, "and a French battery coming up behind us, the horse kicked one
shell that we dropped, and I'm damned if it did na' explode and blaw the
puir beggars to the deil. By the Lord! They're doing gude work!" Good
work, indeed, Fritz, but your day is coming!

Next morning about ten o'clock we got a "Stand to!" as a bombardment had
begun and Fritz had started coming over. We stopped him, but no sooner
had we ceased firing than Kr-kr-kr-p! Kr-kr-kr-p! Bang! Bang! coming
down so fast that we made off for shelter at the cookhouse. While there,
Munsey thought he would like to have a look at the situation generally
in the surrounding country, through the medium of a hole in the side of
the cookhouse up near the roof and he hopped on top of a box and looked
out in the direction of Ypres. The most notable object there was the
town clock, and he had not been looking long before he noticed the hands
moving this way and that; he watched closely and then called, "Come
here, fellows, quick. Come and watch the clock!" We all jumped to a
point of vantage and watched, and in few minutes we were satisfied that
the shell fire that was raining upon us was being directed by the hands
of the clock. We observed that when the long hand moved right, the rain
of fire would increase; when it moved left, it decreased; each jump of
the hand five minutes meant 25 yards increase or decrease, as the case
might be. Every time the small hand moved one minute right, it meant
three yards right; two minutes, six yards, and so on; and the same if it
veered to the left. And when both hands turned at once to 12:00 o'clock
we deduced from their fire that some object was registered and when that
was done the large hand would go all the way around and the fire would
increase to a regular hurricane; if it went half way round, it would
decrease. The small hand going all the way round, the fire ceased.

We watched intently for some time, keeping our eyes glued on the
movement of the hands in conjunction with the fire, and then the matter
was phoned to headquarters. A result of their combination guns and
clockwork was the destruction of one of our pieces and two of the
French battery. Another battery observer had noticed the clockwork at
the same time that we were watching it, and the gendarmes were notified;
they made a trip to the top of the tower in double quick time, finding
there a man in a British uniform and one in French uniform; the man with
the British uniform