"Who has got a spare field-dressing?" or "Give us your field-dressing," was all they took time to say to the men of the passing line, until a wrathful voice above suddenly interrupted them.
One of the officers, fretting at the delay and the slow progress down the trench, had climbed out and run, risking the shells and bullets along the level, to find the cause of the check. He shouted angrily at the men below him:
"Wounded? What's that got to do with it? That's no reason you should block the whole company going forward. Where do you think you're in-a communication trench or a field-dressing-station or a base hospital? Pick those men up-two of you to each man-and carry them along until you can find a place to lay them where you won't choke the whole trench; or carry them right on out of the communication trench."
The wounded men were picked up somehow or anyhow by knees and shoulders, and carried and shuffled and bumped along the winding trench, until they emerged into the old British front-line firing trench.
Along this the Stonewalls now spread and took up their positions as supports for the lines that had gone ahead, and were now over somewhere amongst the German first-line trenches. From here they could look out over the couple of hundred yards' width of what had been the neutral ground, at the old German front-line trench. Beyond its parapet they could see little or nothing but a drifting haze of smoke, but in the open ground between the trenches they could see many figures moving about, and many more lying in still and huddled heaps of khaki. The moving men were for the most part stretcher-bearers, and the Stonewalls were struck with what appeared to them the curious lack of haste and indifference to danger that showed in their movements. During many months, and in many visits to the trenches and spells in the forward fire trench, they had come to regard the neutral ground in daylight as a place whereon no man could walk, or show himself, and live; more than that, they had been taught by strongly worded precept and bitter experience that only to raise a head above the shelter of the parapet, to look for more than seconds at a time over neutral ground, was an invitation to sudden death. It struck them then as a most extraordinary thing that now men should be able to walk about out there, to carry a stretcher in, to hoist it, climbing and balancing themselves and their burden carefully on the parapet, clear and exposed to any chance or aimed bullet.
Kentucky watched some of these groups for a time and then laughed quietly.
"Well!" he drawled, "I've been kind of scared stiff for days past at the thought of having to bolt across this open ground, and here I come and find a bunch of fellows promenading around as cool and unconcerned as if there weren't a bullet within a mile of them."
"I was thinkin' just the same thing," agreed Pug, who was beside him, and looking with interest and curiosity over the open ground; "but if there ain't many bullets buzzin' about 'ere now you can bet there was not long ago. There's a pretty big crowd of ours still lying na-poo-ed out there."
But the ground was still far from being as safe as for the moment it appeared. The German artillery and the machine-gunners were evidently too busily occupied upon the more strenuous work of checking the advance, or did not think it worth while wasting ammunition upon the small and scattered targets presented by the stretcher-bearers. But when a regiment which prolonged the line to the left of the Stonewalls climbed from the trench, and began to advance by companies in open order across the neutral ground, it was a different story.
An exclamation from Pug and a soft whistle from Kentucky brought Larry to the parapet beside them, and the three watched in fascinated excitement the attempt of the other regiment to cross the open, the quick storm of shells and bullets that began to sweep down upon them the moment they showed themselves clear of the parapet. They could see plainly the running figures, could see them stumble and fall, and lie still, or turn to crawl back to cover; could see shell after shell burst above the line, or drop crashing upon it; could see even the hail of bullets that drummed down in little jumping spurts of dust about the feet of the runners.
A good many more of the Stonewalls were watching the advance, and apparently the line of their heads, showing over the parapet, caught the attention of some German machine-gunners. The heads ducked down hastily as a stream of bullets commenced to batter and rap against the parapet, sweeping it up and down, down and up its length.
"Doesn't seem quite as safe as we fancied," said Kentucky.
"I don't think!" said Pug.
"Anyway," said Larry, "it's our turn next!"
He was right, for a few minutes later their officer pushed along and told them to "Stand by," to be ready to climb out when the whistle blew, and to run like blazes for the other side.
"We'll run all right," said Pug to the others, "if them jokers lets us," and he jerked his head upwards to the sound of another pelting sweep of bullets driving along the face of the parapet above them.
Before the whistle blew as the signal for them to leave the trench, an order was passed along that they were to go company by company, A being first, B second, and C third. A couple of minutes later A Company, out on the right of the battalion, swarmed suddenly over the parapet and, spreading out to open order as they went, commenced to jog steadily across the flat ground. Immediately machine-gun fire at an extreme range began to patter bullets down amongst the advancing men, and before they were quarter-way across the "Fizz-Bang" shells also began to smash down along the line, or to burst over it. There were a number of casualties, but the line held on steadily. Some of the men of the remaining companies were looking out on the advance, but the officers ordered them to keep down, and under cover.
In C Company a lieutenant moved along the line, ordering the men down, and repeating the same sentences over and over again as he passed along.
"Keep down until you get the word; when we start across, remember that, if a man is hit, no one is to stop to pick him up; a stretcher-bearer will see to him."
"That's all right!" said Larry to the others, when the officer had passed after repeating his set sentences, "but I vote we four keep together, and give each other a hand, if we can."
"?'Ear, 'ear!" said Pug. "Any'ow, if any of us stops one, but isn't a complete wash-out, the others can lug 'im into any shell 'ole that's 'andy, and leave 'im there."
"We'll call that a bargain," said Kentucky briefly. They sat fidgeting for a few seconds longer, hearing the rush and crash of the falling shells, the whistle and smack of the bullets on the open ground beyond them.
"I'm going to have a peep," said Larry suddenly, "just to see how 'a' is getting on."
He stood on the fire step, with his head stooped cautiously below the level of the parapet; then, raising it sharply, took one long, sweeping glance, and dropped down again beside his fellows.
"They're nearly over," he said. "There's a lot of smoke about, and I can't see very clear, but the line doesn't look as if it had been very badly knocked about."
"There goes 'B,'?" said Billy Simson, as they heard the shrill trill of a whistle. "Our turn next!"
"That open ground is not such a healthy resort as we thought it a few minutes ago," said Larry. "Personally, I sha'n't be sorry when we're across it."
He spoke in what he strove to make an easy and natural voice, but somehow he felt that it was so strained and unnatural that the others would surely notice it. He felt horribly ashamed of that touch of faintness and sickness back in the communication trench, and began to wonder nervously whether the others would think he was a coward, and funking it; still worse, began to wonder whether actually they would be right in so thinking. He began to have serious doubts of the matter himself, but, if he had known it, the others were feeling probably quite as uncomfortable as himself, except possibly Pug, who had long since resigned himself to the comforting fatalism that if his name were written on the bullet it would find him. If not, he was safe.
None of the four looked to see how "B" Company progressed. They were all beginning to feel that they would have to take plenty of chances when it came their turn to climb the parapet, and that it was folly to take an extra risk by exposing themselves for a moment before they need.
A shout came from the traverse next to them.
"Get ready, 'C' Company; pass the word!"
The four stood up, and Larry lifted his voice, and shouted on to the next traverse.
"Get ready, 'C'; pass the word!"
"Don't linger none on the parapet, boys," said Kentucky. "They've probably got their machine gun trained on it."
The next instant they heard the blast of a whistle, and a shout rang along the line.
"Come on, 'C'; over with you!"
The four leaped over the parapet, scrambling and scuffling up its broken sides.
Near the top Pug exclaimed suddenly, grasped wildly at nothing, collapsed and rolled backward into the trench. The other three half-halted, and looked round.
"Come on," said Kentucky; "he's safest where he is, whether he's hurt much or little."
The three picked their way together out through the remains of the old...
