the Western
fighting ground as he told it to me the day he returned to London:--

"'Four days!' said I to myself. 'Not very long in which to get a real
taste of the World War on land.' However, the morning after I had
received 'leave' I departed from London in an automobile and as we sped
through the country there seemed, at first, to be little to remind us
that England was at war--except, perhaps, the many busy persons on all
farms and fields. Finally, we came across a mobile air-station on which
were two aeroplanes with folded wings. It was something which made you
think.

"In a South Coast port, however, there was military activity everywhere.
On the waters, far out from the harbour, which one imagines as denuded
of craft, I saw dozens of ships. There were large and small tramps,
mine-sweepers, and trawlers, and you were fascinated by the sight.
There was a dread lest one of them might disappear through a mine or a
torpedo any instant.

"Thousands of soldiers were at the dock, waiting to embark on ships for
France. A couple of thousand of them belonged to the Scotch Labour
Battalion, ready for work with pick and shovel. Their speech was almost
like a foreign language as they 'Jock'd' and 'Donal'd,' joked and sang,
when they swung aboard the vessel in single file.

"There was no waving of handkerchiefs and no shouting good-byes when the
black-and-tan craft was ready to leave. The skipper was on the bridge.
He looked down at an officer ashore, nodded his head, and the other
returned the nod. Hawsers were instantly slipped, and the steamer
skipped away from the British port on the minute, and soon met her
escort--destroyers, out of sight not long since, now ready for their
job. These slender speedsters of the sea never stop; so everything must
be done according to schedule. Four of the destroyers surrounded us as
we ploughed through the water.

"From the bridge came the order for every soul aboard to put on a
life-belt, and our friends from Scotland hastened aft to obtain the
equipment, scurrying and bustling about the damp cabin for the best
belts.

"Half-way across the straits we met the opposite number vessel to ours.
She had an escort of three warships, so that for a flash there were
seven destroyers on the breast of that water. But it was not for long. A
swish, and they were nearer England and we nearer France, they getting
some of our smoke and we some of theirs. Steamers go into the French
port stern firs