14
The Ypres Times.
by day. Beginning at the base of the bank, he and his little crew had gradually worked
their way upwards like so many moles, till they had reached the surface facing the enemy.
There they had consolidated themselves, boring an invisible series of holes, from which
the}' commanded several German trenches.
There they often had to remain for weeks, firing irregularly and from different holes,
to avoid the shells blindly searching them out.
They were on the strength of Rummy's company for rations, and after a laborious
carrying period it was decided to send their necessaries twice weekly upon an old railway
bogie from Shrapnel Corner to a point near their position.
The arrangement worked perfectly for a time, that is, till tire rum ration came into
general use. As a rule two of the gunners came to meet their convoy, but on this particular
occasion they failed to put in an appearance. So the quartermaster-sergeant loaded up
the bogie at Shrapnel Corner, and gave Rummy orders to push it up the railway
till he was challenged. Rummy undertook the task with no very amiable feelings
but he was assured there would be no difficulty since those the rations were intended for
would either meet him or be on the look out.
He made good progress at first, because he was naturally anxious to get back quickly
to his comfortable quarters at the Belgian Chateau, somewhere on the road to Dickebusch.
But it was hard work to push the bogie single-handed, the night was distinctly dark and
discouraging, and there was not a living soul to give Rummy any encouragement.
Under the circumstances he might be excused for halting occasionally he might even
be excused for sitting down under the bogie, which he did from time to time.
Perhaps it struck him that since he had what the gunners could not well do without,
and since he was on the way he thought they must come, it would save energy to wait
for them.
But the gunners had been pinned to their position all that evening, and were at that
moment picking their way across country parallel with the railway towards Shrapnel
Corner. So Rummy got tired waiting, and the time began to hang on his hands. His
thoughts cast about for some form of consolation, and what more natural than that they
should fasten on the rum jar staring at him from the near corner of the bogie. Poor
Rummy lost no time in falling, and that in more senses than one. He filled his
canteen from the jar, and took a draught. It was not long till he was in the excitable
stage to which we have referred and had he gone on this story would never have been
written.
But the loneliness was more than he could bear so he made up his mind to take the
rum, leave the rest of the convoy, and make his way on foot to the gunners' position.
Forward he went, already more than half groggy, till he came to barbed wire stretched
across the embankment, as though to bar further progress. But he was not the man to
be barred so easily, and he scrambled through, ignoring a command to halt which came
from somewhere in his immediate rear. Gripping the jar he got through the wire and
ran ahead. Then there came a burst of machine-gun fire from where he had heard the
voice, but this only made him run the faster. He came to a second lot of wire, stretched
in the same way as the first, only thicker, and through this he made his way somehow.
What followed during the next week, at least on the German side, is only suimise.
9
III.
The gunners dul y made their way to Shrapnel Corner, where they heard after prolonged
enquiries that their rations had been sent up the railway line. Thither they went and
reached the derelict bogie. They pushed it forward, unloaded it, and no doubt groused
and grumbled because there was no rum ration. The disappearance of the man in charge
they did not try to explain. He might have taken refuge from stray shells in some hole
he might have been knocked out. But they knew nothing about him, and they forgot
