THE WATCH DOGS.

LX.

My dear CHARLES,--Those who insist that between the Higher Commands on
either side there is a tacit understanding not to disregard each other's
personal comfort and welfare must now modify their views. Recent movements
show that there is no such bargain, or else that the lawless Hun has broken
it. He has attained little else by his destructiveness save the discomfort
of H.Q. Otherwise the War progresses as merrily as ever; more merrily,
perhaps, owing to the difficulties to be overcome. Soldiers love
difficulties to overcome. That is their business in life.

It was open to the Camp Commandant, when it became likely that H.Q. would
move, to go sick, to retire from business, or else, locking, his front-
door, shutting his shutters, disconnecting his telephone and confining to
their billets all potential bearers of urgent messages, to isolate himself
from the throbbing world around him. Being a soldier himself, however, he
was undone by his own innate lust for overcoming difficulties. He was seen
hovering about, as good as asking for the instructions he most dreaded. And
he got them, short and sharp, as all good military instructions should be.

If I was called upon to move a busy community from one village to another,
and if the other village was discovered, upon inquiry, not to be there, I
should ask for ten to twelve months' time to do it in. The C.C. asked for a
fortnight, hoping to get ten days; he got a week. "It is now the 31st. We
should move to the new place about the 7th," said the Highest Authority.
"Let it be April 7th." Thus April 7th became permanently and irrevocably
fixed. For everybody except the C.C. and his accomplices the thing was as