was written in good English:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;English soldiers, please be kind to my boy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sergeant asked me to take the boy back to the officers&#8217; quarters with
+him, as I had yet to report my sad experience in &#8220;Crossing the Bar.&#8221; The
+case of the boy prisoner proved an extraordinary one. An officer of the
+engineers attached to the Black Watch, who could speak German, questioned
+him. The boy had not the least idea what the fighting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> was about. He told
+the officer that his mother had given him the letter as she felt sure that
+the English would be kind to him. She had told him that he should give
+himself up at the first opportunity. He was her only son.</p>
+
+<p>We learned from him of preparations for an attack by the Germans at dawn,
+which corroborated the information our staff already had. He was treated
+very kindly. He seemed very much taken aback at the kind treatment
+accorded him, and asked if it was the custom of the English to treat
+prisoners kindly before torturing and putting them to death. Upon hearing
+this, the officer he was speaking to laughed uproariously for fully a
+minute, and the others wanted to know the joke. He told them and some
+joined in the laugh. The officer patted the boy on the back; gave him his
+letter, telling him at the same time to treasure it; and said that he
+would no doubt meet his mother again.</p>
+
+<p>The boy fell upon his knees and tried to kiss the officer&#8217;s hand, sobbing
+like a child. But the officer nearly turned a backward somersault, getting
+away from the hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> kissing, and swore as if he would eat the lad up.</p>
+
+<p>Sure enough, the next morning the attack came off, but we were prepared
+for it. Just at &#8220;stand to&#8221; before dawn, our artillery opened fire and kept
+pounding at them until about eight o&#8217;clock; the enemy replying very
+vigorously. They attempted to get over their parapet, but gave it up until
+about noon. They tried it again. Our artillery opened up on them, and some
+forces along our line charged the Germans.</p>
+
+<p>The Black Watch had supports up and were to make a charge at two o&#8217;clock
+that day, but the sleet came on with an awful wind, and this prevented it.
+Instead, the regiment in support came up and took our place in the
+trenches. We moved along some distance to the right flank. The sleet and
+rain continued, also the wind. We were cold, miserable, and grousing in
+good style because we found we had to take another part of the trench,
+instead of going, as we thought, to billets. However, we got an extra
+issue of rum.</p>
+
+<p>This place was pitted with big shell holes.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> It looked extremely weird.
+One <i>sigarree</i> (fire box with charcoal) was issued to a company, and we
+would take our turn in getting warmed up from it. This lasted only a few
+days, for very soon the Germans sighted the smoke, which drew their shell
+fire, and so we were glad to abandon the <i>sigarrees</i> and suffer the cold.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER THIRTEEN</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">We were</span> by no means well acquainted with our new position, and one night
+shortly after our arrival, two of the men who had been sent out to
+reconnoitre, were captured by the enemy, who let them go, however, after
+stripping them to the skin.</p>
+
+<p>When they returned they had big bayonet wounds in their hips, and were
+suffering greatly both from the wounds and exposure. You can imagine our
+feelings at such wanton cruelty.</p>
+
+<p>Previous to this for some time I hadn&#8217;t been given any scouting duty and
+had been resting, but a few nights after this occurrence, shortly after
+dusk, I was sent to a listening post, which was situated to the right
+front of our open flank. The ground was very broken and the temperature
+was touching on the zero mark. Before starting out, we had just got our
+night issue of rum. A <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>lance-corporal accompanied me, and after lots of
+man&oelig;uvring and stumbling through shell holes half filled with slush, we
+arrived at the place where I had to listen for movements of German
+artillery, transports, troops, etc.</p>
+
+<p>We crawled to the edge of the bank, which overlooked a creek or canal. We
+knew the German lines were just across that short space. The
+lance-corporal said he would see that some one should be sent to relieve
+me in half an hour; then he departed. He had not gone more than a hundred
+paces, I should judge, when the German artillery let loose. It seemed as
+if a thousand hells had erupted. I was dumbfounded. I wiggled backward on
+my stomach, until I slid into a shell hole full of water and mud. I did
+not mind the cold; it helped to brace me&mdash;to realize fully the situation
+in which I was placed. The shell fire was lighting up the heavens;
+splinters, slugs, and bullets filled the air.</p>
+
+<p>I began saying my prayers. (I thought this would be my last listening duty
+on earth.) I crouched as low as the slush in the hole would allow me. Even
+while in this position, bullets and shrapnel embedded themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> so near
+me that, had I lifted my head, I should have been plugged instantly.</p>
+
+<p>The hellish bombardment seemed unceasing. I was cramped and numb. How long
+the firing lasted I do not know. At last, however, I became conscious that
+the clouds were clearing away and I discerned a pale moon. I tried to drag
+myself out of the freezing slush, but couldn&#8217;t. All the power in my body
+seemed gone. The shelling had ceased and there was a dead silence. I knew
+I was freezing to death. I once even tried to place the muzzle of my rifle
+under my chin and blow my head off, but I was unable to feel for the
+rifle. My hands had lost sense of touch. My lower limbs were insensible. I
+gave up all hopes of help or of ever leaving the shell hole&mdash;alive.</p>
+
+<p>What seemed a long time after I had deemed myself lost I heard some one in
+the vicinity. I wasn&#8217;t able to lift my head. I tried to speak. I was as
+one dead, with the exception of my brain.</p>
+
+<p>The next thing I knew something was being poured down my throat. Some one
+was attending to me but I was unconcerned. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> wanted only to die. If I
+could but have spoken, I would have begged the men who were attending me
+to put me out of my agony. After a while, I recognized them as our men.
+They were rubbing and slapping my body for all they were worth. Now and
+again one of them put his water bottle to my mouth. At first I could not
+make out what he was trying to pour down my throat, but at last I
+recognized it as rum. I forced myself to drink it. Then they rubbed my
+abdomen and legs with some of it as briskly as they could. One of them
+exchanged his kilt for mine; then they both wrapped their greatcoats
+around me, and, between them, managed to carry me back to the trenches&mdash;to
+safety.</p>
+
+<p>The jolting on the way back started my blood circulating. It is beyond me
+to explain exactly the feeling. My stomach began aching as if it contained
+boiling lead; then a feeling as if a million electrically charged wires
+had commenced to burn in the lower part of my abdomen and down to my lower
+limbs. I had the desire to shout out loud; whether or not I did, to this
+day I cannot tell.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> I must have gone completely insane with the pain for a
+while, for later I found myself struggling with a group of men, and they
+were urging me to keep quiet. They poured lots of rum into me, and I began
+to feel much better; in fact, more like myself, except that my legs and
+feet were like lumps of lead.</p>
+
+<p>During this time&mdash;since my rescue from the shell hole&mdash;the Germans had
+made a charge and were repulsed. The Black Watch had taken a line of their
+trench and were holding it. Two men had been sent out to find what had
+happened to the lance-corporal and myself, as the company commander had
+been expecting our report. They found the lance-corporal, riddled with
+bullets, not far from where he had left me. When they came across me I had
+done an eight hours&#8217; stretch of duty.</p>
+
+<p>I stayed in the reserve trench until we went to billets, a couple of days
+after this. We were looking forward to spending Christmas in billets, but
+were disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>We had hardly been &#8220;cushy&#8221; three days, when we were sent to hold a
+position on the left flank of an English battalion of what we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> believed to
+be the Sussex Regiment. It was just two days before Christmas when we took
+up this position.</p>
+
+<p>It was much quieter here. Snow had fallen during the night, giving the
+ground a sort of peaceful appearance, except for a few dark patches where
+some &#8220;Jack Johnsons&#8221; or &#8220;Black Marias&#8221; had landed toward dawn. (It was
+Christmas Day.) Just after &#8220;stand down,&#8221; our mail was issued. It consisted
+mostly of parcels. Our part of the trench was very fortunate. Every man
+had at least two letters and as many parcels. I received three in the same
+handwriting and a two-pound box of chocolate almonds. Parcels containing
+socks, mittens, scarfs, etc., were pounced upon by all hands, as these
+articles were very much needed at this time. Next in importance came the
+cigarettes, of which we received a goodly supply.</p>
+
+<p>I need hardly say that we all tasted one another&#8217;s luxuries&mdash;shortbread,
+chocolates, and currant cakes (which had to be eaten mostly with a spoon
+because of the rough handling they had had)&mdash;and we exchanged confidences
+about our letters whether they were from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> Miss Campbell, Mrs. Low, or
+Uncle Sandy.</p>
+
+<p>Every Tommy, every Jock, learns to know and to love his trench mate as a
+brother. The men in the &#8220;ditches&#8221; feel as if they all belonged to the one
+mother, sharing each other&#8217;s confidences, both pleasant and sad. There is
+no selfishness&mdash;not even a thought of it&mdash;&#8220;over there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We were all sitting round the fire-steps of our trenches, thinking, ever
+thinking, and wondering how many of us would live to see the same sun rise
+on another Christmas Day. The sun was red. It appeared to be
+dripping-red&mdash;with blood, when a slight commotion started up along to the
+right. I grasped my rifle and at the same time looked round the little
+traverse. I saw a few chaps with their heads over the parapet&mdash;which
+seemed unwise and extremely dangerous. I thought we had been surprised by
+the Huns, and took a glance in the direction of their trenches, which
+looked as quiet as our own. But I could see thin lines of smoke rising up
+at irregular intervals from the fires they had built. Almost at the same
+instant my eye caught sight of a figure some six hundred yards to our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>
+right proceeding in the direction of the boches&#8217; trenches; and, to crown
+all, he was a British Tommy!</p>
+
+<p>I thought the man must have gone out of his mind, and when I looked at
+where he came from, it seemed as if the whole regiment was viewing the
+daring proceedings of this solitary individual &#8220;between the lines.&#8221; At
+that part the trenches were much nearer than at ours. They seemed there
+about two hundred yards apart, while ours were about five hundred yards
+distant from Fritz.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the solitary Tommy walk right on to within a few yards of the German
+entanglements and pause a minute; then a boche&#8217;s head could be seen. At
+this, Tommy picked his way over the entanglements very cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>My heart was in my mouth! I could scarcely keep from shouting when he
+reached the edge of the enemy parapet and&mdash;disappeared!</p>
+
+<p>By this time our regiment was practically all on the fire-step,
+breathlessly watching and ready for what might happen after the
+disappearance of this &#8220;madcap.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Five minutes more elapsed. Then a head<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> bobbed up at the same spot we had
+been watching, and out of the trench came&mdash;the selfsame Tommy. He was
+carrying something in his hand. My eyes kept steady on him until he
+reached his own parapet, where he stood a moment flourishing this article;
+then, clasping it to him as if prizing it, he got down into the trench.
+While he had stood there for a moment, his fellow trench-mates threw out
+their arms to take his precious bundle from him, but as I say, he seemed
+to hold tightly on to it. When I looked back at the place he had just
+left, the Germans were waving their helmets, with heads above the parapet.
+It was Christmas all right! and we certainly got a Santa Claus surprise in
+watching these unusual proceedings.</p>
+
+<p>They were getting bolder on both sides at this part of the line, and a few
+men began walking on their parapets, finally coming closer and then
+meeting men from the enemy trench. Then followed a football match with
+regimental shirts tied up. To see those Tommies charging with their
+shoulders and explaining the game to the Germans, who were not so well
+acquainted with it, was a Christmas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> festival in itself that will never be
+forgotten by those who witnessed it.</p>
+
+<p>[We found out afterward that &#8220;Spud&#8221; Smith&mdash;who had just received a lovely
+&#8220;currant bun&#8221; from home and was overjoyed with it&mdash;was jumping round and
+making so much noise about it, that the fellows dared him to take it over
+to the Germans and wish them &#8220;A Merry Christmas.&#8221; He at once threw off his
+equipment and made toward them, where he received his Christmas present in
+the form of a bottle of &#8220;schnapps.&#8221; &#8220;Spud&#8221; Smith was the madcap of his
+regiment.]</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes after midnight, we were brought back to war again by the
+Germans shelling us all along the line.</p>
+
+<p>Everything was tolerably quiet, with the exception of an occasional
+shelling from either side, until New Year&#8217;s Eve, when an infernal row got
+up and on New Year&#8217;s Day we had about one hundred and thirty casualties.
+The shelling grew worse, and we discovered that the Saxons had been
+relieved by the Prussians. Twice they charged us in mass formation, and we
+were forced to retire to our second-line trenches. It was their idea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> and
+intention to break through our lines to get to Calais in time for the
+Kaiser&#8217;s birthday. This was the beginning of their big drive. Although we
+got a severe cutting up, we managed to hold all the ground we had, despite
+their mass formation, which is a stern and dreadful thing to face.</p>
+
+<p>One morning, about the middle of January, the coal boxes, Jack Johnsons
+and Black Marias were just simply shaking the earth. The German airplanes
+had been very active these last few days, and it seemed they were giving
+their heavy artillery the proper range on our lines. The Jack Johnsons
+were landing to the right of our regiment and were gradually working their
+way up toward us. We could see them tearing up parts of the
+trenches&mdash;smashing up men, whose limbs were sent flying up through the
+air. The sight was really too frightful to recall.</p>
+
+<p>Orders were given that the Black Watch should stand to its post and that
+no man was to retire. But as the heavy shells drew nearer, smashing
+everything up, they proved too much for the recruits who had joined us
+only within the last few days, and they made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> for the reserve trenches. By
+this time the Germans were beginning to make their advance in waves. Word
+was passed along that our regiment should retire to its reserve trenches,
+but it came too late for a few of us,&mdash;as we were already pumping it into
+the Germans. Those who had retired were firing over our heads at the
+advancing Huns, thus making it dangerous for us to withdraw.</p>
+
+<p>Just as I had made up my mind that we must get back somehow, Sergeant
+Johnstone crept to my side and said; &#8220;Cassells, let&#8217;s stick it out. This
+might last only a few minutes more and then it&#8217;ll be all right again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right, Johnstone,&#8221; I said; and we shook hands.</p>
+
+<p>Our own shells were bursting so close to our front that they were
+showering us with earth and stones.</p>
+
+<p>I saw the nearest Germans about a couple of hundred yards away.</p>
+
+<p>Then suddenly a dark curtain dropped before my eyes.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FOURTEEN</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">I seemed</span> to awake from a long sleep, only to discover that instead of
+being in a trench or a billet I was in a hospital; one of the kind made of
+canvas. There were two great marquee tents, with nurses flitting about
+quietly&mdash;like angels they seemed to me, for the moment.</p>
+
+<p>The pain that racked my body was awful. I lay there trying to determine in
+what part of me the pain was located but it seemed to be all over me. I
+noticed that either a nurse or an orderly was constantly in attendance at
+my cot.</p>
+
+<p>As my comprehension of things about me became clearer, I realized that my
+neighbour was a German. His moaning, coupled with his muttering of &#8220;<i>Ach,
+mein Gott in Himmel!</i>&#8221; got on my nerves, but I decided to say nothing, as
+I had not yet learned whether it was an enemy hospital or one of our own.
+I decided that if it was the former, the quietest way<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> to die was the
+best, if die I must. During one of the moaning spells of my neighbour, I
+seemed to lose consciousness. When I &#8220;came back,&#8221; a soft voice whispered
+in my ear: &#8220;It&#8217;s all right; keep still; we are only taking a plate of your
+leg.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>An <i>English</i> voice!&mdash;and with such kindness in it! Our own hospital! Not a
+prisoner! I just wanted to cry out, from sheer happiness.</p>
+
+<p>When next I found myself in my cot, that awful pain was unnerving me, but
+the doctor, Captain Allen, assured me that I would be all right after a
+few weeks&#8217; rest in Blighty. I immediately asked when I was to go. His
+reply was: &#8220;When your temperature goes down. It has been 104 for about a
+week.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I said I would like to write home, and my soft-voiced nurse thereupon
+brought me paper and envelope. I moved to extend my right hand for the
+paper, and with dismay found it in splints and bandages, with a strong
+resemblance to a huge boxing glove. Quickly I glanced at the left hand, to
+find with relief that it, at least, was whole.</p>
+
+<p>I had of course never learned to use my left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> hand for writing. Observing
+my need of assistance, the nurse sat on the edge of my bed and took pen
+and paper to write for me. I had not even to ask her to do this service.
+The tears came into my eyes at her willing, quiet helpfulness.</p>
+
+<p>After she had finished writing my letter, I asked her about my condition.
+She seemed reluctant to tell me, but as I urged her to do so she finally
+said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your leg will probably have to be amputated, as it has been completely
+turned round and the knee badly shattered. Some splinters of shell still
+remain in it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She left me&mdash;but not for long. She had gone for the plate with the
+impression of my knee. This she held up to what light could get through
+the roof of the yellow canvas, and the picture I saw quite startled me. I
+counted four little black specks around the joint, and to one piece in
+particular she called my attention. It was about the size of a one-carat
+diamond pointed at both ends and was embedded in the knee cap. This tiny
+object was giving me nearly all of my pain.</p>
+
+<p>The medical officer on his rounds <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>approached us and greeted me with &#8220;You
+certainly had a miraculous escape.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Later, one of my mates in the hospital, who was with my regiment, told me
+how I got mine. He had witnessed it. A Jack Johnson striking about fifteen
+yards in front of the trench I was in, exploded, caving the trench in for
+a length of about thirty yards. I, with Sergeant Johnstone, who had come
+up the previous day with reinforcements, was buried completely. Then the
+Germans charged over the trench at our fellows, who retired to their
+reserve trenches. However, the enemy was repulsed and had to retire to
+their own lines again. This fight started about 2 <span class="smcaplc">P.M.</span>, and it was not
+until about nine o&#8217;clock that night that our company came up and began to
+re-open the trench. It seems that one fellow was about to use his pick
+when another close by with a shovel noticed something in the form of a
+head. He stayed the hand with the pick just in time. It was a head&mdash;and
+mine at that. They completely unearthed me, and, as I looked to be dead,
+placed me to one side with a waterproof sheet over me, to be buried later.
+Luckily enough,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> a medical officer examined me and found there was still a
+little life left. He used artificial respiration, put my legs in splints
+made up of empty ration boxes, bandaged my damaged right hand, and sent me
+to the Rouen Hospital, unconscious, but with a spark of life still in me.</p>
+
+<p>Even after two weeks&#8217; stay in the hospital my condition was still very
+critical, but I had the courage and optimism peculiar to the Scot and my
+hopes for recovery endured stubbornly. The moans of my German neighbour,
+mixed with cries for &#8220;<i>Das Ei</i>,&#8221; didn&#8217;t allay my fever at all. No one knew
+what he wanted. Latterly one of our wounded fellows called the nurse over
+and suggested very earnestly that perhaps he had a glass eye and it needed
+some attention. The nurse at once examined his eyes, but found them all
+right.</p>
+
+<p>However, the next medical officer on duty understood German and acquainted
+the nurse with the fact that the patient had been calling for an egg. He
+marked on his chart that he should be given two fresh eggs every morning.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>This German was accorded first attention, while our own boys had to be
+content with being next in line. We could not kick, however, as the
+doctors and nurses stretched their ability to do for others to the utmost.
+After our prisoner had had his hunger appeased with the &#8220;Ei,&#8221; he seemed
+content to die, for that is just what he did. From what I could learn, his
+injury had been a bad one, a large piece of shell having pierced his
+chest.</p>
+
+<p>I felt sure, when I saw him carried out, that my turn was next. Then I
+discovered that the number of my cot was <i>13</i>, so&mdash;recalling the many
+escapes from death I had had and how this number had been concerned in
+them, my hopes for recovery went soaring high.</p>
+
+<p>Now I was recovering enough to take an interest in other cases in the
+ward, and one in particular, a Royal Irish Fusilier, in the cot opposite
+me. He had forty-eight bullet wounds in his body. He had already been in
+this ward six weeks, so I knew then I wasn&#8217;t the worst case there. My
+temperature had now dropped to 100, and I was informed that an orderly
+would bring<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> my clothes and get me ready for a journey. This meant
+Blighty!</p>
+
+<p>A couple of the Royal Army Medical Corps men came into the tent and very
+gently laid me in a stretcher, then carried me out along narrow pathways
+bordered by neatly whitewashed stones and rows of double-linked marquee
+tents with similar neat arrangements of stones at the entrances. There
+seemed to be a city of tents on the Rouen <i>Champ de Course</i> (race course),
+and outside of it too, as far as my eyes could see.</p>
+
+<p>At the end farthest from the cook-house huts, I noticed a large boiler
+arrangement with a funnel sticking up at one end and on the door some
+large print, but I could not read the lettering. I asked one of the men
+what the object was. I was informed that it was used for disinfecting
+Tommy&#8217;s clothes and exterminating the cooties that they sheltered. Tommy
+gets a change to hospital clothing as soon as he enters the base hospital.
+On taking a second look at the sign, I made out &#8220;Germ-Hun Exterminator.&#8221;
+So when Tommy gets his clothes out of &#8220;dock&#8221; (hospital), and grumbles at
+the R. A. M. C.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> orderlies when he finds his collection of souvenirs
+depleted, they promptly put the blame on the &#8220;Germ-Hun.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I was placed in an ambulance, a tag was fastened to my lapel
+and I was ready for the road along with other lucky chaps. It seemed as if
+we were hardly settled when we arrived at the railway station. An
+ambulance train was waiting here for us, and before many minutes had
+elapsed we found ourselves en route for Le Havre. We arrived here the same
+night and were placed aboard the S.S. <i>Asturias</i>.</p>
+
+<p>When we were about mid-channel, a torpedo from a German submarine just
+cleared the bow of our ship by a few feet. Even a hospital ship is a
+target for the missiles of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived next morning at Southampton without further occurrences of
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>Each patient was asked where he wished to be sent. It was natural that
+each should give his home district. We were placed in rows in the large
+shed on the wharf, and our destination marked on our tickets. We were now
+ready for our next part of the journey.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>Suddenly my attention was attracted by vigorous exclamations. From the
+patient in the stretcher next to me I heard vociferous &#8220;bly&#8217;me-ing&#8221; in a
+very strong cockney accent. I asked the disturber what he was making all
+the row about.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bli&#8217; me,&#8221; he said, &#8220;they&#8217;ve gawn an&#8217; gyve me a ticket to th&#8217; bloomink end
+o&#8217; Scotland!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is it a mistake?&#8221; I asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mistyke!&#8221; said he. &#8220;Is it a mistyke? Hit&#8217;s a mistyke that tykes in th&#8217;
+whole bloomink ge-hography of Britain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He communed with himself a moment in eloquent but inelegant language. Then
+he asked:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where&#8217;ve they ticketed you to, myte?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I hadn&#8217;t thought of looking at my ticket, but now I noted that I was
+destined for &#8220;Chelsea, London, S. W.&#8221; So he outlined a scheme to which I
+readily agreed. We exchanged tickets.</p>
+
+<p>I adopted his name &#8220;Bill Mortimer&#8221; of the Rifle Brigade and soon I was
+making for &#8220;th&#8217; bloomink end o&#8217; Scotland,&#8221; while he was en route for
+Chelsea under his assumed name.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>When I arrived in an Aberdeen Hospital, they were a good few days trying
+to account for me, as my papers had naturally gone to Chelsea. Ultimately
+they came to the conclusion that there must have been an error at
+Southampton; and sure enough, my record was finally located at the London
+hospital.</p>
+
+<p>It was one of the best errors that could have happened, for very soon I
+found myself in the &#8220;Craigleith Military Hospital&#8221; within commuting
+distance of my relatives and friends. I never heard any more of my friend
+&#8220;Bill Mortimer,&#8221; but I have no doubt the &#8220;error&#8221; proved a good one to him
+also.</p>
+
+<p>Two medical officers looked me over very carefully the first day. The next
+day they came back accompanied by the chief medical officer, Colonel
+Cottrill. After the latter examined me carefully he said that &#8220;an
+immediate amputation would be the wisest plan.&#8221; He asked me whether other
+examining physicians had told me the same thing.</p>
+
+<p>I said: &#8220;Yes; but I think it will be all right. See, I can wiggle my
+toes.&#8221; And I pointed out that this was a sure sign of hope for a recovery
+without amputation.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>Then commenced a daily routine of bandaging which stretched into months;
+every conceivable treatment for my betterment was given me; a
+plaster-of-Paris cast was put on my knee, and after it was on a week or
+two, the effect was simply wonderful.</p>
+
+<p>By this time, my hand could be used a little, but I found myself minus a
+finger and with two others broken. They, however, healed to normal.</p>
+
+<p>Every week, during our long stay in the hospital, entertainments were
+given for us by professional actors and actresses. Visitors were permitted
+to call Wednesdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 <span class="smcaplc">P.M.</span>; on other days from 1 to 3
+<span class="smcaplc">P.M.</span> I cannot describe the generosity and kindness of the people of
+Edinburgh.</p>
+
+<p>Every day came armfuls of flowers&mdash;the most soothing offering a
+convalescent Tommy can receive, outside of the occasional kiss some dear
+wee lass would imprint on his cheek. Both are wonderful in their ability
+to cheer a lonesome Tommy, who, perhaps, finds himself far from his home
+folk! Every day the ladies and young girls of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> town came to sit by our
+cots and read to us or write our letters. It was an enormous hospital,
+having often as many as 1100 patients and every man in it, even those who
+were strangers in Scotland, had daily visitors in plenty. English and
+Welsh soldiers, too far from home to receive the attention of their own
+people, were given even more favours than the Scots. Every day, a flock of
+big motor cars drew up and carried away those who were far enough toward
+recovery for a ride. We had many delightful hours rolling swiftly through
+the picturesque city of Edinburgh, along the banks of the Forth and up
+through the beautiful Pentland Hills.</p>
+
+<p>Our lockers were well filled, and we never wanted for such dainties as
+chocolates and fancy biscuits, and we had magazines, and&mdash;above
+all&mdash;cigarettes.</p>
+
+<p>A party of our lady visitors brought us wool and volunteered to teach us
+the art of knitting to while away our idle time. Most of the boys took
+kindly enough to it, but I wanted to learn embroidery. It caused no end of
+merriment that a man should want to sew. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>However, I persuaded them to try
+me, and one of them offered to do so.</p>
+
+<p>In India I had done quite a little at sketching, and my teacher found me
+an apt pupil in this allied art. Very soon I had mastered the art of
+making long and short stitches, French knots, border and buttonhole
+stitches, etc. I was so highly commended that I received many requests
+from these ladies for cushion covers, doilies, etc. They brought the
+materials and I plied the needle. It was such enticing work that very soon
+two other fellows &#8220;joined in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We had many other ways of passing the time. Visitors would ask us to write
+or sketch something in their autograph books, which we did with much
+pleasure, and I can tell you that some very, very funny local sketches and
+poetry&mdash;composed on the spur of the moment, with fellow mates, nurses, and
+doctors as the subjects&mdash;were carried away from that hospital. They were
+highly prized by the recipients. We had also a monthly <i>Gazette</i> recording
+the events of the daily life of the hospital in a breezy and interesting
+way.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>I saw many a bad case brought in, get well, and sent home, but still I
+remained, and so Corporal Charles Palmer, who had been there the longest,
+promoted himself to be &#8220;Commander-in-Chief&#8221; and took me as second in
+command, I being next to him in length of time there. One of his legs had
+been blown off six inches above the knee and the pain he suffered at times
+was excruciating. Another lad, a German, sixteen years of age, had had
+both legs blown off below the knees by one of the Germans&#8217; own shells just
+as he was about to give himself up to the British. He spoke very good
+English and was surprisingly cheery. The fair sex found him very
+attractive and he always got an ample share of the dainties they brought.</p>
+
+<p>I was still in the hospital when the awful &#8220;Gretna Green&#8221; disaster
+happened. Perhaps you remember it. A regiment of the Royal Scots was on
+its way to the front. Their train collided with another at Gretna Green
+near the Carlisle Junction, resulting in the loss of more than one hundred
+lives. Some of those that required medical attention were sent to
+Craigleith, and among the few that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> found themselves in our ward was a
+very broad-spoken Scot. He was on seven days&#8217; leave, but being &#8220;full of
+happiness,&#8221; somehow or another got mixed in at Edinburgh station with the
+lads of the wreck. He spied an empty cot which he immediately made for and
+fell asleep upon it. Soon afterward, Colonel Sir Joseph Farrer, Commandant
+of the hospital, came along to see the Gretna lads. When he came to this
+cot he slowly uncovered the face of the presumed patient and asked: &#8220;How
+are you?&#8221; The Scot, so rudely aroused, sat up, exclaiming: &#8220;Fine, mon;
+hoo&#8217;s yersel&#8217;?&#8221; The colonel was nonplussed for the moment, but hastily
+recovered himself however, and shook the extended hand of the erstwhile
+patient, much to the amusement of the rest of us.</p>
+
+<p>Among the &#8220;padres&#8221; to visit the hospital was a Major Chaplain of the
+Church of England. He seemed particularly interested in our ward (G ward)
+and made as many as three visits a week.</p>
+
+<p>Thursdays, after tea, was prayer meeting for us, as well as for a few of
+the other wards. Of course, it was impossible for all the wards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> to have
+the meeting on the same evening, owing to the large number of them and the
+scarcity of clergymen, so many of whom were with the boys in France. On
+one Thursday evening in particular, the Church of England chaplain I have
+just mentioned was about to commence the service when the absence of the
+organ (which was a little portable one, such as is used by the Salvation
+Army) was discovered.</p>
+
+<p>A couple of men who could walk volunteered to go in search of the organ,
+but they couldn&#8217;t find it. Then Sister Brian, a most accommodating nurse,
+whose Cockney accent was an unmistakable mark of her early upbringing,
+went out to locate the missing organ. After a few minutes she returned and
+startled the ward by announcing, from the doorway: &#8220;You men &#8217;ad hall
+better go to &#8216;Hell&#8217; (meaning <i>L</i> ward). Th&#8217; horgan&#8217;s in &#8216;Hell,&#8217; an&#8217; th&#8217;
+services habout to begin.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was a general roar of laughter and the reverend gentleman
+strenuously refused the invitation.</p>
+
+<p>When the patients were well on the road to recovery, they would be sent to
+one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> many mansions opened by the owners as homes for convalescents.
+Here they would remain for a few weeks, perhaps a month, before being sent
+to their homes. This stay will be among the pleasantest memories of those
+who experienced it. The beautifully-laid-out and spacious grounds and the
+auto rides! How it all helped to hasten recovery!</p>
+
+<p>I cannot conclude without trying to express the praise which most
+certainly belongs to the medical officers of &#8220;Craigleith.&#8221; At the outbreak
+of the war, Colonel Cottrill had been retired ten years, but he was found
+ready when the first note of the nation&#8217;s rally sounded, and there he
+remained when I left, serving his king and country in relieving, by his
+expert skill, the sufferings of those who come under his care. He was over
+seventy years of age, but he most truly was seventy years young.</p>
+
+<p>Of the nurses and sisters I could not say enough. Sister Lauder, for
+instance; I have seen her do thirty-six hours&#8217; duty at one stretch,
+without the <ins class="correction" title="original: sightest">slightest</ins> rest, at a time when streams of wounded were pouring
+in day and night. Once she collapsed in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> middle of the ward. Such
+devotion, such wonderful spirit these women exhibited!</p>
+
+<p>I was discharged on August 5th, 1915, being &#8220;no longer physically fit for
+war service.&#8221; (Para. 392, XVI, K.R.)</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER FIFTEEN</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">On a</span> day in February, 1916&mdash;a week prior to the sailing of the S.S.
+<i>Tuscania</i>, on which I had taken passage to the United States&mdash;I had left
+the office of the Anchor Line and was proceeding up the High Street, of
+Cowdenbeath (across the river from Edinburgh), bent on an errand
+pertaining to the preparations for my departure, when I noticed across the
+way something familiar in the appearance of a tall man in khaki. Twice or
+thrice I gazed at him, with a sense of dim recollection, and then I went
+walking&mdash;or, rather, limping&mdash;on my way. There were uniforms everywhere
+and one, even though it seemed in some way distinctive, could not hold my
+attention. I started to cross the street but when I was in the car track,
+in the middle, a sound arrested me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Reuter! Reuter!&#8221; called a voice which was strangely familiar.</p>
+
+<p>Who, thought I, is this, calling me by my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> nickname? I turned and saw the
+tall soldier whom I had noticed, limping toward me at the best gait his
+lameness permitted. I perceived that he wore a Black Watch forage cap. As
+I stood, awaiting his approach, I suddenly recognized him as my chum, Ned
+MacD&mdash;&mdash;; the same Ned whom I had left in a hollow, in a wood, in France,
+grievously wounded, and who had mysteriously disappeared when I found
+opportunity to return in search of him.</p>
+
+<p>I had long believed him dead, for his name had appeared in our casualty
+lists among those of the killed. I was so overcome at seeing him that I
+stood as one struck dumb. In a moment, however, we were clasped in each
+other&#8217;s arms like a couple of bairns, the tears trickling down our faces.</p>
+
+<p>There we stood, speaking to each other as Scots will, in excitement, in
+the broad Scotch of our childhood days, until a sharp clang awakened us.
+It was from a tramcar bell. We were standing in the middle of the single
+line, and completely blocking traffic. Linking our arms together we made
+for the pavement.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>&#8220;I&#8217;m mighty
+glad I met ye, Joe,&#8221; was his first comment. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been trying
+to find out your whereabouts. To think that Fate should have been kind
+enough to put you in my way, like that; man, it&#8217;s just grand!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>I told him of my mission in Cowdenbeath.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Weel, I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;ve caught ye in time, ye bounder, cause I dinna think I
+could have followed ye to the States to make a visit on ye,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>By this time I had fully recovered myself and scrutinized him carefully.
+&#8220;You&#8217;ve got the same smile, Ned, but my how you&#8217;ve grown! You look at
+least two inches taller than when I saw you last.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And that I might,&#8221; he replied; &#8220;come on and I&#8217;ll tell ye all about it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>So we limped into Cook&#8217;s tea rooms, secured a table in a quiet corner, and
+he told me his story. He spoke in a halting manner, for it brought back
+many of his sufferings, but to me it is so striking that I felt, in
+finishing the tale of my war experience, you would like to know about a
+war romance&mdash;for romance it surely was&mdash;with as happy an ending as any
+novelist might conceive. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> will tell to you, as nearly as possible in his
+own words, the remarkable story he unfolded to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do ye mind when ye left me in the nook after bandaging my wounds?&#8221; he
+asked. &#8220;Weel, I lay there thinking and wondering. Ye ken, Reuter, what I
+was wondering about&mdash;about ye&#8217;re coming back; or maybe someone else might
+find me and take me back to the lines. But no help came. Then I got to
+thinking of the lass, and I managed to take her letters, as well as a few
+fags, from my haversack. I smoked the fags one after the other, and read
+her dear kind words over and over again. My mind kept dwelling on what was
+to have been our marriage day. Reuter, remember I told ye about it. It was
+to have been on the 7th of August, and then on account of the war, we put
+it off until after I should come back.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And now, I thought to myself, maybe I&#8217;ll never get back. All sorts of
+possibilities passed through my mind, and between this and the awful pain
+that throbbed all over me, I felt like as if I&#8217;d go mad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It began to get dark and my patience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> got exhausted. Then the idea came
+into my head that I could maybe drag myself along with my hands a wee bit
+nearer our lines. I thought of your promise, Reuter, but I couldn&#8217;t stay.
+A few of the lads around me pegged out one after the other, and it made me
+feel fair frenzied.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do ye remember Stanley Stenning, an English fellow of C company? Weel, he
+crawled out a wee while before me. I&#8217;ve heard since that he was home, but
+minus a leg, but I haven&#8217;t heard so far of any of the other wounded
+fellows that were in the nook with me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Weel, to get back to my own experience. It was awful&mdash;the pain&mdash;it racked
+me through and through, as I tried to move ahead by the aid of my hands. I
+would take a grip on anything I could get hold of and drag myself on a wee
+bit at a time. I had managed to do about a hundred yards, when I seemed to
+sense that I had taken the wrong direction, and oh! how weak I was about
+that time&mdash;it&#8217;s past telling. I just simply had to lie there&mdash;I couldn&#8217;t
+drag myself another inch.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I remember seeing a few bushes about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> fifteen yards ahead&mdash;it seemed so
+far!&mdash;and at first I wished I could manage to get to them, thinking I
+might get out of the way of the enemy, should any of them come along. But
+after a few minutes I decided it was perhaps as well that I was exhausted,
+because if I got there and should lose consciousness, ye might not find
+me, and that it was just as weel I was in the open. So I tried to content
+myself, but it was maddening.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In dragging myself to this spot I passed here and there one of our
+lads&mdash;then again I would make out one of the Camerons&mdash;and Reuter, they
+were so&mdash;still! But I crawled on, and as the vision of the lass came to
+me, I felt braver, and made up my mind to hold out as long as I possibly
+could.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By this time it was night&mdash;the time seemed to drag so! Then I remember
+hearing the sound of some one moving about, and I was just in the act of
+calling for help when the thought flashed through my brain that maybe they
+were Germans; so I kept still. The sound soon died away. My! how often,
+since then, I&#8217;ve wished I <i>had</i> called out.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I lay there wishing and hoping that I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> might be found before morning, but
+the hours dragged on. I was growing fainter and fainter, and more
+feverish.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At last, I dimly distinguished the presence of a party. Then I saw them
+turn over some of the dead Highlanders as they came across them, give each
+a kick, and pass on. By this time I could see they were
+stretcher-bearers&mdash;and Prussians, at that. I was already on my back and
+therefore hoped they would pass me&mdash;praying all the time that they would,
+I kept staring up at the stars. The Huns <i>were</i> passing, but it was over
+my body. The carrier at the front of the empty stretcher stepped over me,
+but the man in the rear stepped directly on one of my wounded legs. The
+pain caused me to groan out. At this they halted and spoke, gruffly, in
+German.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They took the contents out of my pockets and haversack, opened the
+stretcher, laid it alongside of me, rolled me very roughly onto it, and
+picked it up. Every once in a while during the journey to the dressing
+station which was quite some distance over broken ground, they would stop
+and drop the stretcher<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> on the ground, which caused me to groan more and
+more. There were hundreds of wounded Germans at the station.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here I was rolled out of the stretcher. I could feel that the pleats of
+my kilt were soaked with blood. Presently a little insignificant-looking
+German with spectacles on looked at me, and asked in English: &#8216;What is the
+nature of your wounds?&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I told him. He looked at them very hastily, then said: &#8216;You are lucky.
+They should have been eight inches farther up.&#8217; With a grunt he went to
+attend to the Prussian patients.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;With that, the Hun lying next to me&mdash;he had been wounded through the arm
+and foot&mdash;noticed me and commenced spitting on me and cursing in German. I
+made no protest. I was too utterly weak and exhausted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At last ambulances drew up near by, and the wounded Germans, after having
+their wounds dressed, were placed in them. My turn came to be carried onto
+the ambulance, without, however, any attention having been given to my
+wounds. After a great deal of jolting about, our ambulance drew up near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> a
+railway siding, and the German patients were served with some hot coffee,
+then we were all put on board a train. By this time it was daylight.
+Almost as soon as I was put on the train it began to move off.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shortly afterward, a tall, lean German doctor came over and looked at me,
+then renewed my dressing, which was the first since yours, Reuter. He
+asked me in broken English if I had had anything to eat. When I answered
+in the negative, he walked away and looked over the other patients and
+talked to them. After quite some time, a German orderly came to me with
+some hot milk and a sandwich of black bread and very bad-smelling cheese.
+I was given the same treatment as the others while on the train. The
+doctor told me there were more English wounded on the train, but that was
+all he said. I cannot say how long I was on the train, but at last, after
+a lot of shunting, it halted, and all the German wounded were taken off.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;An armed guard of two men came in and took their posts beside me. I was
+given coffee and more black bread and cheese. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> was transferred into a
+sort of truck, the guard being with me. They cut a few buttons off my
+jacket as souvenirs.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After another considerable journey, I was put into a motor ambulance,
+which brought me to my destination. It was dark when I reached this place
+and I could not see my surroundings. I was carried into a hut-like
+arrangement, where I found others, German and British soldiers, and some
+French also.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was only a few minutes in this &#8216;hut&#8217; when a big fat, over-fed,
+severe-looking German officer came in and growled out something in a rough
+voice. A nurse rushed up to his side. He growled out something else, and
+she immediately went out. In less time than it takes to tell, she came
+back with what no doubt he had been growling for. It was a sheet of paper
+and he commenced reading from it. It was to the effect that the English
+prisoners would not be allowed to disobey any of the officers, soldiers,
+orderlies or nurses&mdash;that if they should do so they would be instantly put
+to death. If they wished to make complaints they were to do so through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>
+the orderlies. However, if the complaint should not be a proper and
+truthful one, the prisoner making it would be liable to be put to death.
+He also strongly emphasized the fact that if any prisoner was caught
+attempting to smuggle or write letters, the sentence of death would
+instantly be imposed on him. At this point he went away.<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My heart sank. I got so homesick and much weaker; my hopes gave out
+entirely. I had been thinking that, on reaching my destination, I would be
+allowed to write home; and now&mdash;&mdash;?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I must have lost consciousness, for it was day time when I awoke, to find
+two doctors examining my legs, with a number of young students standing
+around me. One of the doctors, an old man, who spoke excellent English,
+said that both my thighs were badly fractured and that it would be
+necessary to operate on me the next morning. Then he commenced explaining
+to the young <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>doctors. After the explanation was over, they all walked
+away.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The next morning I was taken to the operating theatre, which had a
+gallery all &#8217;round packed with young German students. On the floor there
+were only a nurse, the old doctor who had spoken to me the previous day,
+and a few attendants. I was lying on a sort of high-wheel stretcher. The
+young students were laughing and jeering, when suddenly the old doctor
+turned on them furiously, using some hot German language, and instantly
+there was quietness. Then a cap was put under my nose.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I came out of the chloroform there was a cage arrangement over my
+legs and I had no pillow for my head. At the moment I thought it was a
+very mean trick to do me out of it, but after some experience in the
+hospital I learned that it was to prevent me from getting sick upon
+recovering from the effects of the anaesthetic.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There were about eighteen patients and two nurses in the hut where I was.
+The nurses took turns of night duty week about. The day nurse during my
+first week there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> a very severe and sour-faced creature. She could
+speak a little English, and I&#8217;m sure she did not speak to me more than
+twenty times, and not once kindly. The night nurse was a woman about forty
+years of age. She could speak only a very little English, but she was
+pleasant and good-natured. She took more care of me than any of them and
+would bring me a glass of milk now and again when the guards were not
+looking. She also informed me that this was the place that students came
+to, for practising and experimenting on the wounded prisoners, and added
+that I would have a lot more operations&mdash;which I had.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Conditions became worse as months dragged on. It was now summer of 1915,
+and still my legs were not allowed to set. One operation followed another.
+I saw an iron plate with rusty screw nails an inch long, that had been
+used to patch up my thigh bones. I suffered much physically&mdash;but worse
+than that was the mental suffering I experienced, worrying about my folks
+at home.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Every other day, young sarcastic doctors would come in, take the splints
+off, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> commence squeezing and turning my broken legs in a painful
+fashion. Some would shout: &#8216;English swine, why don&#8217;t you cry out?&#8217; but I
+don&#8217;t remember doing so when any of them were near me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The food got worse and worse toward winter. I got three meals a day.
+Breakfast consisted of weak coffee and a slice of black bread with some
+kind of lard spread on it. Dinner was herring bone or potato-peel soup, or
+ham-bone soup with a slice of heavy potato bread. Supper was a repetition
+of breakfast except that very often the lard was absent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There were two German patients who got the best of attention. I learned
+though, that they were wounded in the act of deserting, and were to be
+court-martialed upon recovery. After they were able to sit up they would
+get a large jug of beer with their midday meal and this was a keen torture
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I became determined to find some way of communicating with my sweetheart
+and friends at home, to let them know I was still alive. The night nurse
+told me she expected to go near the firing line for duty, so I asked her
+if she could try to smuggle out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> a letter for me so that it would reach my
+friends. At first, she very positively refused, saying that should the
+effort be found out, she would be instantly shot, but after I explained my
+case to her and pleaded with her she brought me a pencil and note paper
+and watched a chance when all was quiet. She put a screen round me and
+whispered in my ear to praise the commandant, and the doctors, and write
+in the brightest manner of everyone there. Thus, she said, the censor
+might allow the letter to go through.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;While she watched the guards, I scribbled, doing all she told me to. I
+described the place and commandant something in the following manner:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>This is a most beautiful place. I think it&#8217;s the prettiest hospital
+in the great German Empire. It is even more elaborate than the
+wonderful Peterhead sanatorium at home, and the commandant is the
+nicest old gentleman. The staff, here, is also superior. We get the
+best of food and plenty of it and all kinds of recreation. Even
+visitors bring English magazines and treat me like a relative.</p></div>
+
+<p>&#8220;After finishing it, I gave it to the nurse to read. I had written all the
+sheet could contain. She looked it over and seemed very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> pleased with it
+and said that it would pass the censor all right. She sealed it, then
+affixed a stamp, and hid it away in her dress, promising to post it next
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I thought it was rather neat, my working in the Peterhead prison in
+Aberdeenshire, as a sanatorium.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After the nurse&#8217;s departure, I slept peacefully and with an easy mind, as
+if a great burden had been lifted from it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When the usual batch of sarcastic young German students came next morning
+and started in jeering at me, I smiled. One of them instantly leaped
+forward and gave me a stinging blow on the face with his open palm. I
+managed to contain myself&mdash;but how I did it, I don&#8217;t know.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That same evening, the commandant came in raging. He nearly ate me up,
+while in the act of producing the letter I had written the previous night.
+I longed so for the ground to open and swallow me up. He said the penalty
+for the offence was death. At first I denied that I knew anything about
+the letter, but he shouted: &#8216;Do you not remember giving the same address
+upon coming here?&#8217;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>&#8220;I did, only too well.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After blazing out on me, he left, cursing in German. I made up my mind
+that I was doomed, but decided to lie as long as I could on my cot, as I
+felt that I would no doubt be shot as soon as I was able to get out of
+bed. That night a big masculine-looking nurse came on duty, and she was a
+perfect virago.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I learned with deep regret that the kind nurse was moved&mdash;perhaps shot. I
+watched my chance, and at night, when no one had eyes on me, I twisted in
+such a fashion that my thigh bones could not possibly get a chance to knit
+together. The agony I suffered was fearful, but I did not care. In the
+morning my temperature would go up and further operations would follow. I
+continued doing this for a week or so but at last I could not stand it. I
+just had to lie still.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In December I began to get up for a few hours daily. It was torture to me
+when I tried to move around. I was so very weak and all the-muscle and
+flesh had left my body. I was reduced to almost skin and bone.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was not even given a stick to support<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> me. I limped about for a few
+weeks, then received my uniform and was moved to the prisoners&#8217; enclosure,
+where there were one thousand British prisoners. Like myself, none of
+these fellows was allowed to write home, and I don&#8217;t suppose they will
+be&mdash;until they are set free. We were crowded into tents. The food was
+terrible; I have seen pigs get better. But we ate it just the same.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The next morning after breakfast, we were all marched out to make roads,
+chop wood, and do all kinds of convict work. Some of the men had a leg
+off, others had an arm off as well as being otherwise crippled; but they
+all had to work.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t able to keep up with the rest while marching out to the place
+where I was to work and one of the German guards started poking the butt
+of his rifle into my ribs. This was his way of making me keep up with the
+rest of them. I tried hard and finally managed to reach the spot where our
+men were working. I was given wood to saw.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I managed to stick to it about half an hour, then I fainted. When I came
+to myself again<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> a big dirty Prussian was kicking me and telling me to get
+on with my work. But I couldn&#8217;t. Upon seeing this, a man from our squad
+was ordered to wheel me back to camp in a barrow with a German walking
+alongside with his rifle slung over his shoulder, smoking a long pipe and
+jeering all the way. I was at once classed as &#8216;worthless.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Our officers had to work like the other men, but the special job given
+them was road-sweeping. I was given some dirty work to do around the
+prison camp for a few days, until at last I had to be put in the hospital
+again on account of weakness. One of my legs was shorter than the other,
+owing to the manner in which they had practised on me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This time I was in the hospital only about two weeks. Then I got my
+clothes, and the commandant came in and informed me that he got orders to
+supply six worthless English prisoners from the camp for exchange. &#8216;You
+are the first on the list,&#8217; he said. &#8216;You are no good to anybody. You
+cannot even work for the food you get.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I could hardly realize my good fortune.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> I wept with joy. To think of
+being sent home as an exchanged prisoner!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I &#8216;fell in&#8217; along with five more fellows, one was stone blind; his face
+was an awful sight&mdash;all dark blue as if it had been tattooed. The other
+four had body injuries. We were placed in a motor truck which conveyed us
+to a railway station, then we were packed in trucks with a few sentries
+over us.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One of the sentries, out of pity, gave one of our men a cigarette. The
+poor fellow had just lighted it off the stump the sentry was about to
+throw away, when a German officer rushed forward and knocked it out of his
+mouth with his glove, and had him taken away at once. The sentry who had
+given him the fag was ordered to take off his equipment, and two of the
+German guards marched the British prisoner and German sentry away.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Two nights later we landed at a port and were marched on to a steamer. I
+think it was a Dutch boat, as I did not see any Germans on board until we
+were out at sea, when we were gathered together, and a German staff
+officer of the navy gave us a lecture.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> He finished up by saying that we
+were not free of the German Government until we landed in England, and
+should any of us disobey while on board, we would at once be sent back to
+Germany. You may depend upon it that we obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After we boarded the boat we were given some Capstan Navy-Cut
+Cigarettes&mdash;and got a good meal, the first since I had been taken
+prisoner. I was so overjoyed that I sat in a corner and did not utter a
+word until I landed on British soil, then I prayed silently and thanked
+God for bringing me back to a civilized country. I think there were over
+six hundred exchanged British prisoners on the same boat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When we landed in England, we were taken to a hospital, and those of us
+who were able to travel were asked if we wanted to go straight home for a
+few days, and report for medical treatment in our own districts. I think
+all those who weren&#8217;t able to do much more than crawl said they preferred
+to go straight home. Next morning at 8 o&#8217;clock I was given two sovereigns
+and a furlough, pending discharge.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>&#8220;After receiving the money, I boarded the first train for Auchterarder,
+where &#8216;the lass&#8217; lived. She had opened a millinery business in my absence.
+The train left at 10 <span class="smcaplc">A.M.</span>, and I arrived at Auchterarder depot at 8.15
+<span class="smcaplc">P.M.</span> It was about a mile from the station to Jeanie&#8217;s house. I wanted to
+get there as soon as I could, and walking was out of the question. So I
+managed to coax a teamster to go a little bit out of his way and let me
+off near her home. I wanted to surprise her, so went on upstairs in her
+house quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As I climbed up I could hear the sound of much merriment coming from the
+upper rooms. The first thought that struck me was that perhaps she had
+been already notified and was preparing a surprise for me. Yet it seemed
+strange, as I had sent no word ahead of me&mdash;not even a telegram.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I felt real nervous upon reaching the door, and wondered what I should
+say on entering it. At last I summoned up courage and opened the door. I
+stood still. The sight that met me dazed me. I couldn&#8217;t believe my own
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the room there were many young ladies&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>most of them dressed in white.
+I recognized some of their faces. Jeanie was standing in the centre,
+dressed as a bride with a bouquet clasped in her arm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was beginning to think that it surely was a most heavenly surprise. But
+they caught sight of me and it seemed as if they all made for the farthest
+corners of the room. They looked at me in what seemed to be terror.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jeanie stared at me for a moment. She was very pale. I wondered why she
+didn&#8217;t rush forward and greet me&mdash;as I felt she ought&mdash;with outstretched
+arms. At that I started to make for her side. She gasped out &#8216;Ned&#8217;&mdash;and
+sank to the floor in a faint.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;While I was leaning over her, there was a commotion at the door. I looked
+around and saw the clergyman enter, with one of my old-time chums dressed
+as a bridegroom. Upon recognizing me the bridegroom looked bewildered, but
+the next moment he had recovered himself. He approached me and shook
+hands, telling me, with an odd and embarrassed manner that my arrival was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>
+timely. He added: &#8216;If you had been delayed half an hour, Jeanie and I
+would have been married by now. It seems as if Fate has taken a hand in
+this.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He told me that Jeanie had been worrying and was continually talking
+about me, and that she didn&#8217;t believe I was dead, although I had been
+reported &#8216;killed or missing&#8217; since September, 1914. He had told her that
+she was foolish to keep up this thought, and finally had persuaded her to
+become engaged to him. The date for the marriage was fixed for the night
+on which I arrived.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;During this time the bride was being attended by some of the other young
+ladies and had been revived.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The intended bridegroom went to her side and asked if she still cared for
+me. Her answer was: &#8217;If he loves me, <i>yes</i>.&#8216; He approached me again,
+asking whether I cared for her still. Oh, I wanted to say how I loved her
+and how anxiously and hurriedly I had made my way to her on reaching
+British soil, but I was too overcome for words; I could only nod an
+assent. Do you know, Reuter, what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> this old pal did? He withdrew, giving
+me his place, and he acted as Best Man.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Since then I&#8217;ve wondered whether, if it had been any other man, he would
+have stepped aside so. He loved her as I did, no doubt, but it seems she
+couldn&#8217;t forget me, no matter how he tried to make her do so; so,
+realizing all this at the time, he did what he thought would give her the
+greatest happiness. I had suffered sorely, Reuter, but surely I was well
+rewarded. The pal who had expected to have my place gave us a hundred
+pounds as his gift to help us along in business. We were married that same
+night&mdash;only three days ago. So you see, Reuter, I lost no time in trying
+to find you to tell you of my complete happiness.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>We left the tea rooms, and I accompanied Ned to the railway station, where
+he took the train for his home town. As we parted he wished me the best of
+success in America, and hoped that he would hear of my getting married
+very soon, for he assured me he was so happy that he wished to know that
+such happiness was mine also.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>I made for home then, and in less than a week&#8217;s time I was on my way to
+the States.</p>
+
+<p>Ned&#8217;s good wishes for me have certainly been fulfilled. I have since
+married, and it is my wife who has proved my sole inspiration and help in
+writing this book.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER SIXTEEN</h2>
+
+<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">No doubt,</span> if I had been trained in writing rather than in the tactical
+requirements for service in the British army, I should call this the
+appendix of my book. I prefer not to do so, having found in my own
+experience that readers may be inclined to view the appendix in literature
+as similar to the appendix in surgery&mdash;something which is unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot so regard this chapter. It is to me a component and interesting
+part of the whole, for it goes to the source of the splendid and unique
+traditions of the regiment in which I have been privileged to serve as a
+soldier of my country.</p>
+
+<p>A great deal has been written about the Black Watch. Even poets have been
+inspired to sing of its deeds in stanzas which are undying. Men of
+Highland birth, glorying in its history, have set down the facts of its
+achievements under England&#8217;s banner. Yet most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> of these records are
+composed of dry facts, with no expressed sense of the romantic and the
+unusual which enter so largely into the history of the most famous
+fighting organization in the world. And most of them, also, might be
+written from the viewpoint of a century ago. They do not bring the recital
+of the achievements of the Black Watch into the atmosphere of to-day, with
+due regard for the interesting and almost startling effect of contrast.</p>
+
+<p>This thought came to me one day when I was riding on a trolley through one
+of the busy districts of that part of Greater New York which lies east of
+the bridged river, and suddenly realized that I was passing over the very
+ground upon which the Black Watch had its first important engagement in
+the war of the American Revolution&mdash;the Battle of Brooklyn. I recalled
+that on this very spot, where clanging trolleys, quick motor cars and
+hurrying pedestrians made a confusing rush of traffic, the men of the
+Black Watch fought, in the fashion of their forefathers, with broadsword
+and pistol, against the sturdy pioneers whose descendants are now the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span>
+allies of our nation in a war for world freedom. In the annals of our
+regiment, the use of the broadsword and pistol in the Battle of Brooklyn
+is duly recorded, for it was after this engagement that the regiment was
+required to lay aside these medi&aelig;val weapons&mdash;a fact which occasioned such
+discontent among the veterans of the Watch that there was even fear that
+the Highland stubbornness might manifest itself as markedly in protest as
+on the occasion&mdash;in England, in 1743&mdash;when the men of the regiment,
+confronted with orders issued in ignorance of the Highland characteristics
+and customs, departed quietly, in a body, without the knowledge of their
+officers, and marched as far as Northampton with the intention of
+returning to their Highland homes, relinquishing the purpose only when
+prolonged negotiations had made the facts of the situation plain to their
+stubborn minds.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, however, this disposition on the part of the men of the
+Black Watch could hardly be called surprising, in view of the ignorance
+regarding the Highland character then prevalent in England. Three years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>
+before, King George the Second, having never seen a Scotch
+Highlander&mdash;although the Black Watch had already been organized in the
+Highlands as the Forty-third regiment of the British army&mdash;asked to have
+some examples of the race sent to appear before him and his court. Two
+Highlanders, Gregor MacGregor and John Campbell, appeared in response to
+the King&#8217;s command. (A third, John Grant, began the journey to London with
+them but died on the way.) MacGregor and Campbell gave exhibitions of
+their dexterity with the broadsword and the Lochaber axe, in the presence
+of the King and his Court. When they had finished the King gave each a
+gold guinea as a gratuity. They gave the coins as a tip to the porter, on
+their departure. The King had not understood that his guests were Highland
+gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>Sitting at the window of the house where I now pass the peaceful and
+uneventful days of the soldier who has fought until wounds incapacitate
+him for further service afield, I smiled, one day, at another thought in
+which the past and the present incongruously came into association. From
+this window, I viewed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> the populous, close-built residential stretches of
+Washington Heights, typical of the city life of to-day. And, amid all
+this, my eye could seek out the very spot where occurred the grimly
+humorous adventure of Major Murray, most corpulent of the officers of the
+Black Watch, when the command was fighting against Washington&#8217;s rebellious
+patriots. Having to scale the heights which were later to become famous as
+the habitat of the hardy goats of Harlem, Major Murray was at a great
+disadvantage because of his weight and girth. &#8220;Soldiers, would you leave
+me behind?&#8221; he appealed, pathetically, when he needed assistance. And then
+his husky Highlanders would boost him upward toward the fray. It was,
+consequently, in a somewhat breathless and confused condition that the
+valiant major attained the spot upon the heights where the conflict raged.
+Rushing forward to close with some antagonist in the Colonials, Major
+Murray discovered that his only weapon, his dirk, had got twisted behind
+him in the strenuous struggles of the ascent and that, because of his
+excessive fatness, he couldn&#8217;t reach it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> The records of the regiment, at
+the home station, Perth, state that the major, on this occasion, tore a
+sword from the grasp of one of three Colonials who attacked him and put
+all three to flight. With no thought to cast aspersion upon the major&#8217;s
+valour, I have always been inclined to the belief that the writer of the
+regimental reports may have compensated in a certain generosity of
+statement for his earlier description of the major&#8217;s comic predicament.</p>
+
+<p>Study of the history of the Black Watch, gathered, largely, in a
+fragmentary way, has always had a fascination for me. I have felt in the
+greatest degree the pride of membership in the organization&mdash;and the world
+knows that the men of the Black Watch have always made much of the name. I
+feel that tradition had well prepared the regiment for its sacrificial and
+almost superhuman efforts between Mons and the Marne. For hard fighting
+and long fighting&mdash;in every quarter of the globe and with opponents of
+almost every race&mdash;civilized and uncivilized&mdash;no organized fighting force
+has ever had a record to equal that of the Black Watch.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>The regiment got its name in 1729, when six companies of Highlanders which
+had constituted a sort of military police along the highland border, were
+joined together into a more or less homogeneous command. Four of these
+companies had been in existence for a few years. Two were of organization
+of that year. They were called the Independent Companies of Highlanders
+but it was their purpose to co-operate to preserve order among the
+turbulent spirits of the border and to enforce the disarming act.
+Highlanders from the broken clans flocked to the banners of the
+Independent Companies, as this gave them the right still to bear arms.
+Many of them were Highland gentlemen, who came with their servants to
+carry their arms and belongings. The companies were commanded by Lord
+Lovat, Campbell of Lochnell, Grant of Ballindalloch, Campbell of Fonab,
+Campbell of Carrick, and Munro of Culcairn. Approximately, there were a
+hundred men in each company. They wore the dark tartan of the clan
+Campbell, and thus came to be called the <i>Freaceadan Dubh</i>, or Black
+Watch, as distinguished from the <i>saighdearan dearg</i>, or red soldiers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>For ten years, these six companies served on the border, constituting a
+slender but effective bulwark between two neighbouring but utterly
+different peoples. In this day&mdash;when it is but a pleasant outing to motor
+from England into the Highlands&mdash;it seems almost unbelievable that the
+laws, language, customs, and social usages of the Highlanders should for
+centuries have remained utterly different from those of England and the
+lowlands, and that the people of the lowlands should have almost no
+knowledge of neighbours so near. The sturdy and soldierly qualities of the
+Highlanders of the six companies, however, couldn&#8217;t escape the notice of
+England&#8217;s generals, ever seeking new drafts for England&#8217;s fighting forces.</p>
+
+<p>In 1739 it was decided that a foot regiment of Highlanders should be added
+to the regular establishment of the army, the six Independent Companies
+being augmented by four new companies to constitute the regimental
+strength.</p>
+
+<p>In 1740 this regiment&mdash;commanded by the Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, as
+colonel&mdash;was paraded for the first time on a field, near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> Aberfeldy. Until
+then, the Black Watch had been uniformed only in the fact that each member
+wore the <i>philleadh mor</i> or belted plaid, of the Campbell tartan. No one
+but a Highlander could ever adjust this dress. It consisted of twelve
+yards of tartan, two-thirds of it gathered in pleats, held by a belt round
+the waist, and the other third folded around the body and clasped with a
+buckle, on the left shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>The uniform and individual equipment of the new regiment, which was called
+the Forty-third Foot, is described in detail in an old order of the day.
+It consisted of &#8220;scarlet jacket and waistcoat, with buff facings and white
+lace; the <i>phileag beag</i>, or little kilt; a blue bonnet, with check border
+of red, white, and green, and a tuft of feathers; musket, bayonet, pistol,
+broadsword, dirk and target.&#8221; The first march of the regiment was from
+beside the waters of the Tay&mdash;where it had encamped for more than a
+year&mdash;to Perth, in which city the home station of the regiment was then
+established and still is maintained.</p>
+
+<p>When I outfitted there, with my contingent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> of first reserve men, at the
+outbreak of this war, the thought came to my mind that, three times
+before, the Black Watch had moved from Perth to fight in Flanders.</p>
+
+<p>I have never seen a succinct summary of the activities of the Black Watch.
+Though far abler writers than I have described its separate campaigns,
+each of these writers has given but a limited view of the long vista of
+sturdy fighting which visualizes the regiment&#8217;s history. From such sources
+of information as I have had, the following summary has been extracted.
+Surely it will tell a story of interest to every man who is interested in
+the traditions of Britain&#8217;s &#8220;far-flung battle line.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The regiment marched from Perth to London, in 1743, and, after a
+mutiny&mdash;due to tales of scandal-mongers that the Highlanders were to be
+sent to the American plantations&mdash;made its first journey overseas, going
+to fight in Flanders under the command of the Earl of Stair. After
+Fontenoy, the regiment covered the British retreat and lost, among their
+officers, five Campbells. In this battle they were commanded by Sir Robert
+Munro.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>The Black Watch, then called the 43rd Highlanders, was transferred to
+England, and most of the companies were kept in Kent, during the Jacobite
+uprising. Three companies were engaged in Scotland in putting down the
+insurrection, and one was at the battle of Prestonpans. I quote from a
+story of the Black Watch written by Lauchlan MacLean Watt in saying that
+&#8220;the other two companies had an unwilling share in the deplorable outrages
+in the Highland Glens after Culloden, which made the name of the Duke of
+Cumberland worthy to be placed amongst those of his blood who have won
+similar distinction in Belgium, to-day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Black Watch was sent to France, in 1746, thence to Ireland and back to
+Flanders in 1747.</p>
+
+<p>In 1749 it was returned to Ireland where it remained eight years. In this
+year the regimental number was changed to the 42nd.</p>
+
+<p>In 1757 the regiment was a part of the expeditionary force sent to America
+for the French and Indian war. At Ticonderoga it served so valiantly and
+suffered such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> terrific losses that the name &#8220;The Royal Highlanders&#8221; was
+conferred upon it.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment next fought at Martinique and Guadaloupe, returning to fight
+again in Canada and take an important part in the battle which compelled
+the surrender of Montreal. Altogether, it served seven years in the West
+Indies and North America. It was only at this period that company
+sergeants were given carbines instead of the Lochaber axes which they had
+always carried.</p>
+
+<p>In 1775 the regiment returned to Scotland, having been absent 32 years.</p>
+
+<p>In April, 1776, the regiment embarked again for America, this time to
+fight in the revolution of the American colonists. They were disembarked
+on Staten Island, and, as I have said, they were engaged and suffered some
+losses in the Battle of Brooklyn. They also suffered heavily in the Battle
+of the Brandywine.</p>
+
+<p>The Black Watch next fought against Hyder Ali, in India, in 1782.</p>
+
+<p>In 1795 it took part in the defence of Nieuport, in Flanders, and suffered
+much in the Gildersmalsen retreat, in that campaign.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>Back again, the regiment went, after this, to the West Indies and in this
+campaign the men were first given a uniform suitable to wear in the
+tropics. Its principal features were white duck trousers and round hats.
+The mutations of world warfare had had their effect. The Highlanders were
+willing to put on pantaloons. There were but five companies of the
+regiment on this expedition. The whole regiment was reassembled, however,
+in the following year, at Gibraltar, and fought as a whole in the capture
+of Minorca.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1800 found the regiment, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, in Egypt.
+During the fighting with Napoleon&#8217;s armies, there, the regiment lost its
+commander in action.</p>
+
+<p>In 1808 the Black Watch was among the British forces in the Peninsula and
+suffered extreme privation and heavy losses on the retreat from Corunna.</p>
+
+<p>In the following year the regiment was on the ill-fated expedition to
+Walcheren, returning with less than one-third of its original strength.
+Three years later they were in Portugal again.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>After the escape of Napoleon the regiment fought through to Waterloo,
+though without playing an important part in that last great battle.</p>
+
+<p>It then fought through the campaign of the Crimea as a part of Sir Colin
+Campbell&#8217;s Highland brigade.</p>
+
+<p>Within a year it was in the lead of the force of six thousand men which
+Sir Colin led against twenty-five thousand mutineers at Cawnpore.</p>
+
+<p>Its next hard fighting was in the Ashanti campaign, under General Sir
+Garnet Wolseley.</p>
+
+<p>In 1881 it was combined with the 73rd Highland regiment (formerly the 2nd
+battalion of the Black Watch) and in the next year was back, fighting in
+Egypt. Through the whole of that war in Egypt it was in the fore-front,
+fighting with distinction up to the end of the expedition which was
+organized for the relief of Gordon at Khartoum.</p>
+
+<p>The regiment suffered its most terrific losses&mdash;up to those of the retreat
+from Mons&mdash;in the South African campaign. The slaughter of the Black
+Watch, at Magersfontein, when the Boers ambushed it in close<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> formation,
+was the most shocking news that came to England from the Cape.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the 2nd Battalion of the regiment and its deeds is a separate
+one, through several decades. It sailed to India in 1780 and was in action
+in all of the big and little Indian wars of that early and troublous time.
+In 1809 it was made a separate regiment and called the 73rd Highlanders.
+As such it served at Waterloo, and it remained a separate unit until 1881,
+when it was reunited with the original 1st Battalion.</p>
+
+<p>The Black Watch, as now organized, might almost be called a small army.
+There is a depot battalion at Perth, four territorial battalions in
+Scotland and six service battalions.</p>
+
+<p>In 1905, I enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch&mdash;the same
+&#8220;Royal Highlanders&#8221; that had won its designation at Ticonderoga. In 1907,
+I was transferred to the 2nd Battalion, which had been known as the 73rd
+Highlanders. I joined them at their station at Peshawar, near the mouth of
+the famous Kyber Pass, in Afghanistan. In the athletic contests for which
+the regiment was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> famous, I met as a competitor, Ned MacD&mdash;&mdash; the same Ned
+MacD&mdash;&mdash; whose romantic story I have told in a previous chapter. After a
+time we were the regimental champions, and, many a day in India, we
+strenuously upheld the honour of the Black Watch in competition with the
+men of other regiments.</p>
+
+<p>My athletic days and my fighting days are over. But ever my blood will
+quicken with the thought that I have played my part and done my service
+and shed my blood in the ranks of the Black Watch, fighting for Right and
+for the Freedom of Mankind. The pain of old wounds will ever vanish, the
+regrets for departed comrades will ever fade into forgetfulness when I
+read, again, the verses which paraphrase the title conferred by the bodies
+upon the Black watch&mdash;upon us!</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="closing">
+<tr><td>There&#8217;s a toss o&#8217; th&#8217; sporran,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A swing o&#8217; th&#8217; kilt,</span><br />
+A screech frae th&#8217; pipers<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In blood-stirrin&#8217; lilt;</span><br />
+They step out together<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">As pibroch notes swell&mdash;</span><br />
+Oh, they&#8217;re bonny, braw fighters,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&#8220;The ladies from Hell.&#8221;</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span><br />
+They&#8217;re far frae th&#8217; heather<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An&#8217; far frae th&#8217; moor;</span><br />
+As th&#8217; rocks o&#8217; their hillsides<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their faces are dour.</span><br />
+Oh, Th&#8217; Campbells are Comin&#8217;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Frae corrie an&#8217; fell&mdash;</span><br />
+What a thrill to their slogan!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">These &#8220;Ladies from Hell.&#8221;</span><br />
+<br />
+As they charged at Culloden<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like fire o&#8217;er th&#8217; brae,</span><br />
+Their brothers are charging<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In Flanders to-day.</span><br />
+One lesson in manners<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The boche has learned well:</span><br />
+&#8217;Tis: Make way for the ladies&mdash;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&#8220;The Ladies from Hell.&#8221;</span></td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE END</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/i266.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="center">THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS<br />GARDEN CITY, N. Y.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Since my discharge and residence here in America, I have heard several
+other cases of this kind, but the one narrated above is the only one I
+actually came in contact with. <span class="smcap">The Author.</span></p>
+
+<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> This was Ned&#8217;s individual experience. Prisoners in other hospitals and
+prison camps may have been allowed to write home even at that time. In
+talking to others I have learned that the prison camps in Germany vary a
+great deal.&mdash;<span class="smcap">The Author.</span></p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Transcriber&#8217;s Notes:</b></p>
+
+<p>Other than the corrections noted by hover information, printer&#8217;s inconsistencies have been retained.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Watch, by Scout Joe Cassells
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Watch, by Scout Joe Cassells
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Black Watch
+       A Record in Action
+
+Author: Scout Joe Cassells
+
+Release Date: July 28, 2010 [EBook #33278]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK WATCH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK WATCH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: SCOUT JOE CASSELLS OF THE BLACK WATCH]
+
+
+
+
+  THE BLACK WATCH
+
+  A RECORD IN ACTION
+
+  BY SCOUT JOE CASSELLS
+
+  _One of the few survivors of that
+  "contemptible little army"_
+
+
+  _Frontispiece_
+
+
+  GARDEN CITY    NEW YORK
+  DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+  1918
+
+
+
+  _Copyright, 1918, by_
+  DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
+
+  _All rights reserved, including that of
+  translation into foreign languages,
+  including the Scandinavian_
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+From Mons to the Marne lies the bloodiest trail of sacrifice in history.
+In all the records of war, there stands forth no more magnificent and no
+more melancholy achievement than that of the British regular army, which
+bled its heroic way in ever-diminishing numbers from the challenge to the
+check of the initial German sweep upon Paris. It could not hope for
+decisive victory; it could only clog the wheels of the Juggernaut with
+lives and lives and lives, sold bravely and dearly. Before a countless
+superiority of numbers and an incalculable advantage in enemy
+preparedness, it could only stand, and fall--and stand again, and
+fall--until the end; when the cause of the Allies was saved for the hour,
+and of French's hundred thousand there remained barely a little leaven of
+trained men for the British forces then assembling to learn the trade of
+warfare.
+
+The ablest pens writing of the Great War have paid tribute to this
+splendid deed which changed the course of its beginning. French's retreat
+from Mons has been a topic to inspire the highest eloquence of the
+patriotic historian and the most profound admiration of the militarist.
+Everything, from the point of the onlooker, has been said of it. And
+everything that has been said retires into the perspective of the
+academic, when one reads, in this volume, the words of a trained British
+soldier who experienced and survived it. For stark and simple strength,
+for realism of detail, for a complete picturization of the desperate and
+heroic resistance of the sacrificial army, this soldier's tale is, and
+will remain, unequalled and unique. This prefatory emphasis is not vain or
+extravagant. It need not fear the fact that there is but the turning of a
+page between promise and performance. Here is a writing which is _of_ the
+war, and therefore differs from all writings which can only be _about_ the
+war. It conveys to the reader an almost paralyzing sense of wonder at the
+steadfastness of Britain's military traditions, put to an unexampled
+test. It shows how marvellously well a soldier may learn his business in
+advance--when his business is to die. Concerning one of the most
+noteworthy accomplishments of the arms of Britain, there will survive in
+print no more compelling and convincing narrative than this, the utterance
+of one whose trade was fighting and not writing.
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK WATCH
+
+
+
+
+THE BLACK WATCH
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+For more than two years now, I have been trying to forget those first
+months of the war. The months when the Black Watch and other regiments of
+the immortal "contemptible little army" marched into the unknown against
+the fiercest, most efficient military power the world, up to that time,
+had known; the months when hidden enemies struck swiftly mystifying blows
+with strange weapons, the more terrible because we did not understand them
+and had never imagined their power and numbers.
+
+For more than two years I have habitually sought to keep my mind upon
+other subjects, yet I can recall those days now in the minutest detail. I
+can hear the sudden thrum of the masked machine guns like giant partridges
+drumming; can hear the singing roar of the Prussian airplanes to which, in
+those days, because of the scarcity of British planes, there could be
+practically no answer; and I can live again the frightful nights when we
+made our stand upon the Marne, and, sneaking into German outpost trenches,
+slew the guards with jack-knives, thrusting gags into their mouths and
+cutting their throats to prevent outcry.
+
+Those were the days of picturesque and shifty fighting. There was
+movement, the rush of cannon from the rear, the charges of cavalry, the
+perils of scouting and patrolling. It was little like the slow trench
+warfare which followed.
+
+The Black Watch--the regiment to which I belong--was one of the first to
+cross the Channel. War was declared August 4th, which was Tuesday. The
+first-class reservists, of which I was one, received their mobilization
+orders the next day.
+
+We assembled at Queens Barracks, Perth, the historic headquarters of what
+we proudly maintain is the world's most famous fighting organization.
+Twice before, since 1742, the Black Watch had outfitted in Perth to fight
+in Flanders. Almost constantly since that date, battalions of the
+regiment have been fighting for Britain in some far-off quarter of the
+globe. For the third adventure in Flanders, which was to see the existing
+personnel of the regiment practically wiped out in an imperatively
+necessary campaign of blood sacrifice, our preparations were brisk and
+businesslike. Within three hours of my arrival at the depot at Perth, I
+was one of a thousand men, uniformed, armed, and fully equipped, who
+entrained for Aldershot to join our first battalion stationed there.
+
+On the thirteenth of August, after a week's stiff training, we boarded the
+steamship _Italian Prince_ and the next day disembarked at Havre.
+
+What awaited us there was much like the reception later given to the first
+American troops to land in France. What followed was quite different. The
+American troops, and millions of their friends and relatives, are all
+wondering what awaits them--what war really will be like--what they will
+have to do and the conditions under which they will do it.
+
+It is an axiom of war that the first troops almost invariably suffer the
+greatest losses. The first American units to go into the trenches have
+suffered a low average of casualties. In one respect they are far better
+off than were the first British and French troops to meet the Germans.
+They know what they are going up against. Modern warfare is a determined
+quantity. They know the methods of the men they will fight against and
+they have allies able to instruct them in the art of fighting as it is
+practised to-day.
+
+We had nothing like that. It was as though we were groping in the dark
+while an unseen foe was striking at us. For days we tramped through France
+and Belgium hearing the roar of the German guns, feeling the sting of the
+shrapnel, but not seeing our foes. Then came the shifty, open fighting,
+now almost forgotten, which will not be resumed until the Germans are on
+the run. When it comes it will be a welcome relief to the men who have
+been battling, like rats, in trenches not fit for human beings to inhabit.
+
+Well, to get back to what happened to us, the first "contemptible little
+army," in France and Flanders.
+
+The 19th of August found us billeted in a town called Boue. We had to
+remain here a few days because the roads were blocked with transports
+going toward the front. The entire regiment was allowed to go swimming in
+a near-by canal and, as my chum and I were dressing, an old Frenchman gave
+us each a half-franc piece, saying that it would give us good luck and
+bring us through alive. It was the first money he had made as a boy and he
+had kept it ever since. The last I heard of my chum was that he had been
+discharged from active service because of wounds, and so it would appear
+his half-franc piece really did bring him through, just as mine did me.
+
+We left Boue on the twenty-first at three o'clock in the morning, and we
+marched until three o'clock the next morning. All the time we could hear
+the muffled booming of the German heavy artillery. It sounded just like
+the noise they make on the stage when a battle is supposed to be in
+progress in the distance. It excited the men and buoyed them up
+wonderfully, but twenty-four hours is a long time to march without sleep,
+and whenever we halted the men lay down in the mud of the road and lost
+consciousness--but not for long. Within a few minutes after every halt,
+the officers would come among us and rouse us, saying that we were badly
+needed up where the guns were growling. It was hard, tiring work, but it
+wasn't half so bad as what we got later, when we were retreating.
+
+We didn't know it, but we were on our way to Mons to hold the left flank.
+
+It was during a short halt in Grande Range that we had our first sight of
+a German airplane. We were billeted in the houses and stables of the
+village, and every one came running out to look at the plane when the
+thrumming of the engine was heard. When it was right over our heads it let
+fly a rack full of steel darts and they came clattering down into the
+village streets. One stuck into the pavement in front of our quarters. It
+was so deeply imbedded that not a man in the company could pull it out. [I
+have seen one of these missiles go right through a house from roof to
+cellar. They have been known to go through a horse and then bury
+themselves in the ground.]
+
+These steel darts were from eight inches to a foot long, cut so that they
+would fall point downward. Dozens of them were contained in a single
+rack, which the aviator released when he was over his target; the speed of
+the machine caused them to scatter. They would go through anything they
+hit, but they were found to be too inaccurate and not so economical as
+explosives.
+
+After the plane had passed we were rushed to the outskirts of the village,
+where we began to entrench. By morning, we had nearly finished the shallow
+trenches which, in that day, were regarded as sufficient protection for
+infantry in the field. At daybreak our High Command had information that
+our position along the highway would prove untenable. Wearily enough, we
+marched to a range of wooded hills where we again entrenched. German heavy
+shells found us there, so we were compelled to retire to another village,
+near which we entrenched once more, on still higher ground. The German air
+scouts were watching us, however, and in this new position a heavier fire
+from long-range artillery found us.
+
+All of this was on August 25th, two days after our forced march of
+twenty-four hours. The weather was extremely hot and we were well-nigh
+exhausted by the work of digging three sets of trenches. We lay and "took"
+the German fire. We had already had some casualties, the wooden steeple of
+the church in the village on our right was in flames, and several houses
+had been destroyed by the German shelling--and we hadn't _yet_ seen a
+German, except the airplane scouts. But they were not long coming into
+view.
+
+As we lay in our shallow trenches, a big shell every now and then falling
+amongst us, another regiment, retreating under heavy fire, broke into view
+from the woods, a mile or more in front of our line. We soon made them
+out--the Scots Guards, hotly pursued by a superior force of Uhlans, and,
+as the German commander fondly believed, near capture. We, in our
+trenches, were in a fever to get our fire on the Germans but they were so
+close upon the Guards that we dared not fire a shot. The Guards, putting
+up a stiff fight directly in front of our position, checked the Uhlans
+sufficiently to enable their own organization to continue its retreat,
+swinging over in the direction of our left flank. This gave us our chance
+and we poured a hot rifle and machine-gun fire into the pursuing force.
+
+We were in action against the Boches, at last! and, furthermore, we had
+the satisfaction of seeing that our fire was effective. The Uhlans, whose
+attention now was forcibly distracted from the hard-pressed Guards to us,
+immediately advanced in our direction, dismounting at 1,200 yards distance
+and returning our fire. Leaving their horses behind a ridge, they crept up
+on us to within 500 yards.
+
+At this point, a water cart belonging to the Guards, which had been hidden
+in a thicket, popped out, and was being driven in the direction of their
+regiment. A party of about thirty Uhlans galloped after it. We turned some
+of our fire on them. I think they were all toppled over, horses and men
+alike. Then another party of about five thousand Uhlans made toward us at
+a gallop and charged, but there were few of them that got to within one
+hundred yards of our single shallow trench. By this time the Scots Guards
+had got into position and opened fire on the Boche cavalry.
+
+Three times the Germans tried to secure the water cart, thinking no doubt
+it was an ammunition wagon. When the cart was about one hundred and fifty
+yards from our trench the horses were shot down by the Uhlans. One of the
+men on it was wounded through the arm, and the other coolly filled his
+water bottle and bathed his comrade's wound, regardless of the Huns who
+were still peppering away. We shouted to the two boys to hurry and come
+into safety. The wounded one's answer was:
+
+"Safety be damned! Some of you Jocks come out here and give us a pull with
+the water cart."
+
+Men of our _H_ company, nearest to the cart, asked permission to go to the
+rescue. Their officers acquiesced and sixteen of them rushed out, cut the
+cart loose from the dead horses, and dragged it to safety behind the ridge
+which we were holding. Three of the sixteen were hit. There were especial
+reasons for this bit of valour. Our own water bottles were empty, our
+water cart drained dry, and we were choking with thirst.
+
+It was now the time of the Scots Guards to help us. They kept a steady
+fire on the Uhlans while we retired behind the ridge to fall in on the
+main road to Hautmont and retreat to the next spot where we could make a
+temporary stand. While we were falling back to the main road, a man from
+each section filled three water bottles from the rescued cart. We didn't
+know when we would get water again, nor how far our tired feet must carry
+us. In this exhausted state we began the furious fatal struggle against an
+overwhelming and irresistible enemy which is known in history as the
+Retreat from Mons.
+
+Of that fearful time, I have lost track of dates. I do not want to
+remember them. All I recollect is that, under a blazing August sun--our
+mouths caked, our tongues parched--day after day we dragged ourselves
+along, always fighting rear-guard actions, our feet bleeding, our backs
+breaking, our hearts sore. Our unmounted officers limped amongst us, blood
+oozing through their spats. With a semblance of cheeriness they told us
+that we must retreat because the Russians were on their way to Berlin and
+we must keep the Germans moving in the opposite direction. When we got a
+few minutes' respite there would be an issue of "gunfire"--the
+traditional British army term for tea served out to men in action. It was
+of a nondescript flavour, commingling the negative qualities of
+"bully-beef stew" and the very positive taste of kerosene oil, the cooks'
+hurricane lamps being stored in the camp-kettles during each of our
+retirements. Invariably--and I mean in twenty instances--the shells would
+begin to drop amongst us before we could finish our portions, eating,
+though we did, with ravenous haste; and when it was not artillery fire
+that stopped our feeding it would be a charge of Uhlans, compelling us to
+drop half-emptied mess-tins and seize rifles.
+
+We had no artillery to speak of, and very few airplanes. If we had had
+more of the latter, there might have been another story. The Germans
+seemed to know every move we made, but we were blind. We dropped into a
+field and killed a bullock, skinned it and were cooking it. There came the
+roar of a powerful engine; a German plane circled over us and went sailing
+back, signalling our position. A few minutes later shrapnel fell among us
+and we went on, some of the men in ambulances. Those that were killed we
+hurriedly buried, but there was not time even to put improvised wooden
+crosses at their heads.
+
+One of our slightly wounded, in the broad accents of lowland Scotch,
+cursed the Germans--not for wounding him, but for knocking over his
+canteen of tea. A hail of flying shrapnel struck down a cook; the men of
+his section cursed in chorus for the misfortune which meant that hunger
+would be added to their other miseries.
+
+Not once alone did we spring up from eating to fight the Uhlans with rifle
+fire and bayonet. It happened a dozen times. Whenever the Uhlans came, we
+fought them off, but always we had to retreat in the end, for the German
+reserves were numberless while ours scarcely existed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+Most of the time while we were dragging our exhausted, diminishing numbers
+ahead of the German wave of shot and steel, I was on scout duty. For a
+while, I was "connecting file" between the Black Watch and the Munster
+Fusiliers who were in rear of us and _almost constantly_ in touch with the
+enemy. I had more than one narrow escape from capture or death.
+
+On one occasion the regiment had been deployed to beat off a flank attack.
+When we resumed the march I was sent back to get in touch with the
+Fusiliers. My orders were to go to the rear until I got in touch with
+them. I was proceeding cautiously along the road when suddenly around a
+curve something appeared before me. My rifle was at my shoulder ready to
+fire. Then I recognized what had been a uniform of the Fusiliers.
+
+Have you ever read Kipling's "Man Who Came Back"? If you have, you will
+have a better idea than I can give you of what this human being looked
+like. His face was covered with blood. One arm hung limply. Just as he
+made toward me, he fell exhausted by the roadside, like a dog that is
+spent. Literally, his tongue hung from his mouth. His shoes were cut up
+and his clothes dangled in ribbons beneath which red gashes showed in his
+flesh where he had torn it in the barbed-wire fences he had encountered,
+crossing fields.
+
+I asked him what had happened. His lips moved and his breath came in more
+difficult gasps, but no word could he utter. I wiped his face, and then I
+recognized in him an officer who had been a crack athlete when the
+Munsters were in India and against whom I had competed more than once. I
+pressed my water bottle to his lips. After a few moments he was able to
+speak.
+
+"They are gone!" he gasped; "all of them are gone! By God, they died like
+men; but--they--died."
+
+"Let me understand you, sir," I begged him. "Tell me just what happened."
+
+"Where are you going?" he almost shouted.
+
+"I am going back to get in touch with the Munster Fusiliers," I said.
+
+"You can't make the journey," he panted. "You'd have to go to heaven--or
+to hell. They caught them in a pocket. Shrapnel and machine-guns. _There
+are no Munster Fusiliers any more._"
+
+He was right, practically. The Germans had caught them between fires and
+the regiment was cut to pieces.
+
+Helping the officer as best I could, I hurried forward to catch up with my
+own regiment. When I got in touch with it I left the Fusilier officer with
+the commander of the first company I met. Then I hurried to the Company
+commander.
+
+"What are you doing here?" he asked.
+
+"I am here, to report, sir," I said. "There is no use trying to get in
+touch with the Fusiliers. They have been cut off."
+
+"Your orders were to go back until you got in touch with them," he said
+gruffly. "Consider yourself under arrest."
+
+A non-commissioned officer and two men, with fixed bayonets, were put on
+guard over me. I had disobeyed orders, technically, and during those
+first days in France many a stern act was necessary, for the army had to
+learn the discipline of war.
+
+I would have been tied to a spare wheel at the back of an artillery
+caisson, but as they were leading me away I asked to speak to my sergeant.
+I explained to him what had happened and he told my company commander, who
+found the officer of the Fusiliers. The latter, meanwhile, had been taken
+care of by our officers and was now in condition to talk. He spoke to the
+colonel (Col. Grant Duff), explaining just what had happened and telling
+him that he had directed me to return to my regiment. I was liberated, but
+it was a mighty close escape from disgrace, which, after all, is worse
+than death, especially to a soldier.
+
+After that I was sent out to scout on the left flank with my partner,
+Troolen, who was of a daredevil disposition and worked in a noisy fashion,
+and so when I saw something moving in the brushwood on a ridge we were
+approaching, and heard a sound like the trample of horses on the other
+side, I cautioned him to remain where he was while I explored it. Troolen
+swore he could hear nothing and was for muddling ahead and running into
+anything that might be there, but I was in command and I ordered him to
+wait. Sneaking from stone to stone and from tree to tree, I worked myself
+to a little pocket which seemed scalloped out of the crest of the ridge
+and found the ground there all freshly trampled, with other signs that
+horses had left it recently. There were no wheel marks, so I knew that it
+was cavalry, not artillery. From the marks of the iron shoes I could tell
+that they were of a different type from ours.
+
+Uhlans had been there.
+
+I signalled to Troolen and he joined me. Climbing to the crest of the
+ridge we saw the enemy in large numbers moving toward the road on which we
+were marching, and they were ahead of us. As we hurried toward our
+regiment we heard others in the rear.
+
+As fast as I could, I made my way to the Company commander and reported
+what I had seen. Almost at the same moment we were fired upon. The rifle
+fire was immediately followed by artillery shelling. Patrols on the other
+flank had made sketches of the country and orders were issued for the
+regiment to take cover in a gully which was across some fields and the
+other side of a small woods. The men ducked through a wire fence which was
+at the side of the road and sections of it were torn to let the combat
+wagons through.
+
+As we retreated we kept up a steady fire, forcing the Uhlans close to
+their cover, but the artillery continually sprayed over the field.
+
+Thus began for us the Battle of the Oise.
+
+We had little hope of any support. We knew we had to fight it out alone,
+and there was little enough ammunition. I was running and ducking for the
+next bit of cover from behind which I could use my rifle, when a shell
+exploded behind me. It threw me from my feet but I was unhurt and as I
+jumped up I heard a crashing and splintering a few feet away. One of the
+horses on an ammunition wagon had been struck. He was plunging on the
+ground, terrifying his team mate and kicking the wagon to pieces. The
+transport officer, C. R. B. Henderson, drew his revolver and shot the
+animal.
+
+The Uhlans must have had reinforcements for they were getting bolder. The
+bullets were cutting up little spurts of dust and turf all about us. They
+were singing overhead like a gale in the ropes and spars of a transport at
+sea. The Germans were firing at the ammunition wagon in the hope of
+blowing it up.
+
+I was just about to run for cover again when I saw Lieut. Henderson--he
+who had shot the transport horse--walk calmly up (leading his own animal)
+and cut the dead one from the traces. I didn't care about being killed,
+but I couldn't leave this officer, who was standing there as though he
+were on parade, except that his hands were working ten times as fast as
+they ever did at drill. Together we got the dead animal free and harnessed
+the lieutenant's horse to the wagon. We used one of the lieutenant's
+spiral puttees to mend the cut and broken harness. The driver of the
+ammunition wagon was holding the head of the other horse, shaking his fist
+at the Germans, and swearing at them with a heavy Scotch burr.
+
+Men were running past us like rabbits. Some of them were tumbling like
+rabbits, too, when a steel-nosed bullet found its mark. I saw others
+stoop, just long enough to get an arm under the shoulders of a comrade and
+then drag him along. A few lay still and a single look into their faces
+showed that it would be useless to carry them. The running men dropped
+behind stones, hillocks, trees--anything that was likely to afford cover
+and stop bullets--and their rifles snapped angrily at the Germans whose
+fire was getting heavier, but who still did not dare an open attack.
+
+At last the harness was ready. The ammunition driver leaped to his seat
+and the wagon went careening toward the ravine, swaying crazily, with a
+storm of shots tearing up the turf around its wheels. We needed that wagon
+badly. In a moment it would be over the crest of the rise and we would be
+sure of that much ammunition to fight with.
+
+"Get on to the wagon, sir," I shouted to the officer, as it dashed
+forward; but he did not heed me.
+
+"In a second we shall be where we can fight them off," was all he said.
+
+A Uhlan's horse, with empty saddle, galloped up to us. I seized the
+dangling reins.
+
+"Mount him, sir," I shouted. He took the reins from my hand and attempted
+to leap into the saddle. The horse was cut and bleeding, and unmanageable
+from terror. He backed toward the ammunition wagon, which had not yet made
+the ridge, dragging the officer with him. I followed.
+
+Just as we thus neared the wagon, a shell exploded close at hand. The
+wagon humped up in the middle as if it had been made of whalebone. It
+rocked from side to side, almost upsetting. Then it settled back upon its
+wrecked wheels. A high explosive shell had struck directly under it. The
+two horses fell, dead from shrapnel or shock, and the driver toppled from
+his seat, dead, between them, a red smear across his face.
+
+The small-arms ammunition in the wagon had not been exploded. The doors of
+the wagon were thrown open by the concussion of the shell, causing the
+bandoliers of cartridges to scatter. The officer motioned to me to help
+distribute the ammunition to our men as they ran past; upon finishing this
+task we joined the last of our party and were very soon over the crest.
+We had only a few machine guns, but we got them in place. The Uhlans were
+charging across the field.
+
+A shrill whistle blew.----The machine guns began to rattle. Down went
+horses and riders, plunging about where some of our own men lay. Our rifle
+fire, too, was getting stronger, better controlled, more co-ordinated. We
+were sheltered; the enemy was in the open. His artillery was useless, for
+we were coming to grips. Line after line, they broke into the field,
+lances set. The horses were stretching out low over the turf--over the
+turf where a moment later they were to kick out the last of their breath,
+pinning under them many a rider to whom we were paying the debt of the
+Munster Fusiliers.
+
+A bugle sounded.----Those that were left of the Uhlans galloped off. The
+little machine guns had done their work.
+
+Our attention was then attracted to a heavy fire, directed from some
+unknown quarter upon a near-by field in which was confined a large herd of
+light brown cattle, their colour identical with that of our khaki
+uniforms. The animals were milling about madly; a dozen of them already
+were down and others were falling each moment. Here was one of the humours
+of war. We laughed, believing that the Germans were firing upon the dying
+beasts, mistaking them for us--"The Ladies from Hell," as they called us.
+
+The Scots Greys, which regiment had come up at this critical moment to
+occupy the high ground on our right flank about six hundred yards away,
+through the fierceness of their enfilading fire, managed to keep the enemy
+at a standstill and so allowed the Black Watch to retreat to safety.
+
+We owed our lives to kind fate in bringing the Scots Greys to our timely
+aid, and to them all honour! But for them we should have met the fate of
+the Munster Fusiliers.
+
+Crawling on their bellies, some of our men went out and brought in those
+of the Black Watch who were lying wounded. The others we left, for their
+own men would be there presently. For us, it was retreat again. After
+traversing ditches, ravines and barbed-wire fences, we finally assembled
+on the road. The artillery was beginning to pound once more. We had to
+trudge on, watching for the next attack, planting one bleeding foot before
+another, with nobody knew how many days of forced marching before
+us--marching (so we thought) to let the Russians get to Berlin. I don't
+think anything else would have induced us to resume our retreat after the
+brush with the Uhlans.
+
+At evening we found ourselves at the village of Oise about six miles from
+the abovementioned scene. As we arrived at the bridge over the River Oise,
+the engineers who were on the other side, and who had fused the bridge,
+shouted to us to keep back, but our colonel gave us the order to double.
+We had cleared the bridge by about only two hundred yards, when it blew up
+into atoms!
+
+After trudging, mostly uphill, in a downpour of rain, we reached a place
+called Guise at 2 A.M. Here we managed to get some food. I was glad enough
+to throw my waterproof sheet over me and fall asleep. On being awakened, I
+felt as though I had slept for weeks, but found it had only been for one
+hour and twenty minutes. We then received some "gunfire" and our _first_
+issue of rum. We resumed the march. On arriving at La Grange, the
+Camerons, or what was left of them, joined us, taking the place of the
+annihilated Fusiliers in our brigade.
+
+We were so tired that night that I could have slept on a bed of nails,
+points up, but we had not been in our billets very long when we were
+ordered out, as the outpost had reported the approach of Uhlans in
+considerable numbers.
+
+We were half asleep as we ran down into the street to our allotted posts.
+One of the first persons we encountered in the town was a Frenchman,
+raving mad. We asked him what was the matter, but he could not reply. He
+jibbered like an ape; his twitching lips slavered and foamed. Some of his
+neighbours took him in hand and led him away. One of them told us his
+story:
+
+"The Prussians came in here yesterday. There was no one to resist them.
+They posted sentries. Then those who were not on duty broke into cellars.
+Casks of wine were rolled up into the streets, and, where squads gathered
+together, there were piles of bottles. The soldiers did not stop to pull
+the corks. They knocked off the necks of the bottles and filled their
+aluminum cups with red wine and white, mixing one type with another, and
+swilling it in as fast as they could drink. Dozens of them fell in the
+gutters, drunk. Others reeled through the village, abusing and insulting
+men and women alike. If a man resisted, he was shot. This poor fellow,
+whom you have seen, was in his door yard with his wife. A Prussian seized
+her about the waist. She struggled. He crushed her to him with his brutish
+arm. His companions, all drunk, laughed and jeered. The woman's clothes
+were ripped from her shoulders in her struggle. Meanwhile others bound the
+husband to one of his own fruit trees, so that he could not escape the
+horror of it. One--more drunken, more bestial than the others--slashed off
+the woman's breasts and threw them to a dog. The woman died."
+
+This of itself was enough to have made us rage against the enemy whom
+hitherto we had regarded as an honourable foe, but it was not all. I, with
+other members of my own company, came upon a nail driven into the wall of
+a barn from which hung, by the mouth, the lifeless form of a baby. The
+child was dead when we found it, but it had died hanging from the rusty
+nail. I know it had, because I saw upon the wall the marks of finger-nails
+where the baby had clawed and scratched. And besides, a dead body would
+not have bled. An officer ordered the removal of the child's body.
+
+I do not tell these things for the sake of the horror of them. I would
+rather not tell them. I have spent months trying to forget them. Now that
+I have recalled them, I wake in the night so horrified that I cannot move.
+But to relate them may serve one useful purpose. There are those in
+America, as there were in England, who believed that war to repel invasion
+was justified, but who were not enthusiastic for war abroad. America
+entered the war after her patience was absolutely exhausted, and Americans
+should be devoutly thankful that they can fight abroad and not have to
+endure the presence of a single Prussian soldier on American soil. What we
+saw and learned in Guise galvanized our weary bodies to new efforts
+against the vandals whom we were fighting. With clenched teeth and curses
+we turned to fight again.
+
+The Uhlans got into the outskirts of the town and cut down a number of our
+men, but, inch by inch, as they drove toward the centre of the village,
+our resistance became stiffer and stiffer. It was like a nightmare. The
+charging horses, the gruff shouts of the enemy, the groans of the men who
+fell beside me, were like their counterparts in a dream. My finger pressed
+the trigger of the rifle feverishly. Even when I saw the men I fired at
+topple from their saddles and sprawl on the cobblestones, I had only a
+dull sense that I had scored a hit.
+
+Just as we were throwing the enemy back in some confusion, a party of
+British worked round a back street and fired on them from the rear. A
+second later a machine gun began strewing the ground with horses and men.
+Squads of them threw up their hands and cried: "_Kamerad!
+Kamerad!_"--which was not a new cry on the part of the Prussians. A young
+fellow by my side stopped firing for a moment, but the rest of us knew
+better. The Camerons had lost a score of men the day before because they
+had taken the Germans at their word, and, when they went to make them
+prisoners, a whole company of Prussians had risen from behind the crest to
+a hill and shot the Camerons down. So bullets from our rifles answered the
+cries of "_Kamerad!_"
+
+A few of the enemy escaped down side streets, and a number of them
+remained lying where they had been shot. While we were on our way back to
+quarters, a Frenchman came up out of his basement and motioned us to
+follow him. We went into the cellar and found half a dozen Prussians lying
+there dead drunk. We made them prisoners and sent them to headquarters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+I had about got settled in the stable where I was billeted, when orders
+came to "stand to." No more sleep that night. We took the road and left La
+Grange behind us just as the sun was pinking the sky. It was Sunday, and,
+although we knew war was no respecter of the Sabbath, we had not been in
+the field long enough to get the idea quite out of our heads that Sunday,
+somehow, in the nature of things, was a little easier than other days.
+When we halted in a ravine at about ten o'clock in the morning, after
+marching four hours, we thought after all that it was going to be an
+easier day. I was on outpost duty on a side road a little way from the
+main thoroughfare we had been following.
+
+Suddenly an infernal racket broke out over to our left. First there came a
+few scattered cracks of rifle fire. Then I could hear clip firing and the
+rattle of machine guns. I learned later that the Scots Greys and the 12th
+Lancers had come across about seven thousand Germans resting in a wide
+gully. The Greys and the Lancers, catching them unawares by cutting down
+their sentries who had no opportunity even to give the alarm--charged
+through them, then back again. Three times they repeated their
+performance, while some of our brigade got on to the flanks and poured in
+such a rapid fire that the Prussians had no opportunity to re-form to meet
+each repetition of the attack. The details do not matter, but they made up
+for the annihilation of the Munster Fusiliers.
+
+In the newspaper accounts of the campaign this incident was described as
+the "Great St. Quentin Charge," in which, it was asserted, the Black Watch
+(foot soldiers) participated, holding onto the stirrups of the Scots
+Greys. This bit of colouring was an inaccuracy. We aided the Greys and the
+Lancers with rifle and machine-gun fire only. When the firing ceased and
+the Greys and the Lancers came cantering past, we learned from them the
+details of the Battle of "St. Quentin."
+
+At nightfall our section was still guarding the road at a point from
+which a cart road branched off at right angles to the main thoroughfare.
+It was here that the outpost received instructions in a few French
+phrases, the main one being "_Votre passe, s'il vous plait_." ("Your pass,
+please.") This was because the road was open to refugees who were fleeing
+from the Boches, and who had to show passes before being allowed to go on.
+The absence of the pass meant that the person would be sent to
+headquarters for examination.
+
+It was quite natural that some of us Scots should find it difficult to
+make ourselves familiar with these phrases. However, we were all willing
+to try. One strapping Highlander, weary and footsore but daunted by
+nothing, practised the phrases dutifully, though the French words were
+almost lost in the encounter with his native Scotch. We chuckled, but he
+merely glowered at us indignantly, and then went to take his place on
+sentry go. Two Frenchmen came along in a wagon. The Highlander blocked
+their way and sternly uttered what he conceived to be the phrase he had
+been told to use. The Frenchmen sat mystified. There was a roar of
+laughter when the Highlander, losing patience, shouted: "Pass us if ye
+daur!" Then his sergeant came to the rescue.
+
+These two Frenchmen in the wagon were the last refugees to pass. Soon
+afterward, from my station farther down the road, I heard a clatter of
+hoofs and caught a glimpse of Uhlans' helmets. I had barely time to pass
+the word to the man on the next post and to jump behind a log before they
+came into view. They were riding, full gallop into our lines, apparently
+having abandoned ordinary scouting precautions in their eagerness to
+strike where and when they might against our worn and lacerated forces.
+We, now, had fought so long that we fought mechanically. Over my
+protecting log, I aimed at the leading horseman as precisely and carefully
+as if I had been at rifle practice. When I pulled the trigger he tumbled
+into the road, rolled over awkwardly, and lay still. I did not feel as if
+I had killed a man. I felt only a mild sense of satisfaction with the
+accuracy of my aim. Bitter hate for the Huns had sprung in the heart of
+every one of us after what we had that day seen of their savagery.
+
+I had got my Uhlan at, perhaps, seventy yards. His fall checked the
+squad's advance for a moment only. The man nearest grasped at the bridle
+of the dead man's horse but missed it. On they all came, galloping
+recklessly and yelling, the riderless horse leading by a half dozen
+lengths. As they rode, they fired in my direction, but their bullets went
+wide. I felt real compunction as I aimed at the head of the leading
+horse--the one whose rider I had shot down with only a sense of
+satisfaction. I could hear our men crashing through the bushes by the road
+as they came to my support. I fired. My bullet must have struck the
+riderless horse in the brain, for he fell instantly, sprawled out in the
+path of the galloping Huns behind. The horses of the leaders stumbled over
+the fallen animal. A rattle of shots from our men completed the confusion
+of the Uhlans. They turned their horses and galloped away--some back along
+the road, others across the fields. Several fell under our fire; how many
+we had no time to ascertain.
+
+After that little affair we organized our position for a somewhat better
+defence. Leaving a few scouts, far advanced, we stationed our men in easy
+touch with each other and then cut down a number of trees and telegraph
+poles and barricaded the road with them. There were sixteen of us in the
+post near this barricade, concealed from view and able to communicate with
+each other in whispers. The hours dragged on to midnight and past. We were
+weary to the bone--half dead for want of sleep--but we dared not relax our
+vigilance for an instant.
+
+The surrounding country was dense with woods. The moon was almost new, so
+consequently the poles were quite invisible a few yards away.
+
+At about one o'clock in the morning I heard something crackling through
+the brush on the side road. My bayonet was fixed and I was ready to fire.
+The crackling came nearer. I crept stealthily forward to meet whatever it
+was. Presently a man stepped into the road. "Halt!" I cried. He halted at
+once, and gave the word "Friend." It was one of our sentries with a
+message that Uhlans were coming along the road. Three men were farther
+down the road; they had hidden so that the Uhlans would pass them, the
+sentry said.
+
+A section of us concealed ourselves--and waited. Presently the Uhlans came
+into sight, proceeding cautiously. Half of us were instructed to withhold
+fire until the Prussians should reach the barricade. The remainder began
+to fire. The horsemen scattered to each side of the road and returned the
+fire, but as we were not discernible, the shots went wild. I judged that
+they numbered about fifty. We dropped a few of them. They were becoming
+enraged--their fire ineffective. They mounted; and the leader spurred his
+horse, and, followed by the others, galloped in our direction. Their
+carbines spat red flashes into the night. Their bullets were coming closer
+now, because they could determine where we were lying in the ditches at
+the side of the road from the flashes of our rifles.
+
+"Will they see the trees across the roadway?" was the thought that darted
+through my mind. If they should, it would probably be all up with us. As
+they came very close to the barricade, they did notice it. They made a
+bold leap across, but having underestimated the number of logs there, they
+found themselves in great confusion. Some of them were pinned under their
+fallen horses. At this point, we opened fire, which completed their
+discomfiture. Above the sound of our rifle firing we could hear the
+now-familiar cry of "_Kamerad!_" "_Kamerad!_" It only served to infuriate
+us and made us shoot all the faster.
+
+This might well arouse against us the criticism of those who never
+witnessed atrocities committed by the Huns, but you must remember that our
+blood had not come down to normal from the effects of the sights we
+ourselves had come across.
+
+At last, we leaped out to make prisoners of the trapped Uhlans. Those who
+could, bolted back in the direction they came from, but it was a sure
+thing that twelve of them were missing when the roll was called.
+
+One might consider that a night's work, but it wasn't.
+
+It was now my turn for sentry go on the main road, which was still open
+for vehicles of our staff. This was a post where it was thought that, to
+use an American phrase, there would be "nothing doing"; yet it was here
+that I came face to face with one of the war's finest examples of Teutonic
+over-assurance--boldness that would have been splendid had it not been
+stupid.
+
+After I had been at my new post an hour, it then being near three o'clock
+in the morning, a motor car came swiftly toward me. I had been warned that
+I might expect staff officers to pass, and this, I thought, was
+undoubtedly some of them--otherwise the car would have advanced slowly. I
+stepped into the road and awaited its approach. As it neared me I saw that
+the two officers it contained wore the uniforms of the British staff. I
+could see the red tabs on their collars.
+
+There were two telegraph poles across the road near my post. Remembering
+this, I showed myself and called for the chauffeur to halt. He checked the
+car's speed but brought it ahead slowly. I shouted for the countersign. I
+was waiting for the occupants of the car to give it, intending to explain
+to them that they would have to stop until I called some one to help me
+remove the telegraph poles, when there was a sudden grinding of gears and
+the car shot ahead, full speed. I yelled a warning about the poles but the
+words left my lips at about the moment when the car bounced over them.
+
+Until that time I had no suspicion that the occupants of the car were not
+what they seemed. Even then, the manner in which they "rushed" my post
+seemed to me only due to some inexplicable misunderstanding. But I had
+marched, and fought, and gone sleepless and hungry until I was little more
+than a mechanical soldier. I was able to realize only that somebody, for
+some reason, had ignored my challenge and rushed a sentry post. I swung my
+rifle in the direction of the car, aimed accurately (in an automatic way),
+and pulled the trigger. The noise of an exploding tire followed the crack
+of my weapon. The car skidded, twisted for a moment, and then went
+on--faster than ever.
+
+My shot aroused our outpost. The alarm was given to the first of the
+connecting sentries and passed along quickly until it reached our company
+headquarters, on the roadside opposite to a chateau in which Brigade
+Staff headquarters had been established. Men half awake, tumbled into the
+roadway preparing to fire on something or somebody--they didn't know what.
+It was useless for the car to attempt to rush the crowd. Again the
+chauffeur checked it, this time bringing it to a full stop. One of the
+occupants (who, it will be remembered, were in staff uniform) demanded
+sharply of the sentry in front of the chateau:
+
+"What is the meaning of this? Are there nothing but blockheads about here?
+We have been fired on while looking for Brigade headquarters. Somebody
+should be court-martialled for this."
+
+The sentry saluted them and admitted them to the grounds of the chateau.
+
+Their car had disappeared within the gates when I came running down the
+road and informed my company commander what had happened. He instantly
+ordered our men to surround the chateau and rushed in himself, following
+the car up the avenue leading through the grounds. The "staff officers"
+had abandoned their car in the shadow of a clump of trees and were
+seeking to escape over the garden wall when our men captured them. One of
+them, speaking English without a trace of accent, still tried to "bluff"
+our men who seized him, and his assumed indignation was so convincing
+that, but for the direct orders from the company commander, the men might
+have released him, believing him really an officer of our forces. Each of
+the two wore the uniform of a staff major with all the proper badges and
+insignia. It was found that they were German spies with rough maps of the
+disposition of our retreating forces and other valuable information in
+their possession. I was informed, later, that they were shot.
+
+Before dawn, we got orders to retire again. It was always retire--retire.
+We were ready to fight ten times our number if only we could stop
+retiring.
+
+Shortly after leaving this position we saw an airplane overhead. A few
+minutes later shrapnel began bursting in our direction. We scattered to
+each side of the highway, keeping under cover as best we could.
+
+We marched all day--God knows how far--and finally, between one and two
+the following morning, reached a place which we believed to be Pinon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+As we neared Pinon, the sound of artillery fire could be heard, and the
+inhabitants were all leaving the town in any way that they could. Here I
+saw further effects of Prussian atrocities.
+
+At this spot, a French woman, supporting her mutilated husband as best she
+could, passed us in a buggy. The sight was awful! His face and body were
+almost entirely covered with gashes from the Prussians' bayonets. His
+wife's face was as white as death except where three cruel cuts had laid
+it open. Neither of this pitiful pair was less than sixty years old. Fine
+"enemies" for soldiers' weapons!
+
+Beyond this last village we lay in the open for a few hours' rest. We were
+so utterly exhausted that officers and men alike threw themselves upon the
+ground and instantly were asleep. My last waking recollection was of the
+sight of an officer of the guard striding wearily to and fro. He was
+afraid even to sit for fear sleep might conquer him. And my next
+recollection--seemingly coming right on the heels of the one I have
+mentioned--was of being shaken by the shoulders and having the warning
+shouted into my ear that we had got orders to force-march instantly.
+
+"They say some of the blighters have got round us by the flank," said the
+man who shook me. "Make haste!"
+
+We had rested less than three hours. Off we went on another "retirement."
+This time under the drive of urgent necessity for speed.
+
+We must have marched at an extraordinary rate, because it was not yet noon
+when we arrived at the outskirts of Soissons. From the high ground on our
+right flank, we could see cavalry and artillery in great numbers, but
+whether ours or the enemy's, none of us knew--not even the officers. As we
+arrived in the town we were greeted with artillery fire; then we knew who
+it was that awaited us.
+
+We got into a lumber yard and returned the fire, but I don't think either
+side did much damage. Their bullets sang through the lumber gallery. The
+melody was one that had become familiar to us.
+
+Retreating through Soissons, we kept up a stiff fight, arriving intact at
+the farther end of the town. Here we came upon fresh and terrible evidence
+of the ruthlessness and wanton cruelty of the foe which we had first
+confronted but a few days before, then believing that the traditions of
+honourable warfare still existed. We came across scores of refugees--old
+men and women--who had been beaten and driven from their homes without
+cause. We had passed the dead bodies of many townspeople--killed,
+seemingly, by artillery fire, yet, in some cases, exhibiting suspicious
+wounds, as if bayonets or lances had been used. It was not, however, until
+we were marching through the throng of refugees, outside the town, that
+indisputable and utterly shocking proofs of the inhumanity of the Huns
+came to our eyes. In perambulators we saw wailing children with mangled or
+missing hands. I know that it has been hotly disputed that such dastardly
+crimes as these were committed by the Germans. I know also that the
+disputants who contend against the truth of these reports never marched
+with us the weary and awful miles amid the fleeing and miserable people of
+Soissons.
+
+These mutilated children I, myself, and my comrades saw. Two at least, I
+recollect with bloody stumps where baby hands had been, and one whose foot
+had been severed at the ankle. _I saw these things._ I saw them; and I
+live to say that others with me saw them--brawny Highlanders whose tears
+of pity flowed with those of the mothers who wept for heart-break and with
+those of the babies who wept from the pain of the wounds which had maimed
+them. Ay, there were witnesses enough; and witnesses remain, though many
+of the Black Watch who that day saw and cursed the cowardly brutality of
+the Huns were to lie, but too soon, with their voices hushed for ever, so
+that they may not speak of it. But we who still live may tell of it--and
+dare a challenge of the truth of what we say! And those who saw, and
+died--paying the toll of that bloody passing from the Mons to the
+Marne--have told it, no doubt, ere this--before that Court whose judgment
+can impose the eternal punishment that the soulless crimes demand.
+
+There were thousands in the unhappy throng of refugees. Some few rode upon
+hay carts, surrounded by such of their belongings as they had been able
+hastily to gather. Others pushed handcarts containing their goods and
+household articles. Most of them however, went afoot, trudging wearily
+along and carrying what they might. There, in that sickening scene, it was
+as it is everywhere. The grotesque and the humorous mixed incongruously
+with the pathetic. For instance: Alongside one perambulator with a wounded
+child in it rolled another one loaded with huge rings of bread, on top of
+which perched a parrot, screaming at every one who passed.
+
+One old lady was trudging along carrying a baby which could not have been
+more than two and a half years old, though the weight of his chubby frame
+was bending her almost double. I could not speak her language, but I made
+her understand that I would carry the child a mile or two and leave him by
+the side of the road. The laughter and baby antics of the child brought a
+ray of sunshine to our section, and especially to fathers who had left
+tots behind them in Scotland. About an hour later I came to a group by the
+roadside, who recognized the baby, and I left him with them, making them
+understand that the old lady would be along later.
+
+One of the last things I remember in leaving Soissons was an old man who
+was carrying his furniture and household goods to what looked like a
+modern dug-out in an embankment and covering it with earth so that it
+would not be discovered. The boys made a lot of fun of him, but the laugh
+was not on their lips very long.
+
+We had just reached the top of a hill on the farther side of the city,
+overlooking the railroad yards and repair shops, when we came into direct
+view of the German artillery observers, and shrapnel began to storm down
+among us. It was like the sudden burst of a thunder cloud. There wasn't a
+moment's warning before the smoke puffs began appearing overhead and the
+ugly steel splinters and slugs whizzed over our heads.
+
+The regiment deployed in a corn field at one side of the road and
+scattered, moving some distance from the highway. The enemy continued to
+sprinkle the corn with shrapnel but we lay flat on the ground until the
+firing ceased. The company's cooks meanwhile, at some little distance
+ahead of us, had prepared "gunfire," and the various companies lined up in
+file to receive their well-earned and much-desired quota of it. As the
+cooks had to keep ahead of the regiment, there was no time lost in
+disposing of the tea, and many of the men had to drink it on the run.
+
+A little farther on we halted for a few hours' sleep, and at ten minutes
+to three we found ourselves again on the move. We marched all that day
+through a large and dense forest. Now and again we were surprised by
+occasional artillery shots at the more open sections, but the trees helped
+a great deal in protecting us from the enemy's airplanes, and proved a
+hindrance to their tactics. But with the cavalry it was a different
+matter. Uhlans harassed us every hour of the day. We had only about two
+machine guns to a battalion, and they were worked so steadily and so hard
+that they repeatedly jammed. Once we were almost cut off. A party of
+Uhlans came clattering down on our heels driving the rear guard in on the
+support, and for a few moments there was what approached a modern barrage
+fire of artillery on the road in our front. Luckily for us, the artillery
+fire slackened for some reason and we got ahead before the Uhlans could
+envelop us.
+
+Later in the day I was serving in the rear guard. Suddenly we heard the
+roaring of a motor. We took cover at the sides of the road. Our
+"point"--was in the rear, and, if there was anything wrong, we knew they
+would inform us. The roaring of the motor grew louder. We were so tired
+that our nerves jangled. I had never felt so jumpy. There it came around
+the bend with a Red Cross flag flying from it, but it was not one of our
+ambulances. It had great, heavy, double wheels and there were Red Crosses
+painted on its sides in addition to the flag flying from the front. Our
+impression was that it had gone off its course. The chauffeur had released
+the muffler cut-out and the engine was running very quietly now. A man
+sitting beside the driver and leaning far out over the side was yelling in
+broken English that they were lost, and he gesticulated toward the body
+of the car in such a way as to make us think that he had badly wounded men
+with him.
+
+We began scrambling back onto the road. Our war was not against the
+wounded and suffering, so we would let them pass.
+
+Suddenly the ambulance stopped; the sides of it quickly rose; machine guns
+showed their ugly muzzles.
+
+"Br-r-r-r-r t-t-t," they began to sputter.
+
+I leaped backward and fell headlong into the ditch. Everybody was jumping
+for cover. The bullets lashed the road and ricocheted far upon it.
+Scarcely a man of us was hit, but we were in wild confusion. I cannot
+describe the scene. No one seemed to think of putting his rifle to his
+shoulder. The horror of it--the passionate anger against such vile
+trickery--drove us into a rage; but--for the moment--it was an impotent
+rage. We seemed to be at their mercy.
+
+Then the platoon commander's voice rose above the rat-a-tat of the machine
+guns:
+
+"Steady, men! Fire at will, but pick your men carefully."
+
+We had heard him speak in the same tone on parade. It brought us to our
+senses. The edge of the ditch on each side of the road fairly flamed with
+the sputter of rifle fire. The "ambulance" was riddled. A Prussian officer
+toppled into the middle of the road. Half a dozen men sprang from the
+ditch and rushed at him with bayonets. They killed him like a rat. There
+was no compunction about it.
+
+There was now heard the thrumming of more motors approaching. Round the
+turn in the road they came. This time it was transports--laden with German
+troops. There was no attempt at disguise with this mob. They thought that
+their camouflaged battery would by now have done its dirty work. Sweating
+and tugging and straining, we managed to topple the "ambulance" over in
+the road. The trucks came dashing up as we retreated--retreated only to
+get in touch with our support. The men cheered wildly as two of our own
+machine guns came up. We turned the wee fellows loose on the Germans--gave
+them a taste of their own medicine.
+
+Some of them came running toward us shouting: "_Kamerad! Kamerad!_" We
+shot them down as they ran--shot them without hesitation--after the
+dastardly trick they had played on us. Probably they were even then trying
+another ruse.
+
+The fight surged backward and forward. The Germans tried to press ahead.
+
+Then something happened which we had not expected. A burst of shrapnel
+sprayed over the Germans. In a few seconds there was another. Then two
+shells exploded at once--three--four! A rain of fire, as the French say,
+was upon them. We were getting support from our own artillery. That was
+something new and it put heart into us.
+
+The regiment re-formed and proceeded with an orderly retirement, while the
+artillery, like a barrier of steel, held the enemy at his distance all the
+rest of the day. We were near to exhaustion and some of the men dropped
+out of the ranks only to die of the strain. Although our pipers were as
+weary as the rest of us, they sensed that we needed encouragement, and
+with great effort struck up a march. Very soon we had left the forest
+behind us.
+
+It is impossible to describe the effect of the skirl of those pipes that
+day. It was like a message from Heaven. We had not heard them since Mons,
+and now they were leading us out of a forest that was a picture of
+weirdness itself; leading us out into the beautiful open country. What joy
+we felt!
+
+At this time we were retiring almost directly toward Paris. For seventeen
+hours we marched with halts only when it was absolutely necessary. We had
+been in France four weeks, though it seemed like four years.
+
+One of our chief discomforts was the lack of water. Toward evening we
+halted alongside a cucumber patch. The men simply went wild, running into
+the field and sucking the juicy young cucumbers. I "drank" twelve myself,
+but we had not had time to satisfy ourselves when the Prussian artillery
+got the range again and we had to get out of the field--those of us who
+could. I have heard some "cussing" during my career in the army, but I
+don't think I ever listened to anything quite like the brand that
+accompanied our departure from that field.
+
+After marching a considerable distance, we were billeted in barns in a
+small village. This was a cheering circumstance, as the farmer gave us
+chickens and allowed us to get vegetables to make up a _real_ warm meal,
+which I can assure you was enjoyed royally. We expected to stay here some
+time, so we made for the barns and lay down among the hay.
+
+I don't think you could possibly form an idea of the _utter_ weariness of
+the men or of the manner in which we were incessantly harassed. We never
+got a decent chance to eat, drink, or rest. The incidents of the cornfield
+and the cucumber patch are typical. Many men died of sheer exhaustion.
+When we entered the barn I was so absolutely petered out that I went to
+sleep almost before my body touched the hay.
+
+We had been in the barn only about two hours when there was a great
+commotion. I waked up half suffocated, but I didn't care. Somebody kicked
+me in the ribs as I was turning over to sleep again.
+
+"_The barn's on fire!_" he yelled.
+
+There was an odour of paraffin. It seemed that some German agent had
+started the fire. Probably it was the owner of the place, using German
+"kultur." Germany had left scores of such spies planted in the country,
+after 1871.
+
+After the fire in the barn we got a couple of hours more sleep, then moved
+off again about three o'clock in the morning. We were on the Metz road
+going east, but did not know it until our officers informed us that we
+were heading toward the Franco-German frontier. They were ever optimistic
+and helped to lighten the burdens of men who were on the last lap by
+carrying sometimes the rifles of four of them at one time on their
+shoulders. In the afternoon we came to Coulommiers. Most of the
+inhabitants were leaving, and a herald--such as existed in the Middle
+Ages,--was going through the town beating a kettle-drum and crying to all
+the civilians to take everything they could carry and leave the place. But
+this herald was a middle-aged woman.
+
+About two o'clock that same day, we were on the banks of a stream and the
+whole regiment began making preparations for a swim. Some were already in
+the water, but had scarcely got entirely wet when the German artillery
+began churning the water with shrapnel. The bodies of many of my comrades
+went floating down stream.
+
+That night my company guarded a road protected by barbed-wire
+entanglements and lined with poplar trees; just the kind of road you so
+often see pictured in France or Belgium. The main body of the regiment was
+dug in the side of a hill overlooking this road. It was again the luck of
+my section to protect the road some two hundred yards in advance of the
+regiment. We entrenched ourselves on each side in such a manner that one
+could advance within ten yards without detecting our position. We placed a
+few strands of the barbed-wire fencing across the road a little distance
+ahead of us.
+
+About midnight, I was awakened by someone tugging at me. It was the
+sentry. He pointed far up the road, and, as there was a certain amount of
+moonlight, I could see something moving between the tall poplar trees. He
+asked me what it was and I told him that it was our cavalry. However, I
+told him he should inform the section commander; and then I rolled off to
+sleep again.
+
+Presently I felt a second tug at me. On looking up I found it was our
+sergeant; he whispered: "Be ready to spring up at a moment's notice." The
+others were already in position. In the dim light I could see the
+queer-shaped lance-caps that the Uhlans wore.
+
+"Halt! Who goes there?" shouted the sentry.
+
+"Freunden," said a voice in reply.
+
+With that they were almost on the barbed-wire, and we greeted them in the
+way such "friends" should be greeted. There was a tremendous turmoil. All
+but two fell into our hands. To be exact, fifteen were captured and three
+killed. Three of the captives were officers.
+
+One of the officers, when searched, was found to have in his possession a
+novelty mirror with the photograph of a girl on the back. He made no fuss
+about giving up anything but the mirror. This, however, he insisted upon
+having back. Finally the examining officer, Major Lord George Stewart
+Murray, became suspicious and decided that the Boche's sentiment was not
+on the level. He stripped the photograph off the back. Under it he found a
+thin sort of skin and, underneath that, pasted to the back of it, a paper
+covered with writing. He returned the mirror to the German officer, but he
+retained the paper; and the writing gave the staff much satisfaction.
+
+All night long we were troubled by similar parties of Uhlans. They were
+evidently feeling out for an attack, but, not being able to gauge our
+strength, they never made it. Some of our boys crawled out from the
+trenches to rescue a trooper with a broken leg, and they said that only a
+few paces away they could not distinguish the trench or tell how many men
+were there. If the Uhlans had only known the facts they could have swarmed
+over us. In the morning we collected souvenirs from the field. One of the
+fellows picked up a lance with two bullet holes clean through the steel
+tubing shaft.
+
+Our next stop was at Nesles. We drew up alongside a field of beets just
+before going into the village, and most of the men fell out of ranks and
+lay down alongside the road. Some were in the ploughed earth between the
+rows of beets. The artillery had been firing at us most of the day, but
+they hadn't found the range. There were some heavy guns hammering at us,
+as we could tell from the explosions of the shells.
+
+As usual, when it came time for a rest, the Germans began to locate us.
+One of the heaviest shells I had yet seen exploded in the field and
+scattered beets all over the surrounding country. A member of our company
+right near me was stunned for a few seconds.
+
+Before any one had recovered himself enough to go to his aid, he sat up
+unsteadily, his head wobbling, his face a mass of red. A few yards behind
+him was his forage cap. He put his shaking hand up to his head; withdrew
+it, then looked at his fingers which were dripping red.
+
+"Ah weel, lads, Ah've got it noo!" he lamented. "Ah'm sair-r-r-tainly din
+fur 'cause Ah dinna feel a theng. Ah on'y wesh Ah could 'a got ane o' the
+deevils tae me credit afore this!"
+
+By this time two or three of us had run forward and were wiping his head
+and face. There was no evidence of a wound. Then suddenly some one roared
+with laughter. The man was covered with the red juice of beets and was
+entirely unhurt. He had only been stunned. This is the way Mars jests. His
+humour is always mixed with grimness.
+
+We learned that we were to stop at Nesles overnight, and this, coupled
+with the fact that we had commenced advancing, put new enthusiasm into us.
+
+Before we arrived there were large vineyards at each side of the road
+leading up a hill overlooking a beautiful little town, on the south bank
+of the Petit Morin River. We had a few minutes' halt within reach of the
+lovely French grapes, which hung most temptingly in clusters, so it was
+quite natural that some of the boys who were extremely thirsty and warm
+from the scorching sun, should partake of this inviting fruit.
+
+Discipline in the British army is second to none; and we were commanded to
+observe it strictly while on the retreat. One of our orders was "not to
+pluck fruit," as it came under the category of "Looting." Very soon the
+few fellows who had disobeyed that order were rolling on the ground,
+holding their stomachs. Later we were told that the grapes on both sides
+of the road had been poisoned by the Germans. This was punishment enough
+for those who had eaten the fruit, and a lesson that every one of us "took
+home."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+As we--the other scouts and I--advanced, firing details, which had been
+left behind under close cover by the Germans, did a good deal of execution
+amongst us. The hay-stacks, particularly, gave us a great deal of trouble.
+More than once, one of them would be disrupted as though by some sort of
+explosion from the inside, and machine guns would begin spraying our
+skirmishing lines. So it became an important part of our scouting
+operations to search all hay-stacks and farm houses. And continually we
+were under what, ordinarily, would be termed heavy fire.
+
+The ground over which we were passing had been the scene of sharp
+fighting, earlier. We came across scores of dead Germans and a few French.
+In the midst of a field dotted with a particularly large number of
+hay-stacks was a farm house. When we were about thirty or forty yards from
+it and on opposite sides, we leaped up and dashed toward it as hard as we
+could run. It is a fact that this is the safest way for patrols to
+approach a house. If any of the enemy are inside, they become excited when
+they see men rushing toward them and are likely to open fire--instead of
+waiting until the scouts get inside and then killing them noiselessly.
+Their aim is also more uncertain at a running man than it is at one
+sneaking along slowly, and, most important of all, whether the scouts are
+killed or not, the noise of the rifle fire alarms the main body and the
+party in the house is detected.
+
+Troolan (my scout partner) and I arrived at this particular farm house on
+a dead run without having drawn any fire or detected the least sign of
+life. We tried all the doors; they were locked. The windows, too, were
+bolted from the inside. Troolan smashed one in, got inside, and opened the
+door for me. We searched the building rather hurriedly and discovered no
+sign of any one having been there. Just as we were going out, I had a
+premonition that I ought to look further.
+
+"Wait outside and watch," I said to Troolan, "and I will take another look
+around."
+
+He posted himself outside. Very cautiously I stepped down the cellar
+stairs. The boards seemed to squeak and groan like a lumbering farm wagon.
+It was dark as pitch, but I did not dare to make a light. It would have
+been fatal if any one really was lurking there. Something scurried across
+the floor. I felt the hot blood surge under my scalp. For a second I
+expected to see a red flash in the utter darkness and feel a bullet smash
+into my body. Then I discovered that it was only a rat.
+
+I thought I heard breathing. I stood stock still, and strained my eyes on
+every side till they ached as if they would burst from their sockets. I
+was trying to catch the reflection of some stray beam of light from the
+eyes of a man or the barrel of an automatic, but I do not believe that so
+much as a pin point of light was diffused in that whole black pit.
+Suddenly I almost laughed aloud, although I knew that to do so might mean
+instant death. The breathing that I heard was my own. Cautiously I thrust
+out my foot to descend another step.
+
+There was a shout outside.
+
+"Run to the door quickly," Troolan was yelling.
+
+I leaped up the stairway regardless of what might be behind me and dashed
+toward the kitchen door to get outside the house. Just as I did so, I saw
+a shadow flit along the ground past the kitchen window. Guessing where the
+man must be who cast it, I fired through the wooden wall of the kitchen at
+about the height of the average man's breast. Then in a couple of bounds I
+was outside. There stood Troolan looking very much surprised and grieved
+when he saw me. His rifle was half drawn up to his shoulder, and he was in
+the attitude of getting ready to fire.
+
+Perspiration broke out on my forehead. I realised that the shadow had been
+Troolan's and from the look of him I had come very nigh to killing him.
+
+"What the h---- was that for, ye muckle galoot?" he threw at me.
+
+"I saw a shadow," I said, "and let drive."
+
+"Ye're an auld wife, that's what ye' are," said Troolan disgustedly,
+"a'firin' after shadows."
+
+"Never mind now," I said, "what did you see?"
+
+"I saw a big boche," said my scouting partner, "or, at least, I thocht I
+did. Maybe I've been takin' you fur him the same as you did me."
+
+"Maybe," I said, "but the best plan is for you to watch this house while I
+go and report."
+
+"All right," said Troolan. I started away. I had not gone a dozen paces
+when I heard scuffling behind me. I turned round and started to run back
+at the same instant. What I saw lent speed to my feet. The helmet of a
+German officer was just coming through a window. Troolan, who had
+evidently been concealed from the German's view, was aiming a blow at his
+head with the butt of his rifle.
+
+As usual, Troolan had lacked finesse. He had rushed so clumsily to the
+attack that both the officer and I had heard him. The German dodged just
+in time to evade the blow, and Troolan's rifle banged the window sill.
+
+How the boche did it, I do not know, but it seemed as though he was
+propelled by strong steel springs under his feet. He fairly shot out of
+the window like a dart from a catapult and landed on Troolan's neck. Both
+men went down. I dared not fire. They were rolling over and over one
+another, kicking and striking with their fists. The boche was fouling
+Troolan in a way that would be prohibited in wrestling. I jumped into the
+fray and tried to find the German's throat, but the men were so entwined
+that it was hard to get a hold on him. Suddenly a heavy boot struck me in
+the pit of the stomach, and I rolled over and over to find myself gasping
+for breath a dozen feet away.
+
+Painfully I got up and staggered toward the struggling men, but I was too
+late to be of any use. After a particularly frantic struggle Troolan
+managed to get on top of his adversary, with his right arm free. His
+mighty fist came smashing down full in the other's face. The German
+staggered to his feet, but Troolan leaped clear of him, seized his rifle,
+and, this time, brought the butt down with a thud on the other's skull.
+Then Troolan burst into some of the most profane Scotch it has been my
+doubtful privilege to hear.
+
+"What are you cursing about?" I asked him.
+
+"I want to mak shair that Deevil's deed!" he said.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Later that day we were relieved by other scouts.
+
+Toward nightfall troops began to arrive on either side of us in great
+numbers, and dispatch riders with various insignia continually dashed up
+on their speedy motorcycles to our brigade headquarters. Everyone realized
+that we must be approaching something big, for previous to this we had
+been fighting, for the most part, isolated engagements. As a matter of
+fact, it developed that we were preparing for the Battle of the Marne.
+
+We remained at this spot all night. At dawn, orders were given that we
+were to take the high ground the Germans were occupying a few miles ahead
+of us. Our brigade marched in skirmishing order, followed by the cavalry
+and artillery. We passed scores of dead--some French but the majority
+German. Dead horses were intermingled with the bodies of men.
+
+We were under heavy shell fire until we descended into the shelter of a
+gully. Here we met a few of the French Chasseurs. Four or five farms were
+clustered together, and the sights we encountered in the yards and on the
+roads were the worst we had yet seen. Pools of congealed blood; bodies of
+dead soldiers partly covered with sacks and straw; the barns so filled
+that the feet of dead men were protruding. The Chasseurs appeared very
+pale and silent.
+
+The ridge was densely covered with hazel-wood. We got the command to fix
+bayonets and extend into skirmishing formation. The Black Watch with the
+Camerons were to take the ridge, while the Coldstreams and Scots Guards
+were to be in reserve.
+
+An incident occurred during the ascent of the ridge which illustrated the
+reckless, devil-may-care spirit of the men in our battalion in a way
+which impressed even me. The front-line men came upon a lot of blackberry
+bushes. They began plucking and eating the berries, shouting gleefully to
+one another to signal the discovery of an especially well-laden bush.
+Until the officers sternly warned them of the peril they invited by such
+noise and incaution, you would have thought they were schoolboys on a
+lark.
+
+I was one of the scouts sent up the ridge to try to locate the position
+and number of the enemy and report at once. Wriggling along on my belly
+like a snake, I made my way foot by foot. I could hear our fellows
+shouting, and it rather disconcerted me as I felt they would attract the
+enemy's attention, but I continued on my way nevertheless.
+
+I never knew that so many sharp stones could be scattered in so short a
+distance. It seemed as though some of them were forcing themselves clean
+in between my ribs.
+
+Presently I came to a hastily constructed barbed-wire entanglement at the
+edge of a thicket. Ahead of me was a clear rising space of about fifty
+yards which did not show from below. Beyond this was a plateau. Before
+advancing farther I peered through the thicket and scanned the crest.
+
+Suddenly I heard a familiar, unmistakable rattling. It was the opening and
+closing of rifle bolts. My skin prickled all over. I knew that it meant
+troops getting ready to fire and I had no doubt the Germans had discovered
+me and were preparing to shoot. I wriggled backward a few feet into the
+thicket, expecting every second to hear the crash of a volley and to pass
+into oblivion. But the crash did not come. Evidently they had not seen me.
+
+Under cover of the underbrush I crept forward again until I could see the
+helmets of German troops in the woods atop of the ridge. They outnumbered
+our troops. I crawled to the left until I came to a point where I could
+command a view of the crest, where they were in waiting, but apparently
+unaware of our near approach. I crawled back until I was out of sight.
+Then I leaped to my feet and ran as if I were once more on a cinder track
+in the old barrack days. Brambles tore my hands and face and lacerated my
+bare knees, but I did not heed them.
+
+I had seen enough, and the sooner we could make the attack the better.
+Besides, they might even yet see me, and I preferred the scratching of
+brambles to the bite of a steel bullet.
+
+In safety I got back to our lines. The boys could see from my excitement
+that something was up.
+
+"Did you find them, Joe?" they shouted.
+
+"Where is the adjutant?" I demanded. Somebody told me, and I hurried to
+him.
+
+"How many of them are there?" he asked when I told what I had seen.
+
+"All I can say, sir, is that they outnumber us and are waiting," I
+answered.
+
+Orders were given for an immediate attack.
+
+I went forward again, but this time in my own place in the company, with
+men either side of me, and with real business ahead. We made our way in
+silence through the woods toward the terrace. Still the Germans did not
+fire. We wondered whether they were really unaware of our approach, or,
+just holding their fire for close range? This was the first time we had
+been in a big attack of this kind and we knew that bayonet work would be
+the end of it.
+
+The answer to our questioning soon came. It was in the form of a burst of
+fire from the ridge above us. Twigs fell all around us and here and there
+a man dropped too.
+
+We could not do much in the way of returning the fire, for we had not yet
+reached the open. The blood was pounding through my arteries. I felt much
+as I used to before the start of an important race. The second platoon to
+my right went forward, while our fire covered their advance. Crouching
+low, the men dashed on at full speed. Here and there one of them toppled
+backward. Then the platoon nearest to us advanced. It would be our turn
+next. We ceased firing and prepared to rush. Our lieutenant looked at the
+commander, whose whistle had just blown a shrill blast. He signalled for
+us to go forward.
+
+Like one man, we leaped to our feet. The thin line swept out onto the open
+terrace. Each man had but one friend then, his rifle with the bayonet
+fixed.
+
+We had arrived at the point where I had previously encountered the barbed
+wire. Throwing ourselves flat on the ground, we returned the enemy's fire.
+After cutting the barbed-wire, we awaited orders. The word came to charge.
+With one mighty shout, we made for the crest. When one goes out with the
+bayonet he goes to kill or to be killed, but with the former in mind.
+
+The German fire thundered out as though it had been tripled. The trees and
+bushes were cut as by scythes, but they were only shooting in a
+direction--they could not see us clearly. Up, up we went. Loose stones
+rattled under our feet, and went tumbling down the slope, but we picked
+ourselves up and pushed always forward and upward. At last we saw the
+Germans who were firing at us over their trenches. Our men were yelling
+like demons.
+
+Then the German fire stopped as though every man had, on the instant, been
+struck dead. An instant later, they leaped out of their trenches, with
+bayonets fixed, and dashed toward us. Every man among them looked a giant.
+One of our boys was ahead of all the others. He was a bow-legged little
+fellow, and, even at that moment, he looked ludicrous with his bare knees
+and kilts. A big German was over him. The little fellow seemed to drop his
+rifle. He had caught it in both hands, close under the handle of the
+bayonet. He straightened up, heaving his shoulders, brought up his
+forearms with a jerk, and the steel blade drove through the soft spot in
+the German's throat--just under the chin. The Prussian's last cry was
+drowned by the fierce yell of the little bow-legged man. It was the spirit
+of the bayonet which made him yell like a savage.
+
+There was no time to see what was going on around me any more. We were
+fighting knee to knee. I can but faintly recall the actual close fighting,
+but I seemed to make good use of my bayonet. Sometimes I was knocked off
+my feet, but the next instant I was up again. I was not thinking of what
+might happen to me. It was fight, fight, and keep on fighting. One seemed
+imbued with a superhuman strength.
+
+One of our boys seized a German's rifle, and wrested it from him by a
+trick which seemed to break his arm. A little farther away two Germans
+were rushing upon one man. Mechanically, I leaped into action. The butt of
+my rifle felled the nearest boche. Somebody knocked the rifle out of my
+hands. Somehow I ducked a thrust made at me and ran in on the German who
+made it, and smashed my fist on the point of his jaw.
+
+They began to waver now. They did not seem to care for our company with
+our kilts and our steel--we whom they later learned to call the "Ladies of
+Hell." (Because of our kilts.) At last they broke and ran. We were after
+them. A machine gun rattled away at the head of a path down which some of
+our boys were dashing. It almost wiped out _B_ company before we could
+silence it.
+
+Just over the crest of the ridge we came upon their combat wagons and a
+field gun. Three men and an officer were trying to save the gun. The men
+who were hitching the horses to it broke and ran. The officer did not
+hesitate a second to shoot them in the backs. Then _he_ fell with one of
+our bullets through his head. We captured the gun.
+
+By this time I was regaining my proper senses. A feeling of exhaustion
+seemed to envelop me; my legs wobbled. Then I dropped to the ground. Every
+bone, muscle, and nerve ached, and I felt as though I had just been
+through a tough wrestling match.
+
+When we had counted up, we found that two company officers, Captain
+Drummond and Captain Dalgleish, had been killed. We picked up about fifty
+German rifles and broke them over the trunks of trees. Our casualties were
+one hundred and fifty killed and only God knows how many wounded.
+
+Our prisoners amounted to about one hundred and forty. Among them was a
+man who had worked in London as a watchmaker. In very broken English, he
+asked if he could get his job back if he were sent to London. We told him
+that he would get a job all right, but that somebody else would see to the
+watchmaking.
+
+After capturing the crest, upon looking from the far side, we could see
+great numbers of German cavalry and infantry in retreat. The plateau was
+strewn with I should judge about five hundred dead bodies of the enemy.
+Their horses that had been wounded were left behind--left to die. We let
+go a few volleys of long-range fire to hurry the boches on their way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+We had very little rest after the fight I have just described. We were
+getting down to the real business of war. It was fighting, and not the
+incessant retreating, which had been sapping the life out of us for weeks.
+You must remember, also, the weight that each man carried during all those
+long wearisome retreats. Each of us had his heavily plaited kilt; his pack
+containing great coat, flannel shirt, two pairs of socks, waterproof
+sheet, extra shoes, and towel; his canteen, rifle, entrenching tool,
+bayonet, and ammunition--the whole totalling ninety pounds weight.
+
+Immediately after the fight, in shallow, narrow trenches, we began to bury
+our dead. Before the work was finished, a detachment of Uhlans fired on
+us, but one of our companies drove them across a rivulet and over the
+crest of the next ridge.
+
+One of our pipers--Dougall McLeod was his name--had lost his chum in the
+fight. McLeod was a sentimental sort of chap, with little heart for the
+work of killing. He was sitting on the ground fastening together a couple
+of strips of wood to make a little cross for his chum's grave--or rather
+his chum's share of the one long grave. The tears were trickling down his
+grimy, bloody cheeks, and he wasn't ashamed of them, nor of the furrows
+they cut in the caked dirt. It was just before he finished his work that
+the Uhlans opened fire. McLeod threw the loose pieces of the cross to the
+ground, and sprang to his place in the firing line. I had never seen the
+passion of hate in his eyes before. All that the Germans had made him
+suffer had never aroused him, but now that they interrupted him in the
+work of making a homely mark for his friend's grave, he was fired by the
+will to kill. I was only a few paces from him in the firing line, and,
+with the tears still streaming down his face, I could hear him mutter
+every time his rifle crashed:
+
+"Damn you! You will, will you?"
+
+We again took to the road. All that day we marched under occasional shell
+fire. Along the sides of the roads, we passed the wrecks of scores of
+German combat wagons and supply trains. Sometimes there was a field piece
+amid the debris. Toward evening we heard terrific firing on our right, but
+we were not called to enter the engagement. Later we learned that a French
+division had been pretty badly cut up in running the boches out of a
+strong position.
+
+Their wounded passed us on the road. You cannot imagine a more pitiful or
+a more noble sight. Limping along, supported by their comrades, came
+scores of men, whose every step was costing them agony but who smiled at
+us as we cheered them. Straggling down the road, as we swung along, came
+groups of wounded, each supporting the other as best he could. In one case
+in particular, a man who had been badly maimed and was using his rifle as
+a crutch, was also supported by a comrade who had been blinded. If there
+had ever been doubt in our minds as to the mettle of our allies, it was
+dispelled now, as the lame and the blind hour after hour filed past us.
+
+We billeted that night at a place, the name of which sounded like
+Villers. I remember that a detachment of French were there before us, and
+a peasant pointed out to me a row of trees where they had hung fifteen
+Germans captured there, because, when the Uhlans had taken the town
+fifteen of them had brutally assaulted and outraged a farmer's wife and
+his daughter, twelve years of age. The ropes were still dangling from the
+trees.
+
+Volunteers were asked for, to go down and get the mail. Practically every
+one offered his services. To get mail from home gave the same sensation as
+scoring a victory, and we were all eager to do our bit. This was about
+10.30 P.M. and the rain was coming down in torrents. About two miles
+behind us lay the mail strewn around the road. The ambulance carrying it
+had been struck by a shell. Our volunteer mail carriers gathered the
+letters up, and, needless to say, there was much excitement among us on
+their arrival. Nothing else was thought of for the moment except the news
+from home.
+
+The next few days were uneventful. Toward evening on the thirteenth of
+September, I was scouting on our left flank. The German heavy guns had
+been keeping up a steady searching fire all day, but little damage had
+been done.
+
+I had got so accustomed to the roar of the explosions that they did not
+bother me very much. After a while a man gets so used to the sound of a
+shrieking shell in the air that he can tell by instinct when one is coming
+his way in time to throw himself flat on the ground. I had not yet reached
+this stage of proficiency. A shell did come my way. How close it came I
+will never know, because all of a sudden I felt as though my head were
+bursting. I seemed to be tumbling end over end and being torn to pieces.
+My ear drums rang and pained excruciatingly. I thought to myself "I am
+dying," and I wondered how I kept feeling a sort of consciousness although
+I must be already torn to bits.
+
+Then I found myself sitting up on the ground with a man from my patrol
+supporting my head.
+
+Now, this is the strange thing. I was instantly and absolutely oblivious
+when the shell exploded. All the sensations I have described came when I
+was recovering consciousness. Surgeons have told me since then that they
+were exactly what the shell caused when it exploded, but that my brain did
+not register them until my senses returned. My clothes were scorched and
+even my hair was singed. I do not know why I was not killed, but in a few
+hours I was ready for duty once more. The man who picked me up said that
+the shell had burst some little distance overhead. If it had struck the
+ground close to me, it would doubtless have sent me "west."
+
+The game had now been turned about. We were the pursuers. Most of the
+fighting was between the enemy's rear guard and our contact patrols--until
+we reached the Aisne. The Huns crossed the river, but they blew up the
+bridges behind them. The last of the retreating troops were scarcely
+across before the detonators were set off.
+
+We were held up for a while on the Aisne while our engineers constructed
+pontoon bridges. The Germans had the range, and they almost wiped out our
+entire battalion of engineers before our troops could cross.
+
+I saw a working raft swing out into the river with about twelve men on it.
+A single burst of shrapnel exploded in their midst and there wasn't a man
+left standing. One of them crawled to the stern and began pushing the raft
+toward shore with a pole but he was so weak that the current kept swinging
+him down a stream. A sniper got him.
+
+The raft was drifting away. Nobody expected to see the men on it again,
+but, in the face of shrapnel and a nasty fire from snipers, three men,
+stark naked, jumped into the stream and struck out for the raft. The water
+around them was whipped by bullets, but our boys located the snipers and
+got the range and quieted them. The first man reached the raft. His hands
+were over the edge. He had just pushed his head and shoulders over the
+side when a rifle snapped and he slipped back into the water; then I saw
+the German who had fired at him topple out of a tree. A dozen shots must
+have struck him. The two other swimmers were alongside the raft now and
+climbed upon it. I could see that one was bleeding at the shoulder. Our
+men pulled the wounded man upon the raft, and brought it to shore. Their
+heroism saved the lives of five men who otherwise would have drifted away
+and probably died.
+
+Soon our own artillery began to locate the German guns, whose fire
+diminished. Then our infantry began to cross the river at a dozen points.
+On the opposite bank was a village by the name of Bourg. Up and down hills
+we worked our way, forcing the enemy off the ridges. The details of the
+operations would not be of interest. We wanted to close with the bayonets,
+but the boches weren't ready for that, and they dropped back foot by foot,
+keeping up a hot fire.
+
+On this side of the river were numerous stone quarries, and in these we
+found tons and tons of ammunition for the heavy German guns. The type and
+manufacturers' marks showed that some of it was made as far back as the
+Franco-Prussian war. It had been lying in caches in the quarries for
+years, the Prussians having bought titles to some of the land through
+spies who posed as Frenchmen. They had been making use of this ammunition
+against us. It shows how long ago the war was planned and by whom. In some
+of the quarries we uncovered re-enforced concrete fortification and
+emplacements for cannon.
+
+Our commander, Colonel Grant Duff, was in the thickest of the fighting. I
+saw him distributing bandoliers of ammunition along the firing line. His
+men tried to make him go to the rear, but we were having a tough time to
+keep fire superiority, and we needed every man in the line. Suddenly
+Colonel Duff staggered and slouched forward on his hands and knees. The
+bandoliers he was carrying, scattered. Several men rushed to him but he
+got to his feet himself and ordered them back to their posts. An ugly red
+stain was spreading over his tartan riding breeches and leggings, but he
+staggered onward with the ammunition. He had not gone a dozen steps when
+both his arms flew up into the air and he fell backward. This time he did
+not move. He had been shot straight through the heart, and another
+commander of the Black Watch had gone to join the long line of heroes who
+had so often led this regiment to victory.
+
+Many of our company commanders were picked off by the enemy because of
+their distinctive dress, their celluloid map cases affording excellent
+targets.
+
+My memory of this fight is somewhat fragmentary. There are phases which
+are all but blanks to me. Others stand out with startling clarity.
+
+We were advancing in skirmishing order through a wood. A pal of my old
+athletic days, Ned McD----, fighting a few yards from me in our scattered
+line, fell with a bullet through both thighs. I made him as comfortable as
+I could in a nook about twenty paces back from where our men, lying on
+their stomachs, were keeping up a steady rifle fire through the
+underbrush. I had hardly returned to the line when the whistle of our
+platoon commander sounded shrilly, and we were ordered to retire to the
+farther edge of the plateau, where our men could have better protection
+from the enemy fire. I hurriedly placed McD---- under the edge of a bank,
+where, at least, he would not be trampled on by men or horses.
+
+"Don't attempt to leave the spot, Ned," I said. "I'll get back to you
+to-night if there's an opportunity." The chance did come, but when I
+reached the spot he had disappeared. Our subsequent meeting--the story of
+which I shall tell--is one of my few agreeable recollections in the train
+of the tragedy of our campaign.
+
+But to go back to the fight.
+
+Soon after leaving the spot where McD---- lay, I joined in a charge on a
+line of hidden trenches. We were upon them, and it was steel and teeth
+again. I saw an officer run in under a bayonet thrust, and jab his thumbs
+into a German's eyes. The boche rolled upon the ground, screaming. How
+long we fought, I do not know. When it was over we began to pick up the
+wounded. It was night. The Prussian guns were still hammering at us, and
+some of the shells set fire to a number of haystacks in the field where we
+had crossed the open. It was Hell. In the red glare of the fire the
+stretcher bearers hurried here and there with the dying, while others who
+had been placed behind the hay-stacks for shelter burned to death when the
+stalks caught fire. The few who could, crawled away from the fire. Those
+of us who were able to do so, pulled others to safety, and many a man had
+his hands and face badly burned, rescuing a helpless comrade.
+
+The next morning we went at them again. In the first rush, I felt a sudden
+slap against my thigh. It did not feel like anything more than a blow from
+an open palm. I thought nothing more of it until after the fight, when
+some one told me I was bleeding. A bullet had struck the flesh of my
+thigh. The slight wound was dressed at the regimental station, and I was
+ready for duty again.
+
+That night I was assigned to outpost duty between the lines. The German
+artillery had so covered the roads and the bridge, that for two days the
+supply wagons had been unable to come up. I was almost starved. My stomach
+ached incessantly from sheer hunger and I was weak from the bleeding of my
+wound. It seems terrible, looking back at it, but, during the night, while
+my partner watched, I crawled out and searched the dead for rations. I
+found none. Fifty paces from our post lay a dead artillery horse. We had
+to eat--or drop. What could we do? Wriggling on my belly like a snake, I
+drew myself toward the smelling carcass, cut off enough with my jackknife
+to do the section, brought it back, and we ate it.
+
+There followed days of lying in the trenches. Every time one of us showed
+a head above the surface of the earth a single shot would ring out, and
+more than once it accomplished its mission. Two or three times I almost
+caught it myself. At last I made up my mind that the sniper must be in a
+sugar factory building which showed clearly above a ridge on the right
+front of our position. Jock Hunter and I volunteered to go there and
+investigate. Working our way under cover of a wooded patch, we reached the
+factory yard where we encountered an old Frenchman who seemed to be the
+owner of the place.
+
+"What do you want?" he demanded.
+
+"Have you seen a sniper anywhere about here?" I asked.
+
+"No," he answered in a surly manner, "and you get out of here."
+
+"We'll get out," I retorted, "and _you'll_ get with us."
+
+I searched the factory building from cellar to roof but wasn't able to
+discover anything incriminating. I didn't know much about sugar
+factories, but there was a lot of machinery in the place that didn't look
+to me as if it had anything to do with sugar.
+
+Back to our lines we went, with the supposed Frenchman making a lot of
+noise, but walking about two inches in front of the points of our
+bayonets. When he was searched we found notes to the value of fifteen
+thousand francs sewed in his clothes, but most important of all, there
+were papers upon his person which showed that he was a German spy left
+there by the Prussians in 1871. He held title to many acres of land,
+including some of the quarries where shells had been hidden.
+
+I told the company officer of the suspicious-looking machinery in the
+factory. He sent us back there with a subaltern of the engineers. The
+three of us approached the building by different routes. Suddenly, from a
+narrow window in the tower of the structure, a rifle cracked, and I saw
+the subaltern duck behind a bush. Hunter and I each began to run toward
+the factory. Zip! A bullet whistled past my ear, and a few seconds later
+Hunter was fired at.
+
+We all reached the place together. As the firing had been from the tower,
+we hurried to the upper storeys, but the subaltern saw at a glance that
+the machinery I had noticed was a wireless plant. Afterward we found that
+the numerous "lightning rods" on the factory were in reality wireless
+antennae. We went to the top of the tower without finding a single soul,
+but in a little room in the cupola, there were a few bread crumbs
+scattered over the floor. A corner of the linoleum covering on the floor
+of this room looked a little uneven. The subaltern posted each of us in a
+different corner with orders to fire three rapid rounds from our rifles
+into different points of the floor. He himself was to discharge his
+revolver in a like manner. At his signal we all opened fire, splintering
+the floor in several places. Then we heard a groan.
+
+"Come up here!" called the subaltern, in English. There was no answer. He
+repeated the command in German. Very slowly the linoleum in the corner of
+the room where it was uneven began to hump up. We all stood ready to fire.
+A trap door was lifting. Presently the corner of the floor covering was
+pushed back completely and a man's face appeared. It was a very white,
+drawn face, and, as the shoulders rose above the floor level, we saw that
+the man had been struck by at least one of our bullets. His left arm hung
+limp by his side. We patched him up.
+
+The officer told Hunter and myself to cut all wires, which, after some
+search, we found had been laid at the bottom of the walls and cunningly
+concealed by the grass. Then we took our prisoner back to our lines. An
+hour later our howitzers had demolished the factory. Up to this time, the
+boche artillery had been planting one shell after another on our
+positions, no matter how often we shifted. After the factory was destroyed
+we made one more move and no shells found us.
+
+We dug ourselves into the ground, and the almost continual rain made mud
+holes out of the trenches. Our force was not large enough in those days to
+allow of the elaborate system of supports and reserves that exists to-day.
+The men in the firing trenches had to stay there, and there was no going
+back into bomb-proofs for a rest. At night we lay down all in our muddy
+clothes with a waterproof sheet beneath us and our greatcoats around us.
+The sheet didn't do much good, because after lying in it for a while, it
+got pressed down into the mud and slime, which came all over the edges.
+Every one had a cold, and many of the men suffered from rheumatism, but no
+complaints were heard. It is only when things are going smoothly and
+"fags" are lacking that the British Tommy kicks.
+
+Owing to the lack of supplies, the issues of cigarettes were so few and
+far between that the dry tea that was sent up as part rations was used to
+make "fags." Tommies would roll the tea in paper in the form of cigarettes
+and smoke it. As much as five francs would be offered for one "Woodbine"
+when our supplies were exhausted. A "fag" was a most precious thing, and
+guarded jealously. A fellow would get into a corner, take a couple of
+puffs, "nip" it, then hide it away in a safe place on his person for fear
+of thieves in the night! In one instance, I watched a scene that would
+have brought forth laughter as well as pity from a civilian. One Tommy
+was observed in a corner finishing a half-inch butt, holding it by a pin
+which was stuck through it. Three others immediately pounced upon him and
+his treasure. After a short argument they formed a truce in the following
+manner: each man in rotation was to take one puff. A cockney with a Walrus
+moustache was last on the line, and with great sadness on his face and a
+sob in his voice said: "Bli' me! w'ere the 'ell do _I_ come in?"
+
+Out in front of our trenches the mud was full of the bodies of the
+dead--mostly Germans, but a few of our men. At night, we went out to bury
+them, but the enemy fired on us, so we had to leave them there. The wind
+was blowing our way, and they knew the odours of the battlefield were as
+hard for us to bear as was their artillery or rifle fire. This scheme they
+had learned from the Russians, who practised it during their war with
+Japan.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+Our trenches were pretty effective against rifle fire, but we had not yet
+learned to make them deep and narrow enough in proportion to protect us
+against shrapnel, which is not of much use against troops in the
+present-day trench. Our defence lay in leaning up close against the front
+wall of the trench, which caused most of the force of the shrapnel burst
+to go over our heads. One morning I was hugging the wall of the trench as
+close as I could stick, when a "coal box" burst near by. It tore down a
+long section of trench wall, killing a number of men. I saw the explosion
+and the next thing I knew I heard some one saying:
+
+"Ah'll bet ye' Joe's snuffed it noo', puir lad."
+
+I stuck my head up out of what seemed to me to be a ton or two of rock and
+dirt and yelled: "No; not this time!"
+
+You should have seen their faces. Some looked frightened and others
+relieved. In a second they began to laugh. Two or three of them helped me
+to my feet, and then the laughing became more boisterous.
+
+"It isn't so d---- funny as you think," I said, getting a little peeved.
+
+They turned me round and one of them held up the front part of my kilt in
+such a way that I could see the whole rear of the garment had been torn
+off. Certain portions of my anatomy were as guiltless of clothes as when I
+was born. A splinter of the shell, about fourteen pounds in weight, had
+given me a close crop. Then I had to laugh too, though I was somewhat
+battered and sore, but that night it wasn't so funny. I was almost frozen
+while on sentry go, and the next day it was just as bad.
+
+As I have already told you, the transports were scarce, and we had little
+to eat, and absolutely nothing in the way of new equipment. It was all we
+could do to get ammunition. After shivering all day, I determined to have
+some clothes. Right in front of our position, about twenty-five yards from
+the trench, lay a dead member of _H_ company whose name was Jock
+Drummond. Under cover of darkness, I sneaked out, and was almost beside
+the body, when a flare rocket went up. All of No Man's Land was lit up
+like day and I had to lie among the dead as if I had been one of them. It
+almost turned my stomach, but I did not dare to move. The Germans were
+searching the muddy ground and the least motion on my part would have
+brought a dozen or so bullets my way.
+
+Presently the light from the flare bombs died away, and I wriggled closer
+to what had been Drummond. I got my arm under the shoulders of the body,
+and started to crawl back to the trench. Twice a rocket went up, and I had
+to lie still for minutes with my ghastly companion. The second time, a
+German must have seen us move. Three bullets spattered against the ground
+a few inches from me, and one struck Drummond. I suppose I was twelve or
+fifteen minutes crawling back to the trench. It seemed fifteen years--an
+interminable time. I was not yet thoroughly hardened to war, and it went
+against my whole nature; but--I had to have clothes. We took the kilt
+from Drummond's body, and I wore it for weeks. Drummond, at least, got a
+decent burial, and a letter we found in his pocket we mailed to his
+mother, to whom it was addressed; so perhaps the deed done with a selfish
+purpose bore some good fruits after all. I may add that the stench of the
+dead lingered with me for a good many days.
+
+The night after I got Drummond's kilt, the Germans attacked us. We had
+erected barbed-wire entanglements in front of our position. We had empty
+jam and bully-beef tins, also empty shell cases from field guns, strung on
+the wire in such a way that the least touch would attract attention.
+
+In this manner we were notified that the Germans were in the act of
+striking at us. Now they were coming--hundreds of them. There was a thin
+edge of humanity first, like the sheeting of water which precedes a
+breaker up a gently sloping beach. Behind it came units--more closely
+bunched, and, still farther back, was a mass of soldiery almost like a
+battalion on parade.
+
+It was murder to fire into that wall of misty grey--but the men who made
+it were bent on murdering us. I was firing as fast as I could. On my right
+was a lad of nineteen, who was one of the 3rd battalion militia of the
+Black Watch--a detachment sent to replace our losses.
+
+"Pray God they may not pass the wire," he half sobbed with every breath.
+He was afraid, but he would not run. Every man is afraid in his first
+battle. The recruit's face was drawn and white--his lips a thin, pressed
+line--but he fired calmly. He did not mind the bullets, but he had not yet
+the "spirit of the bayonet," and he dreaded that they should pass the
+wire.
+
+The first of the thin line was at the entanglement. Most of them dropped
+before they touched a wire, but others cut a single strand before a bullet
+found its berth. They died; but they had succeeded in their mission. A
+thread of life cut to sever a strand of wire!
+
+The wave had risen and was breaking over the entanglement. They were
+beginning to get through. Here and there a man lumbered up the gentle
+slope toward our trenches only to fall before he reached them. The mass
+of them was worming through the wire now.
+
+A shrill whistle blew. From our trenches came a sound like the beating of
+a hundred pneumatic hammers. It was the music of Hell. The machine guns
+and artillery were making it, and they were spitting out death in streams
+to the accompaniment of their devilish music. God was answering the prayer
+of the little lad. The Germans were dropping at the wire; they would not
+pass.
+
+The wee death engines were playing just a foot or so above the bottom of
+the wire, and they were literally cutting the legs from under the mass of
+grey-clad men. The back wash from the wave which broke against the wire
+was thinner than the wash that had preceded it.
+
+"Thank God!" gasped the boy; "I did not have to use my bayonet."
+
+"It's guid steel wasted," growled a ginger-whiskered old-timer on my left,
+as he wiped the dampness from the blade with his sleeve and dropped the
+bayonet back into its scabbard.
+
+[To-day such an attack on the British lines would invariably be followed
+by a counter attack to show the Germans that the initiative lies--always
+must lie--with the Allies; but, in those days, we had not the men. Our
+lines were often so thin that, had they been pierced at a single point, we
+would have been crumpled up like paper.]
+
+After this fight, we were relieved by an East Yorkshire regiment and told
+that we would go to billets about three miles in the rear, but we had
+scarcely left the trenches when we received orders to get to billets and
+hold ourselves in readiness to occupy a new position in the line. The
+Black Watch at that time was again brought up to strength by the addition
+of a re-enforcement of five hundred men.
+
+A party of us was sent to guard a bridge that our engineers were
+repairing, it having been blown up the previous day by big shell fire. I
+had just got off duty and was sitting before the log fire in the
+block-house with a few other fellows, when in popped a little Algerian, as
+black as the ace of spades. On recognizing that we were Scots, he held out
+his hand and said:
+
+"My name's MacPherson; what's yours?"
+
+He made himself right at home, and we shared our bully beef and biscuit
+with him. We had just been warming it. Our black "Scotsman" insisted on
+staying with us, and so we adopted him as a sort of mascot.
+
+Shortly after we took up our new position in the line, a German sniper
+began to annoy us, and continued to do so almost ceaselessly. Every time
+anything showed so much as an inch above the crest, it drew fire, and a
+number of our men were shot passing traverses. There was a wood near our
+position, and we were pretty sure the fire was coming from there although
+we could not locate it. The Algerian was a crack shot, and wanted to prove
+it, so he went to our lieutenant and said:
+
+"Me get sniper, if you like."
+
+"Go ahead," said the lieutenant, half jokingly.
+
+It seemed ridiculous to think of "MacPherson"--with his tiny body and his
+face of a black angel "getting" anybody.
+
+The little Algerian disappeared. At the end of three hours, after we had
+all given him up as lost or strayed, he returned, clutching a small
+untidy package rolled in a French newspaper.
+
+"Well, then, he didn't eat you up, did he?" some one asked.
+
+The little Algerian understood English poorly, but he generally got the
+gist of things. This time he evidently thought he had been asked whether
+he had eaten up the sniper.
+
+"Ugh!" he exclaimed; "me no _eat_ sniper, but _git_ him. Look here."
+
+Very gingerly he unrolled his sheet of newspaper and, as evidence that he
+had landed his man, exposed to view a human ear. He wanted to present the
+ear to the lieutenant, but the officer declined the honour.[1]
+
+There was much night-patrol work to do on the Aisne. Often we ran into
+German reconnaissance patrols. One night I was scouting with another man.
+Five or six hundred yards from our lines, we came upon a boche sentry. He
+was a big, heavy fellow, and I remember thinking that he looked as if the
+hard army life had not yet worked the surfeit of beer out of his system.
+He was leaning on the parapet, and appeared to be asleep. We wanted to get
+beyond, as he was on the German advance listening post, but, as a
+reconnaissance patrol must conceal from the enemy all evidence of its
+proximity, we dared not shoot him. So we crawled to one side of him, and
+my partner, who was slightly ahead, gave him a thud on the side of the
+neck, which only, as we thought, made him sleep the more soundly. He
+dropped into the trench. The next moment a head bobbed up and the dose was
+repeated with the result that the boche (whom we had mistaken for the
+first man) slid back again. We looked over to see whether the second blow
+had done its work; there were two forms instead of one. My partner took a
+helmet as a souvenir. He kept it for one day and then abandoned it as
+inconvenient to carry. He found that a souvenir the size of a boche's
+helmet could not be put between the leaves of his St. John's Gospel.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Being about the only Black Watch scout left of those that had first landed
+in France, I had been almost constantly on duty during the fighting at
+the Aisne. You can imagine then how happy I was when we were relieved from
+the trenches and billeted a short distance in the rear in hay lofts,
+cottages, and stables.
+
+On our way to billets we were looking forward to a "cushy" time, a good
+rest, a decent meal, and a wash, and hoping that the next section of
+trench we took over would be much quieter. It did not seem, however, as if
+I had had much more than the proverbial "forty winks" when we were sent
+back to support the Cameron Highlanders.
+
+It was the Camerons who had just relieved us and their headquarters were
+in a quarry where ours had been. A few "coal boxes" had landed in the
+quarry, and reduced it to a mass of debris. Only one officer and bugler
+had survived. It was here that Sergeant-Major Burt, of my native town, was
+killed. He was reputed to have the "best word of command" in the British
+army. We reached the scene in time to help the Scots Guards dig out some
+of them. It was a gruesome job. Some of the men had been pinned under
+heavy rocks for hours without losing consciousness.
+
+There was, in particular, one instance of an officer [I cannot recall his
+name] whose legs were crushed and pinned down. His head had been cut by a
+shell splinter. When we tried to dig him out, he ordered us to attend
+first to a private, a few feet away, whose ribs had been smashed in and
+who was bleeding from the nose and mouth.
+
+In all, about thirty officers and men lost their lives here.
+
+We were called from this scene of carnage to defend a trench line against
+the Prussian Guards who were threatening to break through. The machine-gun
+and shrapnel fire was terrific, and for a time we were glad to squeeze
+ourselves close against the parapet. Then suddenly everything seemed
+uncomfortably quiet. Wounded were screaming and groaning all about us;
+men, who had not been struck, were muttering to themselves--driven half
+mad by the bombardment; but, the instant the roar of the guns and shell
+explosions ceased, all seemed still. The Prussians were undoubtedly
+preparing to charge us, but they must have been slow in getting started.
+We got hurried orders to get ready to go over the top and surprise them.
+
+I thought of but one thing as I ran forward; that was--"Blighty." On going
+to billets it had been my intention to write to the folks at home the next
+day after getting a rest, but our stay had been so short that to do so had
+been impossible. And now my thought was: "Perhaps I sha'n't return."
+
+The Prussians seemed surprised by our quick attack, and the offensive was
+wrested from them. We became the assaulters. How I got through the
+entanglement I cannot tell. All I know is that I left part of my kilt
+dangling amid the wires. However, before we reached their trench line, the
+Prussians had scrambled over their parapet to meet us. In the general
+mix-up I found myself locked in the arms of a bear-like Prussian Guardsman
+who evidently had lost his rifle and bayonet. His knee was at my knee--his
+chest pressed against my chest. Our faces touched.
+
+I slid my hands up along the barrel of my rifle until they were almost
+under the hilt of the bayonet. Very slowly I shoved the butt back of me
+and to the side. Lower and lower I dropped it. The keen blade was between
+us. All the Hun seemed to know about wrestling was to hug. He dared not
+let go. Had he known a few tricks of the game, I should not be writing
+this to-day.
+
+Instinctively I felt that the point of my bayonet was in line with his
+throat. With every ounce of strength in my body, I wrenched my shoulders
+upward and straightened my knees. The action broke his hold, and my
+bayonet was driven into his greasy throat. His arms relaxed; I was
+drenched with blood, but it was not my own. I staggered away from him,
+wrenching my rifle free as he fell.
+
+The thrust I had used has come to be known as the "jab point"; they are
+teaching it to the American army to-day. It developed naturally from just
+such situations as I have described.
+
+It was an awful _melee_. There were men swinging rifles overhead; others,
+kicking, punching, and tearing at their adversaries; while others again,
+wrestling, had fallen to the ground, struggling one to master the other.
+One Highlander, who had been struck by a bullet just before reaching the
+enemy parapet, grasped his rifle, and crawled as best he could the
+intervening distance, waiting his chance to get his man. At last it came.
+His bayonet found its mark, before the bulky Hun could ward off the
+unexpected stroke from the wounded lad. In a moment they were both lying
+prone on the earth. The Highlander, I am sure, died content--content that
+he had got his quota at least.
+
+It was the wildest confusion, but its impressions were absolutely
+photographic. I can see it all, again, this moment.
+
+The Prussians were finally obliged to retire to their reserve trenches. We
+took their firing trench, but had to vacate it because it was subject to
+an enfilading fire from the enemy. As we retreated in company squads, we
+kept up a steady fire.
+
+While making for our trenches, I shouted to one of the fellows on my left
+to keep down as we were drawing the enemy's fire. The sentence was hardly
+completed, when something hot struck me on the left jaw. It seemed as if I
+had been hit with a sledge hammer. I spun round, stumbled, and fell to
+the ground. I realized that it was a bullet and tried to swear at the
+boches, but all I could do was to spit and cough, for the blood was almost
+choking me. The bullet, entering my cheek and shattering some of my teeth
+in passing, made its exit by way of my mouth. My warning, however, had
+saved the life of the lad I had shouted to. He flopped to the ground just
+in time to avoid a sweep of machine-gun fire, and managed to crawl to our
+trench, which was a very short distance off.
+
+I was sent to the regimental dressing station. There were scores there
+more seriously wounded than I, and they were, of course, attended to
+first. By the time it was my turn, my face was so completely smeared with
+congealed blood that the orderly couldn't locate the wound. He wiped my
+face with a bunch of grass and applied a dressing. I was relieved to hear
+that it was a clean wound.
+
+In the dressing station, suffering as I was, I noticed two men forcibly
+controlling a wounded comrade. After a moment I recognized him as the
+little recruit who had prayed that the Germans might not pass the wire
+and come to bayonet fighting with us. His features were so changed that he
+seemed aged a dozen years and--believe it or not, as you will--his hair,
+which had been sleek and black, was entirely white. He had been only
+slightly wounded but the heavy bombardment had driven him entirely mad. He
+was continually crying for his mother. I afterward learned that he and his
+mother, who was blind, had lived together and had been warmly devoted to
+each other, but at the outbreak of the war, his mother felt it her duty to
+send him to fight. The boy recovered his mental faculties a month or two
+after being sent home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+After the first dressing of my wound, I was sent to our transport station,
+a short distance behind the lines, being told that in a few days I would
+be fit for duty again. There was a farm here. By the time I reached the
+farm house the pain of my wound was terrific. It was like a toothache all
+over my head and down into my neck and shoulders. Nevertheless, I threw
+myself onto a pile of straw in the barn and, after tossing about a while,
+managed to fall asleep.
+
+When I awoke it was daylight again, the entire night having passed.
+Leaning over me was a little French girl--she must have been about eight
+years old--with a pitcher of milk, which she held out toward me. In spite
+of the condition of my mouth, I managed to swallow the milk. I was almost
+starved and very weak. I tried to persuade the little girl to accept a
+franc for the milk, but she shook her head, and skipped off. Following
+her out of the barn, I met her mother to whom, also, I offered payment;
+she, too, refused it.
+
+We could hear the rumbling of big guns; shells were exploding not far
+away; then came the noise of transport wagons approaching the farm. I
+turned back toward the barn and had not gone more than ten paces when
+there was a crash overhead. Splinters and shrapnel spattered into the farm
+yard. I ducked and hastened my pace. Then there was a thud behind me, as
+if a bag of potatoes had been dropped from a lorry. Almost simultaneously
+came a scream from the little girl.
+
+I turned just in time to see the mother of the child fall, roll down out
+of the doorway in which the two were standing, and lie ominously still.
+The little girl stood gazing in terror at the fallen woman. Her little
+hands were raised shoulder high before her and she shrieked--hysterically
+and helplessly. As I hastened toward them the child seemed to realize the
+awful thing that had happened and threw herself upon her mother's body,
+pressing her face against the dying woman's. I felt the tears trickling
+down my cheek and smarting in my wound as I heard the child's heartbroken
+exclamations--terms of endearment they seemed, and pitifully eloquent
+enough, though the tongue in which they were spoken was unknown to me.
+
+A lad of ten, barefoot and in overalls, came running from the house. He
+knelt and stared into his mother's face, then he turned a dumb,
+questioning glance at me. I could not meet his eyes. As I got my arms
+under the shoulders of the fallen woman and started to drag her body into
+the house, I could hear the little fellow sobbing softly but he didn't
+speak. Hoping that it still might be of use, he helped with all his little
+strength to move his mother's body. Inside the house, we pushed the
+tumbled hair back from her face. A shrapnel bullet had entered her
+forehead. It was useless to ask if human aid could serve her. Death had
+been almost instantaneous. Then I saw a sight that spoke a volume on the
+cruelty of war and the heroism of the sturdy French blood could I but tell
+it.
+
+The little lad gathered his sister in his protecting arms and
+sat--speaking, manfully, words of comfort to her--beside the dead body of
+their mother, shells meanwhile bursting all about the home which had been
+their childhood haven of love and safety, and brick and plaster falling
+about them from its shattered roof. The children were in serious danger,
+but they steadfastly refused to leave their mother. I did not know enough
+French to reason with them, and it was not until some French muleteers
+sought shelter behind the building that I was able, through them, to
+persuade the boy and girl to go farther to the rear, with them.
+
+After this experience, like one in a dream, I made my way back to the
+trenches, heedless of the shells whizzing overhead. The sight I had seen
+haunted me.
+
+Upon reaching my trench, I was brought back to my senses by some of my
+"muckin'-in" pals, who threw all sorts of questions at me in a jesting
+fashion, such as:
+
+"Hello, Reuter, been tae Blighty an' back? Ye're a better sprinter than Ah
+thocht"; "Hoo's aw wi' th' fokes at hame? Did ye remember the fags?"
+
+It was some time before I was sufficiently myself again to be able to
+answer them in the proper strain. My head looked like a cotton-and-bandage
+demonstration, and I was a sorry looking sight altogether. I lived for the
+next few days on bully beef biscuits, softened, and oxo cubes dissolved in
+water.
+
+In a few days we were relieved by French troops, and we force-marched
+north to stem the German thrust at Calais.
+
+After some stiff marching, we entrained "somewhere." Our "camions" were
+coal trucks, which had been only partially unloaded. Some of my more
+hygienic mates who were under the impression that they did not have as
+much grime-caked mud sticking to them as the rest, suggested that our
+truck be cleaned out, but the general eagerness for a corner "doss" put
+this suggestion out of consideration at once. There was a scrambling
+match, and when our allotment got entirely in, the quartermaster was
+soundly "cussed." It seemed as if the whole regiment had been detailed to
+this car. Even in these circumstances, the whimsical philosophy of the
+private soldier asserted itself. A little chap, jammed in a corner, said
+he wanted a place by the side door, so that he could "see the scenery"!
+
+We travelled all night, and on the following morning drew up at a junction
+where a body of recruits joined us. They regarded us with staring eyes,
+and I suppose we did look like a lot of cave men, being unshaven,
+long-haired, grimy, and black as sweeps with the coal dust. We did not
+mind this half so much as the recruits. At the junction, we got a sandwich
+and a canteen of coffee which had a most exquisite flavour of rum. This
+was so pronounced that some summoned their nerve sufficiently to go back
+for a "double attack," but were met with "Napoo."
+
+Conditions have changed now, so that Tommy is able to keep himself shaved
+and personally neat, even in the mud of the trenches. It helps keep up our
+morale and shatter that of the boches. There is a distinct psychological
+effect on the enemy when clean-shaven, tidily-dressed men come up out of
+the earth and fall upon them.
+
+Very soon we commenced our journey again. How long we were on the train I
+cannot recall, but finally we reached a large town where we got off. On
+our arrival we could hear the incessant rumbling of guns, and knew we were
+going to have another hot time of it. My face was better, but my beard! I
+had not had a shave since before Mons! While on the retreat, most of us,
+in order to lighten our loads, had thrown away the little items of our
+equipment that we did not urgently need. We kept only our greatcoats and
+such articles as we required for warmth.
+
+We force-marched until early morning, when we halted for a rest, as the
+feet of many of our men were skinned and in bad shape. For myself, I was
+walking on my uppers, as the soles and heels of my shoes were completely
+worn out.
+
+We resumed the march. We understood that we were in the vicinity of Ypres.
+We force-marched for all we were worth, and late in the afternoon we came
+to a village. Here we were billeted on the side nearest us. After getting
+rations, we needed no coaxing to sleep.
+
+It was still dark when we got orders to fall in and march at top speed.
+The village was being shelled.
+
+This seemed to have been a spot for concentrating for we met with other
+regiments there--one of them the King's Royal Rifles. Beyond the far side
+of the village at a certain distance one could see trees scattered here
+and there, but farther on the country was flat. It was in this direction
+we marched.
+
+Orders were whispered along the line that we were to maintain strict
+silence and no "fags" were to be lighted, as we were near the enemy, and
+were attempting to move without his knowledge. Our officers gave us the
+encouraging news that we were about to be up against some hard
+fighting--harder than we had so far experienced. Our commander, Major J.
+T. C. Murray, expressed the hope that we would keep the name of the "Black
+Watch" where our predecessors had placed it--in the foremost rank. And so
+we advanced in darkness, with our minds on serious things.
+
+We were in two lines of skirmishing order, one pace apart. Our object was
+to reach the flat ground beyond the trees and dig ourselves in before
+dawn. We did this. The digging was an easy matter as the earth was marshy
+and our entrenching tools proved fit enough for the task. Shells were
+flying overhead continually, making an awful humming noise, and some of
+them passed so low that the air disturbances blew caps from off the heads
+of our men.
+
+There was not a murmur or a word of complaint from our wearied and worn
+ranks. We had almost completed our shallow trenches when the boche opened
+fire at us with his field guns. It was hardly dawn. We kept on digging,
+crouching in all positions to keep under cover from the bombardment.
+
+I suppose that every one under shell fire, at one time or another, in some
+manner, prays. I know that I often have done so, although not so
+ostentatiously as some of the men. I have seen them, when the shells were
+rocking the earth and splinters were whistling past our ears, drop to
+their knees and swear to their Maker that, if they were spared, when they
+returned home they would go to church regularly and be kinder to their
+wives and children.
+
+Some of our men ceased digging after reaching what they thought a safe
+depth, and crouched against the parapet for safety. Others of us started
+making what are known to-day as dug-outs. Jock Hunter and I made one to
+hold both of us. We dug away under the parapet so that we could crawl in
+with only our feet sticking out. This not only sheltered us from the
+unceasing shrapnel, but from the rain also. Some of the boys lying in the
+trenches had been killed and some wounded from the shrapnel bursting
+overhead, so the officers gave orders that we were all to make these
+dug-outs.
+
+A man from each company had been detailed for look-out duty, at which we
+all took turn of an hour each. It was noon before we heard any response
+from our artillery, but then it checked the German fire considerably.
+
+The rain came down heavily, flooding us out of our dug-outs, and we were
+obliged to stand in the trench like a lot of half-drowned rats, our
+greatcoats on and our waterproof sheets over them. At first we were
+standing on earth, but before long the muck had reached over our ankles.
+
+There was at least one virtue in the rain--it softened our bully-beef
+biscuits, which we ate standing in the trenches, wet to the skin and with
+water dripping from our greatcoats and kilts.
+
+Toward night the rain ceased. We had expected to be attacked at any minute
+that day, but for some reason or another we escaped it. We got a rum
+issue. Then volunteers were asked for, to go and fetch some hot "gunfire."
+(It was hot when the ration party got it, but quite cold when it reached
+us.)
+
+That night I was given orders to go on night reconnaissance. While I was
+away on this duty, the engineers came up and our fellows dug in again in
+advance of the old trenches. The engineers then constructed a barbed-wire
+entanglement in front of our position.
+
+Wet and cold, and covered with mud, I went off on patrol duty, and many a
+shell hole I stumbled into to make me wetter. The enemy's position was
+about seven hundred yards from ours.
+
+When moving between the lines, I noticed the outline of a big man. I don't
+know why I didn't fall down upon seeing him. My instinct told me to go
+ahead to make sure who it was. We were making straight for each other; as
+we met we almost brushed sleeves; then, with no more than a glance at each
+other, we passed on; but you may be sure that I had my jackknife in the
+proper hand. I could not say even now whether or not he was a German.
+
+I returned to our lines and, after reporting, helped to finish the
+trenches. I heard the following morning that one of our patrols had
+captured a German. I wondered if he might be the big fellow I had passed
+in the dark.
+
+We received the order to "stand to" at dawn. Other troops had dug
+themselves in some distance behind us during the night. We got another rum
+issue just before "stand to"; it was highly appreciated.
+
+At dawn, the Germans attacked in mass formation, but our rifle and
+artillery fire made big gaps as they advanced. They did not reach our
+trenches. They retired, leaving piles of dead. The nearest of their dead
+were not more than one hundred yards from us.
+
+This time we had very few casualties in our battalion--largely on account
+of our having dug in ahead of our old position, the range of which the
+enemy had. Their fire constantly over-reached us.
+
+After this attack was over, we heard the buzzing of airplanes, and
+although we had been instructed not to look up--the white of faces being
+very conspicuous from above--we ventured to do so, and saw a British plane
+smash headlong into a boche machine. Both went end over end to earth, and
+the pilots undoubtedly were killed. The Englishman, in giving his life,
+had saved perhaps hundreds of us in the trenches.
+
+In the afternoon, after a heavy bombardment, which tore up some of our
+barbed wire, the enemy made another charge. This time they came over in
+wave formation. The order was passed along to "fix bayonets," and, as soon
+as the Germans reached the barbed wire, to spring out and meet them. This
+we did.
+
+We fought off line after line. The Black Watch suffered many casualties
+here, but not so many as the Germans. This crowd had less love for the
+bayonet than their brothers at the Aisne. Soon we were chasing them out
+beyond the barbed wire. We took many prisoners. If it had not been for the
+officer's whistle to retire, I think we would have driven them to Berlin,
+the way we felt that day. However, back we had to come.
+
+The enemy's artillery fire began to pound on us as we were making for our
+trenches, and some of our fellows were bowled over as the result of it. As
+many of the wounded as we could bring, we brought back with us.
+
+One fellow was lying about fifty yards away from the trench. Two of his
+mates volunteered to go out for him, but in the attempt they were wounded
+and forced to come back without him. Two others then went out; these
+managed to bring him in--but he was dead. He was a young lad--one of the
+latest to join our battalion. His equipment was practically new. I was
+given his shoes; they were much too big for me, but nevertheless I was
+grateful for them.
+
+That night I helped to carry back more of the wounded, and, with the rest,
+assisted the engineers to fix up the barbed wire. This, coupled with the
+fighting of the day, well nigh exhausted me, but I didn't get the rest
+which I so much desired and expected, as I was detailed as one of our
+company ration party, comprising six men and a non-commissioned officer.
+
+Owing to occasional shell fire, we were obliged to crawl close to the
+ground while on our way to the supply station. When we were coming back,
+the boches used flare lights which made us visible to them. I had a box of
+biscuits on my head. It made a fine target, and when I reached our
+trenches I found that bullets had pierced it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+For a day or two after this we had comparative quiet. Only bursts of shell
+fire threatened us, but these were so common as to be hardly noticed. The
+stench of the dead was terrible--worse than we had yet experienced. Men
+turned sick and were positively useless for hours, many being sent to the
+base hospital for treatment for their violent nausea. Others developed
+rheumatic fever from sleeping in the mud and water.
+
+Shortly after this, during the night time, we were relieved by an English
+regiment, composed of men who had not yet seen the worst of the fighting.
+They were fresh and inclined to be jovial. They asked rather carelessly
+about conditions as we had found them; we told them plainly what they had
+to expect. That seemed to sober them somewhat but not greatly. So we
+extended to them the conventional wish for the "best o' luck" and left
+them to find out for themselves that they were in a campaign which could
+only be called one of present desperation and ultimate sacrifice.
+
+Upon passing through an unidentified village, we found it deserted and
+nothing but a heap of ruins. The surrounding country as far as the eye
+could see resembled the lid of a pepper box, being full of shell holes.
+Many an oath came from the fellows, in the dark, as they stumbled into the
+shell holes full of water.
+
+At last we reached our billets. Here, at least, there were signs of life.
+Troops and transports were passing us continuously, but we knew
+nevertheless that we were near the firing line, for we could hear the
+bursting of shells and see the flashes. The country was a little more
+hilly here, as far as we could see in the semi-darkness. We were more than
+glad to get into a stable or barn; it meant a chance to get dry and to
+stretch our overworked limbs.
+
+After a little while we lined up in the farm yard and got some hot
+bully-beef stew in our canteens, a two-pound loaf among eight of us, some
+jam (needless to say "apple and plum"), and a "daud" of cheese; also a
+quarter-pound tin of Golden Flake cigarettes between two, and, as a sort
+of dessert, we got the mail from Blighty! Happy? why the word doesn't
+express it! We were simply elevated a million feet in the air--tired as we
+were.
+
+We discussed and played the different football league games over and over
+again as they were described in the newspapers we had just received. We
+imagined ourselves once more among the spectators at a cup-tie match
+between the Celtic and Dundee at Ibrox Park.
+
+For a time war was entirely forgotten; but only for a time! With a sudden
+"jerk" we would be brought back to our senses and our present whereabouts
+by the voice of the orderly corporal asking whether Private McNeil, or
+Lance-Corporal Watson, or perhaps Corporal McGregor had been seen down the
+line wounded; or was he dead? It was war, all right, and not football we
+were playing at!
+
+Jock Hunter and I were still "muckin'-in" pals, sharing our rations and
+troubles alike. Very soon the party broke, each man making for his
+allotted place to rest. I can recall so vividly the feeling that came
+over me as I lay down on that straw. It was identical with that which I
+had felt after coming back from a charge that had been a touch struggle! I
+fell asleep sighing and wondering how soon it would be when my letters
+would find no claimant for them!
+
+We passed the next day writing letters, scraping the mud off our clothes,
+and at rifle inspection. More men joined us. One of the new arrivals lent
+me his razor, and I performed, what was, to me, the awful task of shaving.
+It made me feel like a new man, and they said I looked it. We were told
+that we would no doubt have a few days' rest, and then move to Dixmude or
+some town with a name like that. We were instructed not to leave our
+billets, and told that whenever we heard a boche plane overhead we should
+make for cover, or stand perfectly still with our backs to the walls of
+the farm houses, without stirring, until the machine was out of sight.
+That day we noticed a few of Fritz's sausage balloons in the direction of
+the firing line.
+
+That night our officer, Lieutenant McRae, came round fully equipped; one
+look at him was enough; we knew there was to be no more "dossing" in the
+soft straw for us.
+
+"Fall in at the double, men! We have to take over a new section of
+trenches not far from here." Such was the greeting he gave us. We got into
+"harness" all right, but how we grouched and "cussed"!
+
+After lining up on the muddy road with the remainder of the battalion, the
+usual order was issued: "All fags out; no talking!"
+
+We started off, wading through mud; with every now and then an occasional
+halt and more grouching in the ranks. With three hours of this to our
+credit, we found ourselves zigzagging round little hillocks along narrow
+muddy cart roads. We passed a concealed battery of small howitzers. Some
+of the English chaps noticed that we were "jocks" (the name the English
+give the kilties) and began cheering us up with:
+
+"Down't wish y' enny 'arm--but ye'r gowin' ta 'ave an 'ell of an 'ot tyme,
+you Jocks!"
+
+We had ploughed our way through the mud only a few hundred yards beyond
+the battery when my nostrils sensed that there must have been some
+killing going on in the vicinity. A little farther on we came to an open
+section and turned to the right just before making a small incline. I
+could see a few wrecked transport wagons and dead horses. We remained
+behind a hillock and were told that we were near the enemy. We were about
+to enter trenches which lay quite close to the German lines our officer
+told us, adding that we could have reached this point from our billets in
+half an hour, but that it was necessary for us to make the exceedingly
+long detour. Most of us knew that this was the direction in which we had
+seen the sausage balloon, which brought back the memory of the heavy
+firing.
+
+We got into the natural ditches, which served us as trenches. We did not
+relieve any troops at this place, and there were no signs of any having
+been here, but on both flanks at some distance off, there were regiments
+entrenched. The situation was not one in the least to be desired. We were
+practically on an open space.
+
+We were just in the act of starting work with our entrenching tools when
+all at once--"s-c-ch-eew!"--and the sky was alight with a flare rocket.
+There was no necessity for orders to hug the earth; we just simply flopped
+on our faces. Then it seemed as if the whole of the German artillery
+opened fire. We did not dare even to look up for quite some time. However,
+it seemed that we were not the party at which the firing had been
+concentrated; one by one our boys ventured to peep over in the direction
+of the flashes. The whizzing and groaning of the shells overhead was
+terrific, but they passed high. During the flashes, I looked over the open
+space in front of us. We were occupying a sort of high ground with slight
+mounds. To our right flank the country seemed more regular.
+
+So far none of us had been struck, and we prepared to dig in properly. We
+had hardly levelled out our parapet, when an infernal noise of machine-gun
+and rifle fire let loose on our right flank some hundreds of yards off.
+Some of our look-out sentries seemingly got a bit nervous and commenced
+firing too--at nothing. Then the whole line took it up. This racket kept
+up fully twenty minutes--and we had not seen as much as a shadow. Shortly
+after this, Major Murray, our acting Commanding Officer, came along the
+line and gave orders to strengthen our position as the Germans were
+expected to make a big charge along the whole front in the morning. I was
+then told to select a man from my company (_D_) and go out between the
+lines to secure all the information possible with regard to the distance
+of the German lines from ours. Particularly, I was instructed to locate
+the places where they could crawl up in our direction without being seen.
+
+There was no use asking for a volunteer for no sane person longed for this
+risky job, so I approached a strapping young fellow by the name of Lawson
+and accosted him with:
+
+"Lawson, coming with me?"
+
+"I'm with you," was his reply. Taking up his rifle, which had been leaning
+against the parapet, he added, as an afterthought: "But, whaur are ye
+bound fur?"
+
+"We're bound for the German lines, to get information," I answered. I
+added that he had better hand over his keepsakes to a chum--the keepsakes
+that he'd want his mother or his lass to receive--as we might not come
+back again.
+
+Dark as it was, I yet could see his chin fall and his face pale. With a
+very serious look and without another word he emptied his pockets. Very
+thoughtfully he took two packets of "Woodbine" cigarettes out of his
+haversack and handed them over to a chap sitting on the fire step with:
+"Here, Donald, ye ken what tae dae wi' these if Ah'm not back afore
+mor-r-nin'."
+
+We crawled out for about fifty yards, then, as there were little mounds in
+front of and behind us, we got up to our feet.
+
+We proceeded very cautiously, round the many little mounds, stumbling
+through shallow ditches, and crawling over the higher spots.
+
+"Y' seem tae hae th' heng o' thees," said Lawson, as he stumbled and
+crawled behind me. "Ah'll dae ma' best tae follow your lead. It's a braw
+new beesness tae me." [He was referring to my method of keeping to natural
+cover.]
+
+"I've been trained in scouting," I replied. "Just do as I do, and with
+anything like luck we'll come out all whole."
+
+Memory took me back to the days I had spent in scouting practice in India,
+under Major Bruce, the famous scoutmaster of the 2nd Battalion, Fifth
+Gurkhas--forty days, once, from Dunga-Gully up to the borders of Cashmere
+and back. Little did I think, in those days, that I'd ever find myself
+sneaking my way through the flats of Flanders, hiding from enemies in the
+air as well as on the earth.
+
+Now and again we heard a rifle shot--at times quite a distance away; then
+again, quite close. Often we'd hear the "swish" until at last, the bullet
+found its mark, with a "click."
+
+We must have been out for over two hours, before we neared the German
+position. At last we could hear an occasional mumbling of hushed voices,
+and make out the dim outline of wire entanglements. The German position
+seemed to be on a little plateau.
+
+While we were lying on our bellies, my partner could turn his face and
+look at me, but neither of us dared utter a word.
+
+Fifteen minutes seemed like a century. I was more used to it than my
+partner, but even at that I must admit that I was as nervous as a man that
+is about to have a death sentence pronounced on him. It is the feeling
+that possesses every man that patrols "No Man's Land."
+
+I motioned to Lawson, and we crawled away like worms that had been
+overlooked by a hungry crow. We reached our trenches quickly after getting
+into the broken ground; it was not until we had actually entered them that
+he opened his mouth. Then, approaching his friend, Donald, he demanded his
+fags. In a whisper, he triumphantly announced that we had been near enough
+to hear the Germans talking in their trenches.
+
+I went to our officer and reported.
+
+It was in the morning after "stand down," when our rum issue had been
+passed, that we learned what the racket had been the previous night. The
+Germans had tried a night attack on the King's Royal Rifles.
+
+The morning was cold and misty. It was easy to see that we were about six
+hundred yards from Fritz's trenches, and that his, like ours, were on
+slightly higher ground than that which lay between the lines. There was a
+farm house here and there, behind us.
+
+I could see a line of trenches on either flank but the one on the right
+was most easily perceptible. There was an open space at the end of our
+battalion line on the right flank, and our left flank was bent back
+slightly. We also learned that we had moved into this position without the
+Huns knowing that we were near. I could see the boche balloons some
+distance behind the enemy lines.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+It was still morning when it was reported by one of our look-out men, who
+had been scanning the boche lines with a pair of field glasses (only his
+head showing above the top of the trench made for observation purposes),
+that the Germans were walking about the tops of their trenches in a
+careless fashion.
+
+Naturally some of the last batch of men to join us wanted to have a pop at
+them, but our officers said no--to let sleeping dogs lie. Most of us
+peeped over and saw them. Doing so, my eye caught a large number that had
+concentrated behind a mound to our right front--directly in advance of the
+English troops that held a section of trenches on our right flank. I
+should judge that there were about a hundred of the enemy,--some holding
+up white handkerchiefs in the lead, and a mass of them a little distance
+behind. My heart was in my throat, and I wondered whether the K. R. R.'s
+were aware of their presence. I had heard stories of Germans with flags of
+truce. But so, evidently, had the commanders of the Rifles, for soon there
+was enacted before me a tragedy which I shall never forget.
+
+About one hundred of the Rifles went forward to bring in this batch of
+Germans who were advancing apparently to surrender. They advanced very
+slowly and cautiously. Just when they were within short range, the Germans
+in front, bearing white flags but no arms, threw themselves onto the
+ground, machine guns began firing over their heads and those with rifles
+began firing point blank into the ranks of the British.
+
+The K. R. R.'s were ready for them. They opened up like a fan, their
+machine guns and rifles began crashing and the Huns were thrown into
+confusion. They dropped like clay pipes in a shooting gallery. The crews
+of the boche machine guns were picked off by the riflemen, and the K. R.
+R.'s machine guns kept on pouring lead into the mass. It was dreadful! I
+saw piles of Huns, dead and wounded, the latter waving like a shock of
+hay with some one underneath it trying to get out. Their officers, in the
+rear, shot down man after man who tried to run. They drove them forward
+like bullocks to the slaughter, for many of the Germans were too confused
+to shoot and scores had thrown away their rifles. Suddenly the K. R. R.'s
+machine guns became silent. For a few seconds the rifle fire became faster
+and more furious. Then it stopped. Steel bayonets glinted as the K. R.
+R.'s charged. There was no mercy shown. There were no prisoners taken. Of
+the five thousand Germans, who had gone out to do murder in cold blood, I
+do not believe five hundred got away. They were practically annihilated.
+The bayonets finished the work that the machine guns and rifles had
+started. What would you have? Men would not spare a nest of venomous
+snakes. It was a just retribution, but my stomach turned at it. None who
+had not seen it could even picture the sight.
+
+For the next few days we had it "cushy," except for boche shrapnel
+showering our trenches at intervals, daily.
+
+The cold, however, had increased enough to cause much discomfort. It was
+always cold, and especially so when there was a fierce wind and the rain
+drenched us. It was the common thing for the men to be up to their knees
+in water and slush.
+
+We had been almost two weeks in this position when we noticed queer
+happenings in a farm house a few hundred yards behind our lines. The
+watchfulness of our officers revealed the significance of some apparently
+trifling things.
+
+In the daytime, the shade on a window facing the German line would
+frequently be moved. Sometimes it would be drawn the full length of the
+window; then, if the German artillery had been pounding away at our right
+flank, immediately it would switch in the direction of our batteries.
+Sometimes the shade would be only half way down. More than once I saw a
+woman at this same window; and sometimes she would be leading a cow about
+some distance behind our lines. At night a light would be seen now and
+again moving past the window.
+
+Agents of the British Intelligence Department, summoned to the front by
+our officers, discovered that a complete system of signalling was carried
+on between the people in the isolated farm house and the Germans. Three
+men and a woman were marched out of the house and taken away. After that,
+our concealed batteries, in new positions, hadn't a single casualty for
+days, whereas, previously, they had been almost constantly under heavy and
+accurate fire!
+
+During the few days following the "white flag" affair, when the boches'
+shelling was not quite so steady, we passed our time playing cards.
+Occasionally one of the fellows, who had split a piece of wood at one end,
+would insert a card in it and hold it over the parapet. Nine times out of
+ten a German sniper--there were many of them in the vicinity--would put a
+hole in it with a bullet.
+
+These snipers caused us a great deal of trouble, particularly when we
+wanted water, which was procurable only at a little brook on our left
+flank. To get it was such a risky proposition that there were no "detail
+parties" formed in the daytime, and any one who went in quest of it, did
+so at his own risk. Many a one who did so venture paid for his daring
+with his life. The snipers were always busy, even at night, and seemed to
+have a line on this spot.
+
+A few of the fellows, rather than risk going to the brook, filled their
+water bottles from a duck pond--full of a dirty, green, slimy
+liquid--situated behind our line. The result was sickness to most of those
+that drank it and nearly all had to be sent to hospital.
+
+Late one afternoon our section (thirteen men) was all together. Four of us
+were playing cards in an effort at distraction, for we were nearly insane
+from the lack of drinking water. For two days we had had to eat our bully
+beef and biscuits dry. We made it up that we should play a game of "phat"
+(a common card game among the Tommies), and that the one with the lowest
+count would have to take the section's water bottles and fill them at the
+brook. This--to use a Yankee expression--was a "cinch" for me, or at least
+I thought so at the beginning of the game; and so did the others, who,
+because of my record as a winner at the game were of the opinion that I
+couldn't lose.
+
+However, toward the middle of the game I became nervous. So far I had
+taken only two tricks. Things got worse as the playing progressed, and it
+wound up with me the loser.
+
+Without a word, they collected the thirteen bottles and hung them on my
+left shoulder like decorations on a Christmas tree.
+
+Silently I made off. I reached the brook without mishap.
+
+I had almost half of the bottles filled when--zip--a bullet struck very
+close to me. I tumbled into the water, pulling the bottles with me, and,
+in a lying position, continued filling them. This was not what one might
+call a comfortable or a convenient position in which to fill water
+bottles. They filled very slowly indeed.
+
+As soon as they were full, I placed them on my shoulders; rose, dripping,
+from the water; and made for our line. I had not gone more than twenty
+paces when a bullet struck close at my heels. I jumped and looked upward,
+hoping to fool the sniper into thinking he was firing too high, causing
+him to set his sight for a shorter range. The next shot fell shorter
+still. I looked up again and hastened my pace. A third shot visibly
+struck a rock and enabled the sniper to correct his range.
+
+Almost immediately after came another bullet, which I knew had got
+something about me. Instantly I flopped down and lay still. There was more
+scattered firing from the German lines and I was trembling with "nerves."
+
+At last, I could not stand it longer. I was afraid the sniper would fire
+at me again--not an uncommon practice with the boche sniper, who, when he
+drops his man, usually sends over a make-sure shot. So I sprang to my feet
+and rushed for the trenches, arriving there in safety.
+
+When I got into our section I found my pals sitting around and looking
+very gloomy. Upon seeing me they greeted me with:
+
+"Ye've been a h---- o' a time awa'. We were juist beginnin' tae think we'd
+lost our watter bottles."
+
+When I unloaded my cargo I found that two of the bottles had been pierced
+by a bullet. Each man of the section made a thirsty effort to lay hands on
+his own bottle. I was left with the two damaged ones besides my own. Then
+they told me how a shell had exploded and killed two of the card
+players--the owners of the damaged bottles. The water that was left in
+these was distributed among the others.
+
+Patrol work, mostly at night, continued to be my chief duty. On one
+occasion I lost my bearings, and presently found myself almost upon one of
+the boche listening posts.
+
+"So long as I have come thus far, I will edge in and take a chance," I
+said to myself.
+
+I knew it would be almost as dangerous to go back as to go forward, for at
+any moment a man might crane his neck above the parapet, see me moving,
+and fire. Then there was the momentary chance that a star bomb would light
+the heavens and all the earth between the lines, in which case a thousand
+rifles would begin sputtering at everything that moved or seemed to be
+alive. Each second I expected it to come. My nerves felt as if they were
+drawn taut--taut as the barbed wire which the boches string so tight that
+if it is cut in the night it will twang like the string of a violin. But
+the quick shot in the night did not come, and I wriggled forward through
+the wire.
+
+I was almost at the edge of the parapet of the listening post. I heard
+voices whispering in German. Some one was scrambling up over the parapet.
+How was I to get away? I could not, so I lay on my belly and buried my
+face in the earth--the earth which should be wholesome and life giving,
+but which stunk with unspeakable things.
+
+Three heads appeared above the parapet. Shoulders followed, and cautiously
+a patrol of three men wriggled out from the listening post and then
+separated. One of them, in getting out, slipped, and I could hear him
+"strafing" under his breath, as he vanished into the night. Another head
+thrust itself above the parapet. I was sure a pair of eyes were staring at
+me, though I could not see them in the dark.
+
+Once more I lay as if dead. "What's the difference?" I thought; in a few
+moments, probably, I would be, and then I should not mind the sight or the
+odour of what was around me.
+
+The man in the listening post reached down for something at his feet. I
+was sure that he was going to hurl a grenade in my direction. Something
+came hurtling through the air. I sunk my teeth into my lip to keep from
+crying out, and wondered how the explosion would feel--whether there was
+any anguish in being torn to bits instantaneously. The dark object plumped
+onto the ground at my side and bumped against my ribs. How long it took
+for it to explode! Then I knew it was only a stone. I continued to lie as
+still as one dead.
+
+Another stone struck my shoulders. The sentry did not wish to rouse the
+whole line and start a wastage of ammunition by causing a thousand rounds
+or so to be fired uselessly into the night, as would probably be the case
+should he discharge his rifle or throw a grenade. He crawled up over the
+parapet and wriggled toward me. I tried to prepare myself to spring up
+when the time came, but I dared not so much as move a foot to get a better
+grip on the ground. He himself did not dare to rise. He knew that his
+silhouette would draw fire from the trenches. It would be like a battle
+between snakes, both of us on the ground there, fighting each other on our
+bellies.
+
+I saw the dull gleam of his bayonet. Still I did not dare to let him know
+I was alive. He was only inches from me. I could hear his deep breathing.
+He was not sure whether or not I was a corpse, but he was going to take no
+chances. He lunged with the steel. I managed to jam the butt of my rifle
+against his head. It disconcerted him, but there was not enough force
+behind the blow, struck from my awkward position, to stun him. He rolled
+upon me. I felt for his throat. He was a big, greasy boche and my fingers
+could scarcely encircle his neck, but I squeezed and squeezed, for my life
+depended upon my eight fingers and my two thumbs. If I did not throttle
+him, he would kill me.
+
+He was getting weaker. I felt his muscles relax. I could see his eyes. I
+do not think I shall ever forget them. They bulged from their sockets and
+it seemed that they would pop from his head and strike me in the face. It
+sickened me, but it was his life or mine. He was clawing frantically but
+weakly. Now he was still. It was brutal, but war is brutal.
+
+After emptying his pockets I crawled to the edge of the dugout listening
+post. Inside were three men, two lying in the bottom of the hole, the
+third sitting with his back against the wall of the excavation. The boche
+I had just left probably had disobeyed orders in crawling out without
+awakening one of them. The error cost him his life and saved mine.
+
+For a second as I peered over the edge of the hole I had thoughts of a
+daring deed, but it was better to get back to our lines with the contents
+of the first man's pockets, which no doubt afforded information for our
+staff, and so I returned--battered and torn and exhausted.
+
+After this, in recognition of my work as a scout, I was offered the rank
+of a non-commissioned officer, but I did not wish it. They were picking
+off the non-coms too fast to suit me, and there was danger enough in the
+work I was doing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+After spending a few more days in this last, very warm position, we moved
+to billets a little way off behind our left flank, and we certainly needed
+the rest. There was no indication that these billets had been used before
+by our troops. Jock Hunter and I were assigned to a barn, and you may be
+sure I was delighted at the prospect of literally "hitting the hay" as the
+Americans say.
+
+As there were chickens running around, even over every part of the
+thatched house, Jock and I went in search of eggs, for oh! how we longed
+for a change of diet! For weeks it had been bully beef and biscuits, and
+then biscuits and bully beef. In our search, we climbed up the ladder to
+the attic, which we found to be very spacious, with heaps of straw on the
+floor here and there. The walls of the structure, I should judge, were
+about four feet thick, and there was a space that wide where the parapet
+of the wall and thatching came near together.
+
+On reaching the attic we could hear the voices of our fellows in the farm
+yard below. The noise came through the opening between the parapet and
+thatching which was supported by beams. The aperture must have been about
+a foot in height. Approaching this--with the intention of playing a trick
+on the boys by throwing a piece of stone from the top of the wall--I
+noticed, dangling over the edge, a black leather strap. Carelessly I gave
+it a sharp tug, when out came a "Colt," the handle of which I instantly
+caught. I scarcely had it in my hands when a man's head popped up and I
+found myself facing a German soldier. He started to reach to his side but
+I had him covered. I do not know whether he or I was the more greatly
+surprised.
+
+"Hands up, ye swine!" I shouted, holding him cowed with his own revolver,
+although I was entirely ignorant of its mechanism, and did not even know
+how to release the safety catch.
+
+He slid out of the recess under the thatch which he had been occupying
+and stood on the floor. With his hands up, he kept muttering:
+
+"Mercy! _Kamerad! Kamerad!_"
+
+Jock seemed stunned at this sudden and unthought of "find."
+
+I asked him to tie the boche's hands, which he did with his rifle
+pull-through, and we marched him down to the officers' quarters. The
+officers were just preparing to eat, and were astounded at the sudden
+appearance of the boche in the doorway, as we made him walk in first. We
+left the prisoner and his Colt with the officers. Then we returned to
+search the loft.
+
+In the deep recess over the wall we found a French rifle, a British rifle,
+several days' rations, ammunition, and a warm blanket--which Jock and I
+snuggled under that night. It was a sniper's post and afforded an
+excellent view of part of our lines, especially the spot at the brook
+where so many of our boys "went West" in the act of getting water, and
+where I had had a narrow escape.
+
+The next morning, after reveille, a corporal and three men who had done
+guard over the sniper got orders to take him to a given place, which was
+about three miles behind our lines. Also they were ordered to report back
+within "fifteen minutes from starting time."
+
+We were promised a few days' rest here, but the following day, toward
+nightfall, we were shelled out of the place by the boches' heavy
+artillery, the "coal boxes" landing all around the place. We had scarcely
+time to get out of it. Luckily enough, no one "clicked." We then moved to
+trenches near La Bassee. Here also was a great number of troops
+concentrating.
+
+We had heard that our native troops from India were to hold part of the
+lines near us. Also we had been told of the great work the Canadians had
+done recently around this section, and we were looked upon to do the same.
+It was now December, and the sleet and rain poured on us for the first few
+days without cessation.
+
+In the trenches here, in some parts we were knee deep in slush, and this
+had a very dispiriting effect. It, together with the continuous downpour
+of rain and sleet and Fritz's shelling--which never ceased--reduced us to
+a state of positive misery. We fared badly enough, but we wondered how the
+native troops (who were now on our left flank), used to a warm climate,
+could stand it.
+
+We got more tinned rations and in greater variety, here, than I can
+remember ever having before. There was "Maconochie"--a soup with
+directions to boil fifteen minutes before opening the tin;--which, of
+course, was merely satirical. The "Maconochie" was never warmed until it
+had reached our stomachs. However, it proved a very acceptable change from
+our "bully beef." That is, it did when it came. It didn't come often. We
+also had tins of _muckin_ (butter) which Tommy says is a very good
+quality.
+
+Another tinned product, but not a ration, reached us here. It was the
+famous jam-tin hand grenade which came into use at about that time.
+
+Preparations were now in progress for an attack of greater magnitude than
+any we had yet taken part in. With a number of other scouts, I was sent
+out to examine the terrain over which our men would advance. The party
+was discovered by German snipers, and we ran back to our lines as fast as
+we could go. A piece of a ricochet shot struck my left ankle, but only
+slightly injured it on account of my heavy spats and leather shoes, so
+that by having a tight bandage applied at once I was able to take part in
+the attack.
+
+Hitherto most of our engagements had been more or less surprise
+affairs--that is, we would get word of the enemy just about in time to be
+ready for him when the actual charge came. This time it was different. We
+had been told what time we would go over at them. We had to sit around and
+wait. Some of the men were carefully cleaning their rifles. Others ran
+their thumbs along the edges of their bayonets. Many were writing letters.
+But almost every face that I could see was pale. The greater part of them
+were nervously puffing away at fags, very often unlit.
+
+Here and there a man would glance at his watch--furtively, as if afraid it
+would be thought that he was hoping the time had not yet come. Others were
+swearing softly and grumbling because they could not charge at once.
+
+Occasionally a man would joke or tell a funny story. Those who heard him
+either looked as if they hadn't heard or laughed rather thinly. It is one
+thing to go at them with steel and rifle, but quite another to sit around
+and wait for the short blast of the whistle which sends you out to kill or
+to be killed.
+
+Our artillery was pouring shells and shrapnel upon the Huns and their guns
+were replying. The combat wagons with the ammunition and the wagons with
+the rations had to reach us through a curtain of fire. One hundred extra
+cartridges were distributed to every man, also extra tins of "bully." I
+was on my way to regimental headquarters with a message, when a shell
+squarely struck a transport wagon. It was obliterated. Men were torn into
+shreds. I saw the whole fore-quarters of a horse blown high into a tree
+and caught there in a crotch. The stretcher bearers picked up some of the
+men. Some they could not even find. I was soon back again in the firing
+trench. We had gouged out little footholds to help us over the top.
+
+At last it came--the little shrill metallic blast we had been waiting for.
+It could be heard distinctly above the roar of the artillery. The blood
+surged back into the faces of the pale men. We were fighting now. It was
+different from the waiting and thinking--the thinking of what we may be
+leaving behind us for always.
+
+I was the first man out of the trench--not that I was brave, but because I
+had already learned that it was the last man up and the last man down who
+usually are shot. I sped ahead of all the platoon; for in that lay safety.
+
+It is a fact that men in trenches will fire at the mass in rear rather
+than stop to aim at a single runner out ahead. Each man seems to feel that
+he is sure to hit someone if he fires into the mass and that another will
+pick off the leader.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We were back again in our own trenches. What had happened in the charge I
+did not know. I can honestly state that my mind is a blank for the period
+of time which elapsed after I ran the first fifty yards toward the
+boches.
+
+I was sitting on the fire-step. We had taken their trenches and had been
+recalled after our troops from the rear had gone forward to prepare the
+captured position against the counter attack which would surely come.
+
+My chum, Jock Hunter, was sitting near me.
+
+"Blow 'Coffee up,'" he said to me, laughing. I thought he had lost his
+senses. I stared at him blankly.
+
+"Blow 'Coffee up,'" he repeated, pointing to my side.
+
+I glanced down at my hip. There was a battered bugle hanging from a cord
+over my shoulder. I was more bewildered than ever, but I unslung the
+instrument and we examined it. It was a bugle of the Potsdam Guards and
+there were thirteen bullet holes in it.
+
+Jock would not believe that I did not know how I came by the thing, and
+you may find it difficult, too, to accept my statement, but it is a fact.
+I do not know how I got it. The period of the charge is a slice of my life
+which is completely gone from my memory. I do not know what sights I saw
+nor what sounds I heard.
+
+On our first Sunday in this position, the German artillery became quiet
+about ten o'clock, and, about half an hour later, we heard strains of
+music from beyond the slightly risen ground on Fritz's lines. They were
+holding a Sunday service. But as soon as it was over, we were greeted with
+a couple of hundred shells from their artillery, so we came to the
+conclusion that the sermon must have been rotten.
+
+The weather conditions here were so bad that a number of our fellows were
+sent to the base hospital with frost-bite, or what is known now as "trench
+feet." They suffered excruciating pain. I saw one fellow who had to have
+his shoe cut off; the foot swelled up instantly to very great size and was
+almost entirely black.
+
+As a supposed protection against the conditions which had caused so many
+cases of "trench feet" some bureau expert over in England had a supply of
+rubber boots forwarded to us. I have seen many things which were useless
+supplied to soldiers but never anything to equal these boots. They were so
+loose and clumsy that they materially interfered with the action of
+walking and they were just of a height to be entirely submerged in the
+trench mud, leaving the wearer with an individual and separate bucketful
+of the stuff to lift with each foot. I heard many a pair wished on the
+Kaiser's feet. Big ladles with long handles also were distributed among us
+to be used in scraping out the water from the trenches, and each of us
+took our turn in acting as "chef," that is, ladling the water out behind
+the trench wall. Occasionally where a fellow, slow in throwing it over,
+would hold the ladle up a few seconds too long--ping!--a bullet would go
+through it. If we wanted to sit down the only thing we could do was to
+place our packs and equipment on the fire-step and sit on them.
+
+Our position was somewhat lower than that of the Germans, as they occupied
+a sort of ridge. For days and nights at a time we did nothing but wait,
+with an occasional raiding party or artillery encounter, with now and
+again a heavy bombardment, to break the tedium.
+
+We were sitting around in the mud one day when, all of a sudden, a heavy
+rifle and machine-gun fire swept along our trench. Then we heard a dull
+muffled roar as if some tremendous weight, padded heavily with bales of
+cotton, had fallen a great height. That is the only way I can describe the
+sound. Instantly, I wondered what had happened. I do not suppose it was a
+second later before I knew, but it seemed as if it were a full minute. The
+earth seemed to rock. There was a swashing, hissing noise. Mud, water, and
+stones poured down all around us. Muddy water cascaded into our trench.
+Clambering out of it and through a storm of bullets, we made for our
+reserve trench. Many of our men fell in the act of fleeing for shelter.
+This was the result of the Germans having dammed up their own trench which
+was filled with water, and dug tunnels in our direction as far as they
+possibly could without our being aware of it. They opened the dams just
+after commencing the firing. Their intention was to catch with the fire
+those that escaped drowning, and thus annihilate us, so that they could
+break through our lines at this point. No doubt it was a clever ruse,
+but--it did not work.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+Our regiment was now shifted from the position where the Germans had tried
+to drown us out to another section near a place which we afterwards
+christened "The Glory Hole." The German lines and ours were very near to
+each other here. On the night of our arrival we could hear the Huns
+talking, and after we had settled ourselves in our trenches, we could hear
+them now and again whistling "Highland Laddie." It was evident that they
+knew who we were, as that is the tune to which we "march past."
+
+I was now initiated into the use of the hand grenades. The kind we got
+were later termed the "hair-brush." Now and again, the Germans would take
+a mad turn and lob a few of their grenades over at us, and in turn, we
+returned the compliment. This form of fighting was then in its infancy,
+and we nearly all had our own ways of doing it. I used to tie two or three
+of the bomb handles together with a rope; get hold of the end of it,
+which was knotted; and, in the same way as an American athlete throws the
+hammer, I would swing the bombs over my head and let go in the direction
+of Fritz. In this way I could accomplish a few yards more than anyone who
+threw in the ordinary way. Sandbags were piled about three feet high on
+top of the parapet with loopholes through which we fired our rifles. When
+I wanted to throw the grenades in the fashion I have just described, I
+would go to the more level ground at the back, throw them, and jump back
+into the trench where I always had ample room, as the others, with varying
+criticisms of my enterprise, gladly cleared the way before I started
+operations. They fully expected me at some time to make a mistake and land
+the grenades among them instead of in the boches' trench.
+
+As we did not have one common system of throwing these grenades, a few of
+the non-coms and men were selected to practise--a little way behind the
+lines--the proper method. Our Acting-Colonel, J. T. C. Murray, and three
+men were killed when a lance-corporal, in swinging a grenade,
+accidentally struck the ground with it, causing it to explode.
+
+At times we were treated to some lyddite shells by the boches (at least we
+believed them to be lyddite, though I have since learned that they were
+gas shells). I was never caught in the fumes myself, but I saw many men
+who had been. This particular gas simply snuffed the life out of the men
+without their even knowing what had happened. As they lost consciousness,
+they turned a yellow-brown colour, and never made any attempt to
+stir--just went to sleep and did not awaken--while those who got just a
+slight touch of it, would stagger about, as if deeply intoxicated.
+
+Volunteers were asked, one day, to go to a V-shaped sector where the
+British and the German lines were so close that grenades could be easily
+thrown from one trench to another--and they were! Thinking that it would
+be an easier job than what I had been doing, I gave in my name. I think
+nearly half of my company volunteered, but I was among the first eighteen
+to be picked. We were armed with grenades enough to do an hour's bombing.
+Two of the men were detailed to keep renewing the sandbags as they were
+torn down by the boches' constant bombing. The German grenades, set with a
+time fuse, exploded a few seconds after leaving the thrower's hand. The
+boches were evidently nervous about these grenades, for they almost
+invariably cut the time fuse too long or threw the bomb too soon after
+cutting it, so that our men frequently caught the unexploded grenades and
+hurled them back at the Germans.
+
+The first two to go "west" when our volunteer party got into action were
+the sandbag men, and at the end of that hour there were only four of us
+left to come out of that Hell, ten being killed and four badly wounded.
+After our turn, volunteers were entirely out of the question, so each
+section had to take an hour at it. The trench point where the bombing
+occurred was called the "Glory Hole," and it was well named.
+
+Upon getting back to the trench, I swore off "bombing," and decided that I
+would stick to scouting, although almost all the old scouts had been
+killed. Why I was not, is still a mystery to me. After a few days at the
+"Glory Hole" we were sent to the rear to billets.
+
+You will remember that there were thirteen bullet holes in the Potsdam
+bugle which I brought back from the charge on the German trenches near La
+Bassee. How many of them were made after the bugle came into my possession
+and was put in my pack, I do not know, but, at any rate, I believe that
+thirteen is my lucky number. This is the reason: After a short rest in
+billets, we were returned to a portion of the trench near a part we had
+occupied before. The regiment had been recruited up to full strength
+again, and I can tell you that there were very few of the original Black
+Watch left. In fact, the personnel that we now had was almost a third
+regiment. In order to reach the high broken ground to our right, where
+there was a great deal of patrolling and scouting to be done, it was
+necessary to cross an absolutely exposed strip of ground about thirty
+yards long. So many men had been killed here that we called it "crossing
+the bar" when we had to traverse this neck of land. You must remember, we
+did not have a decent air fleet in those days and infantry patrolling and
+scouting were much more important than they are to-day. From the high
+ground to the right, much information of the movements of German troops
+could be gained. Whenever they saw even a single man "crossing the bar,"
+the Huns would let loose a salvo of artillery fire.
+
+I usually waited until it was dark enough to see the flashes of their guns
+before crossing this strip, and whenever I saw the first flash I would
+sprint a few paces toward it and then flop down. The Germans had the range
+exactly. By sprinting, I stood a good chance of getting in ahead of the
+burst, and as shrapnel carried forward, the ruse worked nicely. In order
+to show a party of the new scouts the way across the bar, I was sent out
+with twelve of them, _thus making a party of thirteen_. Before we started
+I drew a rough sketch for them and told them, as exactly as I could, just
+what to do when we were fired upon. That we would be fired upon was a
+certainty.
+
+About the centre of this open strip was the dried bed of a stream between
+deeply worn banks and this afforded the only protection on the way across.
+When the light was just right, we moved out to the edge of the bar. I gave
+my men a few last instructions. It was time to go. I took one last look
+across the ground which was literally covered with shell splinters and
+deeply furrowed.
+
+"Rush!" I yelled. We went forward in a thin line.
+
+I saw the expected flash of the guns.
+
+"Straight toward them!" I shouted; and we all ran madly in the direction
+from which the shells were coming.
+
+"Down!" I roared with every bit of voice that was in me, at the same time
+flopping down flat on my face.
+
+There was a terrific crash! It seemed all around me. I could not tell
+whether it was in front or behind. I was surprised that I was not hurt. I
+heard groaning behind me. One of my men was wounded. There was not another
+sound. I thought the others must have kept on running despite my
+instructions, and were now in the little bed of the stream waiting for
+me. I dared not move. I had to lie as one dead or the guns would have
+begun crashing again and they would get me and the wounded man behind me.
+Flare rockets illumined the sky. I prayed that the man who was hurt would
+lie still. If he hadn't done so it would have been all over with both of
+us.
+
+Half an hour I lay there in the mud until the rockets were no longer going
+up and I thought it safe to move. I crept a few feet over the ground. My
+hands were upon the body of a man, but he was not groaning. Yet the
+groaning continued from nearby. I realized that one of my men had been
+killed. I crept farther in the direction of the groaning. I bumped into a
+huddled mass. It was another body.
+
+Still I groped around. I had found three now. At last I reached the man
+who was hurt. He wasn't moving, only groaning. I thought that there were
+others of the little party who needed help. In the darkness I wriggled
+here and there. I found another body. That made four. Then
+five--six--seven--and so on till I found eleven. There were only two of
+us left--the wounded man and myself!
+
+I stood up despairing and like one lost. I almost wished that I had been
+one of the eleven who had "crossed the bar" once for all. I got the
+wounded man onto my shoulder in the style which is known as "the fireman's
+carry," and started back with him, walking erect. I had forgotten the
+danger of shells. Luckily it was inky dark and I was not seen.
+
+I staggered against a part of our barbed wire entanglements. I called for
+help. Four men crawled over the parapet to meet me. They dragged the
+wounded man to the edge of the parapet. He was still groaning faintly
+though he lay as one dead. As we lifted him over the edge of the trench,
+the groaning ceased. He was dead! _I alone of the thirteen had come back
+alive!_
+
+While we were laying out the corpse, we heard the look-out sentry halting
+some one. I jumped onto the fire-step and plainly saw a figure
+straightening up on our side of the barbed wire, with his hands over his
+head, coming right forward. He dropped into our trench, of course with the
+sentry holding his bayonet pointed at him. It was plain to be seen that
+the young German was giving himself up, no doubt being sick of the
+fighting. He made a motion as if to put his hand inside his coat, but the
+man with the bayonet was taking no chances and made a lunge at him, which
+greatly frightened the lad. So he made us understand as well as he might,
+still holding his hands aloft, that he had something in his pocket he
+wanted to show us. The sergeant stepped over and took out the contents of
+the pocket. He did not have any firearms at all. Among the few things in
+his pocket was a worn plain envelope, and at this he pointed. Inside was a
+sheet of paper and on it was written in good English:
+
+"English soldiers, please be kind to my boy."
+
+The sergeant asked me to take the boy back to the officers' quarters with
+him, as I had yet to report my sad experience in "Crossing the Bar." The
+case of the boy prisoner proved an extraordinary one. An officer of the
+engineers attached to the Black Watch, who could speak German, questioned
+him. The boy had not the least idea what the fighting was about. He told
+the officer that his mother had given him the letter as she felt sure that
+the English would be kind to him. She had told him that he should give
+himself up at the first opportunity. He was her only son.
+
+We learned from him of preparations for an attack by the Germans at dawn,
+which corroborated the information our staff already had. He was treated
+very kindly. He seemed very much taken aback at the kind treatment
+accorded him, and asked if it was the custom of the English to treat
+prisoners kindly before torturing and putting them to death. Upon hearing
+this, the officer he was speaking to laughed uproariously for fully a
+minute, and the others wanted to know the joke. He told them and some
+joined in the laugh. The officer patted the boy on the back; gave him his
+letter, telling him at the same time to treasure it; and said that he
+would no doubt meet his mother again.
+
+The boy fell upon his knees and tried to kiss the officer's hand, sobbing
+like a child. But the officer nearly turned a backward somersault, getting
+away from the hand kissing, and swore as if he would eat the lad up.
+
+Sure enough, the next morning the attack came off, but we were prepared
+for it. Just at "stand to" before dawn, our artillery opened fire and kept
+pounding at them until about eight o'clock; the enemy replying very
+vigorously. They attempted to get over their parapet, but gave it up until
+about noon. They tried it again. Our artillery opened up on them, and some
+forces along our line charged the Germans.
+
+The Black Watch had supports up and were to make a charge at two o'clock
+that day, but the sleet came on with an awful wind, and this prevented it.
+Instead, the regiment in support came up and took our place in the
+trenches. We moved along some distance to the right flank. The sleet and
+rain continued, also the wind. We were cold, miserable, and grousing in
+good style because we found we had to take another part of the trench,
+instead of going, as we thought, to billets. However, we got an extra
+issue of rum.
+
+This place was pitted with big shell holes. It looked extremely weird.
+One _sigarree_ (fire box with charcoal) was issued to a company, and we
+would take our turn in getting warmed up from it. This lasted only a few
+days, for very soon the Germans sighted the smoke, which drew their shell
+fire, and so we were glad to abandon the _sigarrees_ and suffer the cold.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN
+
+
+We were by no means well acquainted with our new position, and one night
+shortly after our arrival, two of the men who had been sent out to
+reconnoitre, were captured by the enemy, who let them go, however, after
+stripping them to the skin.
+
+When they returned they had big bayonet wounds in their hips, and were
+suffering greatly both from the wounds and exposure. You can imagine our
+feelings at such wanton cruelty.
+
+Previous to this for some time I hadn't been given any scouting duty and
+had been resting, but a few nights after this occurrence, shortly after
+dusk, I was sent to a listening post, which was situated to the right
+front of our open flank. The ground was very broken and the temperature
+was touching on the zero mark. Before starting out, we had just got our
+night issue of rum. A lance-corporal accompanied me, and after lots of
+manoeuvring and stumbling through shell holes half filled with slush, we
+arrived at the place where I had to listen for movements of German
+artillery, transports, troops, etc.
+
+We crawled to the edge of the bank, which overlooked a creek or canal. We
+knew the German lines were just across that short space. The
+lance-corporal said he would see that some one should be sent to relieve
+me in half an hour; then he departed. He had not gone more than a hundred
+paces, I should judge, when the German artillery let loose. It seemed as
+if a thousand hells had erupted. I was dumbfounded. I wiggled backward on
+my stomach, until I slid into a shell hole full of water and mud. I did
+not mind the cold; it helped to brace me--to realize fully the situation
+in which I was placed. The shell fire was lighting up the heavens;
+splinters, slugs, and bullets filled the air.
+
+I began saying my prayers. (I thought this would be my last listening duty
+on earth.) I crouched as low as the slush in the hole would allow me. Even
+while in this position, bullets and shrapnel embedded themselves so near
+me that, had I lifted my head, I should have been plugged instantly.
+
+The hellish bombardment seemed unceasing. I was cramped and numb. How long
+the firing lasted I do not know. At last, however, I became conscious that
+the clouds were clearing away and I discerned a pale moon. I tried to drag
+myself out of the freezing slush, but couldn't. All the power in my body
+seemed gone. The shelling had ceased and there was a dead silence. I knew
+I was freezing to death. I once even tried to place the muzzle of my rifle
+under my chin and blow my head off, but I was unable to feel for the
+rifle. My hands had lost sense of touch. My lower limbs were insensible. I
+gave up all hopes of help or of ever leaving the shell hole--alive.
+
+What seemed a long time after I had deemed myself lost I heard some one in
+the vicinity. I wasn't able to lift my head. I tried to speak. I was as
+one dead, with the exception of my brain.
+
+The next thing I knew something was being poured down my throat. Some one
+was attending to me but I was unconcerned. I wanted only to die. If I
+could but have spoken, I would have begged the men who were attending me
+to put me out of my agony. After a while, I recognized them as our men.
+They were rubbing and slapping my body for all they were worth. Now and
+again one of them put his water bottle to my mouth. At first I could not
+make out what he was trying to pour down my throat, but at last I
+recognized it as rum. I forced myself to drink it. Then they rubbed my
+abdomen and legs with some of it as briskly as they could. One of them
+exchanged his kilt for mine; then they both wrapped their greatcoats
+around me, and, between them, managed to carry me back to the trenches--to
+safety.
+
+The jolting on the way back started my blood circulating. It is beyond me
+to explain exactly the feeling. My stomach began aching as if it contained
+boiling lead; then a feeling as if a million electrically charged wires
+had commenced to burn in the lower part of my abdomen and down to my lower
+limbs. I had the desire to shout out loud; whether or not I did, to this
+day I cannot tell. I must have gone completely insane with the pain for a
+while, for later I found myself struggling with a group of men, and they
+were urging me to keep quiet. They poured lots of rum into me, and I began
+to feel much better; in fact, more like myself, except that my legs and
+feet were like lumps of lead.
+
+During this time--since my rescue from the shell hole--the Germans had
+made a charge and were repulsed. The Black Watch had taken a line of their
+trench and were holding it. Two men had been sent out to find what had
+happened to the lance-corporal and myself, as the company commander had
+been expecting our report. They found the lance-corporal, riddled with
+bullets, not far from where he had left me. When they came across me I had
+done an eight hours' stretch of duty.
+
+I stayed in the reserve trench until we went to billets, a couple of days
+after this. We were looking forward to spending Christmas in billets, but
+were disappointed.
+
+We had hardly been "cushy" three days, when we were sent to hold a
+position on the left flank of an English battalion of what we believed to
+be the Sussex Regiment. It was just two days before Christmas when we took
+up this position.
+
+It was much quieter here. Snow had fallen during the night, giving the
+ground a sort of peaceful appearance, except for a few dark patches where
+some "Jack Johnsons" or "Black Marias" had landed toward dawn. (It was
+Christmas Day.) Just after "stand down," our mail was issued. It consisted
+mostly of parcels. Our part of the trench was very fortunate. Every man
+had at least two letters and as many parcels. I received three in the same
+handwriting and a two-pound box of chocolate almonds. Parcels containing
+socks, mittens, scarfs, etc., were pounced upon by all hands, as these
+articles were very much needed at this time. Next in importance came the
+cigarettes, of which we received a goodly supply.
+
+I need hardly say that we all tasted one another's luxuries--shortbread,
+chocolates, and currant cakes (which had to be eaten mostly with a spoon
+because of the rough handling they had had)--and we exchanged confidences
+about our letters whether they were from Miss Campbell, Mrs. Low, or
+Uncle Sandy.
+
+Every Tommy, every Jock, learns to know and to love his trench mate as a
+brother. The men in the "ditches" feel as if they all belonged to the one
+mother, sharing each other's confidences, both pleasant and sad. There is
+no selfishness--not even a thought of it--"over there."
+
+We were all sitting round the fire-steps of our trenches, thinking, ever
+thinking, and wondering how many of us would live to see the same sun rise
+on another Christmas Day. The sun was red. It appeared to be
+dripping-red--with blood, when a slight commotion started up along to the
+right. I grasped my rifle and at the same time looked round the little
+traverse. I saw a few chaps with their heads over the parapet--which
+seemed unwise and extremely dangerous. I thought we had been surprised by
+the Huns, and took a glance in the direction of their trenches, which
+looked as quiet as our own. But I could see thin lines of smoke rising up
+at irregular intervals from the fires they had built. Almost at the same
+instant my eye caught sight of a figure some six hundred yards to our
+right proceeding in the direction of the boches' trenches; and, to crown
+all, he was a British Tommy!
+
+I thought the man must have gone out of his mind, and when I looked at
+where he came from, it seemed as if the whole regiment was viewing the
+daring proceedings of this solitary individual "between the lines." At
+that part the trenches were much nearer than at ours. They seemed there
+about two hundred yards apart, while ours were about five hundred yards
+distant from Fritz.
+
+I saw the solitary Tommy walk right on to within a few yards of the German
+entanglements and pause a minute; then a boche's head could be seen. At
+this, Tommy picked his way over the entanglements very cautiously.
+
+My heart was in my mouth! I could scarcely keep from shouting when he
+reached the edge of the enemy parapet and--disappeared!
+
+By this time our regiment was practically all on the fire-step,
+breathlessly watching and ready for what might happen after the
+disappearance of this "madcap."
+
+Five minutes more elapsed. Then a head bobbed up at the same spot we had
+been watching, and out of the trench came--the selfsame Tommy. He was
+carrying something in his hand. My eyes kept steady on him until he
+reached his own parapet, where he stood a moment flourishing this article;
+then, clasping it to him as if prizing it, he got down into the trench.
+While he had stood there for a moment, his fellow trench-mates threw out
+their arms to take his precious bundle from him, but as I say, he seemed
+to hold tightly on to it. When I looked back at the place he had just
+left, the Germans were waving their helmets, with heads above the parapet.
+It was Christmas all right! and we certainly got a Santa Claus surprise in
+watching these unusual proceedings.
+
+They were getting bolder on both sides at this part of the line, and a few
+men began walking on their parapets, finally coming closer and then
+meeting men from the enemy trench. Then followed a football match with
+regimental shirts tied up. To see those Tommies charging with their
+shoulders and explaining the game to the Germans, who were not so well
+acquainted with it, was a Christmas festival in itself that will never be
+forgotten by those who witnessed it.
+
+[We found out afterward that "Spud" Smith--who had just received a lovely
+"currant bun" from home and was overjoyed with it--was jumping round and
+making so much noise about it, that the fellows dared him to take it over
+to the Germans and wish them "A Merry Christmas." He at once threw off his
+equipment and made toward them, where he received his Christmas present in
+the form of a bottle of "schnapps." "Spud" Smith was the madcap of his
+regiment.]
+
+A few minutes after midnight, we were brought back to war again by the
+Germans shelling us all along the line.
+
+Everything was tolerably quiet, with the exception of an occasional
+shelling from either side, until New Year's Eve, when an infernal row got
+up and on New Year's Day we had about one hundred and thirty casualties.
+The shelling grew worse, and we discovered that the Saxons had been
+relieved by the Prussians. Twice they charged us in mass formation, and we
+were forced to retire to our second-line trenches. It was their idea and
+intention to break through our lines to get to Calais in time for the
+Kaiser's birthday. This was the beginning of their big drive. Although we
+got a severe cutting up, we managed to hold all the ground we had, despite
+their mass formation, which is a stern and dreadful thing to face.
+
+One morning, about the middle of January, the coal boxes, Jack Johnsons
+and Black Marias were just simply shaking the earth. The German airplanes
+had been very active these last few days, and it seemed they were giving
+their heavy artillery the proper range on our lines. The Jack Johnsons
+were landing to the right of our regiment and were gradually working their
+way up toward us. We could see them tearing up parts of the
+trenches--smashing up men, whose limbs were sent flying up through the
+air. The sight was really too frightful to recall.
+
+Orders were given that the Black Watch should stand to its post and that
+no man was to retire. But as the heavy shells drew nearer, smashing
+everything up, they proved too much for the recruits who had joined us
+only within the last few days, and they made for the reserve trenches. By
+this time the Germans were beginning to make their advance in waves. Word
+was passed along that our regiment should retire to its reserve trenches,
+but it came too late for a few of us,--as we were already pumping it into
+the Germans. Those who had retired were firing over our heads at the
+advancing Huns, thus making it dangerous for us to withdraw.
+
+Just as I had made up my mind that we must get back somehow, Sergeant
+Johnstone crept to my side and said; "Cassells, let's stick it out. This
+might last only a few minutes more and then it'll be all right again."
+
+"All right, Johnstone," I said; and we shook hands.
+
+Our own shells were bursting so close to our front that they were
+showering us with earth and stones.
+
+I saw the nearest Germans about a couple of hundred yards away.
+
+Then suddenly a dark curtain dropped before my eyes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN
+
+
+I seemed to awake from a long sleep, only to discover that instead of
+being in a trench or a billet I was in a hospital; one of the kind made of
+canvas. There were two great marquee tents, with nurses flitting about
+quietly--like angels they seemed to me, for the moment.
+
+The pain that racked my body was awful. I lay there trying to determine in
+what part of me the pain was located but it seemed to be all over me. I
+noticed that either a nurse or an orderly was constantly in attendance at
+my cot.
+
+As my comprehension of things about me became clearer, I realized that my
+neighbour was a German. His moaning, coupled with his muttering of "_Ach,
+mein Gott in Himmel!_" got on my nerves, but I decided to say nothing, as
+I had not yet learned whether it was an enemy hospital or one of our own.
+I decided that if it was the former, the quietest way to die was the
+best, if die I must. During one of the moaning spells of my neighbour, I
+seemed to lose consciousness. When I "came back," a soft voice whispered
+in my ear: "It's all right; keep still; we are only taking a plate of your
+leg."
+
+An _English_ voice!--and with such kindness in it! Our own hospital! Not a
+prisoner! I just wanted to cry out, from sheer happiness.
+
+When next I found myself in my cot, that awful pain was unnerving me, but
+the doctor, Captain Allen, assured me that I would be all right after a
+few weeks' rest in Blighty. I immediately asked when I was to go. His
+reply was: "When your temperature goes down. It has been 104 for about a
+week."
+
+I said I would like to write home, and my soft-voiced nurse thereupon
+brought me paper and envelope. I moved to extend my right hand for the
+paper, and with dismay found it in splints and bandages, with a strong
+resemblance to a huge boxing glove. Quickly I glanced at the left hand, to
+find with relief that it, at least, was whole.
+
+I had of course never learned to use my left hand for writing. Observing
+my need of assistance, the nurse sat on the edge of my bed and took pen
+and paper to write for me. I had not even to ask her to do this service.
+The tears came into my eyes at her willing, quiet helpfulness.
+
+After she had finished writing my letter, I asked her about my condition.
+She seemed reluctant to tell me, but as I urged her to do so she finally
+said:
+
+"Your leg will probably have to be amputated, as it has been completely
+turned round and the knee badly shattered. Some splinters of shell still
+remain in it."
+
+She left me--but not for long. She had gone for the plate with the
+impression of my knee. This she held up to what light could get through
+the roof of the yellow canvas, and the picture I saw quite startled me. I
+counted four little black specks around the joint, and to one piece in
+particular she called my attention. It was about the size of a one-carat
+diamond pointed at both ends and was embedded in the knee cap. This tiny
+object was giving me nearly all of my pain.
+
+The medical officer on his rounds approached us and greeted me with "You
+certainly had a miraculous escape."
+
+Later, one of my mates in the hospital, who was with my regiment, told me
+how I got mine. He had witnessed it. A Jack Johnson striking about fifteen
+yards in front of the trench I was in, exploded, caving the trench in for
+a length of about thirty yards. I, with Sergeant Johnstone, who had come
+up the previous day with reinforcements, was buried completely. Then the
+Germans charged over the trench at our fellows, who retired to their
+reserve trenches. However, the enemy was repulsed and had to retire to
+their own lines again. This fight started about 2 P.M., and it was not
+until about nine o'clock that night that our company came up and began to
+re-open the trench. It seems that one fellow was about to use his pick
+when another close by with a shovel noticed something in the form of a
+head. He stayed the hand with the pick just in time. It was a head--and
+mine at that. They completely unearthed me, and, as I looked to be dead,
+placed me to one side with a waterproof sheet over me, to be buried later.
+Luckily enough, a medical officer examined me and found there was still a
+little life left. He used artificial respiration, put my legs in splints
+made up of empty ration boxes, bandaged my damaged right hand, and sent me
+to the Rouen Hospital, unconscious, but with a spark of life still in me.
+
+Even after two weeks' stay in the hospital my condition was still very
+critical, but I had the courage and optimism peculiar to the Scot and my
+hopes for recovery endured stubbornly. The moans of my German neighbour,
+mixed with cries for "_Das Ei_," didn't allay my fever at all. No one knew
+what he wanted. Latterly one of our wounded fellows called the nurse over
+and suggested very earnestly that perhaps he had a glass eye and it needed
+some attention. The nurse at once examined his eyes, but found them all
+right.
+
+However, the next medical officer on duty understood German and acquainted
+the nurse with the fact that the patient had been calling for an egg. He
+marked on his chart that he should be given two fresh eggs every morning.
+
+This German was accorded first attention, while our own boys had to be
+content with being next in line. We could not kick, however, as the
+doctors and nurses stretched their ability to do for others to the utmost.
+After our prisoner had had his hunger appeased with the "Ei," he seemed
+content to die, for that is just what he did. From what I could learn, his
+injury had been a bad one, a large piece of shell having pierced his
+chest.
+
+I felt sure, when I saw him carried out, that my turn was next. Then I
+discovered that the number of my cot was _13_, so--recalling the many
+escapes from death I had had and how this number had been concerned in
+them, my hopes for recovery went soaring high.
+
+Now I was recovering enough to take an interest in other cases in the
+ward, and one in particular, a Royal Irish Fusilier, in the cot opposite
+me. He had forty-eight bullet wounds in his body. He had already been in
+this ward six weeks, so I knew then I wasn't the worst case there. My
+temperature had now dropped to 100, and I was informed that an orderly
+would bring my clothes and get me ready for a journey. This meant
+Blighty!
+
+A couple of the Royal Army Medical Corps men came into the tent and very
+gently laid me in a stretcher, then carried me out along narrow pathways
+bordered by neatly whitewashed stones and rows of double-linked marquee
+tents with similar neat arrangements of stones at the entrances. There
+seemed to be a city of tents on the Rouen _Champ de Course_ (race course),
+and outside of it too, as far as my eyes could see.
+
+At the end farthest from the cook-house huts, I noticed a large boiler
+arrangement with a funnel sticking up at one end and on the door some
+large print, but I could not read the lettering. I asked one of the men
+what the object was. I was informed that it was used for disinfecting
+Tommy's clothes and exterminating the cooties that they sheltered. Tommy
+gets a change to hospital clothing as soon as he enters the base hospital.
+On taking a second look at the sign, I made out "Germ-Hun Exterminator."
+So when Tommy gets his clothes out of "dock" (hospital), and grumbles at
+the R. A. M. C. orderlies when he finds his collection of souvenirs
+depleted, they promptly put the blame on the "Germ-Hun."
+
+As soon as I was placed in an ambulance, a tag was fastened to my lapel
+and I was ready for the road along with other lucky chaps. It seemed as if
+we were hardly settled when we arrived at the railway station. An
+ambulance train was waiting here for us, and before many minutes had
+elapsed we found ourselves en route for Le Havre. We arrived here the same
+night and were placed aboard the S.S. _Asturias_.
+
+When we were about mid-channel, a torpedo from a German submarine just
+cleared the bow of our ship by a few feet. Even a hospital ship is a
+target for the missiles of the enemy.
+
+We arrived next morning at Southampton without further occurrences of
+moment.
+
+Each patient was asked where he wished to be sent. It was natural that
+each should give his home district. We were placed in rows in the large
+shed on the wharf, and our destination marked on our tickets. We were now
+ready for our next part of the journey.
+
+Suddenly my attention was attracted by vigorous exclamations. From the
+patient in the stretcher next to me I heard vociferous "bly'me-ing" in a
+very strong cockney accent. I asked the disturber what he was making all
+the row about.
+
+"Bli' me," he said, "they've gawn an' gyve me a ticket to th' bloomink end
+o' Scotland!"
+
+"Is it a mistake?" I asked.
+
+"Mistyke!" said he. "Is it a mistyke? Hit's a mistyke that tykes in th'
+whole bloomink ge-hography of Britain."
+
+He communed with himself a moment in eloquent but inelegant language. Then
+he asked:
+
+"Where've they ticketed you to, myte?"
+
+I hadn't thought of looking at my ticket, but now I noted that I was
+destined for "Chelsea, London, S. W." So he outlined a scheme to which I
+readily agreed. We exchanged tickets.
+
+I adopted his name "Bill Mortimer" of the Rifle Brigade and soon I was
+making for "th' bloomink end o' Scotland," while he was en route for
+Chelsea under his assumed name.
+
+When I arrived in an Aberdeen Hospital, they were a good few days trying
+to account for me, as my papers had naturally gone to Chelsea. Ultimately
+they came to the conclusion that there must have been an error at
+Southampton; and sure enough, my record was finally located at the London
+hospital.
+
+It was one of the best errors that could have happened, for very soon I
+found myself in the "Craigleith Military Hospital" within commuting
+distance of my relatives and friends. I never heard any more of my friend
+"Bill Mortimer," but I have no doubt the "error" proved a good one to him
+also.
+
+Two medical officers looked me over very carefully the first day. The next
+day they came back accompanied by the chief medical officer, Colonel
+Cottrill. After the latter examined me carefully he said that "an
+immediate amputation would be the wisest plan." He asked me whether other
+examining physicians had told me the same thing.
+
+I said: "Yes; but I think it will be all right. See, I can wiggle my
+toes." And I pointed out that this was a sure sign of hope for a recovery
+without amputation.
+
+Then commenced a daily routine of bandaging which stretched into months;
+every conceivable treatment for my betterment was given me; a
+plaster-of-Paris cast was put on my knee, and after it was on a week or
+two, the effect was simply wonderful.
+
+By this time, my hand could be used a little, but I found myself minus a
+finger and with two others broken. They, however, healed to normal.
+
+Every week, during our long stay in the hospital, entertainments were
+given for us by professional actors and actresses. Visitors were permitted
+to call Wednesdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 P.M.; on other days from 1 to 3
+P.M. I cannot describe the generosity and kindness of the people of
+Edinburgh.
+
+Every day came armfuls of flowers--the most soothing offering a
+convalescent Tommy can receive, outside of the occasional kiss some dear
+wee lass would imprint on his cheek. Both are wonderful in their ability
+to cheer a lonesome Tommy, who, perhaps, finds himself far from his home
+folk! Every day the ladies and young girls of the town came to sit by our
+cots and read to us or write our letters. It was an enormous hospital,
+having often as many as 1100 patients and every man in it, even those who
+were strangers in Scotland, had daily visitors in plenty. English and
+Welsh soldiers, too far from home to receive the attention of their own
+people, were given even more favours than the Scots. Every day, a flock of
+big motor cars drew up and carried away those who were far enough toward
+recovery for a ride. We had many delightful hours rolling swiftly through
+the picturesque city of Edinburgh, along the banks of the Forth and up
+through the beautiful Pentland Hills.
+
+Our lockers were well filled, and we never wanted for such dainties as
+chocolates and fancy biscuits, and we had magazines, and--above
+all--cigarettes.
+
+A party of our lady visitors brought us wool and volunteered to teach us
+the art of knitting to while away our idle time. Most of the boys took
+kindly enough to it, but I wanted to learn embroidery. It caused no end of
+merriment that a man should want to sew. However, I persuaded them to try
+me, and one of them offered to do so.
+
+In India I had done quite a little at sketching, and my teacher found me
+an apt pupil in this allied art. Very soon I had mastered the art of
+making long and short stitches, French knots, border and buttonhole
+stitches, etc. I was so highly commended that I received many requests
+from these ladies for cushion covers, doilies, etc. They brought the
+materials and I plied the needle. It was such enticing work that very soon
+two other fellows "joined in."
+
+We had many other ways of passing the time. Visitors would ask us to write
+or sketch something in their autograph books, which we did with much
+pleasure, and I can tell you that some very, very funny local sketches and
+poetry--composed on the spur of the moment, with fellow mates, nurses, and
+doctors as the subjects--were carried away from that hospital. They were
+highly prized by the recipients. We had also a monthly _Gazette_ recording
+the events of the daily life of the hospital in a breezy and interesting
+way.
+
+I saw many a bad case brought in, get well, and sent home, but still I
+remained, and so Corporal Charles Palmer, who had been there the longest,
+promoted himself to be "Commander-in-Chief" and took me as second in
+command, I being next to him in length of time there. One of his legs had
+been blown off six inches above the knee and the pain he suffered at times
+was excruciating. Another lad, a German, sixteen years of age, had had
+both legs blown off below the knees by one of the Germans' own shells just
+as he was about to give himself up to the British. He spoke very good
+English and was surprisingly cheery. The fair sex found him very
+attractive and he always got an ample share of the dainties they brought.
+
+I was still in the hospital when the awful "Gretna Green" disaster
+happened. Perhaps you remember it. A regiment of the Royal Scots was on
+its way to the front. Their train collided with another at Gretna Green
+near the Carlisle Junction, resulting in the loss of more than one hundred
+lives. Some of those that required medical attention were sent to
+Craigleith, and among the few that found themselves in our ward was a
+very broad-spoken Scot. He was on seven days' leave, but being "full of
+happiness," somehow or another got mixed in at Edinburgh station with the
+lads of the wreck. He spied an empty cot which he immediately made for and
+fell asleep upon it. Soon afterward, Colonel Sir Joseph Farrer, Commandant
+of the hospital, came along to see the Gretna lads. When he came to this
+cot he slowly uncovered the face of the presumed patient and asked: "How
+are you?" The Scot, so rudely aroused, sat up, exclaiming: "Fine, mon;
+hoo's yersel'?" The colonel was nonplussed for the moment, but hastily
+recovered himself however, and shook the extended hand of the erstwhile
+patient, much to the amusement of the rest of us.
+
+Among the "padres" to visit the hospital was a Major Chaplain of the
+Church of England. He seemed particularly interested in our ward (G ward)
+and made as many as three visits a week.
+
+Thursdays, after tea, was prayer meeting for us, as well as for a few of
+the other wards. Of course, it was impossible for all the wards to have
+the meeting on the same evening, owing to the large number of them and the
+scarcity of clergymen, so many of whom were with the boys in France. On
+one Thursday evening in particular, the Church of England chaplain I have
+just mentioned was about to commence the service when the absence of the
+organ (which was a little portable one, such as is used by the Salvation
+Army) was discovered.
+
+A couple of men who could walk volunteered to go in search of the organ,
+but they couldn't find it. Then Sister Brian, a most accommodating nurse,
+whose Cockney accent was an unmistakable mark of her early upbringing,
+went out to locate the missing organ. After a few minutes she returned and
+startled the ward by announcing, from the doorway: "You men 'ad hall
+better go to 'Hell' (meaning _L_ ward). Th' horgan's in 'Hell,' an' th'
+services habout to begin."
+
+There was a general roar of laughter and the reverend gentleman
+strenuously refused the invitation.
+
+When the patients were well on the road to recovery, they would be sent to
+one of the many mansions opened by the owners as homes for convalescents.
+Here they would remain for a few weeks, perhaps a month, before being sent
+to their homes. This stay will be among the pleasantest memories of those
+who experienced it. The beautifully-laid-out and spacious grounds and the
+auto rides! How it all helped to hasten recovery!
+
+I cannot conclude without trying to express the praise which most
+certainly belongs to the medical officers of "Craigleith." At the outbreak
+of the war, Colonel Cottrill had been retired ten years, but he was found
+ready when the first note of the nation's rally sounded, and there he
+remained when I left, serving his king and country in relieving, by his
+expert skill, the sufferings of those who come under his care. He was over
+seventy years of age, but he most truly was seventy years young.
+
+Of the nurses and sisters I could not say enough. Sister Lauder, for
+instance; I have seen her do thirty-six hours' duty at one stretch,
+without the slightest rest, at a time when streams of wounded were pouring
+in day and night. Once she collapsed in the middle of the ward. Such
+devotion, such wonderful spirit these women exhibited!
+
+I was discharged on August 5th, 1915, being "no longer physically fit for
+war service." (Para. 392, XVI, K.R.)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN
+
+
+On a day in February, 1916--a week prior to the sailing of the S.S.
+_Tuscania_, on which I had taken passage to the United States--I had left
+the office of the Anchor Line and was proceeding up the High Street, of
+Cowdenbeath (across the river from Edinburgh), bent on an errand
+pertaining to the preparations for my departure, when I noticed across the
+way something familiar in the appearance of a tall man in khaki. Twice or
+thrice I gazed at him, with a sense of dim recollection, and then I went
+walking--or, rather, limping--on my way. There were uniforms everywhere
+and one, even though it seemed in some way distinctive, could not hold my
+attention. I started to cross the street but when I was in the car track,
+in the middle, a sound arrested me.
+
+"Reuter! Reuter!" called a voice which was strangely familiar.
+
+Who, thought I, is this, calling me by my nickname? I turned and saw the
+tall soldier whom I had noticed, limping toward me at the best gait his
+lameness permitted. I perceived that he wore a Black Watch forage cap. As
+I stood, awaiting his approach, I suddenly recognized him as my chum, Ned
+MacD----; the same Ned whom I had left in a hollow, in a wood, in France,
+grievously wounded, and who had mysteriously disappeared when I found
+opportunity to return in search of him.
+
+I had long believed him dead, for his name had appeared in our casualty
+lists among those of the killed. I was so overcome at seeing him that I
+stood as one struck dumb. In a moment, however, we were clasped in each
+other's arms like a couple of bairns, the tears trickling down our faces.
+
+There we stood, speaking to each other as Scots will, in excitement, in
+the broad Scotch of our childhood days, until a sharp clang awakened us.
+It was from a tramcar bell. We were standing in the middle of the single
+line, and completely blocking traffic. Linking our arms together we made
+for the pavement.
+
+"I'm mighty glad I met ye, Joe," was his first comment. "I've been trying
+to find out your whereabouts. To think that Fate should have been kind
+enough to put you in my way, like that; man, it's just grand!"
+
+I told him of my mission in Cowdenbeath.
+
+"Weel, I'm glad I've caught ye in time, ye bounder, cause I dinna think I
+could have followed ye to the States to make a visit on ye," he said.
+
+By this time I had fully recovered myself and scrutinized him carefully.
+"You've got the same smile, Ned, but my how you've grown! You look at
+least two inches taller than when I saw you last."
+
+"And that I might," he replied; "come on and I'll tell ye all about it."
+
+So we limped into Cook's tea rooms, secured a table in a quiet corner, and
+he told me his story. He spoke in a halting manner, for it brought back
+many of his sufferings, but to me it is so striking that I felt, in
+finishing the tale of my war experience, you would like to know about a
+war romance--for romance it surely was--with as happy an ending as any
+novelist might conceive. I will tell to you, as nearly as possible in his
+own words, the remarkable story he unfolded to me.
+
+"Do ye mind when ye left me in the nook after bandaging my wounds?" he
+asked. "Weel, I lay there thinking and wondering. Ye ken, Reuter, what I
+was wondering about--about ye're coming back; or maybe someone else might
+find me and take me back to the lines. But no help came. Then I got to
+thinking of the lass, and I managed to take her letters, as well as a few
+fags, from my haversack. I smoked the fags one after the other, and read
+her dear kind words over and over again. My mind kept dwelling on what was
+to have been our marriage day. Reuter, remember I told ye about it. It was
+to have been on the 7th of August, and then on account of the war, we put
+it off until after I should come back.
+
+"And now, I thought to myself, maybe I'll never get back. All sorts of
+possibilities passed through my mind, and between this and the awful pain
+that throbbed all over me, I felt like as if I'd go mad.
+
+"It began to get dark and my patience got exhausted. Then the idea came
+into my head that I could maybe drag myself along with my hands a wee bit
+nearer our lines. I thought of your promise, Reuter, but I couldn't stay.
+A few of the lads around me pegged out one after the other, and it made me
+feel fair frenzied.
+
+"Do ye remember Stanley Stenning, an English fellow of C company? Weel, he
+crawled out a wee while before me. I've heard since that he was home, but
+minus a leg, but I haven't heard so far of any of the other wounded
+fellows that were in the nook with me.
+
+"Weel, to get back to my own experience. It was awful--the pain--it racked
+me through and through, as I tried to move ahead by the aid of my hands. I
+would take a grip on anything I could get hold of and drag myself on a wee
+bit at a time. I had managed to do about a hundred yards, when I seemed to
+sense that I had taken the wrong direction, and oh! how weak I was about
+that time--it's past telling. I just simply had to lie there--I couldn't
+drag myself another inch.
+
+"I remember seeing a few bushes about fifteen yards ahead--it seemed so
+far!--and at first I wished I could manage to get to them, thinking I
+might get out of the way of the enemy, should any of them come along. But
+after a few minutes I decided it was perhaps as well that I was exhausted,
+because if I got there and should lose consciousness, ye might not find
+me, and that it was just as weel I was in the open. So I tried to content
+myself, but it was maddening.
+
+"In dragging myself to this spot I passed here and there one of our
+lads--then again I would make out one of the Camerons--and Reuter, they
+were so--still! But I crawled on, and as the vision of the lass came to
+me, I felt braver, and made up my mind to hold out as long as I possibly
+could.
+
+"By this time it was night--the time seemed to drag so! Then I remember
+hearing the sound of some one moving about, and I was just in the act of
+calling for help when the thought flashed through my brain that maybe they
+were Germans; so I kept still. The sound soon died away. My! how often,
+since then, I've wished I _had_ called out.
+
+"I lay there wishing and hoping that I might be found before morning, but
+the hours dragged on. I was growing fainter and fainter, and more
+feverish.
+
+"At last, I dimly distinguished the presence of a party. Then I saw them
+turn over some of the dead Highlanders as they came across them, give each
+a kick, and pass on. By this time I could see they were
+stretcher-bearers--and Prussians, at that. I was already on my back and
+therefore hoped they would pass me--praying all the time that they would,
+I kept staring up at the stars. The Huns _were_ passing, but it was over
+my body. The carrier at the front of the empty stretcher stepped over me,
+but the man in the rear stepped directly on one of my wounded legs. The
+pain caused me to groan out. At this they halted and spoke, gruffly, in
+German.
+
+"They took the contents out of my pockets and haversack, opened the
+stretcher, laid it alongside of me, rolled me very roughly onto it, and
+picked it up. Every once in a while during the journey to the dressing
+station which was quite some distance over broken ground, they would stop
+and drop the stretcher on the ground, which caused me to groan more and
+more. There were hundreds of wounded Germans at the station.
+
+"Here I was rolled out of the stretcher. I could feel that the pleats of
+my kilt were soaked with blood. Presently a little insignificant-looking
+German with spectacles on looked at me, and asked in English: 'What is the
+nature of your wounds?'
+
+"I told him. He looked at them very hastily, then said: 'You are lucky.
+They should have been eight inches farther up.' With a grunt he went to
+attend to the Prussian patients.
+
+"With that, the Hun lying next to me--he had been wounded through the arm
+and foot--noticed me and commenced spitting on me and cursing in German. I
+made no protest. I was too utterly weak and exhausted.
+
+"At last ambulances drew up near by, and the wounded Germans, after having
+their wounds dressed, were placed in them. My turn came to be carried onto
+the ambulance, without, however, any attention having been given to my
+wounds. After a great deal of jolting about, our ambulance drew up near a
+railway siding, and the German patients were served with some hot coffee,
+then we were all put on board a train. By this time it was daylight.
+Almost as soon as I was put on the train it began to move off.
+
+"Shortly afterward, a tall, lean German doctor came over and looked at me,
+then renewed my dressing, which was the first since yours, Reuter. He
+asked me in broken English if I had had anything to eat. When I answered
+in the negative, he walked away and looked over the other patients and
+talked to them. After quite some time, a German orderly came to me with
+some hot milk and a sandwich of black bread and very bad-smelling cheese.
+I was given the same treatment as the others while on the train. The
+doctor told me there were more English wounded on the train, but that was
+all he said. I cannot say how long I was on the train, but at last, after
+a lot of shunting, it halted, and all the German wounded were taken off.
+
+"An armed guard of two men came in and took their posts beside me. I was
+given coffee and more black bread and cheese. I was transferred into a
+sort of truck, the guard being with me. They cut a few buttons off my
+jacket as souvenirs.
+
+"After another considerable journey, I was put into a motor ambulance,
+which brought me to my destination. It was dark when I reached this place
+and I could not see my surroundings. I was carried into a hut-like
+arrangement, where I found others, German and British soldiers, and some
+French also.
+
+"I was only a few minutes in this 'hut' when a big fat, over-fed,
+severe-looking German officer came in and growled out something in a rough
+voice. A nurse rushed up to his side. He growled out something else, and
+she immediately went out. In less time than it takes to tell, she came
+back with what no doubt he had been growling for. It was a sheet of paper
+and he commenced reading from it. It was to the effect that the English
+prisoners would not be allowed to disobey any of the officers, soldiers,
+orderlies or nurses--that if they should do so they would be instantly put
+to death. If they wished to make complaints they were to do so through
+the orderlies. However, if the complaint should not be a proper and
+truthful one, the prisoner making it would be liable to be put to death.
+He also strongly emphasized the fact that if any prisoner was caught
+attempting to smuggle or write letters, the sentence of death would
+instantly be imposed on him. At this point he went away.[2]
+
+"My heart sank. I got so homesick and much weaker; my hopes gave out
+entirely. I had been thinking that, on reaching my destination, I would be
+allowed to write home; and now----?
+
+"I must have lost consciousness, for it was day time when I awoke, to find
+two doctors examining my legs, with a number of young students standing
+around me. One of the doctors, an old man, who spoke excellent English,
+said that both my thighs were badly fractured and that it would be
+necessary to operate on me the next morning. Then he commenced explaining
+to the young doctors. After the explanation was over, they all walked
+away.
+
+"The next morning I was taken to the operating theatre, which had a
+gallery all 'round packed with young German students. On the floor there
+were only a nurse, the old doctor who had spoken to me the previous day,
+and a few attendants. I was lying on a sort of high-wheel stretcher. The
+young students were laughing and jeering, when suddenly the old doctor
+turned on them furiously, using some hot German language, and instantly
+there was quietness. Then a cap was put under my nose.
+
+"When I came out of the chloroform there was a cage arrangement over my
+legs and I had no pillow for my head. At the moment I thought it was a
+very mean trick to do me out of it, but after some experience in the
+hospital I learned that it was to prevent me from getting sick upon
+recovering from the effects of the anaesthetic.
+
+"There were about eighteen patients and two nurses in the hut where I was.
+The nurses took turns of night duty week about. The day nurse during my
+first week there was a very severe and sour-faced creature. She could
+speak a little English, and I'm sure she did not speak to me more than
+twenty times, and not once kindly. The night nurse was a woman about forty
+years of age. She could speak only a very little English, but she was
+pleasant and good-natured. She took more care of me than any of them and
+would bring me a glass of milk now and again when the guards were not
+looking. She also informed me that this was the place that students came
+to, for practising and experimenting on the wounded prisoners, and added
+that I would have a lot more operations--which I had.
+
+"Conditions became worse as months dragged on. It was now summer of 1915,
+and still my legs were not allowed to set. One operation followed another.
+I saw an iron plate with rusty screw nails an inch long, that had been
+used to patch up my thigh bones. I suffered much physically--but worse
+than that was the mental suffering I experienced, worrying about my folks
+at home.
+
+"Every other day, young sarcastic doctors would come in, take the splints
+off, and commence squeezing and turning my broken legs in a painful
+fashion. Some would shout: 'English swine, why don't you cry out?' but I
+don't remember doing so when any of them were near me.
+
+"The food got worse and worse toward winter. I got three meals a day.
+Breakfast consisted of weak coffee and a slice of black bread with some
+kind of lard spread on it. Dinner was herring bone or potato-peel soup, or
+ham-bone soup with a slice of heavy potato bread. Supper was a repetition
+of breakfast except that very often the lard was absent.
+
+"There were two German patients who got the best of attention. I learned
+though, that they were wounded in the act of deserting, and were to be
+court-martialed upon recovery. After they were able to sit up they would
+get a large jug of beer with their midday meal and this was a keen torture
+to me.
+
+"I became determined to find some way of communicating with my sweetheart
+and friends at home, to let them know I was still alive. The night nurse
+told me she expected to go near the firing line for duty, so I asked her
+if she could try to smuggle out a letter for me so that it would reach my
+friends. At first, she very positively refused, saying that should the
+effort be found out, she would be instantly shot, but after I explained my
+case to her and pleaded with her she brought me a pencil and note paper
+and watched a chance when all was quiet. She put a screen round me and
+whispered in my ear to praise the commandant, and the doctors, and write
+in the brightest manner of everyone there. Thus, she said, the censor
+might allow the letter to go through.
+
+"While she watched the guards, I scribbled, doing all she told me to. I
+described the place and commandant something in the following manner:
+
+     This is a most beautiful place. I think it's the prettiest hospital
+     in the great German Empire. It is even more elaborate than the
+     wonderful Peterhead sanatorium at home, and the commandant is the
+     nicest old gentleman. The staff, here, is also superior. We get the
+     best of food and plenty of it and all kinds of recreation. Even
+     visitors bring English magazines and treat me like a relative.
+
+"After finishing it, I gave it to the nurse to read. I had written all the
+sheet could contain. She looked it over and seemed very pleased with it
+and said that it would pass the censor all right. She sealed it, then
+affixed a stamp, and hid it away in her dress, promising to post it next
+morning.
+
+"I thought it was rather neat, my working in the Peterhead prison in
+Aberdeenshire, as a sanatorium.
+
+"After the nurse's departure, I slept peacefully and with an easy mind, as
+if a great burden had been lifted from it.
+
+"When the usual batch of sarcastic young German students came next morning
+and started in jeering at me, I smiled. One of them instantly leaped
+forward and gave me a stinging blow on the face with his open palm. I
+managed to contain myself--but how I did it, I don't know.
+
+"That same evening, the commandant came in raging. He nearly ate me up,
+while in the act of producing the letter I had written the previous night.
+I longed so for the ground to open and swallow me up. He said the penalty
+for the offence was death. At first I denied that I knew anything about
+the letter, but he shouted: 'Do you not remember giving the same address
+upon coming here?'
+
+"I did, only too well.
+
+"After blazing out on me, he left, cursing in German. I made up my mind
+that I was doomed, but decided to lie as long as I could on my cot, as I
+felt that I would no doubt be shot as soon as I was able to get out of
+bed. That night a big masculine-looking nurse came on duty, and she was a
+perfect virago.
+
+"I learned with deep regret that the kind nurse was moved--perhaps shot. I
+watched my chance, and at night, when no one had eyes on me, I twisted in
+such a fashion that my thigh bones could not possibly get a chance to knit
+together. The agony I suffered was fearful, but I did not care. In the
+morning my temperature would go up and further operations would follow. I
+continued doing this for a week or so but at last I could not stand it. I
+just had to lie still.
+
+"In December I began to get up for a few hours daily. It was torture to me
+when I tried to move around. I was so very weak and all the-muscle and
+flesh had left my body. I was reduced to almost skin and bone.
+
+"I was not even given a stick to support me. I limped about for a few
+weeks, then received my uniform and was moved to the prisoners' enclosure,
+where there were one thousand British prisoners. Like myself, none of
+these fellows was allowed to write home, and I don't suppose they will
+be--until they are set free. We were crowded into tents. The food was
+terrible; I have seen pigs get better. But we ate it just the same.
+
+"The next morning after breakfast, we were all marched out to make roads,
+chop wood, and do all kinds of convict work. Some of the men had a leg
+off, others had an arm off as well as being otherwise crippled; but they
+all had to work.
+
+"I wasn't able to keep up with the rest while marching out to the place
+where I was to work and one of the German guards started poking the butt
+of his rifle into my ribs. This was his way of making me keep up with the
+rest of them. I tried hard and finally managed to reach the spot where our
+men were working. I was given wood to saw.
+
+"I managed to stick to it about half an hour, then I fainted. When I came
+to myself again a big dirty Prussian was kicking me and telling me to get
+on with my work. But I couldn't. Upon seeing this, a man from our squad
+was ordered to wheel me back to camp in a barrow with a German walking
+alongside with his rifle slung over his shoulder, smoking a long pipe and
+jeering all the way. I was at once classed as 'worthless.'
+
+"Our officers had to work like the other men, but the special job given
+them was road-sweeping. I was given some dirty work to do around the
+prison camp for a few days, until at last I had to be put in the hospital
+again on account of weakness. One of my legs was shorter than the other,
+owing to the manner in which they had practised on me.
+
+"This time I was in the hospital only about two weeks. Then I got my
+clothes, and the commandant came in and informed me that he got orders to
+supply six worthless English prisoners from the camp for exchange. 'You
+are the first on the list,' he said. 'You are no good to anybody. You
+cannot even work for the food you get.'
+
+"I could hardly realize my good fortune. I wept with joy. To think of
+being sent home as an exchanged prisoner!
+
+"I 'fell in' along with five more fellows, one was stone blind; his face
+was an awful sight--all dark blue as if it had been tattooed. The other
+four had body injuries. We were placed in a motor truck which conveyed us
+to a railway station, then we were packed in trucks with a few sentries
+over us.
+
+"One of the sentries, out of pity, gave one of our men a cigarette. The
+poor fellow had just lighted it off the stump the sentry was about to
+throw away, when a German officer rushed forward and knocked it out of his
+mouth with his glove, and had him taken away at once. The sentry who had
+given him the fag was ordered to take off his equipment, and two of the
+German guards marched the British prisoner and German sentry away.
+
+"Two nights later we landed at a port and were marched on to a steamer. I
+think it was a Dutch boat, as I did not see any Germans on board until we
+were out at sea, when we were gathered together, and a German staff
+officer of the navy gave us a lecture. He finished up by saying that we
+were not free of the German Government until we landed in England, and
+should any of us disobey while on board, we would at once be sent back to
+Germany. You may depend upon it that we obeyed.
+
+"After we boarded the boat we were given some Capstan Navy-Cut
+Cigarettes--and got a good meal, the first since I had been taken
+prisoner. I was so overjoyed that I sat in a corner and did not utter a
+word until I landed on British soil, then I prayed silently and thanked
+God for bringing me back to a civilized country. I think there were over
+six hundred exchanged British prisoners on the same boat.
+
+"When we landed in England, we were taken to a hospital, and those of us
+who were able to travel were asked if we wanted to go straight home for a
+few days, and report for medical treatment in our own districts. I think
+all those who weren't able to do much more than crawl said they preferred
+to go straight home. Next morning at 8 o'clock I was given two sovereigns
+and a furlough, pending discharge.
+
+"After receiving the money, I boarded the first train for Auchterarder,
+where 'the lass' lived. She had opened a millinery business in my absence.
+The train left at 10 A.M., and I arrived at Auchterarder depot at 8.15
+P.M. It was about a mile from the station to Jeanie's house. I wanted to
+get there as soon as I could, and walking was out of the question. So I
+managed to coax a teamster to go a little bit out of his way and let me
+off near her home. I wanted to surprise her, so went on upstairs in her
+house quietly.
+
+"As I climbed up I could hear the sound of much merriment coming from the
+upper rooms. The first thought that struck me was that perhaps she had
+been already notified and was preparing a surprise for me. Yet it seemed
+strange, as I had sent no word ahead of me--not even a telegram.
+
+"I felt real nervous upon reaching the door, and wondered what I should
+say on entering it. At last I summoned up courage and opened the door. I
+stood still. The sight that met me dazed me. I couldn't believe my own
+eyes.
+
+"In the room there were many young ladies--most of them dressed in white.
+I recognized some of their faces. Jeanie was standing in the centre,
+dressed as a bride with a bouquet clasped in her arm.
+
+"I was beginning to think that it surely was a most heavenly surprise. But
+they caught sight of me and it seemed as if they all made for the farthest
+corners of the room. They looked at me in what seemed to be terror.
+
+"Jeanie stared at me for a moment. She was very pale. I wondered why she
+didn't rush forward and greet me--as I felt she ought--with outstretched
+arms. At that I started to make for her side. She gasped out 'Ned'--and
+sank to the floor in a faint.
+
+"While I was leaning over her, there was a commotion at the door. I looked
+around and saw the clergyman enter, with one of my old-time chums dressed
+as a bridegroom. Upon recognizing me the bridegroom looked bewildered, but
+the next moment he had recovered himself. He approached me and shook
+hands, telling me, with an odd and embarrassed manner that my arrival was
+timely. He added: 'If you had been delayed half an hour, Jeanie and I
+would have been married by now. It seems as if Fate has taken a hand in
+this.'
+
+"He told me that Jeanie had been worrying and was continually talking
+about me, and that she didn't believe I was dead, although I had been
+reported 'killed or missing' since September, 1914. He had told her that
+she was foolish to keep up this thought, and finally had persuaded her to
+become engaged to him. The date for the marriage was fixed for the night
+on which I arrived.
+
+"During this time the bride was being attended by some of the other young
+ladies and had been revived.
+
+"The intended bridegroom went to her side and asked if she still cared for
+me. Her answer was: 'If he loves me, _yes_.' He approached me again,
+asking whether I cared for her still. Oh, I wanted to say how I loved her
+and how anxiously and hurriedly I had made my way to her on reaching
+British soil, but I was too overcome for words; I could only nod an
+assent. Do you know, Reuter, what this old pal did? He withdrew, giving
+me his place, and he acted as Best Man.
+
+"Since then I've wondered whether, if it had been any other man, he would
+have stepped aside so. He loved her as I did, no doubt, but it seems she
+couldn't forget me, no matter how he tried to make her do so; so,
+realizing all this at the time, he did what he thought would give her the
+greatest happiness. I had suffered sorely, Reuter, but surely I was well
+rewarded. The pal who had expected to have my place gave us a hundred
+pounds as his gift to help us along in business. We were married that same
+night--only three days ago. So you see, Reuter, I lost no time in trying
+to find you to tell you of my complete happiness."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We left the tea rooms, and I accompanied Ned to the railway station, where
+he took the train for his home town. As we parted he wished me the best of
+success in America, and hoped that he would hear of my getting married
+very soon, for he assured me he was so happy that he wished to know that
+such happiness was mine also.
+
+I made for home then, and in less than a week's time I was on my way to
+the States.
+
+Ned's good wishes for me have certainly been fulfilled. I have since
+married, and it is my wife who has proved my sole inspiration and help in
+writing this book.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN
+
+
+No doubt, if I had been trained in writing rather than in the tactical
+requirements for service in the British army, I should call this the
+appendix of my book. I prefer not to do so, having found in my own
+experience that readers may be inclined to view the appendix in literature
+as similar to the appendix in surgery--something which is unnecessary.
+
+I cannot so regard this chapter. It is to me a component and interesting
+part of the whole, for it goes to the source of the splendid and unique
+traditions of the regiment in which I have been privileged to serve as a
+soldier of my country.
+
+A great deal has been written about the Black Watch. Even poets have been
+inspired to sing of its deeds in stanzas which are undying. Men of
+Highland birth, glorying in its history, have set down the facts of its
+achievements under England's banner. Yet most of these records are
+composed of dry facts, with no expressed sense of the romantic and the
+unusual which enter so largely into the history of the most famous
+fighting organization in the world. And most of them, also, might be
+written from the viewpoint of a century ago. They do not bring the recital
+of the achievements of the Black Watch into the atmosphere of to-day, with
+due regard for the interesting and almost startling effect of contrast.
+
+This thought came to me one day when I was riding on a trolley through one
+of the busy districts of that part of Greater New York which lies east of
+the bridged river, and suddenly realized that I was passing over the very
+ground upon which the Black Watch had its first important engagement in
+the war of the American Revolution--the Battle of Brooklyn. I recalled
+that on this very spot, where clanging trolleys, quick motor cars and
+hurrying pedestrians made a confusing rush of traffic, the men of the
+Black Watch fought, in the fashion of their forefathers, with broadsword
+and pistol, against the sturdy pioneers whose descendants are now the
+allies of our nation in a war for world freedom. In the annals of our
+regiment, the use of the broadsword and pistol in the Battle of Brooklyn
+is duly recorded, for it was after this engagement that the regiment was
+required to lay aside these mediaeval weapons--a fact which occasioned such
+discontent among the veterans of the Watch that there was even fear that
+the Highland stubbornness might manifest itself as markedly in protest as
+on the occasion--in England, in 1743--when the men of the regiment,
+confronted with orders issued in ignorance of the Highland characteristics
+and customs, departed quietly, in a body, without the knowledge of their
+officers, and marched as far as Northampton with the intention of
+returning to their Highland homes, relinquishing the purpose only when
+prolonged negotiations had made the facts of the situation plain to their
+stubborn minds.
+
+On the whole, however, this disposition on the part of the men of the
+Black Watch could hardly be called surprising, in view of the ignorance
+regarding the Highland character then prevalent in England. Three years
+before, King George the Second, having never seen a Scotch
+Highlander--although the Black Watch had already been organized in the
+Highlands as the Forty-third regiment of the British army--asked to have
+some examples of the race sent to appear before him and his court. Two
+Highlanders, Gregor MacGregor and John Campbell, appeared in response to
+the King's command. (A third, John Grant, began the journey to London with
+them but died on the way.) MacGregor and Campbell gave exhibitions of
+their dexterity with the broadsword and the Lochaber axe, in the presence
+of the King and his Court. When they had finished the King gave each a
+gold guinea as a gratuity. They gave the coins as a tip to the porter, on
+their departure. The King had not understood that his guests were Highland
+gentlemen.
+
+Sitting at the window of the house where I now pass the peaceful and
+uneventful days of the soldier who has fought until wounds incapacitate
+him for further service afield, I smiled, one day, at another thought in
+which the past and the present incongruously came into association. From
+this window, I viewed the populous, close-built residential stretches of
+Washington Heights, typical of the city life of to-day. And, amid all
+this, my eye could seek out the very spot where occurred the grimly
+humorous adventure of Major Murray, most corpulent of the officers of the
+Black Watch, when the command was fighting against Washington's rebellious
+patriots. Having to scale the heights which were later to become famous as
+the habitat of the hardy goats of Harlem, Major Murray was at a great
+disadvantage because of his weight and girth. "Soldiers, would you leave
+me behind?" he appealed, pathetically, when he needed assistance. And then
+his husky Highlanders would boost him upward toward the fray. It was,
+consequently, in a somewhat breathless and confused condition that the
+valiant major attained the spot upon the heights where the conflict raged.
+Rushing forward to close with some antagonist in the Colonials, Major
+Murray discovered that his only weapon, his dirk, had got twisted behind
+him in the strenuous struggles of the ascent and that, because of his
+excessive fatness, he couldn't reach it. The records of the regiment, at
+the home station, Perth, state that the major, on this occasion, tore a
+sword from the grasp of one of three Colonials who attacked him and put
+all three to flight. With no thought to cast aspersion upon the major's
+valour, I have always been inclined to the belief that the writer of the
+regimental reports may have compensated in a certain generosity of
+statement for his earlier description of the major's comic predicament.
+
+Study of the history of the Black Watch, gathered, largely, in a
+fragmentary way, has always had a fascination for me. I have felt in the
+greatest degree the pride of membership in the organization--and the world
+knows that the men of the Black Watch have always made much of the name. I
+feel that tradition had well prepared the regiment for its sacrificial and
+almost superhuman efforts between Mons and the Marne. For hard fighting
+and long fighting--in every quarter of the globe and with opponents of
+almost every race--civilized and uncivilized--no organized fighting force
+has ever had a record to equal that of the Black Watch.
+
+The regiment got its name in 1729, when six companies of Highlanders which
+had constituted a sort of military police along the highland border, were
+joined together into a more or less homogeneous command. Four of these
+companies had been in existence for a few years. Two were of organization
+of that year. They were called the Independent Companies of Highlanders
+but it was their purpose to co-operate to preserve order among the
+turbulent spirits of the border and to enforce the disarming act.
+Highlanders from the broken clans flocked to the banners of the
+Independent Companies, as this gave them the right still to bear arms.
+Many of them were Highland gentlemen, who came with their servants to
+carry their arms and belongings. The companies were commanded by Lord
+Lovat, Campbell of Lochnell, Grant of Ballindalloch, Campbell of Fonab,
+Campbell of Carrick, and Munro of Culcairn. Approximately, there were a
+hundred men in each company. They wore the dark tartan of the clan
+Campbell, and thus came to be called the _Freaceadan Dubh_, or Black
+Watch, as distinguished from the _saighdearan dearg_, or red soldiers.
+
+For ten years, these six companies served on the border, constituting a
+slender but effective bulwark between two neighbouring but utterly
+different peoples. In this day--when it is but a pleasant outing to motor
+from England into the Highlands--it seems almost unbelievable that the
+laws, language, customs, and social usages of the Highlanders should for
+centuries have remained utterly different from those of England and the
+lowlands, and that the people of the lowlands should have almost no
+knowledge of neighbours so near. The sturdy and soldierly qualities of the
+Highlanders of the six companies, however, couldn't escape the notice of
+England's generals, ever seeking new drafts for England's fighting forces.
+
+In 1739 it was decided that a foot regiment of Highlanders should be added
+to the regular establishment of the army, the six Independent Companies
+being augmented by four new companies to constitute the regimental
+strength.
+
+In 1740 this regiment--commanded by the Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, as
+colonel--was paraded for the first time on a field, near Aberfeldy. Until
+then, the Black Watch had been uniformed only in the fact that each member
+wore the _philleadh mor_ or belted plaid, of the Campbell tartan. No one
+but a Highlander could ever adjust this dress. It consisted of twelve
+yards of tartan, two-thirds of it gathered in pleats, held by a belt round
+the waist, and the other third folded around the body and clasped with a
+buckle, on the left shoulder.
+
+The uniform and individual equipment of the new regiment, which was called
+the Forty-third Foot, is described in detail in an old order of the day.
+It consisted of "scarlet jacket and waistcoat, with buff facings and white
+lace; the _phileag beag_, or little kilt; a blue bonnet, with check border
+of red, white, and green, and a tuft of feathers; musket, bayonet, pistol,
+broadsword, dirk and target." The first march of the regiment was from
+beside the waters of the Tay--where it had encamped for more than a
+year--to Perth, in which city the home station of the regiment was then
+established and still is maintained.
+
+When I outfitted there, with my contingent of first reserve men, at the
+outbreak of this war, the thought came to my mind that, three times
+before, the Black Watch had moved from Perth to fight in Flanders.
+
+I have never seen a succinct summary of the activities of the Black Watch.
+Though far abler writers than I have described its separate campaigns,
+each of these writers has given but a limited view of the long vista of
+sturdy fighting which visualizes the regiment's history. From such sources
+of information as I have had, the following summary has been extracted.
+Surely it will tell a story of interest to every man who is interested in
+the traditions of Britain's "far-flung battle line."
+
+The regiment marched from Perth to London, in 1743, and, after a
+mutiny--due to tales of scandal-mongers that the Highlanders were to be
+sent to the American plantations--made its first journey overseas, going
+to fight in Flanders under the command of the Earl of Stair. After
+Fontenoy, the regiment covered the British retreat and lost, among their
+officers, five Campbells. In this battle they were commanded by Sir Robert
+Munro.
+
+The Black Watch, then called the 43rd Highlanders, was transferred to
+England, and most of the companies were kept in Kent, during the Jacobite
+uprising. Three companies were engaged in Scotland in putting down the
+insurrection, and one was at the battle of Prestonpans. I quote from a
+story of the Black Watch written by Lauchlan MacLean Watt in saying that
+"the other two companies had an unwilling share in the deplorable outrages
+in the Highland Glens after Culloden, which made the name of the Duke of
+Cumberland worthy to be placed amongst those of his blood who have won
+similar distinction in Belgium, to-day."
+
+The Black Watch was sent to France, in 1746, thence to Ireland and back to
+Flanders in 1747.
+
+In 1749 it was returned to Ireland where it remained eight years. In this
+year the regimental number was changed to the 42nd.
+
+In 1757 the regiment was a part of the expeditionary force sent to America
+for the French and Indian war. At Ticonderoga it served so valiantly and
+suffered such terrific losses that the name "The Royal Highlanders" was
+conferred upon it.
+
+The regiment next fought at Martinique and Guadaloupe, returning to fight
+again in Canada and take an important part in the battle which compelled
+the surrender of Montreal. Altogether, it served seven years in the West
+Indies and North America. It was only at this period that company
+sergeants were given carbines instead of the Lochaber axes which they had
+always carried.
+
+In 1775 the regiment returned to Scotland, having been absent 32 years.
+
+In April, 1776, the regiment embarked again for America, this time to
+fight in the revolution of the American colonists. They were disembarked
+on Staten Island, and, as I have said, they were engaged and suffered some
+losses in the Battle of Brooklyn. They also suffered heavily in the Battle
+of the Brandywine.
+
+The Black Watch next fought against Hyder Ali, in India, in 1782.
+
+In 1795 it took part in the defence of Nieuport, in Flanders, and suffered
+much in the Gildersmalsen retreat, in that campaign.
+
+Back again, the regiment went, after this, to the West Indies and in this
+campaign the men were first given a uniform suitable to wear in the
+tropics. Its principal features were white duck trousers and round hats.
+The mutations of world warfare had had their effect. The Highlanders were
+willing to put on pantaloons. There were but five companies of the
+regiment on this expedition. The whole regiment was reassembled, however,
+in the following year, at Gibraltar, and fought as a whole in the capture
+of Minorca.
+
+The year 1800 found the regiment, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, in Egypt.
+During the fighting with Napoleon's armies, there, the regiment lost its
+commander in action.
+
+In 1808 the Black Watch was among the British forces in the Peninsula and
+suffered extreme privation and heavy losses on the retreat from Corunna.
+
+In the following year the regiment was on the ill-fated expedition to
+Walcheren, returning with less than one-third of its original strength.
+Three years later they were in Portugal again.
+
+After the escape of Napoleon the regiment fought through to Waterloo,
+though without playing an important part in that last great battle.
+
+It then fought through the campaign of the Crimea as a part of Sir Colin
+Campbell's Highland brigade.
+
+Within a year it was in the lead of the force of six thousand men which
+Sir Colin led against twenty-five thousand mutineers at Cawnpore.
+
+Its next hard fighting was in the Ashanti campaign, under General Sir
+Garnet Wolseley.
+
+In 1881 it was combined with the 73rd Highland regiment (formerly the 2nd
+battalion of the Black Watch) and in the next year was back, fighting in
+Egypt. Through the whole of that war in Egypt it was in the fore-front,
+fighting with distinction up to the end of the expedition which was
+organized for the relief of Gordon at Khartoum.
+
+The regiment suffered its most terrific losses--up to those of the retreat
+from Mons--in the South African campaign. The slaughter of the Black
+Watch, at Magersfontein, when the Boers ambushed it in close formation,
+was the most shocking news that came to England from the Cape.
+
+The story of the 2nd Battalion of the regiment and its deeds is a separate
+one, through several decades. It sailed to India in 1780 and was in action
+in all of the big and little Indian wars of that early and troublous time.
+In 1809 it was made a separate regiment and called the 73rd Highlanders.
+As such it served at Waterloo, and it remained a separate unit until 1881,
+when it was reunited with the original 1st Battalion.
+
+The Black Watch, as now organized, might almost be called a small army.
+There is a depot battalion at Perth, four territorial battalions in
+Scotland and six service battalions.
+
+In 1905, I enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Black Watch--the same
+"Royal Highlanders" that had won its designation at Ticonderoga. In 1907,
+I was transferred to the 2nd Battalion, which had been known as the 73rd
+Highlanders. I joined them at their station at Peshawar, near the mouth of
+the famous Kyber Pass, in Afghanistan. In the athletic contests for which
+the regiment was famous, I met as a competitor, Ned MacD---- the same Ned
+MacD---- whose romantic story I have told in a previous chapter. After a
+time we were the regimental champions, and, many a day in India, we
+strenuously upheld the honour of the Black Watch in competition with the
+men of other regiments.
+
+My athletic days and my fighting days are over. But ever my blood will
+quicken with the thought that I have played my part and done my service
+and shed my blood in the ranks of the Black Watch, fighting for Right and
+for the Freedom of Mankind. The pain of old wounds will ever vanish, the
+regrets for departed comrades will ever fade into forgetfulness when I
+read, again, the verses which paraphrase the title conferred by the bodies
+upon the Black watch--upon us!
+
+  There's a toss o' th' sporran,
+    A swing o' th' kilt,
+  A screech frae th' pipers
+    In blood-stirrin' lilt;
+  They step out together
+    As pibroch notes swell--
+  Oh, they're bonny, braw fighters,
+    "The ladies from Hell."
+
+  They're far frae th' heather
+    An' far frae th' moor;
+  As th' rocks o' their hillsides
+    Their faces are dour.
+  Oh, Th' Campbells are Comin'
+    Frae corrie an' fell--
+  What a thrill to their slogan!
+    These "Ladies from Hell."
+
+  As they charged at Culloden
+    Like fire o'er th' brae,
+  Their brothers are charging
+    In Flanders to-day.
+  One lesson in manners
+    The boche has learned well:
+  'Tis: Make way for the ladies--
+    "The Ladies from Hell."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+  THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
+  GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] Since my discharge and residence here in America, I have heard several
+other cases of this kind, but the one narrated above is the only one I
+actually came in contact with. THE AUTHOR.
+
+[2] This was Ned's individual experience. Prisoners in other hospitals and
+prison camps may have been allowed to write home even at that time. In
+talking to others I have learned that the prison camps in Germany vary a
+great deal.--THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "in in" corrected to "in" (page 33)
+  "sightest" corrected to "slightest" (page 211)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and
+hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Watch, by Scout Joe Cassells
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