But some laughed and said the trenches were telling on men's nerves.
I, who was often reckless enough in my talk, exclaimed that for me
seeing was believing, and that I didn't expect any help but an
enemy's knife if I was found lying out there wounded.

It was the next day that things got lively on this bit of the front.
Our big guns roared from sunrise to sunset, and began again in the
morning. At noon we got word to take the trenches in front of us.
They were two hundred yards away, and we weren't well started till we
knew that the big guns had failed in their work of preparation. It
needed a stout heart to go on, but not a man wavered. We had advanced
one hundred and fifty yards when we found it was no good. Our Captain
called to us to take cover, and just then I was shot through both
legs. By God's mercy I fell into a hole of some sort. I suppose I
fainted, for when I opened my eyes I was all alone. The pain was
horrible, but I didn't dare to move lest the enemy should see me,
for they were only fifty yards away, and I did not expect mercy. I
was glad when the twilight came. There were men in my own company
who would run any risk in the darkness if they thought a comrade was
still alive.

The night fell, and soon I heard a step, not stealthy, as I expected,
but quiet and firm, as if neither darkness nor death could check
those untroubled feet. So little did I guess what was coming that,
even when I saw the gleam of white in the darkness, I thought it was
a peasant in a white smock, or perhaps a woman deranged. Suddenly,
with a little shiver of joy or of fear, I don't know which, I
guessed that it was _The Comrade in White_. And at that very moment
the enemy's rifles began to shoot. The bullets could scarcely miss