“Time for 4,300 metres,” said the Lieutenant quickly and sternly, and a soldier manipulated the obus.

It was done.  It was done with disconcerting rapidity.  The shell was put into its place.  A soldier pulled a string.  Bang!  A neat, clean, not too loud bang!  The messenger had gone invisibly forth.  The prettiest part of the affair was the recoil and automatic swinging back of the gun.  Lest the first shell should have failed in its mission, the Commandant ordered a second one to be sent, and this time the two artillerymen sat in seats attached on either side to the gun itself.  The “seventy-five” was enthusiastically praised by every officer present.  He is beloved like a favourite sporting dog, and with cause.

At the side of the village street there was a bit of sharply sloping ground, with a ladder thrown on it to make descent easier.  “This way,” said one of the officers.

We followed him, and in an instant were in the communication trench.  The change was magical in its quickness.  At one moment we were on the earth; at the next we were in it.  The trench was so narrow that I had to hold my stick in front of me, as there was no room to swing the arms; the chalky sides left traces on the elbows.  The floor was for the most part quite dry, but at intervals there were muddy pools nearly ankle-deep.  The top of the trench was about level with the top of my head, and long grasses or chance cereals, bending down, continually brushed the face.  An officer was uplifted for the rest of the day by finding a four-leaved clover at the edge of the trench.  The day was warm, and the trench was still warmer.  Its direction never ceased to change, generally in curves, but now and then by a sharp corner.  We walked what seemed to be an immense distance, and then came out on to a road, which we were instructed to cross two by two, as, like the whole of the region, it was subject to German artillery.  Far down this road we could see the outlying village for which we were bound. . . .

A new descent into the earth.  We proceed a few yards, and the trench suddenly divides into three.  We do not know which to take.  An officer following us does not know which to take.  The guiding officer is perhaps thirty yards in front!  We call.  No answer.  We climb out of the trench on to the surface desolation; we can see nothing, nothing whatever, but land that is running horribly to waste.  Our friends are as invisible as moles.  There is not a trace even of their track.  This is a fine object-lesson in the efficacy of trenches.  At length an officer returns and saves us.  We have to take the trench on the extreme right.  Much more hot walking, and a complete loss of the notion of direction.