there as neat a small set of wireless as was ever "made in
Germany." The motor was in the cellar and well-muffled. The old chap
hesitated to come down, but a shot that brought down some plaster
hurried his decision. In spite of the old woman's pretended fear of
Australians, she evidently did not think we were adamant to pity. On
her knees with much weeping she begged us to let them go away, and
shifted rapidly from one ground of appeal to another. She said her
husband was crazy and his wires and things did no harm; he was trying
to talk to "le President," but no answer ever came. She would have him
locked up. "You would not harm an old mother of France!" I told her
she wasn't French, but German, of which I had had suspicions all along.
She then spat at us and told us to do our worst, but the old man merely
stood there and scowled, and as he stood upright, with folded arms, we
judged he was not as old by twenty years as he appeared, though his
make-up was perfect. We marched them through the village under the
curious eyes of many of our own comrades, but the eager gesticulations
of the French people, and the fierce blaze of rage in the eyes of the
women showed us that they had no friends among the neighbors, and
revealed to us the smouldering fires of hate that the French people
have for the brutal invader. I fancy the dastardly pair were glad of
our protection for all their looks of defiance. They knew that a spy
would meet short shrift at the hands of these French women whose
untamed spirit was the same as that of the Margots of the Parisian
gutters in the Reign of Terror.

CHAPTER XXVI

BAPAUME AND "A BLIGHTY"

How many weeks I lay under the shadow of the church-tower of Bapaume I
know not. But every morning as the mist lifted the church-tower would
reappear through the trees, and now and again the flash of a glass
would show that it was an observation-post of the enemy, and frequently
well-placed shells on our trenches and dumps would show to what
devilish uses our enemies were putting the house of God as they
directed their shell-fire from a seat just under the cross on the tower.

This is a very old, historic town of France, and the sentiment of the
French people would not have it shelled. So we lay these weeks within
cooee of a nest of our enemies, who were permitted the safety and
comfort of a peaceful home almost within our lines. There are other
places along the line where we are under t