Servants of the Guns

eady sodden ground and formed great pools of water in every hollow. Fires blazed and flickered at intervals, revealing within the glowing circles o

ace the storm and the mud; not until dusk had the last unit dropped exhausted into its bivouac. For fourteen hours the troops had groped their way along the boggy ro

hin its shelter the General and his staff of three crouched over a small fire. The roof leaked, the floor was wet and indescribably filthy; their seats were

nowledge he depended, so he frankly declared, upon the two staff officers with whom he was supplied. Nevertheless, those who knew him well agreed that in quickness to grasp the salient points of any given situation and in accuracy of decisio

ned with tactics but with food. For some time he sat

the baggage coming in. G

ed the irksome task of catering for the headquarter mess. It was his principal, though not his only function: and, owing to scarcity of provisions, a daily chan

his clammy waterproof, and splash

s Brigade-Major, "is not such a fa

ly. "I always thought him rather a lazy young gentleman,

f his battery, and to his own ability to command two guns in action. Naturally he was pleased when I appointed him A.D.C. The part of the year's work which interested him, practice camp and so on, was over. In place of the tedium of man?uvres as a regimental subaltern, he foresaw a novel and more o

you me

mself, 'Here have I struggled through seven years' soldierin' thinking always that some day I should be loosed upon a battle-field wi

he other, "I neve

inct has been obliterated by that of the staff officer. Th

way,

nt. But as soon as war comes it shows itself at once in the mad rush made by officers to get back to batteries-that is, to go on service with the

too, regretted for the moment that he was a General, and wish

ring to direct more than two hundred vehicles to their destinations, he had lured it out of the chaos and guided it to its appointed place. As the wagon came to a standstil

nd dangled a shap

e you got there, Te

o-day, so I took the chanst to buy some milk and butter. While the chap wa

f a pair of ducks, and the feat of plucking them within the nar

nd cook 'em. We're

ns three, but one, hastily purchased during the mobilisation period by an almost distracted remount officer, had already succumbed to the effects of overw

d his means, and had trained him himself. He used openly to boast that Dignity had taken to jumping as a duck takes to water, and that he had never been known to turn from a fence. In the course

egulation. Dignity had three rugs, and his legs were swathed in warm flannel bandages. As he stood there on the leeward side of a fence busily searchi

the orders for the morning to the grooms. By the time he got back to the barn it

ith evident approval, but avoided asking que

," he said, drawing his saddle close up to the dea

ed the resourceful Tebbut. "There w

its label, had once contained "selected peaches." It was now more than h

ut a sandwich since early morning, and the demands of appetite wer

ay the crumbs with a dirty dish-cloth and handed round pint mugs containing coffee, Hartl

directed against the left. Barring the way on this flank, however, was a hill marked on the map as Point 548, which was situate about two miles in front of the main hostile position. The enemy had not yet been dislodged from this salient, but

to be one from the --th Brigade, which has suffered least so far. I'll send sep

may," suggested the A.D.C. "It's my own

forget to come back," s

ires glimmered like reflections of the starry heavens. The troops, worn out with the hardships of the day, had fallen asleep and the camp was

heads to long ropes stretched between the ammunition wagons. Fetlock-deep in liquid mud, without ru

ind picturing the spotless troop-stables and the shining c

rs late, and though it was nearly eleven o'clock the evening meal was still in progress. He ha

in fact, ration tinned beef boiled hurriedly in a camp kettle. The song, of which the words were his own, fitted neatly to a popular tune of the moment. It treated of the difference in comfort of

"you're on the staff. What's

devils stuck away behind a hill won't see much of it. I suppose I shall be sent on my

the mud was his own battery, which he worshipped as a god. And he was condemned to live away from it, to be

he map. From the wallet on his saddle T

for the issue of my special e

Tony?" aske

mess in England," he replied, pour

d up his ow

s: may they be wel

yes met Tony's for a moment, and he sm

from which he roused himself with difficulty a few hours late