ond box the major and the adjutant
seized some biscuits and munched happily and voraciously. "You devils,"
said the major, grinning reproachfully at Wilde and myself, "I bet you
had whiskies-and-sodas at the waggon line. Why were you so long?"

We didn't go into full explanations then, and I must confess that when
the major, in his haste, knocked the bottle of white wine off the table
and smashed it, Wilde and myself could scarcely forbear a chuckle. That
ought, of course, to be the climax of the story; but it wasn't. I had
put two bottles of the major's white wine into the mess cart, so the
concluding note was one of content. Also I might add, Stenson called
upon us to say that A Battery's mess cart had failed to arrive, and
four foodless officers asked us to have pity upon them. So A Battery
received a loaf and a big slab of the truly excellent piece of bully, a
special kind that Meddings had obtained in some mysterious fashion from
a field ambulance that was making a hurried move. "You two fellows have
earned your supper," said the now peaceful major to Wilde and myself.
"I didn't think you were going to have so trying a journey." We ate
bully sandwiches solidly until 1 A.M. Then the major and the adjutant
descended to their little room below ground. I glanced through 'The
Times,' and then Wilde and myself found a restful bed upon the
shavings. The cook and the servants had gone back to the Nissen hut.

The major's last words as he fell asleep were, "I've to be at the --th
Infantry Brigade Headquarters at 4.45 in the morning. I think I'll take
the adjutant with me.... No,"--sleepily,--"you'd better come, Wilde."

At 4 A.M., when the major's servant woke us, the major called up the
stairs to me, "I think, after all, you'd better come with me." As I had
not removed my boots, it didn't take me long to be up and ready.

Before we were fifty yards from the hut the major and I shared in one
of the narrowest escapes that have befallen me in France. We heard the
shell coming just in time to crouch. According to Meddings, who stood
in the doorway of the hut, it fell ten yards from us. Smothered with
earth, we moved forward rapidly immediately we regained our feet.

"We shall be right for the rest of the day after that," panted the
major. "The --th Brigade are in the bank along the road from Leuze Wood
to Combles," he added, reading from a message form. As we left the
dewy grass land and got on to the road that led through