The next thing was to cross the fire-swept crest.  Now, crossing fire-swept crests is manifestly unpleasant—­especially if you are alone.  If you are leading fifty men at least one and half times as old as you are, who look to you for guidance and control, it is not so bad.  Bravery is very closely allied to “conspicuous gallantry,” and “conspicuous gallantry” in the field is almost impossible when there is no one to look on.  But he was too tired to worry much whether he was hit or not, and his Platoon had to be reached as soon as possible.

He found them lined up behind a small bank, waiting for orders to reinforce the first line.  Taking his glasses out of their case, he crawled forward to have a look at the position for himself.  The Platoon in front was established behind a mud bank, firing occasional shots at the enemy, who appeared to have dug himself in behind a railway cutting at least five hundred yards distant.  Although bullets were humming pretty thickly through the air, the casualties on the British side so far were only two or three men slightly wounded.  They had orders to “hang on” to that position until the centre and right should be sufficiently strengthened for the main attack to materialise, when they were to push on as best they might.  Having learnt this, the Subaltern crawled back, and sent out three men “to establish touch” with the front Platoon.

An hour passed before anything further happened.  During that time the Platoon Sergeant told him of the great difficulty they had had in reaching this advanced position at all, as they had been shelled from the front by the enemy, and from the left by their own batteries.  Accidents such as this often happened, and the artillery were not really as culpable as would at first sight appear.  Advanced-guard actions materialised so suddenly, and situations changed so quickly, that it was not always possible to circulate precise orders.  The gunners’ ideas of the relative positions seemed to be, during the opening stages of the attack, rather hazy—­a fact that was very much resented by the men.  “We ain’t come out ’ere to be targets to them ruddy gunners,” one fellow grumbled.

Soon, however, things straightened out, and in an hour’s time the various movements preparatory to the attack had been completed.  The enemy, seeing that he was almost surrounded, and that it would be impossible to extricate the greater part of his command from the battle, resolved at least to save his guns, which were accordingly withdrawn.

When at length the Subaltern’s Platoon pushed forward in the wake of the leading Platoon, no less a personage appeared unaccountably on the scene than the Colonel.  He had thrown off the worried look that had been growing on him of late.  Some of the officers, too junior to understand how uneasy lies the head that is crowned with the responsibility for many lives, had been heard to say that the Colonel’s manner and general outlook upon the campaign was tinged