* * * * * [Illustration: _Tommy_ (_"mopping up" captured trench_). "IS THERE ANYONE DOWN THERE?" _Voice from dug out_. "JA! JA! KAMERAD!" _Tommy_. "THEN COME OUT HERE AND FRATERNISE."] * * * * * MILITARY AIDES. Last year, owing to the pressure of other engagements, we did not mark out the tennis-lawn at "Sunnyside." This year the matter has been taken out of our hands by the military powers. Nevin was the first to think of it. "What about a game of tennis?" he suggested one bright morning in May. "Keep us from going to seed." It was his second day of leave after three months in the Ypres salient, so the change may have been too sudden for him. "That's a toppin' notion," echoed Bob; "let's raid 'old Beetle's' museum and dig out the posts." So Captain Richard Nevin, R.E., and Second-Lieutenant Robert Simpson, R.G.A., took the affair into their own hands. Having seen the same forces cooperating on previous occasions, I determined to keep clear of them. Besides, I am only "old Beetle." They found the posts in the tool-shed, and, borne upon the initial enthusiasm of their venture, began to sink a sort of winze on each side of the lawn. Up to this point they were perfectly amicable. Then Nevin, who is a thoughtful person, said suddenly, "I suppose you made quite sure that the line of these posts will cross the centre of the court?" And then, before Bob could retort, added, "Of course you ought to have made absolutely certain of that. As it is we had better leave this and find the corner irons." Corner irons that have remained undisturbed for some twenty-four months have a way of concealing themselves. At the end of ten minutes the seekers began to show signs of impatience. Such terms as "angles," "bases," "centres," interspersed with "futilass," "sodamsure," "knowseverything" were cast upon a hazardous breeze. Eventually they found one of the angles. To the ordinary layman this would have meant the beginning of the end. But Captain Richard Nevin and Second-Lieutenant Robert Simpson are made of different stuff. They scorn the easy path. They have stores of deep knowledge to draw upon which place their calculations beyond the ken of ordinary mortals. After they had made a searching examination of the exhumed angle, Bob pulled out a pencil, prostrated himself behind it and then proceeded to gaze ecstatically over the top. I moved my chair slightly south, and pretended to regard the apple-blossom, and when Nevin went into the house and brought out something which dimly resembled a ship's sextant I had the extreme presence of mind not to make any inquiries. Margery drifted up with a pink duster. "What ever are they doing?" she asked.