eir overflow of
signallers. But at the last moment an Infantry brigade headquarters had
"commandeered" part of their accommodation, and they gave up the
dug-out that Hubbard and I had slept in, with the intimation that they
would want it on the morrow. As Hubbard had discovered that they were
in possession of four good dug-outs on the opposite side of the road,
he said we ought to be allowed to retain our solitary one. But no! they
stuck to their rights, and during the morning's battle a stream of
protesting officers came to interview Hubbard. Their orderly officer
was suave but anxious; their signalling officer admitted the previous
arrangement to share quarters; Hubbard remained firm, and said that if
the Infantry brigade had upset their arrangements, they themselves had
upset ours. I was too busy to enter at length into the argument, but I
agreed to send a waggon and horses to fetch material if they chose to
build a new place. When their adjutant came over and began to use
sarcasm, I referred the matter to our colonel, who decided, "Their
Division has sent us here. The dug-out is in our area. There is no
other accommodation. We shall keep it."

"Will you come over and see our colonel, sir?" asked the adjutant
persuasively.

"Certainly not," replied the colonel with some asperity.

The next arrivals were a gas officer and a tall ebullient Irish
doctor, who said that the dug-out had been prepared for them. Hubbard
conveyed our colonel's decision, and ten minutes later his servant
brought news that the doctor's servant had been into the dug-out and
replaced our kit by the doctor's.

Hubbard, smiling happily, slipped out of our gun-pit mess, and the next
item of news from this bit of front informed me that our valises had
been replaced and the doctor's kit put outside. Hubbard told me he had
informed the doctor and the gas officer that, our colonel having made
his decision, he was prepared to repeat the performance every time they
invaded the dug-out. "And I was ready to throw them after their kit if
necessary," he added, expanding his chest.

The upshot of it all was that our horses fetched fresh material, and we
helped to find the doctor and the gas officer a home.

The battle continued next day, our infantry nibbling their way into the
Boche defences and allowing him no rest. The artillery work was not so
strenuous as on the previous day, and Hubbard and I decided to dig a
dug-out for the colonel. It was bonny