assed soldiers coming through. Their faces were
green and blue, and their uniform a funny colour. I didn't know what was
the matter with 'em, and that put the wind up, for I didn't want to look
like that. We could hear a gaudy rumpus in the Salient. The civvies were
frightened, but they stuck to their homes. Nothing was happening there
then, and while nothing is happening it's hard to believe it's going to.
After seeing a Zouave crawl by with his tongue hanging out, and his face
the colour of a mottled cucumber, I said good-bye to the little girl
where I was. It was time to see about it.

"And fact is, I didn't 'ave much time to think about it, what with
gettin' men out and gettin' reinforcements in. Trip after trip.

"But I shall never have a night again like that one. Believe me, it was
a howler. I steered the old 'bus, but it was done right by accident. It
was certainly touch and go. I shouldn't 'ave thought a country town, even
in war, could look like Wipers did that night.

"It was gettin' dark on my last trip, and we barged into all the world
gettin' out. And the guns and reinforcements were comin' up behind me.
There's no other road out or in, as you know. I forgot to tell you that
night comin' on didn't matter much, because the place was alight. The sky
was full of shrapnel, and the high-explosives were falling in the houses
on fire, and spreading the red stuff like fireworks. The gun ahead of me
went over a child, but only its mother and me saw that, and a house in
flames ahead of the gun got a shell inside it, and fell on the crowd that
was mixed up with the army traffic.

"When I got to a side turning I 'opped off to see how my little lady was
getting on. A shell had got 'er estaminet. The curtains were flying in
little flames through the place where the windows used to be. Inside, the
counter was upside down, and she was laying with glass and bottles on the
floor. I couldn't do anything for her. And further up the street my
headquarters was a heap of bricks, and the houses on both sides of it on
fire. No good looking there for any more orders.

"Being left to myself, I began to take notice. While you're on the job
you just do it, and don't see much of anything else except out of the
corner of the eye. I've never 'eard such a row--shells bursting, houses
falling, and the place was foggy with smoke, and men you couldn't see
were shouting, and the women and children, wherever they were, turning
you cold to