Why do we stay here like this?"

He spoke to the sergeant who had given him a description of the first
battle of Ypres some time before. The sergeant was comparatively cool;
he had been through it before.

"It's nothing to you whether we are doing anything or not," replied the
sergeant, "besides, don't be a fool; our guns are giving them as hot a
time as their guns are giving us. Don't lose your head."

"I wouldn't mind if I could do something," said the poor boy, trembling.

"Do! Unless I'm mistaken there will be enough for us all to do very
soon. There! firing has ceased! Look out!"

It was as the sergeant said; almost suddenly there was a calm, and a
few seconds later Tom heard a command which made his knees knock
together.

What happened after that Tom could never describe; even if he could, he
would not have done so. As he has said to me more than once, "It was
not something to talk about, it was a matter of bayonet work; it was
fighting face to face, steel to steel."

Tom didn't feel fear now; all that was gone. His muscles were hard,
his thoughts were tense, he saw red! Presently he had a conviction
that we were gaining ground, and he suddenly became aware of the fact
that we had gained the better of the situation and had returned to our
trenches. A number of the enemy had been taken prisoners, and the plot
which the Germans had hatched had come to nothing. Immediately
afterwards something happened which Tom never forgot. A German officer
lay wounded some little distance from the trench which the English had
taken, and piteously cried for help.

"Which of you chaps will volunteer to go and fetch him in?" cried a
young officer whose bravery that day had been the talk of all the men.

Each looked to the other as if for response; they were dazed and
bewildered by all they had gone through.

"I say," said another officer, "you can't expect any of the chaps to do
that. Directly the Huns see any one going to him they will shoot him.
Besides, he may be nearly dead; better put an end to him."

"But hear how he groans!" cried the young fellow. "There, I'll do it."

He leapt from the trench and rushed along the intervening space for
perhaps about fifty yards; then lifting the German officer bodily, he
brought him back to safety.

"I am parched--parched!" cried the German, as if in agony, "give me
water." The young Englishman got a cup of water and held it to the
German's lips, but even as he