every night. These parties often managed to add to our general
excitement by discovering some real or supposed spy along their route,
and on one occasion there was quite a small stir round Cookers Farm by
"something which moved, was fired at, and dropped into a trench with a
splash, making its escape." A subsequent telephone conversation between
"Cracker" Bass and his friend Stokes revealed the truth that the
"something" was "a ----y great cat with white eyes."

Like the enemy's, our artillery was comparatively inactive. Our gunners,
though from their Observation Posts, "O.P.'s," on Kemmel Hill they could
see many excellent targets, were unable to fire more than a few rounds
daily owing to lack of ammunition; what little they had was all of the
"pip-squeak" variety, and not very formidable. Our snipers were quite
incapable of dealing with the Bavarians, and except for Lieut. A.P.
Marsh, who went about smashing Boche loophole plates with General
Clifford's elephant gun, we did nothing in this respect.

In one sphere, however, we were masters--namely, patrolling. At
Armentières we had had no practice in this art, and our first venture
into No Man's Land was consequently a distinctly hazardous enterprise
for those who undertook it--2nd Lieut. J.W. Tomson, Corpl. Staniforth,
Ptes. Biddles, Tebbutt, and Tailby, all of "A" Company (Toller). Their
second night in the line, in 15 trench, this little party crawled
between the two halves of a dead cow, and, scrambling over our wire,
explored No Man's Land, returning some half hour later. Others followed
their lead, and during the whole of our stay in this sector, though our
patrols were out almost every night, they never met a German.

We stayed in these trenches for a month, taking alternate tours of four
days each with the 4th Lincolnshires (Col. Jessop). We lost about two