There would be nothing alive visible.  There would probably be a few corpses lying about or hanging in the wire.  Everything would be still except for the flutter of some rag of a dead man’s uniform.  Perhaps not that.  Daylight movements in No Man’s Land are somehow disconcerting.  Once I was in a trench where a leg—­a booted German leg, stuck up stark and stiff out of the mud not twenty yards in front.  Some idiotic joker on patrol hung a helmet on the foot, and all the next day that helmet dangled and swung in the breeze.  It irritated the periscope watchers, and the next night it was taken down.

Ordinarily, however, there is little movement between the wires, nor behind them.  And yet you know that over yonder there are thousands of men lurking in the trenches and shelters.

After dark these men, or some of them, crawl out like hunted animals and prowl in the black mystery of No Man’s Land.  They are the patrol.

The patrol goes out armed and equipped lightly.  He has to move softly and at times very quickly.  It is his duty to get as close to the enemy lines as possible and find out if they are repairing their wire or if any of their parties are out, and to get back word to the machine gunners, who immediately cut loose on the indicated spot.

Sometimes he lies with his head to the ground over some suspected area, straining his ears for the faint “scrape, scrape” that means a German mining party is down there, getting ready to plant a ton or so of high explosive, or, it may be, is preparing to touch it off at that very moment.

Always the patrol is supposed to avoid encounter with enemy patrols.  He carries two or three Mills bombs and a pistol, but not for use except in extreme emergency.  Also a persuader stick or a trench knife, which he may use if he is near enough to do it silently.

The patrol stares constantly through the dark and gets so he can see almost as well as a cat.  He must avoid being seen.  When a Very light goes up, he lies still.  If he happens to be standing, he stands still.  Unless the light is behind him so that he is silhouetted, he is invisible to the enemy.

Approaching a corpse, the patrol lies quiet and watches it for several minutes, unless it is one he has seen before and is acquainted with.  Because sometimes the man isn’t dead, but a perfectly live Boche patrol lying “doggo.”  You can’t be too careful.

If you happen to be pussyfooting forward erect and encounter a German patrol, it is policy to scuttle back unless you are near enough to get in one good lick with the persuader.  He will retreat slowly himself, and you mustn’t follow him.  Because:  The British patrol usually goes out singly or at the most in pairs or threes.

The Germans, on the other hand, hunt in parties.  One man leads.  Two others follow to the rear, one to each side.  And then two more, and two more, so that they form a V, like a flock of geese.  Now if you follow up the lead man when he retreats, you are baited into a trap and find yourself surrounded, smothered by superior numbers, and taken prisoner.  Then back to the Boche trench, where exceedingly unpleasant things are apt to happen.