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Show NO HERO-THIS By WARWICK DEEPING ),ethe sound of someone running. It e is Finch, pounding along with his head down. He almost cannons into me, and apologises breathlessly. "Sorry, sir. Makr Hanson's compliments com-pliments and It's time to go." I I can hear the acattered rifle fire t coming from the east of Harbon- - nieres and the aound ia liks the crack of a whip. But one must not - appear flurried or too much in a . hurry. I stroll back and about down the steps: "Fall in. We will have a little walk before break- fast." Flat and open fields He between Harbonnieres and the next village - toward the west. Everything looks - gray In the early morning light and ' as we tramp along I look back like . Lot's wife, half expecting to see i the gray figures of Germans moving I across the fields. But the landscape ia empty. The next village la a little place built round one big farm and It is utterly deserted. We occupy the farm buildings and breakfast. Posting Orders I call Corporal Block and order him to post himself on the edge of the open fields and to run in and report at once If he should spot German infantry advancing. Also I tell Sergeant Slmpaon to aend Bates, our prize runner, off to La Motte to try and find Fairfax and our headquarters and to report the XXV We ara at our eass la a field beslds the Amiens road not far from tha hutment that have become be-come divisional headquarters. We have fed. Bond haa drawn rations, and Glbba and I alt on a little grass mound and watch the road. Fairfax Fair-fax la aaleep on a atretcher at the bottom of what was once a trench. The road haa become atrangely empty and silent, a straight and dusty streak between the tumbled greenness of old battlefields. There Is not a cloud In the sky. Glbbs and I smoke our pipes. Now and again a few stragglers hobble by, or a belated lorry of G. S. wagon rumbles past. Both road and the green wilderneaa have a disturbing emptiness. Ws understand under-stand that tha remnant of our die-hards die-hards are making a brave attempt to hold the river. We have a feeling that there Is nothing between us and theae sticky rear guards. Part of tha 301 F. A. haa been sent up to help the weary 103rd. Ws are being be-ing kept la reserve. Watching tha Remnant Wa watch the remnants of a machine gun company march back down tha road. That, too, is a alght shall not forget A big swarthy inahaven officer marches at their lead. He haa no steel helmet He ralka with a tired, hobbling swag- walk in. There is a little vestibule, and I see Fairfax pause and raise his hand to his steel helmet "Pardon. We thought the house empty." An elderly Frenchman la sitting astride on a chair smoking a clgaret and watching a young woman packing pack-ing a basket He gives us a look which ia both aardonic and contemptuous. con-temptuous. He shrugs his shoulders, "Entrez. measleura." This French girl fascinate me. She la very tall, very dark, with one of those white clear skins, a beautiful beau-tiful creature, but it is not her mere physical beauty that makes me marvel. mar-vel. It is her young dark eyed dignity, dig-nity, the deliberate and calm way in which aha is packing that basket. All her movements have a smooth unflurried grace. She doea not look 'at us. W might be mere shadows on tha wall, and her calm tragic aloofness troubles me. Is her young stateliness ao crowned with scorn? Are we, the scourings of a defeated army, not deserving of ona glance of compaasion or of reproach? The othera must feel aa I do, for her aloofness removes us like rude gaping boys. We betake ourselves to the room on the other side of the passage, but I can hear the voices of the Frenchman and his daughter. He aska her If aha Is ready and her reply la a quiet monosyllabic mono-syllabic yea. Ha aaya. "Good, I will put the horse In. Wa will leave everything nonreturn of our ambulances. Distant rifle and machine gun fire. Also there ia a acrap going on in the air up above. A few shells fall near the church. Block runs In to warn me that stretcher bearers bear-ers and walking wounded are coming com-ing down the road from Harbon-nierea. Harbon-nierea. I send some of our bearers out to help. Two wounded officers and half a dosen Tommies are carried car-ried In, bad cases, and aa we deal with them I wonder how w are going to get them away. I hear aomethlng drive Into the yard. A lorry. Thank God! The driver tells me that he ha been aent from La Motte. We load our stretcher cases into It and aend off the walking wounded. A Boche shell bursts in the farmhouse gar- i den. . I Block rushes In. "Our guns have ; limbered up and gone, air. Jerry's ; coming across the fields." i I have to make an Instant deci- i eion. Ought I to stay and be captured cap-tured with my men or ought we to leg it? I am torn with doubts, but l I decide to go, aa we have evacuated all our wounded for the moment We bundle up our equipment load 1 It on stretchers and march out, put- ( ting the village between us and the 1 enemy. We are about 100 yards be- 1 yond the last cottage when a regu- lar salvo of shells descends upon the wretched little place. The steeple of the church lurches to one t side. The village appears smothered smoth-ered la smoke. A glow spreads over It Some building is alight Block is walking beside me. He gives me a loving grin. i "You timed It just right air." t I wonder. Ought we to bare i held on? t (To be continued.) . (Copyright 13T. for The Telegram.) ger ana m uiwv - v mn wu face. Pride, pride that la dirty am weary and unaubdued! Somethtni makes me jump up and aalute him Ha waves his band at me am peases on. Sunset We dine Uke a plcnli party with our plate on thi ground, between our knees. Wi have not much to say to one an other. Divisional headquarters hai gone back, leaving aa advancec headquarters la those hutments Bliss comes across and has a drink with us. He looks very tired. Th laat news la that we seem ta bi holding the line of the Somme. The Germans are across the Somme. We receive aa urgent order to move, aad w do move. 1 have never seen our transport men se pry and eager la harnessing up It remind m of a fir brigade competition. Our wagona go bundling bun-dling out Into tha road and I notice that the harness I half off one horn. Fairfax rides out after them, using his voice, t hear him tell our A. 8. C fellows that they are Dot competing la a gymkhana We march, Glbba and 1 at the rear. Thi long, straight road takes to Itself untortured tree, great poplar whoa gray branches meet overhead. Thia means that we have left the devastation behind us and are back la country that for years has trembled on the edge of all thia horror. Here are cultivated fields and orchards, and auddenly I realise the added bitterness of this disaster. disas-ter. It will mean for the poor French another exodus. Ara They Bitter? W1U they feel bitter toward as? Wa nave turned right and marched into a village called Proy art Fairfax has baited the uait la the yard of a tile factory where our transport caa be parked. The door of the house la open and, thinking the owner have left, we officers " to our brave allies. -5 Night Fairfax haa had his valise ' spread on the Frenchman' bed. , Glbbs and I have derided to aleep 1 on stretcher In the little salon, for somehow the French girl's bedroom e scares us. I suppose we are entl-1 entl-1 mentallsts and regard her bed aa ' aacred and Inviolate. I am ahavlng next morning when ! a dispatch rider brings us orders. ' Fairfax call to m and 'I go In to - him with half my face still lath-1 lath-1 ered. He is sitting on the bed. ' "We are to open a mobile A. D. 8. ' at a place called Harbonnieres. Pass m my map. Stephen." ' 1 don't quite like the word mo-; mo-; bile, sir. And where are our ambu-1 ambu-1 lance?" ' "Rankla says that three will re-' re-' port before a. m. He hope to 1 get us a couple of lorries In addi-' addi-' tlon. I am to detail ona officer and 1 a subsection. Headquarters are to I move to La Motte." I am feeling full of beans and I 1 ask to be detailed for the job. Fairfax looks at me. "Like Car-leas Car-leas with you?" "I'm not very keen, eir." "All right You and Glbba can relieve each other every eg hours, ru keep Carless with me." A Oots-Country Journey It Is a cross country journey to Harbonnieres and I aee lta funny old church rising above the fiat fields. Ws traverse the town and I choose a long, low, white farmhouse farm-house on the street with a big courtyard and farm building behind be-hind It Thee buildings are over extensive cellars. I hear a whinnying whinny-ing aound In the air and the first German shell pitches Into Harbonnieres. Harbon-nieres. It lead on a roof not to yard away and broken tile curry and clatter la all directions. I go Into the street and find It full of the flying French, carts, wheelbarrows, gigs. The faces that pas me are sullen and scared and hostile. Our red hat are alio leaving. Staff car worm their way through tha crowd of fugitives. Transport rumble by. I am witnessing aa-other aa-other bitter exodus, and it leave a aour taste In my mouth. Night Another lull la the storm I so set like the stillness. There is terror and mystery la It aad It can be far more unnerving than actual noise. One feel helpless. On doe not know what la happening. happen-ing. The crafty old Boche may be lapping round thia place and surrounding sur-rounding us. We are all toe tensely tired for sleep and my conscious self ia like the Made of a knife. I am longing 'for daylight and for the black i bandage of the alght te be removed. II go out Into the yard. The sky la growing gray above the roofs. Day lis bee king aad I am glad, I J o eut ante the sareet aad bear |