Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/battlewrack00austrich BATTLEWRACK by F. BRITTEN AUSTIN Author of "In Action," "The Shaping of Lavinia" Hodder and Stoughton London New York Toronto TO CHARLES F. GABB IN HIS PRIVATE AFFECTIONS THE PATTERN OF STINTLESS FRIENDSHIP IN HIS SELFLESS PATRIOTISM THE MODEL OF A TRUE ENGLISHMAN THESE SKETCHES OF HUMANITY AT STRIFE ARE DEDICATED IN THE GRATITUDE OF A LONG MEMORY CONTENTS PAGE The Battery (1914) 1 Pro Patria 27 Nerves! 48 The Air Scout (1914) 70 Kultur (1915) 91 The Magic of Muhammed Din 101 The Other Side 124 Na Nos! 151 Per la Più Grande Italia! 162 Panzerkraftwagen! 188 Nach Verdun! 214 The Châtelaine of Lysboisée 243 They Come Back 277 Practically all these stories have appeared in the _Strand Magazine_, _Pearson's Magazine_, _Pall Mall Magazine_, or _The Sphere_. To the Editors of these periodicals I tender my acknowledgments. It is fair to state that some of these stories, in particular "The Battery," "The Air Scout," "Pro Patria," "Nerves," were written and in some cases appeared before the present War. THE BATTERY (1914) The sun hung in the mists of morning, swollen, blood-red, a symbol of augury, as the artillery brigade pulled out of the village where it had been billeted for the night. At the tail of its long line of slowly moving vehicles marched a compact column of brown-clad infantry. In front moved a squadron of cavalry. The lieutenant-colonel commanding the brigade trotted smartly past the batteries with his staff. Fresh from an interview with the divisional artillery commander, he tried not to look preoccupied and anxious as he met the searching eyes of his men. From an unknown distance a dull thud, irregularly repeated, vibrated through the dense atmosphere. The colonel raised his head sharply to listen. The men in the column exchanged glances full of meaning. The dull concussions continued, but the column did not increase its pace. The long line of guns and wagons rolled onward at a steady walk, amid a jangle of chains and harness. The gunners on the limbers smoked and talked. Occasionally there was a burst of laughter. It seemed that that ominous thudding was a summons which concerned them not at all. In the fog which drifted in patches across the road its origin seemed enormously remote.