But my new-found strength was only fitful. He had barely spoken the words, when I heard a great noise in my ears, and I knew that my senses were becoming dim again. I heard other voices, too, and looking up I saw my own colonel standing near, with three or four others near him. And then I have a faint recollection of hearing Paul Edgecumbe telling him what had taken place. I know, too, that I was angry at his description. He was telling of the part I had taken in the struggle in glowing colours, while keeping his own part in it in the background. I was trying to tell the colonel this, when everything became black. When I came to myself again, I was in a rest-station behind the lines. I remember feeling very sore, and my head was aching badly, but no bones were broken. I could move my limbs, although with difficulty; I felt as though every inch of my body had been beaten with big sticks. Still, my mind was clear, I was able to think coherently, and to recall the scenes through which I had passed. I lay for some minutes wishing I could hear news of what was going on, when a brother officer came to me. 'Hullo, Luscombe, awake? That's right. You've had a rough time; you were lucky to get out of it so well.' 'I am in the dark about everything,' I said. 'Tell me what has happened.' He mistook my meaning, and replied with a laugh: 'Oh, you were saved by that chap who took thirty Boches British prisoners. He seems to be a guardian angel of yours. He's a great man, too, there's no doubt about that. Ah, here's the M.O. coming!' The doctor and I were good friends, and when he had examined me, and pronounced me a fraud for being in bed, I eagerly questioned him, and the sub. who still remained, as to how we were doing. 'Very well indeed, below Thiepval,' was his reply, 'but up here badly.' 'Have we taken Thiepval?' He shook his head gloomily. 'That'll need a bit of doing. It's a regular fortress, man! Of course we shall get it in time. Our new guns are tremendous; but we ought to have done better up this way. We've thrown away our chances, too.' 'I don't understand,' I said. 'When we were relieved, we had practically won the key to the position we set out to get.' 'That's the mischief of the whole thing,' he replied moodily. He used language which I will not set down here; it was too strong for polite ears. 'What's the matter?' I asked. 'Oh, we're supposed to say nothing, but----' 'But what? Come, let us know. We hadn't been relieved long, when we were called back again, and we found the Boches in the very place we had taken.'