ten to the plaintive voice of Major Kemp:--

"I was once--only a few months ago--commander of a company of two
hundred and fifty disciplined soldiers. I still nominally command
that company, but they have developed into a heterogeneous mob of
specialists. If I detail one of my subalterns to do a job of work, he
reminds me that he is a bomb-expert, or a professor of sandbagging,
or director of the knuckle-duster section, or Lord High Thrower of
Stink-pots, and as such has no time to play about with such a
common thing as a platoon. As for the men, they simply laugh in the
sergeant-major's face. They are 'experts,' if you please, and are
struck off all fatigues and company duty! It was bad enough when
Ayling pinched fourteen of my best men for his filthy machine-guns;
now, the company has practically degenerated into an academy of
variety artists. The only occasion upon which I ever see them all
together is payday!"

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the word has just gone forth, quietly and without fuss,
that we are to uproot ourselves from our present billets, and be ready
to move at 5 A.M. to-morrow morning.

Is this the Big Push at last?

II

We have been waiting for the best part of two days and nights
listening to the thunder of the big guns, but as yet we have received
no invitation to "butt in."

"Plenty of time yet," explains Captain Blaikie to his subalterns, in
reply to Bobby Little's expressions of impatience. "It's this way. We
start by 'isolating' a section of the enemy's line, and pound it with
artillery for about forty-eight hours. Then the guns knock off, and
the people in front rush the German first-line trenches. After that
they push on to their second and third lines; and if they can capture
and _hold them_--well, that's where the fun comes in. We go for all we
are worth through the gaps the others have made, and carry on the big
push, and keep the Bosches on the run until they drop in their tracks!
That's the situation. If we are called up to-night or to-morrow, it
will mean that things are going well. If not, it means that the attack
has failed--or, very likely, has succeeded, but it has been found
impossible to secure the position--and a lot of good chaps have been
scuppered, all for nothing."

III

Next morning has arrived, and with it the news that our services
will not be required. The attack, it appears, was duly launched, and
succeeded beyond all expectations