e
everything, and feel certain that they will become the hub of the
universe one day. They prefer vegetable food to pork, and read Omar."

"Have you come through the calf-age?"

"Years ago! You'll come through, too, Pryor--"

A bullet struck the leg of my chair and carried away a splinter of
wood. I got to my feet hurriedly. "Those trenches seem quite a
distance away," I said, hoisting my chair and gripping the jar as I
moved off, "and we'll be safer when we're there."

All the way along we were sniped at, but we managed to get back (p. 109)
safely. Finding that our supply of coke ran out we used the chairs for
firewood.

CHAPTER VIII (p. 110)

TERRORS OF THE NIGHT

Buzz fly and gad fly, dragon fly and blue,
When you're in the trenches come and visit you,
They revel in your butter-dish and riot on your ham,
Drill upon the army cheese and loot the army jam.
They're with you in the dusk and the dawning and the noon,
They come in close formation, in column and platoon.
There's never zest like Tommy's zest when these have got to die:
For Tommy takes his puttees off and straffs the blooming fly.

"Some are afraid of one thing, and some are afraid of another," said
Stoner, perching himself on the banquette and looking through the
periscope at the enemy's lines. "For myself I don't like
shells--especially when in the open, even if they are bursting half a
mile away."

"Is that what you fear most?" I asked.

"No, the rifle bullet is a thing I dread; the saucy little beggar is
always on the go."

"What do you fear most, Goliath?" I asked the massive soldier who was
cleaning his bayonet with a strip of emery cloth.

"Bombs," said the giant, "especially the one I met in the trench (p. 111)
when I was going round the traverse. It lay on the floor in front of
me. I hardly knew what it was at first, but a kind of instinct told me
to stand and gaze at it. The Germans had just flung it into the trench
and there it lay, the bounder, making up its mind to explode. It was
looking at me, I could see its eyes--"

"Git out," said Bill, who was one of the party.

"Of course, you couldn't see the thing's eyes," said Goliath, "you
lack imagination. But I saw its eyes, and the left one was winking at
me. I almost turned to jelly with fear, and Lord knows how I got back
round the corner. I did, however, and then the bomb went bang! 'Twas
s