an excursion by air for the land and water journey, if on one
of the dates that sandwich his leave a bus of the type already flown by
him must be chauffeured across the Channel. Such an opportunity is
welcome, for besides avoiding discomfort, a joy-ride of this description
often saves time enough to provide an extra day in England.

On the last occasion when I was let loose from the front on
ticket-of-leave, I added twenty-four hours to my Blighty period by a
chance meeting with a friendly ferry-pilot and a resultant trip as
passenger in an aeroplane from a home depot. Having covered the same
route by train and boat a few days previously, a comparison between the
two methods of travel left me an enthusiast for aerial transport in the
golden age of after-the-war.

The leave train at Arriere was time-tabled for midnight, but as, under a
war-time edict, French cafes and places where they lounge are closed at
10 P.M., it was at this hour that muddied officers and Tommies
from every part of the Somme basin began to crowd the station.

Though confronted with a long period of waiting, in a packed
entrance-hall that was only half-lit and contained five seats to be
scrambled for by several hundred men, every one, projected beyond the
immediate discomfort to the good time coming, seemed content. The
atmosphere of jolly expectancy was comparable to that of Waterloo
Station on the morning of Derby Day. Scores of little groups gathered to
talk the latest shop-talk from the trenches. A few of us who were
acquainted with the corpulent and affable R.T.O.--it is part of an
R.T.O.'s stock-in-trade to be corpulent and affable--sought out his
private den, and exchanged yarns while commandeering his whisky. Stuff
Redoubt had been stormed a few days previously, and a Canadian captain,
who had been among the first to enter the Hun stronghold, told of the
assault. A sapper discussed some recent achievements of mining parties.
A tired gunner subaltern spoke viciously of a stupendous bombardment
that allowed little rest, less sleep, and no change of clothes. Time
was overcome easily in thus looking at war along the varying angles of
the infantryman, the gunner, the engineer, the machine-gun performer,
and the flying officer, all fresh from their work.

The train, true to the custom of leave trains, was very late. When it
did arrive, the good-natured jostling for seats again reminded one of
the London to Epsom traffic of Derby Day. Somehow th