are prisoners, Sir. I am taking them back with me and
giving them a few minutes rest." I must say that I was greatly
relieved. I went on to the gun-pits just in front of the crassier, and
here the men were working hard. It was splendid to see their absolute
disregard of everything but their duty. I felt myself to be such a
slacker beside them, but I told them how gloriously they were carrying
on, and how their work was appreciated by the infantry. The night
began to wear away, and when I reached the gun-pits that were further
back it was broad daylight. In fact, I visited the last one at six
a.m. Some of the batteries had by this time ceased firing, and the (p. 201)
men had fallen asleep in all sorts of curious positions, ready to be
roused in an instant. Altogether, my guide and I visited forty-eight
gun-pits that night, and it was about seven o'clock when we returned
to Brigade Headquarters.

The next night the Germans sent over a rain of gas-shells on the
batteries, and the men at the guns found it impossible to see the
sights through the eye-pieces of their gas-helmets, and so chose to
face the poison unprotected rather than run the risk of injuring our
infantry by bad firing. There were of course heavy casualties among
the gunners as a result of this. Some died and many were badly gassed,
but the line was held.

As I was returning after spending the night at the gun-pits, I felt
terribly tired. The morning sun rose higher and higher, and beat down
with summer heat on my steel helmet as I made my way along the path
which skirted the town of Maroc. I sat down by the side of a trench to
have some breakfast, and opened a tin of milk and my tin of bully beef
and was just preparing to have a meal, when I must have fallen asleep
instantaneously. How long I slumbered I do not know, but when I woke
up I found, standing in front of me, three amused and puzzled Australian
tunnellers. When I fell asleep, I must have upset my breakfast, which
was lying at my feet, and the tunnellers were evidently enjoying what
they considered to be the discovery of a padre a little the worse for
wear. They were somewhat surprised, not to say disappointed, when I
woke up, and they said, "You seem to be very tired, Sir." I told them
that I had had very little sleep for several nights, and had been
walking all night long, winding up my story (for the honour of the
cloth) with the statement that I was a teetotaller. Whether they
believed it or