TheCompleteMemoirsOfGeorgeSherston

that I saw and not the places where I had been happy
with them.

And if my visual meditations included the face of
Rivers I did not allow myself to consult him as to the
advisability of avoiding needless risks. I knew that he
would have dissuaded me from doing that patrol.
And then, no doubt, I dozed off until Velmore came
back to tell me that it was getting on for one o'clock
and Corgoral Davies all ready for me up at No. 14
post.

Corporal Davies was a trained scout, young, small,
and active. We had worked out our little scheme,such
as it was, and he now informed me in a cheerful
whisper that the machine-gun which was our objec-
tive had been firing now and again from its usual
position, which was half-right, about four hundred
yards away. (The German trench was about six hun-
dred yards from ours at that point.) In my pocket I
had my little automatic pistol to provide moral sup-
port, and we took three or four Mills5 bombs apiece.
Our intention was to get as near as we could and then
put the wind up the machine-gunners with our
bombs.

A sunken farm-road ran out from No. 14 post;
along this we proceeded with intense caution. About
a hundred yards out we forsook the road and bore
right-handed. It was a warm still night and the moon
was very properly elsewhere, but the clear summer
sky diminished the darkness and one could see quite
a lot after a bit. Under such conditions every clod of
earth was liable to look like the head of a recumbent
enemy and the rustle of a fieldmouse in the corn could
cause a certain trepidation—intrepid trepidation, of
course.

Obviously it takes a longish time to crawl three or

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