e Head-quarters.

"Saw 'em getting over the top, sir. Then they got into the smoke and
we lost 'em. Like a witches' cauldron."

"We shan't hear anything for two hours." The General thoughtfully
knocked the ashes out of his pipe. They were his men who had gone into
that witches' cauldron; with them daily he lived and daily died. Their
Dream's End was his too. But--a sense of proportion, always. "We
might as well have lunch," he remarked casually.

Gradually the bombardment died away, though from time to time the guns
burst into sullen mutterings, as though hungry at being baulked of
their food.

The same old aeroplanes--or different ones--buzzed busily about; the
same old stoical balloons looked more rash-like than ever.

And then suddenly outside the brigade office there was a stir.

A runner had hove in sight, and the signal officer emerged to get his
tidings.

"Good," he muttered to himself; "the old man will be pleased." He went
into the General's dug-out.

"Message just through, sir, from C.O. South Loamshires: 'Objectives
obtained. A.A.A. Situation on right somewhere obscure. A.A.A.
Estimated casualties 200 all ranks. A.A.A. Will be consolidated
to-night. A.A.A.'"

The "old man" _was_ pleased.

And so, on the afternoon of the 21st, we gained a small local success.
We advanced our line on a front of six hundred yards over an average
depth of a quarter of a mile, etc., etc.

It wasn't much, my friends at home; but--that runner will run no more,
and some eighty odd of that odd two hundred have cooked their last
ration of bacon. Their "Why?" is answered.

No, it wasn't much; but it wasn't--nothing.

III

THE MAN-TRAP

Should you, in the course of your wanderings, ever run across
Brigadier-General Herbert Firebrace, do not ask him if he knows Percy
FitzPercy. The warning is probably quite unnecessary: not knowing
FitzP. yourself, the question is hardly likely to occur to you. But I
mention it in case. One never knows, and Herbert will not be
prejudiced in your favour if you do.

As far as I know, the story of their first--and last--meeting has never
yet been told to the world at large. It is a harrowing tale, and it
found no place in official _communiques_. Just one of those
regrettable incidents that fade into the limbo of forgotten things, it
served as a topic of conversation to certain ribald subalterns, and
then it gradually disappeared into obscurity along with Perc