ke on 'Xmas Eve, and this
proved to be correct. He made rather a feeble demonstration, and it
was speedily squashed, as we were awaiting it. It was an extraordinary
thing, but we always found our foe very slow in the uptake: it
generally took him quite a week to think out some measure of
retaliation, and when it came, it consisted, as a rule, in copying
what we had done to him. We could usually count on that and
consequently guard against it.

One day instructions came through calling for a report on a new
charge, for reducing the flashes when night firing, which was supposed
to be in our possession. Our worthy Senior Subaltern was at that time
in command, so he decided to have the trial the same evening and put
in his report at once. The remaining officers were to "stand by" at
the guns and first fire a salvo with the ordinary charge and then one
with the new one, while he stood some distance in front to wait the
results. All went well and the salvoes were duly fired, although, at
the battery end, there did not appear to be any difference between
them, which fact was unanimously agreed upon. However, that was not
the opinion of the Senior Subaltern, who waxed eloquent on the "soft,
velvety colour" of the new charge. This was all set down presently, in
a lengthy dispatch covering, at least, two columns of "foolscap," and
sent to the Brigade. Nothing further was heard for several days, then
a telephone message came through which brought a smile to the face of
everyone in the mess except the officer concerned. It ran as
follows:--"Reference my B214 of the 9th inst. Report on flash (p. 021)
reducing charges is herewith cancelled. The production of same has not
yet been issued to batteries in the field A.A.A." Both salvoes had
been of the same nature!

Our Right Section Commander had a mania for spy hunting, and it was
true that spies were known to infest the neighbourhood and had
sometimes actually been caught. On every available occasion this
officer would set out to scour the countryside in quest of a suspect.
One day this led to the waste of much energy on his part. Having
followed hard on the scent of a suspicious character, from one end of
our area to the other, the quarry suddenly doubled back along the La
Bassee road and disappeared into a house. Our friend entered also, and
found himself in a Brigade Headquarters, confronted by the "spy," who
greeted him warmly, and asked him what service he could render him