Part 16 (1/2)

Perhaps they still live on Keo and see

If we did not play Bridge after our walks, ould look in at the theatre or stroll across to dinner and Bridge with Gibson and his brother officers of the KOSB, then billeted at Locre

Not all convents have theatres: this was a special convent The Signal Co all the kit would be ; so we danced and sang until the lights went out The star performer was ”Spot,” the servant of an ADC

”Spot” was a littlethat had ever been recited, and his knowledge of the s was i, and a very good inallers thrilled and silent The lights flashed up, and ”Spot” darted off on soerel of an almost talented obscenity In private life Spot was the best coinable He could not talk for aan attitude I have only known him serious on two subjects--his ht little stories of how his master endeavoured to correct his servant's accent There was a famous story of ”a n'orse”--but that is untellable

Posh entlemanly culture Sometimes a chauffeur or an HQ clerk would endeavour to speak very correct English in front of Spot

”'E was poshy, my dear boy, positively poshy 'E made me shi+ver until I cried 'Smith, old man,' I said to 'im, 'you can't do it You're not born to it nor bred to it Those that try is just de themselves

Posh, ive a cruel ilish The punishment was the more bitter, because all the world knew that Spot could speak the King's English as well as anybody if only he chose To the poshy alone was Spot unkind He was a generous, warm-hearted little s There were other perforht in her eyes, older s, and a Scotsman with an expressionless face, who mumbled about we could never discover what

The audience was usually strengthened by soelic nuns Luckily for thelish, and listened to crude songs and sentis with the same expression of maternal content

Our work at Locre was not confined to riding and cable-laying The 15th Brigade and two battalions of the 13th were fighting crazily at Ypres, the 14th had co two battalions of the 13th were at Neuve Eglise

I had two more runs to the Ypres district before we left Locre On the first the road was tolerable to Ypres, though near the city I was nearly blown off my bicycle by the fire of a concealed battery of 75's The houses at the point where the Rue de Lille enters the Square had been blown to bits The Cloth Hall had barely been touched In its glorious dignity it was beautiful

Beyond Ypres, on the Hooge Road, I first experienced the extrehbourhood of a ”JJ” It fell about 90 yards in front ofsound as it falls, like the groan of a vastly sorrowful soul in hell,--so I wrote at the ti crash as if all the houses in the world were falling

On the way back the road, which had been fairly greasy, becaled on until ht to have seen to it before starting), and a gale arose which blew me all over the road So I leftback to HQ by the light of ht I was furiously hungry, and stopped at the first inn and gorged coffee with rue sandwich of bread and butter and fat bacon I had barely started again--it had begun to pour--when a car ca with a French staff-officer inside I stopped it, saying in hurried and weighty tones that I was carrying an i onbunch of receipts), and the rest of the way I travelled lapped luxuriously in soft furs

The second ti a frozen road bethite fields All the shells sounded alarly near The noise in Ypres was terrific At my destination I came across some prisoners of the Prussian Guard, fierce and enormous men, nearly all with reddish hair, very sullen and rude

From accounts that have been published of the first battle of Ypres, it ht be inferred that the British Ar annihilated A despatch rider, though of course he does not know veryof theout the opinions and spirit of the men Now one of us went to Ypres every day and stopped for a few minutes to discuss the state of affairs with other despatch riders and with signal-sergeants Right through the battle ere confident; in fact the idea that the linevery heavily That we knew Nothing like the shell fire had ever been heard before nobody realised how serious the situation ie has a perfectthe routine ht be forwarded at leisure, he rode along the Menin road to the Chateau at Hooge, the headquarters of the 15th Brigade He caood ti We learned afterwards that the enee road

So the time passed without any exciteht hold of a definite ruranted leave We existed in restless excitereat day ere told that we should be allowed a week's leave We solemnly drew lots, and I drew the second batch

We left the Convent at Locre in a dream, and took up quarters at St Jans Cappel, two miles west of Bailleul We hardly noticed that our billet was confined and uncomfortable Certainly we never realised that we should stop there until the spring The first batch went off hilariously, and with slow pace our day drew nearer and nearer

You may think it a little needless of me to write about my leave, if you do not remember that we despatch riders of the Fifth Division enlisted on or about August 6 Few then realised that England had gone to war

nobody realised what sort of a war the as going to be When we returned in the beginning of December ere Martians For threenot in a savage country, but in a civilised country burnt by war; and it was because of this that the sights of war had struck us so fiercely that e caood shi+p _Archimedes_ seemed so many years distant Besides, if I were not to tell you of ap in my memories that I should scarcely kno to continue ed more slowly than I can describe Short-handed, we had plenty of work to do, but it was all routine work, which gave us too much time to think There was also a crazy doubt of the others' return

They were due back a few hours before we started If they fell ill orto and froht we prepared so packed our kits, tried to sleep As the hour drew near we listened excitedly for the noise of their engines Several false alarms disturbed us: first, a despatch rider from the Third Division, and then another froines together, and then a moment later the faint rustle of others in the distance We recognised the engines and jue had never quite recovered fro had set in His leave had been extended at home So poor ”Tommy,” who had joined us at Beuvry, was compelled to remain behind

Violent question and answer for an hour, then we piled ourselves on our light lorry Singing like angels we rattled into Bailleul Just opposite Corps Headquarters, our old billet, we found a little croaiting

None of us could talkfriends I ain that stoutest of warriors, Mr Potter of the 15th Artillery Brigade, a friend of Festubert days Then a battalion of French infantry passed through, gallant and cheerful reen buses rolled up, and about three in thethe Cassel road

Two of us sat on top, for it was a gorgeous night We rattled over the _pave_ alongsideat the side of the road--through Metern, through Caestre of pleasant memories, and south to Hazebrouck Our driver was aalong rapidly by hi Just before Hazebrouck we caught up a French convoy I do not quite knohat happened The Frenchmen took cover in one ditch We swayed past, half in the other, at a good round pace