The Red Horizon

g-out

if the tren

as hom

e safest th

running t

as safe

if the tren

ep enoug

alk where foo

eat and wr

e and h

ed afresh. The French excel us in fashioning dug-outs; they dig out, we build. They begin to burrow from the trench downwards, and the roof of their shelter is on a line with the floor of the trench; thus they have a cover over them seven or eight feet in thickness; a mass of earth which the heaviest shell can hardly pierce through. We have been told that the Ger

riss-cross form walls four feet in thickness; the roof is quite as thick, and the logs are much longer. Yesterday morning, while we were still asleep, a four-inch shell land

ars serve for the same purpose. A fortnight ago my section was billeted in a house in a mining town, and the enemy began to shell the place about midnight. Bootless, half-naked, and half-asleep, we hurried into the cellar. The plac

placed my candle there, pulled down over the door my curtain, a real good curtain, taken from some neighbouring chateau, spent a few moments watching the play of light and shadows on the roof, and listening to the sound of guns outside, then lit a cigarette and read. Old Montaigne in a dug-out is a true friend and a fine companion. Across the ages we held conversation as we have often done. Time an

ut is handsomely furnished with real beds, tables, chairs, mirrors, and candlesticks of burnished brass. Often there are stoves built into the clayey wall and used for cooking purposes. In "The Savoy" dug-out, which was furnished after this fashion, Section 3 once sat down to a memor

ing a finger which he had cut when opening a tin of bully beef.

"Suppose we have a good square meal. I thi

wn eyes spar

ts and onions," he said. "Out in a field b

t are the other

at the slope; and Mervin undertook to set the place in order and arrange the dug-out for the banquet. Goliath dragged his massive weight over the p

rt sleeves, and got on with the cooking. I took his turn at sentry-go, and Z--, sleeping on the banquette, roused his

you get the

h about it that I couldn't stand it, so I took the egg, and it looked so

ock we sat

iger-lilies, snapdragons, pinks, poppies, roses, and cornflowers rioted in colour over the rim of a looted vase. In solitary state a bottle of wine stood beside the flowers,

all over, in fact, he was one massive go

seat of war?" he asked, a

ned an inch in the Dardanelles and captured three trenches in

enemy's strength, of

But the trenches we lost wer

hat's why we lose thousands to take 'em,

upted, bringing a steaming turee

the stuff which he had emptied into

d Bill, "wot's

oach, but the name," sa

wrong w

ed as a child on mulligatawny, fed on it until I grew up an

said, for I had al

loying his spoon with Gargantuan

f condensed milk which hung by a string from the rafter. The bull

voice, fixing one eye on the coo

ner, raising his he

s trickling down? You shou

Stoner, "you'd b

der the milk and caught it as it fell. This was considered very unseemly behaviour f

ll portion of beef to each man, we called this chicken in our glorious game of make-believe. Kore asserted that he had c

knife for a tooth-pick. "It's as tough as a rifle slin

ered over the dish loud in our praise of the energetic Stoner. "By God, I'll give you a job as head-cook in my establishment at your own salary," said Pryor. "S

e in due course, then Sectio

e it?" a

said

t," choruse

but I felt that this was the momen

although you haven't shaved for days, and your faces remind

t of yer o

esive qualities of mud, it must stick somewhere, and doubtless it preferred your faces; b

croscope,"

a mock apology. "To-night's dinner was a grand

'arf the time writin' when yer should hav

ng biscuits I was engaged in chronicling the doings of Section 3. I can't make you fat and famous at the

st a baby ele

ble desire for fresh eggs, and Stoner-I see a blush on his cheeks and a sparkle in his brown eyes already-I repeat the name Stoner with reverence. I look

n' now but wat

," remarked

ll them with anything. Ready? To the Section cook, Sto

bearers came by the door, a pre-occupied look on their fa

happened

a shed at the rear near Dead Cow Villa, and a pip-squeak came plunk into the place

we ch

ried him to the dressing station, and he came to at the door. 'Mother!' he said,

cigars went out on the table. Dead! Poor fellow. He was such a clean, hearty boy, very obligi

might have been any of us! We mus

inks, and roses, and placed them on the black, cold earth which cov