"We may not strike any gas," he said, "but it's as well to be on the safe
side," whereupon he made me practise inserting the tube in my mouth,
pinching the nostrils instantly with the wire-covered nippers. He also
presented me with a steel helmet. Thus equipped for any untoward
occurrence, putting on sweaters and heavy overcoats, and wrapping
ourselves in the fur rugs of the waiting automobile, we started off,
with the gale on our quarter, for the front.

Picardy, on whose soil has been shed so much English blood, never was
more beautiful than on that October day. The trees were still in full
leaf, the fields green, though the crops had been gathered, and the
crystal air gave vivid value to every colour in the landscape. From time
to time we wound through the cobble-stoned streets of historic villages,
each having its stone church end the bodki-shaped steeple of blue slate
so characteristic of that country. And, as though we were still in the
pastoral times of peace, in the square of one of these villages a
horse-fair was in progress, blue-smocked peasants were trotting chunky
ponies over the stones. It was like a picture from one of De
Maupassant's tales. In other villages the shawled women sat knitting
behind piles of beets and cabbages and apples, their farm-carts atilt in
the sun. Again and again I tried to grasp the fact that the greatest of
world wars was being fought only a few miles away--and failed.

We had met, indeed, an occasional officer or orderly, huddled in a
greatcoat and head against the wind, exercising those wonderful animals
that are the pride of the British cavalry and which General Sir Douglas
Haig, himself a cavalryman, some day hopes to bring into service. We had
overtaken an artillery train rumbling along toward the east, the men
laughing and joking as they rode, as though they were going to
manoeuvres. Farther on, as the soldiers along the highroads and in the