s are told of escapes from these dangerous brutes. A
senior officer of notoriously full habit of body, having attracted the
attention of several immense specimens, was by them surrounded in his
office, and rescued only just in time by the gallant efforts of an
allied fatigue party which the besieged officer had the presence of mind
to detail over the telephone. While awaiting (or pending) their arrival
he passed through a period of mental agony (which has left unmistakable
marks upon him) as he listened to the roar of their wings and the
crunching of their fangs upon the outer timbers, or fixed his fascinated
gaze upon the sweep, of their antennae under the front door, where they
were trying for a purchase in order to force an entry.

On another occasion a patrol which was attacked by a large swarm was
only saved by the _savoir faire_ of its commander, who ordered his men
each to ward off the rush of the hungry insects with a ration biscuit
held out to them at arm's length. In their impetuous ferocity the
creatures blindly snapped at the biscuits, with the result foreseen by
the experienced leader; the swarm, with every appearance of complete
demoralisation, broke and fled, several being weakened by the fracture
of their mandibles and falling an easy prey to the bayonets of the
exultant patrol.

With its naturally ardent temperament irritated by months of bitter
cold, its constitutional hunger aggravated by a prolonged fast, its
appetite tempted by a novel diet in the form of British soldiery
well-washed and firm-fleshed after years of Army rations, the North
Russian mosquito is likely, in the opinion of experts, to take a high
place among the more deadly horrors of war.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Sergeant_. "NOW THEN, ARE YOU THE FOUR MEN WITH A
KNOWLEDGE OF MUSIC I WAS ASKING FOR?"

_Chorus_. "YES, SERGEANT."

_Sergeant_. "RIGHT. PARADE OFFICERS' MESS 11.30 TO MOVE GRAND PIANO TO
MARQUEE--DISTANCE 500 YARDS--FOR CONCERT THIS EVENING." ]

* * * * *

OUR BOOKING-OFFICE.

_(By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks.)_

That audacious paraphrase of the Book of Job, _The Undying Fire_
(CASSELL), seems to me to be marred by a fundamentally false note. I am
sure that Mr. WELLS is as serious about his new God in the Heart of
Man as he was about the Invisible King--I've no sort of intention of
sneering--but I cannot credit him with belief in the Adversary,