ends; she must run down to the bottom of the orchard and watch
for a while the trout that lay in the little stream; she must laugh and
sing until the whole village of Silton knew that her waiting was over,
and that Ronald was in England again.

* * * * *

Captain Ronald Carr hoisted his pack on his shoulder, and turned to
three officers who were looking at him enviously. "Cheer oh, you
fellows," he said, "think of me in two days' time, while you are being
'strafed' by the Hun, rushing about town in a taxi," and, with a wave of
his hand, he marched off to battalion headquarters, followed by Butler,
his servant. From battalion headquarters he had a distance of two miles
to walk to the cross roads where he was to meet his groom with his
horse, but the day was hot and progress was rather slow. His first
quarter of a mile was along a narrow and winding communicating trench;
after that the way was along a hidden road, but huge shell craters all
along told that the German artillery had it well marked.

Away to the right a bombardment was in progress, and the dull thuds of
the guns came sleepily through the September haze; above him, a skylark
sang lustily; the long grass by the roadside smelt sweet and lush. As
Ronald Carr strode down the road, he laughed to himself at the fairness
of the world.

Of a sudden, a shell burst over some trees a few hundred yards away,
and, as the white smoke rolled away, he felt aware of a change.

Supposing he were to get wounded on the way down! With the next warning
whine of a coming shell he found himself ducking as never before, for
Captain Carr was not a man who often crouched for nothing.

Another shell came, and another, and with each his feeling grew. Just so
must a mouse feel, he thought, when a cat plays with it. He felt as
though he were at the mercy of an enormous giant, and that, each time he
thought to escape, the shadow of a huge hand fell on the ground around
him, and he knew that the hand above was waiting to crush him. At the
thought, the hair on his forehead grew damp; time after time he checked
his mad impulse to quicken his pace, and caught himself glancing
covertly at his servant to see if he noticed his captain's strange
behaviour. Suppose the hand should crush him before he could get back to
England, to his home, to his marriage!

Suddenly there were four short, loud hisses, and four shells burst along
the road close in front of them.