the frantic
excitement in the London clubs and the quiet villages when the relative
scoring merits of a Jaeger sharpshooter and a one-eyed Landsturmer were
sized up. Think of the Putney Peashooters' ladies meeting those of the
Shoreditch Snipers at a small and early, and counting up the bag: five
Saxons and a stretcher-bearer against four prisoners and a carrier
pigeon.

One might almost wind up with England versus Scotland, the winner to
play Australia on a percentage basis. In fact, there is no limit to
it; and I will cease, lest I get lost in a maze of wonderful
developments.

I will cease, and return to the Stick'ems; but as a last word I would
say, in all seriousness, that wildly farcical though that celebrated
utterance may be, there underlies it an absolutely true valuation of
the fundamental bed-rock of war. To emulate the deeds of others and go
one better, to put the men in good heart with their tails up, that is
the secret of winning. And the best way of doing it is to treat the
matter as a sport: the Englishman understands it that way best. . . .

VI

THE SECOND LESSON, AND SOME FURTHER SIDE-ISSUES

No Man's Land in that part of the line where the South Devons resided
was wide--well over a quarter of a mile to be exact. Across their
front, about a hundred and fifty yards from the German lines, there ran
a small bank two or three feet high, with its right resting on a main
road which crossed No Man's Land, and its left gradually falling away
till it came level with the ground. The remnants of a hedge and two or
three forlorn tree stumps still remained on the bank, over the top of
which could be seen the German wire--running round a small orchard in
which lay their front line trenches. The locality was peaceful; the
Hun was quiet, asking for nothing more than that he should be left
alone, which undoubtedly made Toby Seymour's breach of the rules the
more reprehensible from the exclusively Teuton point of view. They
were extremely angry; in fact, one large prisoner went so far as to
state that it was a barbarous method of fighting, and unheard of in
civilised warfare. The suggestion that he should be kept as the
battalion mascot and supply the comic relief at all subsequent smoking
concerts, unfortunately fell through. Other "non-barbarians" who
escaped joining him in captivity emulated his altruistic spirit by
informing the South Devons daily from a position where the lines ran
close tog