SUDDEN ORDERS. THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT ADVENTURE. DIGGING IN After a strenuous day's work, during which I had only time to take a mouthful of bread and cheese, which I carried in my pocket, I espied an orderly making his way towards me. "The C.O. sent me, sir; you're wanted at once." "Oh! any news?" "I think we are in for a binge, sir." "Which is the way to headquarters?" "About two hundred yards back. Follow that narrow little track which winds around the shell-holes, and you can't miss it. Don't leave the track, or you will lose your way." On arriving at H.Q. I found a small group of officers bending anxiously over a map. The C.O. turned to me as I approached: "Ah! There you are. Get your books out, and take down your orders--ready! You are to take command of B Company. Well, now, here's our position; there's Combles and there's Leuze Wood. Take your company out into 'No Man's Land,' and extend along a line facing half right to our present position, with your left resting on the wood. C Company will be in the wood on your left; and A Company will be on your right--understand?" "Yes, sir." "You'll dig in to-night, and to-morrow we are going to take that trench that's formed like a square, to prepare the way for a frontal attack on Combles by the French. You'll take the upper portion of that perpendicular trench, passing the wood on your left." "Then, I shall have to cross over the lower trench; isn't that occupied, sir?" "The battalion bombers will clear that out for you during the night." "When is zero hour, sir?" "Don't know; I've told you all I know at present. Take ten flares, and send up two when you arrive at your objective, and send up another two at 6 o'clock the following morning." "What about ammunition and water, sir?" "The water you've already got is supposed to last forty-eight hours. I don't know about ammunition; I think there's an ammunition dump in the wood, but I will find that out and let you know. All right; it's dark enough now." Sch!--Crash!--Zug! A 5·9 burst on the parapet a few yards away. The thud of an awky bit was felt in our midst, and the sergeant-major jumped up, holding his foot. The C.O. looked up without turning a hair: "Any one hurt?" he asked. "Only my boots, sir," replied the sergeant-major, suspiciously feeling his heel. I took my departure and began to grope around in the dark in search of the narrow track which would guide me back to my company. I searched for about ten minutes, but in vain, and I became for a while hopelessly lost in a mass of shell-holes. I knew the direction roughly, but direction was of little use in that wild confusion of broken ground and débris.