with messages for His Majesty the King, the Prime Minister, Lord
Kitchener, the two Houses of Parliament, and the ministers and clergy of
all denominations: all of which I promised faithfully to remember and to
deliver in person. Sykes, with more modesty, had asked me if I would
send a photograph, when the film was developed of the snapshot I had
taken of him, to his wife and the twins at Norwich.
My car, upon whose carburettor an operation for appendicitis had been
successfully performed by the handy men up at the H.Q. of the Troop
Supply Column, stood at the door. I held out my hand to Sykes, who was
in the act of saluting; he took it with some hesitation, and then gave
me a grip that paralysed it for about a quarter of an hour.
"If you be coming back again, will you ask for me to be de-tailed to
you, sir? My number is ----. Sergeant Pope at the Infantry Barracks sees
to them things, sir."
I nodded.
"Bon voyage, monsieur," cried Madame in a shrill voice.
"Bon voyage," echoed Jeanne.
I waved my hand, and the next moment I had seen the last of two noble
women who had never looked upon me except with kindness, and who, from
my rising up till my lying down, had ministered to me with unfailing
solicitude.
* * * * *
At the Base I boarded the leave-boat. Several officers were already on
board, their boots still bearing the mud of Flanders upon them. It was
squally weather, and as we headed for the open sea I saw a dark object
gambolling upon the waves with the fluency of a porpoise. A sailor
stopped near me and passed the time of day.
"Had any trouble with German submarines?" I asked.
"Only once, sir. A torpedo missed us by 'bout a hund-erd yards."
"Only once! How's that?"
For answer the sailor removed a quid of tobacco from one cheek to the
other by a surprisingly alert act of stowage and nodded in the direction
of the dark object whose outlines were now plain and salient. It was
riding the sea like a cork.
"Them," he said briefly. It was a t.b.d.
At the port of our arrival the sheep were segregated from the goats. The
unofficial people formed a long queue to go through the smoking-room,
where two quiet men awaited them, one of whom, I believe, always says,
"Take your hat off," looks into the pupil of your eyes, and lingers
lovingly over your pulse; the other, as though anxious to oblige you,
says, "Any letters to post?" But his inquiries are not so disinterested
as they would seem.
The rest of us, being highly favoured persons, got off without ceremony,
and made for the Pullman. As the train drew out of the station and
gathered speed I looked out upon the countryside as it raced past us.
England! Past weald and down, past field and hedgerow, croft and
orchard, cottage and mansion, now over the chalk with its spinneys of
beech and fir, now over the clay with its forests of oak and elm. The
friends of one's childhood, purple scabious and yellow toad-flax, seemed
to nod their heads in welcome; and the hedgerows were festive with
garlands of bryony and Old Man's Beard. The blanching willows rippled in
the breeze, and the tall poplars whispered with every wind. I looked
down the length of the saloon, and everywhere I saw the blithe and eager
faces of England's gallant sons who had fought, and would fight again,
to preserve this heritage from the fire and sword of bloody sacrilege.
Fairer than the cedars of Lebanon were these russet beeches, nobler than
the rivers of Damascus these amber streams; and the France of our new
affections was not more dear.
Twilight was falling as the guard came round and adjured us to shut out
the prospect by drawing the blinds. As we glided over the Thames I drew
the blind an inch or two aside and caught a vision of the mighty city
steeped in shadows, and the river gleaming dully under the stars like a
wet oilskin. At a word from the attendant I released the blind and shut
out the unfamiliar nocturne. Men rose to their feet, and there was a
chorus of farewells.
"So long, old chap, see you again at battalion headquarters."
"Good-bye, old thing, we meet next week at H.Q."
"To-morrow night at the Savoy--rather! You must meet my sister."
As I alighted on the platform I saw a crowd of waiting women. "Hullo,
Mother!" "Oh, darling!" I turned away. I was thinking of that platform
next week when these brief days, snatched from the very jaws of death,
would have run their all too brief career and the greetings of joy would
be exchanged for heart-searching farewells.
* * * * *
I was dining at my club with two friends, one of them a young Dutch
attaché, the other a barrister of my Inn. We did ourselves pretty well,
and took our cigars into the smoking-room, which was crowded. Some men
in a corner were playing chess; the club bore, decent enough in peace
but positively lethal in war, was demonstrating to a group of impatient
listeners that the Staff work at G.H.Q. was all wrong, when, catching
sight of me, he came up and said, "Hullo, old man, back from the Front?
When will the war end?" I returned the same answer as a certain D.A.A.G.
used to provide for similar otiose questions: "Never!"
"Never! Hullo, what's that?"
Every one in the room suddenly rose to their feet, the chess players
rising so suddenly that they overturned the board. "Damn it, and it was
my move, I could have taken your queen," said one of them. Outside there
was a noise like the roaring of the lion-house at the Zoo; your
anti-aircraft gun has a growl of its own. "They're here," said some one,
and we all made for the terrace.
I looked up and saw in the dim altitudes a long silvery object among the
stars. As the searchlights played upon it, it seemed almost diaphanous,
and the body appeared to undulate like a trout seen in a clear stream.
Jupiter shone hard and bright in the southern hemisphere, and suddenly a
number of new planets appeared in the firmament as though certain stars
shot madly from their spheres. Round and about the monster came and went
these exploding satellites. Then another appeared close under her, and
like a frightened fish she swerved sharply and was lost to view among
the Pleiades.
"Let's go and see what's happened," said one of my friends. "I hear
she's dropped a lot of bombs down----."
As we went down the street I saw that for about two hundred yards ahead
it was sparkling as with hoar-frost. Suddenly the soles of our boots
"scrunched" something underfoot. I looked down. The ground was covered
with splinters of glass. As we drew nearer we caught sight of a cordon
of police, and behind them a great fire springing infernally from the
earth, and behind the fire a group of soldiers, whose figures were
silhouetted against the background. Our way was impeded by curious
crowds, among whom one heard the familiar chant of "Pass along, please!"
We stopped. Close to us two men were stooping with heads almost knocking
together and searching the ground, while one of them husbanded a lighted
match against the wind.
"Blimey, Bill," said one to the other, "I've found 'un!"
"What have you found?" we asked of him.
"A souvenir, sir!"
Truly, they know not the stomach of this people.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] See Chapter XXV.
[31] See Chapter XI.
[32] _Ibid._
THE END
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End of Project Gutenberg's Leaves from a Field Note-Book, by J. H. Morgan