had to be reached as soon as possible.

He found them lined up behind a small bank, waiting for orders to
reinforce the first line. Taking his glasses out of their case, he
crawled forward to have a look at the position for himself. The Platoon
in front was established behind a mud bank, firing occasional shots at
the enemy, who appeared to have dug himself in behind a railway cutting
at least five hundred yards distant. Although bullets were humming
pretty thickly through the air, the casualties on the British side so
far were only two or three men slightly wounded. They had orders to
"hang on" to that position until the centre and right should be
sufficiently strengthened for the main attack to materialise, when they
were to push on as best they might. Having learnt this, the Subaltern
crawled back, and sent out three men "to establish touch" with the front
Platoon.

An hour passed before anything further happened. During that time the
Platoon Sergeant told him of the great difficulty they had had in
reaching this advanced position at all, as they had been shelled from
the front by the enemy, and from the left by their own batteries.
Accidents such as this often happened, and the artillery were not really
as culpable as would at first sight appear. Advanced-guard actions
materialised so suddenly, and situations changed so quickly, that it was
not always possible to circulate precise orders. The gunners' ideas of
the relative positions seemed to be, during the opening stages of the
attack, rather hazy--a fact that was very much resented by the men. "We
ain't come out 'ere to be targets to them ruddy gunners," one fellow
grumbled.

Soon, however, things straightened out, and in an hour's time the
various movements preparatory to the attack had been completed. The
enemy, seeing that he was almost surrounded, and that it would be
impossible to extricate the greater part of his command from the battle,
resolved at least to save his guns, which were accordingly withdrawn.

When at length the Subaltern's Platoon pushed forward in the wake of
the leading Platoon, no less a personage appeared unaccountably on the
scene than the Colonel. He had thrown off the worried look that had been
growing on him of late. Some of the officers, too junior to understand
how uneasy lies the head that is crowned with the responsibility for
many lives, had been heard to say that the Colonel's manner and general
outlook upon the campaign was