lung into the trench and woke us up like
an electric thrill. True we did not believe it at first, there (p. 247)
are so many practical jokers in our ranks. Such an insane order! Had
the head of affairs gone suddenly mad that such an order was issued.
"All men get ready for a bath. Towels and soap are to be carried!!!"

"Where are we going to bathe?" I asked the platoon sergeant.

"In the village at the rear," he answered.

"There's nobody there, nothing but battered houses," I answered. "And
the place gets shelled daily."

"That doesn't matter," said the platoon sergeant. "There's going to be
a bath and a jolly good one for all. Hot water."

We went out to the village at the rear, the Village of Shattered
Homes, which were bunched together under the wall of a rather
pretentious villa that had so far suffered very little from the
effects of the German artillery. As yet the roof and windows were all
that were damaged, the roof was blown in and the window glass was
smashed to pieces.

We got a good bath, a cold spray whizzed from the nozzle of a
serpentine hose, and a share of underclothing. The last we needed
badly for the chalk trenches were very verminous. We went back (p. 248)
clean and wholesome, the bath put new life into us.

That same evening, what time the star-shells began to flare and the
flashes of the guns could be seen on the hills of Lorette, two of our
men got done to death in their dug-out. A shell hit the roof and
smashed the pit-props down on top of the two soldiers. Death was
instantaneous in both cases.

CHAPTER XVIII (p. 249)

THE COVERING PARTY

Along the road in the evening the brown battalions wind,
With the trenches threat of death before, the peaceful homes behind;
And luck is with you or luck is not, as the ticket of fate is drawn,
The boys go up to the trench at dusk, but who will come back at dawn?

The darkness clung close to the ground, the spinney between our lines
was a bulk of shadow thinning out near the stars. A light breeze
scampered along the floor of the trench and seemed to be chasing
something. The night was raw and making for rain; at midnight when my
hour of guard came to an end I went to my dug-out, the spacious
construction, roofed with long wooden beams heaped with sandbags,
which was built by the French in the winter season, what time men were
apt to erect substantial shelters, and know