The Great Man smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. "We'll overlook it this time. Let's see how well you can do your job. And if you send in your claim for travelling expenses, send it to me and I'll countersign it." I suppose I must have said something by way of thanks. I suppose I must have saluted, and closed the door behind me. I know that I cleared half a dozen or so of the stairs down at a bound and fell over an astonished sentry at the bottom. It must have looked most undignified in a Gunner captain, but--I had actually been selected to join the British Expeditionary Force with a command of my own and---- I leaped into the waiting taxicab in a state of delirium. The driver touched his cap. "Where to, sir?" said he. "Where to? Where to? Oh! Brussels; anywhere." The driver grinned in sympathetic understanding and got on to third speed in as many seconds. And that is how I very nearly missed the most gorgeous adventure of my life. CHAPTER II THE SAILING OF THE FORCE _Follow, follow! Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy; And leave your England as dead midnight still. * * * * * For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd With one appearing hair, that will not follow These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?_ "_I consider that I have command of the sea when I am able to tell my Government that they can move an expedition to any point without fear of interference from an enemy's fleet._"--SIR GEOFFREY HORNBY. Train No. B46 had slipped unostentatiously into its appointed siding precisely on its scheduled time. For a couple of hours the men had been working like galley-slaves to get the ammunition on board in time. The C.O. and two other officers with their coats off were working as hard as the rest. And it is no joke heaving up and packing neatly cases of 18-pr. and howitzer shell, especially when you are not used to it. Finished at last, and with half an hour to the good. Another four hours and they will be on the road themselves, the first step into the unknown. A couple of hours' sleep, a shave and a bath, a final look round the battery office, a last hurried breakfast in the Mess, and a last handshake with the colonel. "You off? Well, good-bye, and good luck to you. We shall meet over the other side, I expect." The battery parades. "Battery all present, sir," reports the sergeant-major. The report runs through until it reaches the C.O. A few minutes to ride round the teams and then: "Column o' route from the right. Walk--march!" and the battery is off through the early morning quiet of the Aldershot streets, bound for the port of embarkation. Thus the mounted units, or most of them. Others by train. A few lines will serve as description for all these. A Railway Transport Officer meets the C.O. on the platform as the men march in. "Get your men in as quickly as you can, please; we always get off five minutes ahead of time."