Produced by Moti Ben-Ari and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) MEN, WOMEN AND GUNS "SAPPER" MEN, WOMEN AND GUNS BY "SAPPER" AUTHOR OF "MICHAEL CASSIDY, SERGEANT" NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO MY WIFE CONTENTS PAGE PROLOGUE xi PART ONE CHAPTER I. THE MOTOR-GUN 23 II. PRIVATE MEYRICK--COMPANY IDIOT 49 III. SPUD TREVOR OF THE RED HUSSARS 77 IV. THE FATAL SECOND 99 V. JIM BRENT'S V.C. 121 VI. RETRIBUTION 155 VII. THE DEATH GRIP 183 VIII. JAMES HENRY 211 PART TWO THE LAND OF THE TOPSY TURVY I. THE GREY HOUSE 237 II. THE WOMEN AND--THE MEN 243 III. THE WOMAN AND THE MAN 249 IV. "THE REGIMENT" 257 V. THE CONTRAST 265 VI. BLACK, WHITE, AND--GREY 271 VII. ARCHIE AND OTHERS 287 VIII. ON THE STAFF 291 IX. NO ANSWER 299 X. THE MADNESS 305 XI. THE GREY HOUSE AGAIN 311 PROLOGUE PROLOGUE Two days ago a dear old aunt of mine asked me to describe to her what shrapnel was like. "What does it feel like to be shelled?" she demanded. "Explain it to me." Under the influence of my deceased uncle's most excellent port I did so. Soothed and in that expansive frame of mind induced by the old and bold, I drew her a picture--vivid, startling, wonderful. And when I had finished, the dear old lady looked at me. "Dreadful!" she murmured. "Did I ever tell you of the terrible experience I had on the front at Eastbourne, when my bath-chair attendant became inebriated and upset me?" Slowly and sorrowfully I finished the decanter--and went to bed. But seriously, my masters, it is a hard thing that my aunt asked of me. There are many things worse than shelling--the tea-party you find in progress on your arrival on leave; the utterances of war experts; the non-arrival of the whisky from England. But all of those can be imagined by people who have not suffered; they have a standard, a measure of comparison. Shelling--no. The explosion of a howitzer shell near you is a definite, actual fact--which is unlike any other fact in the world, except the explosion of another howitzer shell still nearer. Many have attempted to describe the noise it makes as the most explainable part about it. And then you're no wiser.