"We were kept so busy," says one man of the Gordons concerning this time, "that for three days and nights we had no time to issue the mail. The men felt the want of a smoke more than of food, and I have seen more than one man trade away his last biscuit for a cigarette or a fill of tobacco. When the heaviest of the shelling was going on, our men were puffing away at 'fag-ends.'" From such accounts as these one may glean some idea of what the Gordons underwent up to the time of the transference of the main battle to the Flanders area. As for this last, one non-commissioned officer states that the men were hardly ever out of canals and wet ditches. One day a section of men lay waist deep in water from nine in the morning till three in the afternoon, patiently waiting for dusk to come, that they might get a chance to dry their clothes. "The Germans generally cease operations at dusk, and on these occasions the same old order comes along the line--"Dig yourselves in, men." And, on the day that they lay in water so long, no sooner had they dug themselves in than the order to advance was given!" Apparently authentic is the account of the death of Captain Ker of the Gordons, who, it is stated by eyewitnesses, was in command of men whom he led up in face of the enemy's fire at Béthune. The men gained the shelter of a natural rise in the ground, but before they reached this point Captain Ker was struck in the head by shrapnel, and was killed instantly. The men lay for some time in the position they had won, but eventually found that it was too dangerous to retain, and risked the enemy's fire in place of capture. They doubled back across a couple of fields to their old position, and eighteen of the twenty-one in the party got safely back--but only seven of them escaped being hit. Captain Ker was later picked up and buried on the field. With regard to Colonel Gordon, V.C., it appears from one account that he was taken into a barn after having been wounded, but almost immediately afterwards the barn caught fire, and it was thought that he had been trapped in the flames. It seems, however, that the wound was only a body one, and the colonel was able to get clear, though he was afterwards taken prisoner. "Keep your heads up, men!" one of the officers of the Gordons shouted to his men on one occasion. "They can't hit you"--pointing to the snipers up a tree; and with that remark he showed his own head above the trench. "None of us cared to follow his example, but his cheery way bucked us up," says one of the men present at the time. Yet again the same officer inquired--"Any man wanting to earn a glass of claret?" and received several enthusiastic affirmatives. "Well," he said, "catch me that hen running across the road." The offer was not accepted, for the German fire was hot at the time.