h describes the
circumstances under which it was written:--

"I write this from the stone floor of an outhouse, where the pig meal
is first accumulated and then boiled up at a particularly smelly
French farm, which is saying a good deal. It is a most interesting
life, and if I come through the present unpleasantness I shall
have enough copy to last me twenty years. Meanwhile, I am using
_Blackwood's Magazine_ as a safety-valve under a pseudonym."

It is these "safety-valve" papers that are here offered to the
American public in their completeness,--a picture of the great
struggle uniquely rich in graphic human detail.

4 PARK STREET

CONTENTS

BOOK ONE
BLANK CARTRIDGES

I. AB OVO
II. THE DAILY GRIND
III. GROWING PAINS
IV. THE CONVERSION OF PRIVATE M'SLATTERY
V. "CRIME"
VI. THE LAWS OF THE MEDES AND PERSIANS
VII. SHOOTING STRAIGHT
VIII. BILLETS
IX. MID-CHANNEL
X. DEEDS OF DARKNESS
XI. OLYMPUS
XII. ... AND SOME FELL BY THE WAYSIDE
XIII. CONCERT PITCH

BOOK TWO
LIVE ROUNDS

XIV. THE BACK OF THE FRONT
XV. IN THE TRENCHES--AN OFF-DAY
XVI. "DIRTY WORK AT THE CROSS-ROADS TO-NIGHT"
XVII. THE NEW WARFARE
XVIII. THE FRONT OF THE FRONT
XIX. THE TRIVIAL ROUND
XX. THE GATHERING OF THE EAGLES
XXI. THE BATTLE OF THE SLAG-HEAPS

"K(1)"

_We do not deem ourselves A 1,
We have no past: we cut no dash:
Nor hope, when launched against the Hun,
To raise a more than moderate splash.

But yesterday, we said farewell
To plough; to pit; to dock; to mill.
For glory_? Drop it! _Why? Oh, well--
To have a slap at Kaiser Bill.

And now to-day has come along.
With rifle, haversack, and pack,
We're off, a hundred thousand strong.
And--some of us will not come back.

But all we ask, if that befall,
Is this. Within your hearts be writ
This single-line memorial_:--
He did his duty--and his bit!

NOTE

The reader is hereby cautioned against regarding this narrative as an
official history of the Great War.

The following pages are merely a record of some of the personal
adventures of a typical regiment of Kitchener's Army.

The chapters were written from day to day, and published from month to
month. Consequently, prophecy is occasionally falsified, and opinions
moderated, in subsequent pages.

The characters are entirely fictitious, but the incidents described
all actually occurred.

BOOK ONE

BLANK C