terribly.

"If I can only haul up high enough to get my knee on the first step
it'll be all right," he thought, when something scrunched immediately
underneath him, and he dangled motionless, as a brilliant star-shell
burst directly overhead, making everything around as bright as day.

* * * * *

Caught in the open by the sudden fire of uncountable machine-guns, the
2/12th Battalion of the Royal Reedshires had gone down like grass before
the scythe. Another fifty yards, and they would have reached the uncut
wire in front of that ruined building with the broken chimney shaft.

So close were they that the word was already given to divide and sweep
round the flank of the obstacle when cruel Fate said no; and as he lay
with three bullets through him, tears of rage and anger had dimmed the
keen eyes of their C.O. as he groped for his whistle and blew the
retire.

They had made a fine rush by successive waves across the open, taking
advantage of the tumbled ground to get close up to that seemingly
deserted brewery which had shown no sign of occupation, and from which
no shot had been fired. And then that thing had happened, and he blamed
himself as he sent the brave remnant scurrying back to the trench they
had captured, knowing that he should have rested content with his
capture and not been greedy for more.

He did not realise that he was badly wounded, and he did not care. It
was his own fault, and the tears in his eyes were for those khaki heaps
that lay to right and left of him. He even resisted three of the
survivors who ran to his help. They only grinned when he threatened them
with pains and penalties; and, picking him up, they had carried him in
under a murderous rain of bullets.

The battalion was barely half its strength when it reached the trench,
and it had all happened just as the dusk drew down on the land.

When they called the roll the voices of the company sergeants were
hoarse and shook with an odd quiver.

"Abbot, Anstey, Ashwell?" No answer. "Bellingham?"--"Here."
"Burton?"--"Just died, sergeant," somebody else replied. And so it went
on alphabetically from A to Z, and of the A's there were very few, and
of the Z's there were none.

A senior captain took over command, and word was sent back to the
brigadier.

"It's bad enough as it is, sergeant-major," said the senior captain.
"He'd better not be told just now that both his sons are among the
missing."

Late