“You know Poperinghe? Well, my trip was between there an’ Wipers, gen’ally. The stones on the road was enough to make ’er shed nuts and bolts by the pint. But it was a quiet journey, take it all round, and after a cup o’ tea at Wipers I used to roll home to the park. It was easier than the Putney route. Wipers was full of civilians. Shops all open. Estaminets and nice young things. I used to like war better than a school-boy likes Sat’d’y afternoons. It wasn’t work and it wasn’t play. And there was no law you couldn’t break if you ’ad sense enough to come to attention smart and answer quick. Yes, sir.
“I knew so little about war then that I’m sorry I never tried to be a military expert. But my education was neglected. I can only write picture postcards. It’s a pity. Well, one day it wasn’t like that. It dropped on Wipers, and it wasn’t like that. It was bloody different. I wasn’t frightened, but my little inside was.
“First thing was the gassed soldiers coming through. Their faces were green and blue, and their uniform a funny colour. I didn’t know what was the matter with ’em, and that put the wind up, for I didn’t want to look like that. We could hear a gaudy rumpus in the Salient. The civvies were frightened, but they stuck to their homes. Nothing was happening there then, and while nothing is happening it’s hard to believe it’s going to. After seeing a Zouave crawl by with his tongue hanging out, and his face the colour of a mottled cucumber, I said good-bye to the little girl where I was. It was time to see about it.
“And fact is, I didn’t ’ave much time to think about it, what with gettin’ men out and gettin’ reinforcements in. Trip after trip.
“But I shall never have a night again like that one. Believe me, it was a howler. I steered the old ’bus, but it was done right by accident. It was certainly touch and go. I shouldn’t ’ave thought a country town, even in war, could look like Wipers did that night.
“It was gettin’ dark on my last trip, and we barged into all the world gettin’ out. And the guns and reinforcements were comin’ up behind me. There’s no other road out or in, as you know. I forgot to tell you that night comin’ on didn’t matter much, because the place was alight. The sky was full of shrapnel, and the high-explosives were falling in the houses on fire, and spreading the red stuff like fireworks. The gun ahead of me went over a child, but only its mother and me saw that, and a house in flames ahead of the gun got a shell inside it, and fell on the crowd that was mixed up with the army traffic.
“When I got to a side turning I ’opped off to see how my little lady was getting on. A shell had got ’er estaminet. The curtains were flying in little flames through the place where the windows used to be. Inside, the counter was upside down, and she was laying with glass and bottles on the floor. I couldn’t do anything for her. And further up the street my headquarters was a heap of bricks, and the houses on both sides of it on fire. No good looking there for any more orders.
“Being left to myself, I began to take notice. While you’re on the job you just do it, and don’t see much of anything else except out of the corner of the eye. I’ve never ’eard such a row—shells bursting, houses falling, and the place was foggy with smoke, and men you couldn’t see were shouting, and the women and children, wherever they were, turning you cold to hear ’em.
“It was like the end of the world. Time for me to ’op it. I backed the old ’bus and turned ’er, and started off—shells in front and behind and overhead, and, thinks I, next time you’re bound to get caught in this shower. Then I found my officer. ’E was smoking a cigarette, and ’e told me my job. ’E gave me my cargo. I just ’ad to take ’em out and dump ’em.
“‘Where shall I take ’em, sir?’