i. morning
“two hours’ pack drill, and pay for a new handle,” i said.
“right—turn!” said the sergeant-major. “right—wheel—quick—march! get your equipment on and join your platoon at once.”
this last sentence was spoken in a quick undertone, as the prisoner stepped out of the door into the road. i was filling up the column headed “punishment awarded” on a buff-coloured army form, to which i appended my signature. the case just dealt with was a very dull and commonplace one, a man having “lost” his entrenching tool handle. most of these “losses” occurred in trenches, and were dealt with the first morning in billets at company orderly-room. this man had been engaged on special fatigue work the last few days; hence the reason why the loss had not been checked before, and came up on this last morning in billets.
“no more prisoners?” i asked the company sergeant-major.
“no more prisoners, sir,” he answered. i then 230 rather hurriedly signed several returns made out by sergeant roberts, the company quartermaster-sergeant, and promised to come in later and sign the acquittance rolls. these are the pay-lists, made out in triplicate, which are signed by each man as he draws his pay. the original goes to the paymaster in england, one carbon copy to the adjutant, and one is retained by the company-commander. we had paid out the first day in billets. this time “working-parties” had been tolerable. we had arrived back in billets about half-past three in the afternoon; the next morning had been spent in a march to the divisional baths at treux (two miles away), in cleaning up, kit-inspection, and a little arm-drill and musketry practice; in the afternoon we paid out. then followed three days of working-parties, up on the support line at crawley ridge; and now, we had this last day in which to do a little company work. there had been running parade at seven-thirty. owen had taken this, and i confess that i had not yet breakfasted. so i hurried off now at 9.10 to gulp something down and be at battalion orderly-room at 9.30 sharp.
the company office was a house of two rooms; one was the “office” itself, with a blanket-clad table and a couple of chairs in the middle, and all around were strewn strange boxes, and bundles of papers and equipment. on the walls were pictures from illustrated english papers; one of nurse 231 cavell, another of howitzers firing; and several graphic bayonet-charges at verdun, pictured by an artist who must have “glowed” as he drew them in his room in chelsea. in the other room slept the c.s.m. and c.q.m.s. (more familiar as the “sergeant-major” and the “quartermaster”).
from this house, then, i stepped out into the glaring street. it was the end of may, and the day promised to be really quite hot. i have already explained how completely shut off from the trenches one felt in morlancourt, sheltered as it was in a cup of the hills and immune from shelling. now as i walked quickly along the street, past our battalion “orderly-room,” and returned the immaculate salute of sergeant-major shandon, the regimental sergeant-major, who was already marshalling the prisoners ready for the colonel at half-past nine, i felt a lightness and freshness of body that almost made me think i was free of the war at last. my sam browne belt, my best tunic with its polished buttons, and most of all, i suppose, the effect of a good sleep and a cold bath, all contributed to this feeling, as well as the scent from the laburnum and lilac that looked over the garden wall opposite the billet that was our “mess.”
i found edwards just going off to inspect “b” company lewis gunners, whom he was taking on the range the first part of the morning.
“hullo!” he said, “you’ve not got much time.” 232
“no,” said i. “my own fault for getting up late. got a case for the c.o. too. is my watch right? i make it seventeen minutes past.”
“nineteen, i make it.”
“wish i hadn’t asked you,” i laughed. “no porridge, lewis. bring the eggs and bacon in at once. this tea’ll do. there’s no milk, though. what?”
edwards had asked something. he repeated his question, which was whether i wanted jim, the company horse, this afternoon. i thought rapidly, and the scent of the lilac decided me.
“yes,” i answered. “sorry, but i do.”
“oh, all right; i expect i can get old muskett to let me have one.”
muskett was the transport officer.
“righto,” said i. “go teach thy lewis gunners how to drill little holes in the chalk-bank.”
he clattered off over the cobbles of the garden path, and in a few minutes i followed suit, running until i rounded a corner and came into view of the orderly-room, when i altered my gait to a dignified walk and arrived just as the colonel appeared from the opposite direction.
“parade! tchern!!” shouted sergeant-major shandon; and a moment later the four company commanders came to attention and saluted as the colonel passed in, sprinkling “good mornings” to right and left.
i had one very uninteresting case of drunkenness; 233 “a” had a couple of men who had overstayed their pass in england; “c” had a case held over from the day before for further evidence, and was now dismissed as not proven; while “d” had an unsatisfactory sergeant who was “severely reprimanded.” all these cases were quickly and unerringly disposed of, and we company commanders saluted again and clattered down the winding staircase out into the sunshine.
i had to pass from one end of the village to the other. the orderly-room was not far from our company “mess” and was at a cross-roads. opposite, in one of the angles made by the junction of the four roads, was a deep and usually muddy horse-pond. but even here the mud was getting hard under this spell of warm may weather, and the innumerable ruts and hoof-marks were crystallising into a permanent pattern. as i walked along the streets i passed sundry tommies acting as road-scavengers; “permanent road fatigue” they were called, although they were anything but permanent, being changed every day. formerly they had seemed to be engaged in a herculean, though unromantic, task of scraping great rolling puddings of mud to the side of the road, in the vain hope that the mud would find an automatic exit into neighbouring gardens and ponds; for morlancourt did not boast such modern things as gutters. to-day there were large pats of mud lining the street, but these were now caked and hard, and even crumbling 234 into dust, that whisked about among the sparrows. the permanent road fatigue was gathering waste-paper and tins in large quantities, but otherwise was having a holiday.
women were working, or gossiping at the doorsteps. the estaminet doors were flung wide open, and the floors were being scrubbed and sprinkled with sawdust. a little bare-legged girl, in a black cotton dress, was hugging a great wide loaf; an old man sat blinking in the sunshine; cats were basking, dogs nosing about lazily. a party of about thirty bombers passed me, the sergeant giving “eyes right” and waking me from meditations on the eternal calm of cats. then i reached the headquarter guard, and the sentry saluted with a rattling clap upon his butt, and i did my best to emulate his smartness. so i passed along all the length of the shuttered houses of morlancourt.
“a great day, this,” i thought, as i came to the small field where “b” company was paraded; not two hundred and fifty men, as you will doubtless assume from the text-books, but some thirty or forty men only; one was lucky if one mustered forty. where were the rest, you ask? well, bombers bombing; lewis gunners under edwards; some on “permanent mining fatigue,” that is, carrying the sand-bags from the mine-shafts to the dumps; transport, pioneers, stretcher-bearers, men under bombing instruction, officers’ servants, headquarter orderlies, men on leave, etc. etc. the company 235 sergeant-major will make out a parade slate for you if you want it, showing exactly where every man is. but here are forty men. let’s drill them.
half were engaged in arm-drill under my best drill-sergeant; the other half were doing musketry in gas-helmets, an unpleasant practice which nothing would induce me to do on a sunny may morning. they lay on their fronts, legs well apart, and were working the bolts of their rifles fifteen times a minute. after a while they changed over and did arm-drill, while the other half took over the gas-helmets, the mouthpieces having first been dipped in a solution of carbolic brought by one of the stretcher-bearers in a canteen. these gas-helmets were marked d.p. (drill purposes), and each company had so many with which to practise.
when both parties were duly exercised, i gave a short lecture on the measures to be adopted against the use of flammenwerfer, which is the “liquid fire” of the official communiqués. i had just been to a demonstration of this atrocity in the form of a captured german apparatus, and my chief object in lecturing the men about it was to make it quite clear that the flaming jets of burning gas cannot sink into a trench, but, as a matter of fact, only keep level so long as they are propelled by the driving power of the hose apparatus; as water from a hose goes straight, and then curves down to the ground, so gas, even though it be incandescent, goes straight and then rises. in the trench you are unscathed, as we 236 proved in the demonstration, when they sprayed the flaming gas over a trench full of men. indeed, the chief effect of this flammenwerfer is one of frightfulness, as the germans cannot come over until the flames have ceased. the men were rather inclined to gape at all this, but i found the words had sunk in when i asked what should be done if the enemy used this diabolical stuff against us. “get down at the bottom of the trench, sir, and as soon as they stop it, give the ——’s ’ell!”
the rest of the morning we spent “on the range,” which meant firing into a steep chalk bank at a hundred yards. targets and paste-pot had been procured from the pioneers’ shop, and after posting a couple of “look-out” men on either side, we started range practice. the men are always keen about firing on the range, and it is really the most interesting and pleasant part of the infantryman’s training. i watched these fellows, hugging their rifle-butt into their shoulder, and feeling the smooth wood against their cheeks; they wriggled their bodies about to get a comfortable position; sometimes they flinched as they fired and jerked the rifle; sometimes they pressed the trigger as softly, as softly.... and gradually, carefully, we tried to detect and eliminate the faults. then we ended up with fifteen rounds rapid in a minute. the “mad minute” it used to be called at home. after which we fell the men in, and paul marched them back to the company “alarm post” outside the company 237 office, where “b” company always fell in; while owen, nicolson, and i walked back together.
ii. afternoon
“i still maintain,” said i, an hour later, as we finished lunch, “that bully-beef, some sort of sauce or pickle, and salad, followed by cheese, and ending with a cup of tea, is the proper lunch for an officer. i don’t mind other officers having tinned fruit, though, if they like it,” i added with a laugh.
owen and syme were newly joined officers for whom the sight of tinned pears or apricots had not yet lost a certain glamour that disappeared after months and months. they were just finishing the pear course. hence my last remark.
“i bet if we allowed you to have bully every day,” came from edwards, our mess president, “you’d soon get sick of it.”
“try,” said i, knowing that he never would. i always used to eat of the hot things that would appear at lunch, to the detriment of a proper appreciation of dinner; but i always maintained the position laid down in the first sentence of this section.
i lit a pipe and strolled out into the garden. this was undoubtedly an ideal billet, and a great improvement on the butcher’s shop, where they used always to be killing pigs in the yard and letting the blood run all over the place. it was a long, one-storied house, set back about fifty yards from the road; 238 this fifty yards was all garden, and, at the end, completely shutting off the road, was a high brick wall. on each side of the garden were also high walls formed by the sides of stables and outhouses; the garden was thus completely walled round, and the seclusion and peace thus entrapped were a very priceless possession to us.
the garden itself was full of life. there were box-bordered paths up both sides and down the centre, and on the inner side of the paths was an herbaceous border smelling very sweet of wallflowers and primulas of every variety. although it was still may, there were already one or two pink cabbage-roses out; later, the house itself would be covered with them; already the buds were showing yellow streaks as they tried to burst open their tight green sheaths. in the centre of the garden ran a cross path with a summer-house of bamboo canes completely covered with honeysuckle; that, too, was budding already. the rest of the garden was filled with rows of young green things, peas, and cabbages, and i know not what, suitably protected against the ravages of sparrows and finches by the usual miniature telegraph system of sticks connected by cotton decorated with feathers and bits of rag. every bit of digging, hoeing, weeding and sowing were performed by madame and her two black-dressed daughters in whose house we were now living, and who were themselves putting up in the adjoining farmhouse, which belonged to them. 239
i said that they had done all the digging in the garden. i should make one reservation. all the potato-patch had been dug by our servants, with the assistance of gray, the cook. nor did they do it in gratitude to madame, as, doubtless, ideal tommies would have done. a quarter of it was done by lewis, for carelessness in losing my valise; nearly half by the joint effort of the whole crew for a thoroughly dirty turn-out on commanding officer’s inspection; and the rest for various other defalcations! we never told madame the reasons for their welcome help; and i am quite sure they never did!
“the worst of this war,” said i to edwards, puffing contentedly at a pipeful of chairman, “is this: it’s too comfortable. you could carry on like this for years, and years, and years.”
“wasn’t so jolly last time in,” muttered the wise edwards.
“that’s exactly the point,” i answered; “life in the trenches we all loathe, and no one makes any bones about it or pretends to like it—except for a few rare exciting minutes, which are very few and far between. but you come out into billets, and recover; and so you can carry on. it’s not concentrated enough.”
“it’s more concentrated for the men than for us.”
“well, yes, very often; but they haven’t the strain of responsibility. yes, you are right though; and it’s less concentrated for the c.o., still less for the brigadier, and so on back to the commander-in-chief; 240 and still further to men who have never seen a trench at all.”
“i dare say,” said edwards; “but, as the phrase goes, ‘what are you going to do abaht it?’ here’s jim. old muskett’s going to send me a nag at five, so i’m going out after tea. will you be in to tea?”
“don’t know.”
as i tightened my puttees preparatory to mounting the great jim, edwards started his gramophone; so leaving them to the strains of tannh?user, i bestrode my charger and steered him gracefully down the garden path, under the brick archway, and out into the street.
myself on a horse always amused me, especially when it was called an “officer’s charger.” jim was not fiery, yet he was not by any means sluggish, and he went fast at a gallop. he suited me very well indeed when i wanted to go for an afternoon’s ride; for he was quite content to walk when i wanted to muse, and to gallop hard when i wanted exhilaration. i hate a horse that will always be trotting. i know it is best style to trot; but my rides were not for style, but for pleasure, exercise, and solitude. and jim fell in admirably with my requirements. but, as i say, the idea that i was a company-commander on his charger always amused me.
i rode, as i generally did, in a south-easterly direction, climbing at a walk one of the many roads that led out of morlancourt towards the bois des tailles. when i reached the high ground i made 241 jim gallop along the grass-border right up to the edge of the woods. there is nothing like the exhilaration of flying along, you cannot imagine how, with the great brown animal lengthening out under you for all he is worth! i pulled him up and turned his head to the right, leaving the road, and skirting the edge of the wood. at last i was alone.
in the clearings of the wood the ground was a sheet of blue hyacinths, whose sweet scent came along on the breeze; their fragrance lifted my spirit, and i drank in deep breaths of the early summer air. i took off my cap to feel the sun full on my face. on the ground outside the wood were still a few late primroses interspersed with cowslips, stubborn and jolly; and as i rounded a bend in the wood-edge, i found myself looking across a tiny valley, the opposite face of which was a wooded slope, with all the trees banked up on it as gardeners bank geraniums in tiers to give a good massed effect. so, climbing the hill-side, were all these shimmering patches of green, yellow-green, pea-green, yellow, massed together in delightful variety; and dotted about in the middle of them were solitary patches of white cherry-blossom, like white foam breaking over a reef, in the midst of a great green sea. and across this perfect softness from time to time the bold black and white of magpies cut with that vivid contrast with which nature loves to baffle the poor artist.
“come on, old boy,” i said, as i reached the bottom of this little valley; and trotting up the 242 other side, and through a ride in the wood, i came out on the edge of the valley of the somme. i then skirted the south side of the wood until i reached a secluded corner with a view across the valley: here i dismounted, fastened jim to a tree, loosened his girths, and left him pulling greedily at the grass at his feet. then i threw myself down on the grass to dream.
my thoughts ran back to my conversation with edwards. perhaps it was best not to think too hard, but i could no more stifle my thoughts than can a man his appetite. responsibility. responsibility. and those with the greatest responsibility endure and see the least; no one has more to endure than the private soldier in the infantry, and no one has less responsibility or power of choice. i thought of our last six days in the trenches. when “a” company were in the line, the first three days, we had been bombarded heavily at “stand-to” in the evening. in maple redoubt it had been bad enough. there was one sentry-post a little way up old kent road; by some mistake a bomber had been put on duty there, whereas it was a bayonet-man’s post, the bombers having a special r?le in case of the enemy attacking. i found this mistake had been made, but did not think it was worth altering. and that man was killed outright by a shell.
in the front line “a” company had had several killed and wounded, and i had had to lend them half my bombers; as i had placed two men on one 243 post, a canister had burst quite a long way off, but the men cowered down into the trench. i cursed them as hard as i could, and then i saw that in the post were the two former occupants lying dead, killed half an hour ago where they lay, and where i was placing my two men. i stopped my curses, and inwardly directed them against myself. and there i had to leave these fellows, looking after me and thinking, “he’s going back to his dug-out.” ah! no, they knew me better than to think like that. yet i had to go back, leaving them there. i should never forget that awful weight of responsibility that suddenly seemed visualised before me. could i not see their scared faces peering at me, even as now i seemed to smell the scent of pear-drops with which the trench was permeated, the germans having sent over a few lachrymatory shells along with the others that night?
ah! why was i living all this over again, just when i had come away to get free of all this awhile, and dream? i had come out to enjoy the sunshine and the peace, just as jim was enjoying the grass behind me. i listened. there was a slight jingle of the bit now and again, and a creaking of leather, and always that drawing sound, with an occasional purr, as the grass was torn up. i could not help looking round at last. “you pig,” i said; but my tone did not altogether disapprove of complacent piggishness.
in front of me lay the blue water of the somme canal, and the pools between it and the river; long 244 parallel rows of pale green poplars stretched along either bank of the canal; and at my feet, half hidden by the slope of the ground, lay the sleepy little village of etinehem. there was a sunday afternoon slumber over everything. was it sunday? i thought for a moment. no, it was thursday, and to-morrow we went “in” again. i deliberately switched my thoughts away from the trenches, and they flew to the events of the morning. i could see my fellows lying, so keen—i might almost say so happy—blazing away on the range. one i remembered especially. private benjamin, a boy with a delicate eager face, who came out with the last draft: he came from a village close up to snowdon; he was shooting badly, and very concerned about it. i lay down beside him and showed him how to squeeze the trigger, gradually, ever so gradually. oh! these boys! responsibility. responsibility.
“this is no good,” i said to myself at last, and untied jim and rode again. i went down into the valley, and along the green track between an avenue of poplars south of the canal until at last i came to sailly-laurette, and so back and in to morlancourt from the south-west. it was six o’clock by the time i stooped my head under the gateway into our garden, and for the last hour or so i had almost forgotten war at last.
“hullo,” was the greeting i received from owen. “there’s no tea left.” 245
“i don’t want any tea,” i answered. “has the post come?”
there were three letters for me. as i slept at a house a little distance away, i took the letters along with me.
“i’m going over to my room to clean up,” i shouted to owen, who was reading inside the mess-room. “what time’s old jim coming in?”
“seven o’clock!”
“all right,” i answered. “i’ll be over by seven.”
iii. evening
as i walked up the garden path a few minutes before seven, i had to pass the kitchen door, where the servants slept, lived, and cooked our meals. i had a vision of private watson, the cook, busy at the oven; he was in his shirt-sleeves, hair untidy, trousers very grimy, and altogether a very unmartial figure. there seemed to be a dispute in progress, to judge from the high pitch to which the voices had attained. on these occasions lewis’ piping voice reached an incredible falsetto, while his face flushed redder than ever.
watson, owen’s servant, had superseded gray as officers’ mess cook; the latter had, unfortunately, drunk one or two glasses of beer last time in billets, and, to give his own version, he “somehow felt very sleepy, and went down and lay under a bank,” and could remember nothing more until about ten o’clock, when he humbly reported his return to me. 246 meanwhile watson had cooked the dinner, which was, of course, very late; and as he did it very well, and as gray’s explanation seemed somewhat vague, we decided to make watson cook, let gray try a little work in the company for a change, and get the sergeant-major to send owen another man for servant. watson had signalised the entry to his new appointment by a quarrel with madame (the warwicks had managed to “bag” this ideal billet of ours temporarily, and we were in a much less comfortable one the last two occasions out of trenches); eventually madame had hurled the frying-pan at him, amid a torrent of unintelligible french; neither could understand a word the other was saying, of course. gray had been wont, i believe, to “lie low and say nuffin,” like brer fox, when madame, who was old and half-crazed, came up and threw water on the fire in a fit of unknown anger. but watson’s blood boiled at such insults from a frenchwoman, and hence had followed a sharp contention ending in the projection of the frying-pan. luckily, we were unmolested here: watson could manage the dinner, anyway.
i entered our mess-room, which was large, light, and boasted a boarded floor; it was a splendid summer-room, though it would have been very cold in winter. there i found a pile of literature awaiting me; operation orders for to-morrow, giving the hour at which each company was to leave morlancourt, and which company of the manchesters it was 247 to relieve, and when, and where, and the route to be taken; there were two typed documents “for your information and retention, please,” one relating to prevention of fly-trouble in billets, the other giving a new code of signals and marked “secret” on the top, and lastly there was comic cuts. leaving the rest, i hastily skimmed through the latter, which contained detailed information of operations carried out, and intelligence gathered on the corps front during the last few days. at first these were intensely interesting, but after seven months they began to pall, and i grew expert at skimming through them rapidly.
then jim potter came in, and comic cuts faded into insignificance.
“here, owen,” said i, and threw them over to him.
captain and quartermaster jim potter was the father of the battalion. he had been in the battalion sixteen years, and had come out with them in 1914; twice the battalion had been decimated, new officers had come and disappeared, commanding officers had become brigadiers and new ones taken their place, but “old jim” remained, calm, unaltered, steady as a rock, good-natured, and an utter pessimist. i first introduced him in chapter i, when i spent the night in his billet prior to my first advent into the trenches. i was a little perturbed then by his pessimism. now i should have been very alarmed if he had suddenly burst into a fit of optimism. 248
“well, jim,” we said, “how are things going? when’s the war going to end?”
“oh! not so very long now.” we gaped at this unexpected reply. “because,” he added, “you know, bill, it’s the unexpected that always happens in this war. hullo! you’ve got some pretty pictures, i see.”
we had been decorating the walls with the few unwarlike pictures that were still to be found in the illustrated papers.
“not a bad place, blighty,” he resumed, gazing at a picture entitled “home, sweet home!” there had been a little dispute as to whether it should go up, owing to its sentimental nature. at last “the warwicks will like it,” we had said, and up it had gone. the warwicks had our billet, when we were “in.”
“tell us about your leave,” we said, and jim began a series of delightful sarcastic jerks about the way people in england seemed to be getting now a faint glimmering conception that somewhere there was a war on.
the joint was not quite ready, edwards explained to me, drawing me aside a minute; would old jim mind? the idea of old jim minding being quite absurd, we decided on having a cooked joint a quarter of an hour hence, rather than a semi-raw one now; and we told jim our decision. it seemed to suit him exactly, as he had had tea late. there never was such an unruffled fellow as he; had we 249 wanted to begin before the time appointed, he would have been ravenous. so he continued the description of his adventures on leave. meanwhile i rescued comic cuts from the hands of paul, and despatched them, duly initialled, by the trusty davies to “c” company. just as i had done so the sergeant-major appeared at the door.
“you know the time we move off to-morrow?” i said.
yes, he had known that long before i did, by means of the regimental sergeant-major and the orderly sergeant.
“fall in at 8.15,” i said. “everything the same as usual. all the officers’ servants, and watson, are to fall in with the company; this straggling in independently, before or after the company, will stop once and for all.” lewis’ face, as he laid the soup-plates, turned half a degree redder than usual.
“there’s nothing more?” i said.
“no, that’s all, sir.”
the sergeant-major drained off his whiskey with a dash of perrier, and prepared to go. now was the psychological moment when one learnt any news there was to learn about the battalion.
“no news, i suppose?” i asked.
“the fellows are still talking about this ‘rest,’ sir. no news about that, i suppose?” said the sergeant-major.
“only that it’s slightly overdue,” i answered, 250 with a laugh. “what do you think, jim? any likelihood of this three weeks’ rest coming off?”
“oh, yes; i should think so,” said the quartermaster. “any time next year.”
“good night, sir,” said sergeant-major brown, with a grin.
“good night, sergeant-major,” came in a chorus as he disappeared into the garden.
“soup’s ready, sir,” said lewis. and we sat down to dine.
the extraordinary thing about having jim potter in to dinner was that an extra elaborate menu was always provided, and yet old jim himself always ate less than anyone else; still, he did his share nobly with the whiskey, so that made up for it, i suppose. to-night edwards planned “sausages and mash” as an entrée; but, whether through superior knowledge or a mere misunderstanding, the sausages arrived seated carefully on the top of the round of beef, like marrons-glacés stuck on an iced cake. as the dish was placed, amid howls of execration, on the table, one of the unsteadier sausages staggered and fell with a splash into the gravy, much to everyone’s delight; edwards, wiping the gravy spots off his best tunic, seemed the only member of the party who did not greet with approbation this novel dish.
after soup, sausages and beef, and rice-pudding and tinned fruit, came watson’s special dish—cheese au gratin on toast. this was a glutinous concoction, and a little went a long way. then followed café au 251 lait made in the teapot, which was the signal for cigarettes to be lit up, and chairs to be moved a little to allow of a comfortable expansion of legs. owen proposed sitting out in the summer-house, but on going outside reported that it was a little too chilly. so we remained where we were.
edwards was talking of amiens: he had been there for the day yesterday, and incidentally discovered that there was a cathedral there.
“i know it,” said i. “i used to go there every saturday when i was at the army school.”
“you had a good time at the army school, didn’t you?” asked jim.
“tip-top time,” said i. “it’s a really good show. the commandant was the most wonderful man we ever met. by the way, that concert tuesday night was a really good show.”
jim potter and edwards had got it up; it had been an al fresco affair, and the night had been ideally warm for it. edwards had trained a welsh choir with some success. several outsiders had contributed, the star of the evening being basil hallam, the well-known music-hall artist, whose dainty manner, reminding one of the art of vesta tilley, and impeccable evening clothes had produced an unforgettably bizarre effect in the middle of such an audience and within sound of the guns. he was well known to most of the men as “the bloke that sits up in the sausage.” for any fine day, coming out of trenches or going in, you could see high 252 suspended the “sausage,” whose home and “base” was between treux and mericourt, and whose occupant and eye was basil hallam. and so the “sausage bloke” was received enthusiastically at our concert.
as we talked about the concert, owen began singing “now florrie was a flapper,” which had been basil hallam’s most popular song, and as he sang he rose from his chair and walked about the room; he was evidently enjoying himself, though his imitation of basil hallam was very bad indeed. as he sang, we went on talking.
“a good entry in comic cuts to-night,” i remarked. “‘a dog was heard barking in fricourt at 11 p.m.’ someone must have been hard up for intelligence to put that in.”
“a dog barking in fricourt,” said old jim, warming up. “‘a dog barking in fricourt.’ what’s that—corps stuff? i never read the thing; good lord, no! that’s what it is to have a staff—‘a dog barking in fricourt!’”
“the corps officer didn’t hear it,” said i. “it was some battalion intelligence officer that was such a fool as to report it.”
“fool?” said old jim. “i’d like to meet the fellow. he’s the first fellow i’ve ever met yet who has a just appreciation of the brain capacity of the staff. you or i might have thought of reporting a dog’s mew, or roar, or bellow; but a dog’s bark we should have thought of no interest whatever to the—er—fellows 253 up there, you know, who plan our destinies.” and he gave an obsequious flick of his hand to an imaginary person too high up to see him at all.
“he’s a good fellow,” he repeated, “that intelligence officer. ought to get a d.s.o.”
old jim had two south african medals, a d.c.m. and a d.s.o.
“the staff,” he went on, with the greatest contempt he could put into his voice. “i saw three of them in a car to-day. i stood to attention: saluted. a young fellow waved his hand, you know; graciously accepted my salute, you know, and passed on leaning back in his limousin. the ‘brains of the british army,’ i thought. pah!”
we waited. jim on the staff was the greatest entertainment the battalion could offer. we tried to draw him out further, but he would not be drawn. we tried cunningly, by indirect methods, enquiring his views on whether there would be a push this year.
“push!” he said. “of course there will be a push. the staff must have something to show for themselves. ‘shove ’em in,’ they say; ‘rather a bigger front than last time.’ strategy? oh, no! that’s out of date, you know. five-mile front—frontal attack. get a few hundred thousand mown down, and then discover the boche has got a second line. the staff. pah!!” and no more would he say.
then clark came in, and the manchester stokes 254 gun officer. clark immediately joined owen in a duet on “florrie.” then we went through the whole gamut of popular songs, with appropriate actions and stamping of feet upon the floor. meanwhile the table was cleared, only the whiskey and perrier remaining. soon there were cries of “napoleon—napoleon,” and owen, who bears a remarkable resemblance to that great personage, posed tragically again and again amid great applause. and then, in natural sequence, i, as “bill, the man wot won the battle of waterloo,” attacked him with every species of trench-mortar i could lay hands on, my head swathed in a remarkable turban of daily mail. at last i drove him into a corner behind a table, and bombarded him relentlessly with oranges until he capitulated! all the time edwards had been in fear and trembling for the safety of his gramophone.
at length peace was signed, and we grew quiet again beneath the soothing strains of the gramophone, until at last jim potter said he must really go. everyone reminding everyone else that breakfast was at seven, we broke up the party, and owen, paul, jim potter and i departed together. but anyone who knows the psychology of conviviality will understand that we had first to pay a visit to a neighbouring mess for one last whiskey-and-soda before turning in.
as i opened the door of my billet, i heard a “strafe” getting up. there was a lively cannonade 255 up in the line; for several minutes i listened, until it diminished a little, and began to die away. “in” to-morrow, i thought. my valise was laid out on the floor, and my trench kit all ready for packing first thing next morning. i lost no time in getting into bed. and yet i could not sleep.
i could not help thinking of the jollity of the last few hours, the humour, the apparently spontaneous outburst of good spirits; and most of all i thought of old jim, the mainspring somehow of it all. and again i saw the picture of the concert a few nights ago, the bright lights of the stage, the crowds of our fellows, all their bodies and spirits for the moment relaxed, good-natured, happy, as they stood laughing in the warm night air. and lastly i thought again of private benjamin, that refined eager face, that rather delicate body, and that warm hand as i placed mine over his, squeezing the trigger. he was no more than a child really, a simple-minded child of wales. somehow it was more terrible that these young boys should see this war, than for the older men. yet were we not all children wondering, wondering, wondering?... yes, we were like children faced by a wild beast. “sometimes i dislike you almost,” i thought; “your dulness, your coarseness, your lack of romance, your unattractiveness. yet that is only physical. you, i love really. oh, the dear, dear world!”
and in the darkness i buried my face in the pillow, and sobbed.
