"But it seems so quiet here," Reggy protested. "Apart from broken-down buildings, I can’t see a sign of a war—there isn’t a soul in sight but ourselves." "Jolly good reason," Jack replied. "If you take a peep through the hedge there you’ll see the trenches—we’re as close as we dare go at present." Reggy looked disappointed. "There isn’t even a gun," he complained. It seemed as if the invisible gunners had heard him, for suddenly the fields round about us sprang to life and belched forth smoke and shells. Some cannon in the dark shade of the bushes were actually so close that we could see the streak of flame from the muzzle light the shadow. The Germans were not slow to retaliate, and in a few minutes the roar of their guns and the howl and crash of shells added to the general clamour. Fortunately they did not appear to have our range, and the shells fell far afield. "That’s what _you_ brought down upon us—you doubting Thomas," Jack remarked facetiously to Reggy. "You’ve started a nice row now that will last for hours." "Isn’t this great!" Reggy cried like a pleased child. "I wouldn’t have missed this for a million." "I hope Fritzie will miss you for less," laughed the colonel, "or we’ll be short an ex-Mess Secretary." Reggy vouchsafed no reply to this hope. "We’d better get along out of this," Jack said; "the _Bosches_ may discover their mistake before long and pour a little shower of hate on us." We got into the motor and started towards the Dickibusch road. At Jack’s request we stopped for a few minutes at the ruins of a large schoolhouse which had comprised one city block. The semblance of a building remained, but the walls stood only in jagged patches. "These are the remains of our Field Ambulance," Jack explained. "Come inside and see; you will get a faint idea of what the ’Jack Johnsons’ did to our hospital wards." We passed into what had once been the main entrance. The doorway had received one great shell which on bursting had carried the four walls with it. We stumbled along the floor over heaps of brick and mortar; through piles of broken chairs and beds, and, climbing the ruins of the staircase, arrived upon a landing from which we could see the interior of what had once been a large room. "This was my ward," Jack told us. "You see that big hole in the roof? A big shell came through there, and burst right here." He pointed to a wide, irregular opening in the floor. Every stick of furniture was smashed to atoms. Daylight came through great gaping holes in the walls and floor. The beds were merely nests of twisted iron. The greater part of the ceiling had fallen in and lay in a heap in the centre of the room.