except a cavalry brigade entraining.  I rushed about feverishly.  There was no one I knew, no one who had heard anything of my company.  Then I grew horribly frightened that I should be left behind.  I pelted back to the old warehouses, but found everybody had left two hours ago.  I thought the company must surely have gone by now, and started in my desperation asking everybody I knew if they had seen anything of the company.  Luckily I came across an entraining officer, who told me that the company were entraining at “Point Six-Hangar de Laine,”—­three miles away.  I simply ran there, asking my way of surly, sleepy sentries, tripping over ropes, nearly falling into docks.

I found the Signal Company.  There was not a sign of our train.  So Johnson took me on his carrier back to the station I had searched in such fear.  We found the motor-cycle, Johnson gave me some petrol, and we returned to Point Six.  It was dawn when the old train at last rumbled and squeaked into the siding.

I do not know how long we took to entrain, I was so sleepy.  But the sun was just rising when the little trumpet shrilled, the long train creaked over the points, and we woke for a moment to murmur—­By Jove, we’re off now,—­and I whispered thankfully to myself—­Thank heaven I found them at last.

We were lucky enough to be only six in our compartment, but, as you know, in a French IIIme there is very little room, while the seats are fiercely hard.  And we had not yet been served out with blankets.  Still, we had to stick it for twenty-four hours.  Luckily the train stopped at every station of any importance, so, taking the law into our own hands, we got out and stretched our legs at every opportunity.

We travelled via Rouen and Amiens to Landrecies.  The Signal Company had a train to itself.  Gradually we woke up to find ourselves travelling through extraordinarily pretty country and cheering crowds.  At each level-crossing the cure was there to bless us.  If we did not stop the people threw in fruit, which we vainly endeavoured to catch.  A halt, and they were round us, beseeching us for souvenirs, loading us with fruit, and making us feel that it was a fine thing to fight in a friendly country.

At Rouen we drew up at a siding, and sent porters scurrying for bread and butter and beer, while we loaded up from women who came down to the train with all sorts of delicious little cakes and sweets.  We stopped, and then rumbled slowly towards Amiens.  At St Roche we first saw wounded, and heard, I do not know with what truth, that four aviators had been killed, and that our General, Grierson, had died of heart failure.  At Ham they measured me against a lamp-post, and ceremoniously marked the place.  The next time I passed through Ham I had no time to look for the mark!  It began to grow dark, and the trees standing out against the sunset reminded me of our two lines of trees at home.  We went slowly over bridges, and looked fearfully from our windows for bursting shells.  Soon we fell asleep, and were wakened about midnight by shouted orders.  We had arrived at Landrecies, near enough the Frontier to excite us.