s is that as far
as motive and endeavour went Samuel Pipston killed his first rat, and
gloried in the operation. Such is the effect of mistaking the thumb of
even our nearest and dearest for a ration biscuit. . . .

Thus ended the little episode of the German patrol. For months
previously those two men, or others like them, had wandered over No
Man's Land, and returned in due course to their sausage and their beer,
with nothing of interest to report. Then, as the invariable rule of
war, there came the hundredth time when the unexpected happened.
Shells, bombs, bullets--they take the others and pass you by. But
sooner or later, it will be "nah-poo." You can only pray Heaven it's a
Blighty. With the German patrol, it was not.

A whispered word came down the waiting line. "Get ready." All along
the bank men tightened their belts and took a last look at their bombs
and rifles. Two parties--each under a subaltern--were going to enter
the German lines, while, as a reserve, the Company Commander, with a
machine gun and some rifle grenadiers, _and_ Reginald Simpkins were
remaining at the bank. The two parties were going to enter at
different points and move towards one another, the leading men of each
ceaselessly calling out, "'Ow's yer father?" Then when the mystic
answer came, "Merry and bright," they would know they were meeting one
another and be careful with their bombs. _En passant_, it is not too
easy to recognise who's who at night in a strange trench when every one
is somewhat excited.

"Are you all ready, 'A' party? Then come on." Worming over the bank
Samuel followed his subaltern into the darkness, and the raid had
begun. Without a sound they approached the wire through which they had
to cut, crawling as they had practised. Timed to a nicety they reached
it and lay still, just as a couple of flashes from the rear proclaimed
the gunners were beginning. Five--six--seven seconds, and with a
shrill scream two shells whistled over their heads and burst fifty
yards in front of them.

"Come on." The whisper was hardly audible, and quite unnecessary: they
had all been too well drilled. Snip--snip; the wire strands parted as
they forced their way through to the silent lines, while the shells
still moaned over their heads; and the German sentries, who had heard
shells before and liked them no more than any one else, kept their
heads down till the English swine should have concluded their nightly
hate.