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If you peep over the shoulder of Captain Leslie, the gunner observing officer, as he directs the fire of his battery, situated some thousands of yards in rear, through the medium of map, field-glass, and telephone, you will obtain an excellent view of to-morrow's field of battle. Present in the O Pip are Colonel Kemp, Wagstaffe, Bobby Little, and Angus M'Lachlan.
"They tell me it's a greatly overrated amusement," replied Wagstaffe "like posting an insulting letter to some one you dislike. You see, you aren't there when he opens it at breakfast next morning! The only man of them who gets any fun is the Forward Observing Officer. And he," concluded Wagstaffe in an unusual vein of pessimism, "does not live long enough to enjoy it!"
The Captain, who had suffered a heavy reverse at the hands of Captain Wagstaffe earlier in the morning, began to rehearse the wording of his address over the telephone. The sergeant-major fired his last two shots with impressive aplomb only to be absolutely ignored twice more by Number Seven. Then he rose to his feet and saluted with ostentatious respectfulness.
To Colonel Kemp and his Adjutant Cockerell, ensconced in a dug-out thirty feet deep, furnished with a real bed, electric-light fittings, and ornaments obviously made in Germany, entered Major Wagstaffe, encrusted with mud, but as imperturbable as ever. He saluted. "Good-morning, sir. You seem to have struck a cushie little home time." "Yes.
Darkness was falling, and soon would be intense; for lights are taboo in the neighbourhood of the firing line. "Have we finished that new trench in front of our wire?" asked Wagstaffe. "Yes. It is the best thing we have done yet. Divisional Headquarters are rightly pleased about it." Blaikie gave details.
All right: but what I wanted was a steeple. Then, farther away, we can see a mine, a winding brook, and a house, with a wall in front of it. Who can see them?" To judge by the collective expression of the audience, no one does. Bobby ploughs on. "Upon the skyline we notice Squad, 'shun!" Captain Wagstaffe has strolled up. He is second in command of A Company.
And personally," concluded Wagstaffe, "I would rather keep on the right side of my Regimental Quartermaster than of the Commander-in-Chief himself. Now, send all this stuff home you can use it on manoeuvres in peace-time and I will give you a little list which will not break the baggage-waggon's back." The methodical Bobby produced a notebook. "You will require to wash occasionally.
Common-sense, and 'drolling Sadduceeism, came to their own, in England, with the king, with Charles II. After May 29, 1660, Webster and Wagstaffe mocked at bogles, if Glanvill and More took them seriously. Before the Restoration it was distinctly dangerous to laugh at witchcraft, ghosts and hauntings.
"Waddell, too," said Bobby. "We joined the same day." "And Angus M'Lachlan. I think he would have made the finest soldier of the lot of us," added Wagstaffe. "You remember his remark to me, that we only had the bye to play now? He was a true prophet: we are dormy, anyhow. Still, he made a great exit from this world, Bobby, and that is the only thing that matters in these days. Ha! H'm!
Those trenches must be packed with men." "Absolutely stiff with them," agreed Wagstaffe, getting out his revolver. "We shall be in for it presently. Are your fellows all ready, Bobby?" The youthful Captain ran his eye along the trench, where his Company, with magazines loaded and bayonets fixed, were grimly awaiting the onset.
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