On March 4th Nicholson and I set out to obtain the desired pictures. I stopped on the way, at a cemetery on the Menin Road, and took a photograph of the graves of three officers of the 10th Hussars--Captain Annesley, Lieutenant Drake, and Captain Peto--who had fallen in the first battle of Ypres. Zillebeke was lonely. On one edge of it a couple of signal corps men were laying a wire. Otherwise the town, which was in ruins, was deserted. We kept under cover of the houses as much as possible. I obtained a good snapshot of the damaged church, and then took some pictures in the graveyard, which was torn with great shell-holes. "Remember what Hardress said about the Huns being able to see us here," I said to Nicholson. "Let's get out of it." We started. No sooner were we under cover of the first cluster of smashed houses than four shrapnel shells burst right over the _pavé_ roadway, not fifty yards ahead of us. [Illustration: The Zillebeke Church, March, 1915] [Illustration: German prisoners in Ypres, captured after the explosion of a British mine near Hooge] I dodged into a house, the walls of which, minus roof, were still standing at drunken angles. Doorless and windowless, the house seemed to offer little protection. "I don't like going up that road over the hill," said I. "We will be in sight of the Huns for some distance. I wonder if this house boasts a cellar?" Examination showed a cellar existed, but it was nearly full of water. "I guess the cellar steps provide the best roosting-place," was my conclusion. "Me for the lowest one for a bit. Won't you share it with me?" "I don't like it," replied Nicholson. "We will be much better out of it. Let's go." We argued the various possibilities, but Nicholson was so strongly in favour of departure that I acquiesced, and we started away. We had gone about one hundred feet when a series of crashes close behind us quickened my pace. Nicholson turned and looked. I called to him, and he again came on. As he came up he said: "Did you see where that lot landed?" "No," I answered. "Too close to suit me, but just where I didn't notice." "It interested me," said he, as we pushed on, "because all four of those shells exploded in that rickety old house in which you were so keen on taking cover. But little would be left of us by now had we stayed, for the poor building collapsed like a house of cards." The Germans shelled the road vigorously as we kept on, but luckily the shrapnel fell behind us, and we were soon back in Ypres. That day saw the German gunners increase their shelling all along the Ypres front. The trenches occupied by our division were vigorously bombarded, and several casualties reported. Ypres itself came in for a heavy share of the Hun "hate." The windows rattled and our house shivered as the howitzer shells smashed into all quarters of the town.