"Well, just stick here and send down the wounded as you find them.
Don't go any farther along; it's too dangerous up there--you
understand?"

"All right, sir."

It was only a stroke of luck that I didn't stay with him and his
stretcher-squads.

"You'd better come down with me, sergeant," says the adjutant.

Next day the news spread in that mysterious way which has always
puzzled me. It spread as news does spread in the wild and desolate
regions of the earth.

". . . lost . . . all the lot . . ."

"Who is?"

"Up there . . . Lieutenant S--- and the squads . . ."

"How-joo-know?"

"Just heard--that wounded fellow over there on the stretcher . . .
they went out early this morning, and they've gone--no sign, never
came back at all--"

" 'E warn't fit ter take charge . . . 'e was ill, you could see."