ay, he wur a grand man, never thinking of hisself but only
of us humble chaps--he said, 'Now for it, lads,' and we advances in
'stended order. We wur several yards apart, just loike we was when a
section of us recruits wur put through platoon drill, when I fust jined
the Army an' sergeant made us drill with skipping-ropes a-stretched out
so as to get the spaces. And there wur a machine-gun in that there
house--you know how they sputters. It cut down us poor chaps loike a
reaper. Jacob Scaplehorn wur nex' me and I 'eerd 'un say 'O Christ
Jesus' as 'e went over like a rabbit and 'e never said no more. 'E wur a
good man, wur Scaplehorn"--he added musingly--"and 'e did good things.
And some chaps wur down and dragging their legs as if they did'n b'long
to 'em. I sort o' saw all that wi'out seeing it, in a manner o' spaking;
'twere only arterwards it did come back to me. There warn't no time to
think. And by the toime we got to thic house there were only 'bout
vifteen on us left. We had to scrouge our way in through the buttry
winder and we 'eerd a girt caddle inside, sort o' scuffling; 'twere the
Germans makin' for the cellar. And our Capt'n posted some on us at top
of cellar steps and led the rest on us up the stairs to a kind o' tallet
where thuck machine-gun was. And what d'ye think we found, sir?" he
said, raising himself on his elbow.

"What?"

"There was a poor girl there--half daft she wur--wi' nothing on but a
man's overcoat. And she rushed out avore us on the landing and began
hammering with her hands against a bedroom door and it wur locked. We
smashed 'en in wi' our rifle-butts, and God's mercy! we found a poor
woman there, her mother seemingly, with her breast all bloody an' her
clothes torn. I could'n mak' out what 'er wur saying but Capt'n 'e told
us as the Germans 'ad ravished her. We used our field-dressings and
tried to make the poor soul comfortable and Capt'n 'e sent a volunteer
back for stretcher-bearers."

"And what about the Germans?" I asked.

"Ah, I be coming to that, zur. Capt'n says, 'Now, men, we're going to
reckon with those devils down below.' And we went downstairs and he
stood at top of cellar-steps, 'twere mortal dark, an' says, 'Come on up
out o' that there.' And they never answered a word, but we could 'ear
'em breathing hard. We did'n know how many there were and the cellar
steps were main narrow, as narrow as th' opening in that tent over
there. So Capt'n 'e says, 'Fetch me some straw