ht and on your left. Still we
have stuck so far, and we must stick to the end. Still, from a
military standpoint," and here the sergeant spoke judicially, "our
holding Wipers is a bad policy. You see, it's a salient and the
Germans guns are all around us; but if we made a straight line we
should give them Wipers, and that would have a bad effect. Just look
in here," and he pointed to a house, the front of which was completely
blown away, but the rest of which remained comparatively intact.

"There's the room just as those poor blighters of Belgians left it,"
continued the sergeant. "See the baby's shoes, and the kiddy's dress?
There are one or two pictures on the wall, not of much value, or those
blooming souvenir-hunters would have got 'em."

"Do you think we shall lick 'em?" asked Tom.

"Lick 'em! Of course we shall," said the sergeant, who had served
nearly twenty years in the Army. "Mind you, it will be no easy job.
Up to now they have had the upper hand of us, both in men and
munitions; but we are gaining on 'em now. What I can't stand is those
blooming swipes, those shirkers who sit at home and who call themselves
men. I tell you I'm for conscription out and out. This is no job to
be played with; if we don't put forth our strength we can't beat 'em.
But just think of those swine, who read the papers and talk about
beating the Germans, who strut about with their patent-leather boots
and fine clothes, and try to make out that they are gentlemen, but who
won't face the music; that's what sickens me. Who are we fighting for,
I should like to know? We are fighting for them, and for our women,
and for the old country. They think they can stop at home and
criticise, and then when we have done the work, share the benefits.
Great God!"--and here the sergeant indulged in some unprintable
language--"I would like to get hold of them."

"Isn't it dangerous here?" asked Tom, as another shrieking shell passed
over their heads.

"Not just now," replied the other; "their shells are falling on the
other side of the town. Of course," he added casually, "they may fall
here any moment."

"I asked you just now," said Tom, "whether you hated the Germans?"

"Yes, you did," replied the sergeant, "and I went off on another tack.
Hate 'em? Well, it's this way. At the beginning I don't know that I
hated 'em so much. Yes, what you call Belgian atrocities were hellish;
but 'twasn't that, and as long as they fought fair