hite house at the corner. "The Boche gave us no rest at
all last night," he went on. "He'd got two fresh divisions opposite us,
and shoved up thousands of men after ten o'clock. We killed hundreds
of 'em, but there was no stopping them. And aren't they hot with the
machine-gun? They must have been specially trained for this sort of
warfare. They snipe you at 700 yards as if the machine-gun were a
rifle, and their infantry hasn't needed a barrage to prepare the way.
There's so many of 'em."

I trotted on, and at the top of the street leading out of the village
recognised a mounted orderly of the battery I had belonged to before
coming to Brigade Headquarters. He was riding hard, but pulled up when
he saw me and handed me a note, saying, "Major Bartlett sent me with
this to Brigade Headquarters, sir."

I recognised the brigade-major's handwriting on an ordinary Army
message form. It was a note stating that we were to remain in support
of the French after our own divisional infantry had fallen back, but
that the French Divisional General hoped to relieve our artillery by 9
A.M. We were to fire on certain points until that hour, and then
withdraw to a village still farther south-west, and again co-operate
with our own infantry.

"Do you know if Major Bartlett read this?" I asked.

"Yes, sir; I saw him read it."

"Is the battery in action?"

"Yes, sir; they were firing when I came away."

Good! I knew then that Major Bartlett, on his own initiative, was
acting on the instructions contained in the brigade-major's note, and
that the other batteries would not be delayed in getting into action if
I sent the note direct to the colonel.

I took the orderly another quarter of a mile along the road, so that
he could point out the nearest way to Major Bartlett's battery; and
then told my groom to take him direct to the colonel, after which the
pair of them would rejoin me.

I found the major in good fettle, and, as I had guessed, blazing off at
the targets given by the B.M. As also he had passed on the orders to B
Battery, who were three hundred yards away, we at any rate had two
batteries in action. He explained to me that the Division
despatch-rider had somehow failed to find Brigade Headquarters, but had
come across him. He had got his battery into position at about two
o'clock, and they had dossed down beside the guns.

The major didn't know the whereabouts of D and A Batteries, so I got on
my horse again and searche