IT was a delightful spring evening. Here and there against the crimson of the sky a series of tiny white cloudlets, amidst which an aeroplane flaunted homewards after its day's reconnaissance, proclaiming the presence of enemy anti-aircraft guns. The occasional distant boom of a gun accentuated the calm serenity of the courtyard. In the oldworld garden of the chateau a couple of Nursing Sisters sauntered in quiet retirement. The eddying stream encircling the grounds gurgled merrily behind the garden wall. click of farmyard wheels on the road running meadowwards, the lowing of cows, and the chatter of children birds'-nesting, preached peace. Peafowl on the chateau balustrade shrieked shrilly to each other; the cackle of the pond and the lazy flapping of a swan's wings echoed fitfully on the still air. Surely rumours of imminent war, of a great battle, bloody, epoch-making, were but myths!

The

The Boy, sauntering along the stream in admiration of budding verdure, drifted into a farmyard. The sight of geese reminded him of his duties as mess caterer. Ration bully beef grows wearisome. A buxom woman, with her young daughters smiling a

welcome, listened to his doubtful French. There, amongst half a hundred hens, waddled a fat white goose. A bargain must be struck and the deed would be done.

In a moment the farmyard was in an uproar. The three women rushing, with yells of encouragement to each other amidst the ducks and hens and geese, pursued their prey. The goose dodged valiantly. The Boy was enjoying himself thoroughly. In the end the goose was captured.

But the real end was not

yet.

In the kitchen sat an old grandmother, chair-ridden, spectacled, and wrinkled with the furrows of uncountable years. She, it appeared, was still in command. Into ber outstretched arms was placed the wildly struggling bird. With eyes tight shut and spectacles knocked about by the animal's flapping wings, she deftly poised the victim, and then gave her decision: "Eight pounds! One frano a pound." The Boy closed instantly.

Florrs, having hungered for architecture, was returning home from a church hunt in the cool of the evening. Porteous, with a dictionary, laboured at perfecting his knowledge of the French language. It helped him to forget things.

The hospital buildings were almost empty of patients. There was no work. Master's preparatory orders, however, had been explicit and had been obeyed. He and Mackenzie were once more in

converse.

The Quartermaster's store in the stables was visited. Were there food and hospital comforts for at least a thousand? Was equipment ready to hand for the immediate arrangement of improvised ambulance trains if a rush came?

Upstairs, in the operating theatre, Master found the Sergeant still settling details. The former occupants of the State bedroom would have been thunderstruck at its appearance. Rolls of antiseptic wool, duplicate operating knives, sharpened for the tenth time, bottles of antiseptics, anaesthetics, towels, sterilisers, and a host of minor appliances, which in the sight of the lay observer would have produced a shudder of apprehension, were duly inspected and approved.

The garrets with their rows of neatly arranged stretchers, the kitchen supplemented by its half-dozen open-air stoves, and the cooks smoking their pipes with clear consciences, were all duly visited and questioned.

The Gael at No. 1 section had induced his limited space to squeeze in an extra twenty stretchers.

Porteous, with doubtful shakings of his old head and careful consideration, agreed

VOL. CCI.-NO. MCCXVI.

to accept an extra ten patients under pressure, but failed to see where they were to go. He did not fail to recognise that the law of necessity is unanswerable.

There was a balmy stillness in the air, which whispered of green English lanes and primrose paths. But to those who dared to think there was also a subtle tension of the

atmosphere which foretold that many a young life that evening witnessed its last sunset.

Phelps at dinner was inclined to gloom. He was also filled with news. "Cavalry to the number of many thousands were present, close by." Therefore the battle was imminent. Porteous, his fork arrested half-way to his lips, turned in his chair and pierced him with a glance.

"Did you snapped.

see them?" he

"Er-no-er-but I was told by" explained the padre.

"Humph!" grunted Porteous with ill-suppressed chuckles. "Usual rumours. Tosh!"

The door opened and Champion, his face beaming, entered with a live goose. The Boy recognised it as his purchase.

"A real good 'un, sir," he announced, holding the bird for Master's inspection. "Just come from the farm. Shall I kill it and serve it up to-morrow, sir?"

"H'm," considered Master. "I think we had better say— er-the day after to-morrow, Champion. Perhaps the day after that; it depends."

N

We breakfasted as usual, and had finished before the Artillery slackened. All was in readiness. In about two to three hours the first wounded might be expected. They would be mostly walking cases which, in the first Infantry attack, had fallen on leaving our advanced trenches. Passed through the hands of our Regimental Aid Posts and Field Ambulances, they would be collected from the latter by the Motor Ambulance Convoy, and be shoved along rapidly, in order to make room for the serious lying-down cases which required hand-carriage from the field, and would therefore of necessity arrive later.

We were not out in our calculations. A Motor Convoy, loaded to its full capacity, rolled into the compound as expected. As each car reached the verandah, its contents were checked by the tallies which had been attached to the wounded in the Field Ambulances. If the case required immediate operation he entered the chateau; if trivial, the ear continued its journey to No. 1 Section. A convoy of twenty cars can carry 150 "sitters' or eighty "liers."

We needed no telegraphic or confidential news regarding the progress of the battle. Information in detail was freely given by those who ought to have known best. With due allowance made for the excitement and bias of wounded raconteurs, one could easily piece together the story.

We learned that our own Artillery fire had been hellish,