“Gostrewth! ’ark at our guns!” he said.  “They ain’t ‘arf pitchin’ it in.  W’y, this ain’t goin’ to be no charge; it’s going to be a sort of merry picnic, a game of ‘’Ere we go gatherin’ nuts in May.’  There won’t be any Germans left in them trenches, and we’ll ‘ave nothin’ to do but collect the ’elmets and sooveneers and make ourselves at ’ome.”

“Did you hear that!” Everton asked Halliday.  “Is it anyways true, do you think?”

“A good bit,” said Halliday.  “I’ve never seen a bit of German front smothered up by our guns the way this seems to be now, though I’ve often enough seen it the other way.  The trench in front should be smashed past any shape for stopping our charge if the gunners are making any straight shooting at all.”

It was evident that the whole trench shared his opinion, and expressions of amazed delight ran up and down the length of the Hotwaters.  When the order came to leave the trench, the men were up and out of it with a bound.

Everton was too busy with his own scramble put to pay much heed to Halliday; but as they worked out through their own barbed wire, he was relieved to find him at his side.  He caught Everton’s look, and although his teeth were gripped tight, he nodded cheerfully.  Presently, when they were forming into line again beyond the wire, Halliday spoke.

“Not too bad,” he said.  “The guns has done it for us this time.  Come on, now, and keep your wits when you get across.”

In the ensuing rush across the open, Everton was conscious of no sensation of fear.  The guns had lifted their fire farther back as the Hotwaters emerged from their trench, and the rush and rumble of their shells was still passing overhead as the line advanced.  The German artillery hardly dared drop their range to sweep the advance, because of its proximity to their own trench.  A fairly heavy rifle-fire was coming from the flanks, but to a certain extent that was kept down by some of our batteries spreading their fire over those portions of the German trench which were not being attacked, and by a heavy rifle- and machine-gun fire which was pelted across from the opposite parts of the British line.

From the immediate front, which was the Hotwaters’ objective, there was practically no attempt at resistance until the advance was half-way across the short distance between the trenches, and even then it was no more than a spasmodic attempt and the feeble resistance of a few rifles and a machine-gun.  The Hotwaters reached the trench with comparatively slight loss, pushed into it, and over it, and pressed on to the next line, the object being to threaten the continuance of the attack, to take the next trench if the resistance was not too severe, and so to give time for the reorganization of the first captured trench to resist the German counter-attack.