[Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y._
A TANK BRINGING IN A CAPTURED GERMAN GUN UNDER PROTECTION OF
CAMOUFLAGE]

Brigade Headquarters, where McKnutt reported, was full of expectancy.
Messages were pouring in over the wires. The men at the telephones
were dead beat, but cool and collected.

"Any news of the other 'busses?" McKnutt asked eagerly. The Buzzers
shook their heads wearily. He rushed up to a couple of men who were
being carried to a dressing-station.

"Do you fellows know how the tanks made out?" he asked.

One of them had seen two of the machines on the other side of the
German line, he said. In answer to the questions which were fired at
him he could only say that the tanks had pushed on beyond the German
front line.

Then on the top of the hill, against the sky-line, they saw a little
group of three or four men. James recognized them.

"Why, there's Sergeant Browning and Mr. Borwick, sir," he said.
"What's happened to their tank, I wonder?" He and McKnutt hurried over
to meet them.

Borwick smiled coolly.

"Hullo!" he said in his casual manner.

"What's happened to your 'bus?" "What did you do?" was fired at him.

"We got stuck in the German wire, and the infantry got ahead of us,"
he said. "We pushed on, and fell into a nest of three machine guns.
They couldn't hurt us, of course, and the Boches finally ran away. We
knocked out about ten of them, and just as we were going on and were
already moving, we suddenly started twisting around in circles. What
do you think had happened? A trench mortar had got us full in one of
our tracks, and the beastly thing broke. So we all tumbled out and
left her there."

"Didn't you go on with the infantry?" asked McKnutt.

"No. They'd reached their objective by that time," Borwick replied,
"so we saved the tank guns, and I pinched the clock. Then we strolled
back, and here we are," he concluded.

Talbot joined the group as he finished.

"But where's the rest of your crew?" he asked.

Borwick said quietly: "Jameson and Corporal Fiske got knocked out
coming back." He lit a cigarette and puffed at it.

There was silence for a moment.

Then Talbot said, "Bad luck; have you got their pay-books?"

"No, I forgot them," Borwick answered.

But his Sergeant handed over the little brown books which were the
only tangible remains of two men who had gone into action that
morning. The pay-books contained two or three pages on which