lonel returned. We lunched. Afterwards the
colonel removed his jacket, did a bit of sawing, and directed the
wheeler and his party in the task of boarding-in our gun-pit mess, so
as to leave it no longer exposed to wind and rain on two sides.
Hubbard, who was proud of his strength, climbed on top and pulled and
shifted the three six-inch girders to more suitable positions. I took a
turn with pick and shovel in the improvement of the colonel's dug-out.
The dog had not come back. One of the orderlies thought he had seen him
running along with the officers who had called before lunch.

About half-past three the brigade-major called for our 18-pounders to
drive off another Boche wave with a half-hour's shower of shrapnel; he
also wanted our how. battery to devote itself to Sart Farm and Holland
Post, which forward observers reported to be little strongholds of
enemy trench-mortars and machine-guns. Still no sign of "Ernest." The
mess-cart arrived at five o'clock, and as a last resource I scribbled a
note to the doctor, who was as fond of the dog as any of us, describing
the titled staff captain, and urging him to scour the countryside
until he struck a trail that would lead to "Ernest's" recovery.

At 7.30 P.M. an S.O.S. call, telephoned by Drysdale, who was doing
liaison with the --th Infantry Brigade, showed how desperately the
Boche was contesting the occupation of the strong points on this
portion of the front, although a Corps Intelligence Summary, delivered
about the same time, told us that 60 officers and 2315 other ranks,
wounded and unwounded, had passed through the Corps prisoners of war
cages since 6 A.M. the day before, and that the strength of the average
Hun infantry company had been reduced to 60 rifles.

As the colonel, Hubbard, and myself sat down to dinner, the following
message was handed to me:--

"Wire has been laid out to O.P. at F 16 c 42 by B and C
Batteries. The contours on the small paper 1/20,000 map are not
correct in this neighbourhood. New zero line was registered on
Tombois Farm."

"Yes, I've already warned the batteries that the special maps are not
reliable," commented the colonel.

The end of the day found our infantry in possession of most of the
strong points they had striven to seize, but at a heavy cost. And all
through the night our batteries poured forth fierce deadly fire to
harass and nullify Hun efforts to loosen our grip.

It was the same sort of warfare ne