that was all I cared
about. But when they got using that poisonous gas they came it a bit
too strong. No, lad, I never hated 'em till then. But when they used
that stuff and laughed about it, ay, and laughed to see our poor chaps
writhing in agony, I felt I must kill every German I saw. Of course,
we've got over it now a bit, and we're all supplied with helmets, but
when they used it first we had simply nothing to defend us. Yes, I
have done some rough bits of work in my time, but I never met with
anything like that. When you see your own pals getting bluer and bluer
in the face, and coughing and gasping, oh, I tell you it made us mad!
We didn't feel like showing any mercy after that. Besides, they have
no sense of fair play, the swipes. I was in a scrap once, and after a
hard tussle, and after losing lots of men, a lot of Germans held up
their hands and shouted, 'We surrender.' Our officer, a young chap new
to the job, and knowing nothing of their tricks, instead of telling
them to come to us, told us to go to them, they holding up their hands
all the time; but no sooner did we get near them than they up with
their pistols and shot two of our chaps. They thought our officer was
going to take it lying down, and when they were taken prisoners they
laughed and said everything was fair in war; but our young officer saw
red, and he said 'No, my lads, you are going to kingdom come.' 'What!'
shrieked those German swine, 'will you kill men after they have
surrendered?' 'You are not men,' said the lieutenant; 'men don't shoot
after they've surrendered--only Germans do that."

"And then?" asked Tom, "then----"

"Ah well," replied the sergeant grimly, "there were no questions asked
in the morning."

"Great God!" said Tom, "what a ghastly thing war is!"

"Wait till you have seen it, my lad," replied the sergeant.

For some weeks Tom was in the neighbourhood of Ypres without taking any
part in the righting. During that time he got accustomed to the
constant booming of the guns, and to the fact that any moment a shell
might fall near him and blow him into eternity. On more than one
occasion, too, he roamed around the ruins of Ypres; and while he could
not be called an imaginative lad he could not help being impressed by
the ghastly desolation of this one-time beautiful city. In many of the
streets not one stone was left upon another, not one of the inhabitants
who had formerly lived there remained; all had fled;