close as they could
stand to one another, the officers having the privilege of being able to
sit on their valises, which were piled unceremoniously on the deck.

Then when all were accounted for the mooring ropes were cast off, and
with no more ceremony than the tinkle of the ship's telegraph we slid
out of the harbour under cover of the scudding clouds.

But we were not alone. A long, lithe shape, strangely suggestive of a
greyhound, crept out of the darkness around us and came up alongside,
and a brief conversation, ending in "All right, full speed," was held.

The telegraph tinkled again and our ship bounded forward, leaving a long
trail of phosphorescent foam in her wake.

The sighing of the rigging in the wind, the slap-slap of the Channel
breakers at our sides, and the lashing "hish" of the spray across the
decks blended with, but did not break, our thoughts.

And the dark shapes of the destroyers and the other transports
momentarily revealed by gaps in the scudding clouds, the gleaming wake
of the ship, and the faint white of the life-belts, that showed dimly
where little groups of two or three stood or sat together, made a
fitting scene for such an orchestral accompaniment.

Thus we reached France.

There followed a long march through the darkened streets of Boulogne to
a camp on the Plains of St. Martin, not far from the tall column that
marks where Napoleon gathered his great army and waited for the time
that never came, when he would be master of that little strip of water
we had just crossed.

A drizzling rain had started, and the men had now been nearly eight
hours without food and practically a whole day without a proper meal. We
were able to draw bully beef and biscuit at once from the stores, but
the situation was really saved by the ladies at the Y.M.C.A. tent, who
supplied hot cocoa and cake to all who cared to apply. A nominal charge
of one penny was made to those who wished to pay, but no man was refused
because of his inability to find this sum, small as it was.

Only a small thing, you may think, but it is only the smallest part of
what this wonderful organisation is doing for the soldier at the front.

And a smile and a cup of coffee at 5 o'clock in the morning "look pretty
good to me," as one recipient expressed it.

We were held in camp all the following day and then, carrying two days'
rations, we entrained for the north. For a while we made vain attempts
to find our destination fro