realised that her day had waned, and that the bright steel work, the
soft well-greased leather, the snowy head-rope and the shining curb
were to be put aside for less noble trappings.

She had a curiously shaped white blaze, and I think it was that, added
to the description of her blindness, which stirred my memory within
me. I closed my eyes for a second and it all came back to me, the
gun stuck in the mud, the men straining at the wheels, the shells
bursting, the reek of high explosive, the two leaders lying dead on
the road, and, above all, two gallant horses doing the work of four
and pulling till you'd think their hearts would burst.

I stepped forward and, looking closer at the mare's neck, found what
I had expected, a great scar. That settled it. I approached the
auctioneer and asked permission to speak to the crowd for a few
moments.

"Well," said he, "I'm supposed to do the talking here, you know."

"It won't do you any harm," I pleaded, "and it will give me a chance
to pay off a big debt."

"Right," he said, smiling; "carry on."

"Gentlemen," I said, "about this time a year ago I was commanding a
battery in France. It was during the bad days, and we were falling
back with the Hun pressing hard upon us. My guns had been firing all
the morning from a sunken road, when we got orders to limber up and
get back to a rear position. We hadn't had a bad time till then, a few
odd shells, but nothing that was meant especially for our benefit.