r appendicitis had been
successfully performed by the handy men up at the H.Q. of the Troop
Supply Column, stood at the door. I held out my hand to Sykes, who was
in the act of saluting; he took it with some hesitation, and then gave
me a grip that paralysed it for about a quarter of an hour.

"If you be coming back again, will you ask for me to be de-tailed to
you, sir? My number is ----. Sergeant Pope at the Infantry Barracks sees
to them things, sir."

I nodded.

"Bon voyage, monsieur," cried Madame in a shrill voice.

"Bon voyage," echoed Jeanne.

I waved my hand, and the next moment I had seen the last of two noble
women who had never looked upon me except with kindness, and who, from
my rising up till my lying down, had ministered to me with unfailing
solicitude.

* * * * *

At the Base I boarded the leave-boat. Several officers were already on
board, their boots still bearing the mud of Flanders upon them. It was
squally weather, and as we headed for the open sea I saw a dark object
gambolling upon the waves with the fluency of a porpoise. A sailor
stopped near me and passed the time of day.

"Had any trouble with German submarines?" I asked.

"Only once, sir. A torpedo missed us by 'bout a hund-erd yards."

"Only once! How's that?"

For answer the sailor removed a quid of tobacco from one cheek to the
other by a surprisingly alert act of stowage and nodded in the direction
of the dark object whose outlines were now plain and salient. It was
riding the sea like a cork.

"Them," he said briefly. It was a t.b.d.

At the port of our arrival the sheep were segregated from the goats. The
unofficial people formed a long queue to go through the smoking-room,
where two quiet men awaited them, one of whom, I believe, always says,
"Take your hat off," looks into the pupil of your eyes, and lingers
lovingly over your pulse; the other, as though anxious to oblige you,
says, "Any letters to post?" But his inquiries are not so disinterested
as they would seem.

The rest of us, being highly favoured persons, got off without ceremony,
and made for the Pullman. As the train drew out of the station and
gathered speed I looked out upon the countryside as it raced past us.
England! Past weald and down, past field and hedgerow, croft and
orchard, cottage and mansion, now over the chalk with its spinneys of
beech and fir, now over the clay with its forests of oak and elm. The
friends o