Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-01-23

mend itself through the cheapness Oh
the ammunition.
On the road we met relays of water
carts and wagons that had been up the
hills with food for the gunners at the
front: and engineers were at WORK re
pairing the stone bridges or digging
detours to avoid those that had disap-
peared. They were built to support no
greater burden than flock OF sheep,
an OK cart, or what a donkey can carry
on his back, and the assault OF the
British motor trucks and French SIX
inch guns had driven them deep into
the mud.
After ten miles we came to what
staff officer would call an advanced
base" but which was locally designated
the dump" At the side of the road.
much of it uncovered to the snow. We're
stores of ammunition. bully beef" and
barb wire. The camp bore all the signs
of temporary hating place: 1t was
just what the Tommies called 1t. a
DUMP We had not been told then that
the allies were withdrawing, but one
did not have to be a military expert 10
see that there was excellent reason
why they should. They were so few.
Whatever the force was against them,
the force l saw was not strong enough
! to hold the ground. not that 1T covered.
but over which it was sprinkled. There
were outposts without supports, sup
port without reserves. A squad was
expected to perform the duties OF a
company. Where a brigade was need
ed there was less than battalion
Against the white masses of the noun
tains, and the desolate landscape with
out trees houses. huts. without any
sign of human habitation. the scat
tered groups of khaki only accented
the bleak loneliness.
Getting Ready for Action.
At the dump we had exchanged for
the impromptu motor truck automo-
biles of the French staff, and as Jim
mic" Hare and / were alone in one of
them we could stop where we liked.
So we halted where an English bat
terry was going into action. 1t had
dug itself into the side of hill and
covered itself with snow and pine
branches Somewhere on one of the
neighboring hill the 'spotter was
telephoning the range. The gunners
could not see at what they were nrihe:
They could see only the high hill of
rock and snow. at the base of which
they stood shoulder high in their mud
cellars. Ten yards to the rear of them
/ was what looked like a newly made
grave reyerently covered with pine
boughs. Through these a rat-faced
young man. with the receivers of
telephone clamped to his ears, pushed
his head.
Eight degrees to the left. sir he
barked -four Thousand yards.
The men behind the guns We're eX-
tremely young. but, like most artillery
men. alert. sinewy, springinG TO their
appointed tasks with swift, c2tlike GER
tainty. The sight of the two strangers
seemed to surprise them as much as
the man in the grave had startled us.
There were two boy officers in COM
mand, one certainly not yet eighteen,
his superior officer still under twenty.
IT suppose you're all right said the
younger one. You couldn't have got
this far if you weren't all right
He tried to scowl upon us, but he was
not successful He was too lonely, too
honestly glad to see any one from be-
yond the mountains that hemmed him
in. There stretched on either side of
him to vast distances, massed barriers
of white against a gray somber sky; in
front of him-to be exact, just four
thousand yards in front of him-were
Bulgarians he had never seen, but who
were always moving him on; and be-
hind him lay "a muddy road that led to
a railhead, that led to transports. that
led to France. to the channel and Eng
land. 1t was long. long way to Eng
land. | felt like taking one of the boy
officers under each arm and smuggling
him safely home to his mother.
You don't seem to have. any sup
ports" l ventured.
The child gazed around him. 1t was
growing dark and gloomier, and the
with shadows. His men were listening,