"Tell Lieutenant Vignerte I have gone to get into touch with the 23rd. Ask him to wait for me in my dug-out. I shall be back in a quarter of an hour."
We crept along the hedges. At regular intervals lights soared from the German trenches and fell back to earth in a pale blue halo.
"Who goes there!"
"Masséna."
"Melun."
"It is the officer of the 24th sent to get into touch with you. Anything new on your side?"
"No, sir, unless it's the scrap we've just had with a German patrol. It was the shots you heard just now. We've killed one."
A corpse was lying in the grass. I bent over it. On the shoulder strap was the number "182."
"What about his papers!"
"The Captain has them."