When the sergeant took his message and glanced through it, he pursed his lips in a low whistle and asked the signaler to copy while he went and roused three messengers.  His quick glance through the note had told him, even without the O.C.’s message, that it was to the last degree urgent that the message should go back and be delivered at once and without fail; therefore he sent three messengers, simply because three men trebled the chances of the message getting through without delay.  If one man dropped, there were two to go on; if two fell, the third would still carry on; if he fell—­well, after that the matter was beyond the sergeant’s handling; he must leave it to the messenger to find another man or means to carry on the message.

The telephonist had scribbled a copy of the note to keep by him in case the wire was mended and the message could be sent through after the messengers started and before they reached the other end.  The three received their instructions, drew their wet coats about their shivering shoulders, relieved their feelings in a few growled sentences about the dog’s life a man led in that company, and departed into the wet night.

The sergeant came back, re-read the message and discussed it with the signaler.  It said:  “Heavy attack is developing and being pressed strongly on our center a-a-a.[Footnote:  Three a’s indicate a full stop.] Our losses have been heavy and line is considerably weakened a-a-a.  Will hold on here to the last but urgently request that strong reinforcements be sent up if the line is to be maintained a-a-a.  Additional artillery support would be useful a-a-a.”

“Sounds healthy, don’t it?” said the sergeant reflectively.  The signaler nodded gloomily and listened apprehensively to the growing sounds of battle.  Now that his mind was free from first thoughts of telephonic worries, he had time to consider outside matters.  For nearly ten minutes the two men listened, and talked in short sentences, and listened again.  The rattle of rifle fire was sustained and unbroken, and punctuated liberally at short intervals by the boom of exploding grenades and bombs.  Decidedly the whole action was heavier—­or coming back closer to them.

The sergeant was moving across the door to open it and listen when a shell struck the house above them.  The building shook violently, down to the very flags of the stone floor; from overhead, after the first crash, there came a rumble of falling masonry, the splintering cracks of breaking wood-work, the clatter and rattle of cascading bricks and tiles.  A shower of plaster grit fell from the cellar roof and settled thick upon the papers littered over the table.  The sergeant halted abruptly with his hand on the cellar door, three or four of the sleepers stirred restlessly, one woke for a minute sufficiently to grumble curses and ask “what the blank was that”; the rest slept on serene and undisturbed.  The sergeant stood there until the last sounds of falling rubbish had ceased.  “A shell,” he said, and drew a deep breath.  “Plunk into upstairs somewhere.”