on't I have to go up every night with the transport, and through that
barridge, too. This aint no 'safety first' job."

"I know, sergeant. I'm not sayin' you ain't at war. Believe me, I'd
rather be up front than to go up round Hell Fire Corner and come back
by the Menin Gate every night like you fellows. I ain't sayin' nothing
about that, but you don't see things that I see, and you don't get the
news same as I do. Now, about Jim Berry, you know, he was goin' to do
some snipin' in place of McCuaig, who went to the machine gun company."

"McCuaig, in the machine gun company! I never heard that."

"Well, that's what I'm sayin'," said Sergeant Matthews, "you don't get
some of the chances to get news down here, same as me. You see, when
we're sewin' up the boys and fixin' 'em up like, and when we're fixin'
up the graves and puttin' on the crosses, you get kind of thinkin' about
things, and kind of lonesome, and so the boys keep telling the news
to cheer themselves up, and that's how I heard about McCuaig. You see,
McCuaig was snipin' the first tour, and he's a killer, you bet, and he
had only cut three natches in his rifle. The boys say he had got four
of the Huns, but he had only put down three natches on his rifle to be
sure, and after he seen the machine gun work, stoppin' a raid, he comes
to the officer, and says he, givin' him his rifle: 'Say, this is all
right for sport, but it ain't good enough for killin' these devils. I'd
like to get on to your gang, if I can,' and they put him right onto the
machine gun. Say, he's sleepin' with that Lewis gun ever since. Just
pets it like a baby. What was I tellin' you? Oh, yes, about McCuaig and
Jim Berry. Well, he took McCuaig's place snipin' and a good sniper he
was too. He used to hunt, you know, up in the mountains with Jim Knight
every fall. Well, he started out snipin' the day after McCuaig quit, and
McCuaig gave him his rifle too, and took him up to the 'hide.' Well, big
Jim was always a careless cuss, you know. He gets his eye on the hole,
sightin' his rifle, and McCuaig was watchin' through one of them new
things--"

"Perry's scope."

"Yes, that's it, Paris cope. Them French is mighty smart fellows,
you bet. When along walks a Hun. 'There he comes!' sings out McCuaig.
'Didn't see him until he got past,' says Jim, pretty mad, because Jim
hated to show that he'd got 'buck fever,' or something, and waited for
the next. 'Here he comes!' says McCuaig, again. 'Bang!' goes