ad been sent, persistently, and with obvious enjoyment. The men
around him were hungry for a "whiff"; the sight of him calmly lighting a
fresh "fag" at the stump of the old maddened them beyond endurance. At
length one man could bear it no longer.

"Look at '_im_, a'eatin' of 'em. Lor! give a thought to yer ruddy
comrades, can't yer?"

They seemed to miss tobacco more poignantly than any other luxury.

A little later, sounds of great artillery bombardments rose up in front
of them and on each side, but they could not yet see any signs of a
fight, as they had not yet reached the edge of the plateau.

Further on, the road descended slightly, and a very little way ahead the
Subaltern saw, for the first time, a Battery of heavy artillery at work.
The whole affair seemed to him to be singularly peaceful. The men went
to work in the same efficient and rapid way that they would have done in
a machine-room. Their targets were, of course, invisible, and there was
no attempt to cover the guns from sight, nor to protect them from
hostile shells. He was surprised to see how comparatively slowly the gun
recoiled after discharge. The noise was ear-splitting, terrific.

"There'll be some fun when the Transport comes along," said the Senior
Subaltern, with unholy glee.

He was right: there probably would be a great deal of "fun." The
Battery was not more than fifty yards from the road on the left, while
on the right there was a drop, at an angle of at least sixty degrees, of
twenty yards. He imagined the frightened horses careering madly down the
slope, the carts and wagons bumping and crashing down upon them--the
kicking, struggling heap below!

Then, just as it was growing dark, they reached the edge of the plateau,
and the huge rolling valley of the Aisne swam before them in the purple
twilight. The further heights were already wrapt up in darkness; and the
ground, glowing green at their feet, merged in the distance to rich
velvet patches of purple and brown. The river itself was hidden by the
trees clustering round its banks, but they could guess its course,
winding away for a score or so of miles to the east.

"What a beautiful scene," he said reverently.

The Senior Subaltern may, or may not, have appreciated the beauty of the
scene. His eye was on the further heights.

"This is where they will try to stand," he said.

And, as usual, he was right.

They looked across to where the dark heights opposite were thrown out