“We can’t clear the crest at two-four hundred!”
“What?”
“The crest at two-four hundred!”
Streams of wounded still flowed along the road from the valley head. One Red Cross fellow with a donkey had passed twice or thrice that day. He was becoming known to all: they said no fire disturbed him. On his donkey he would mount a man wounded in leg or foot. He was always cheerful and never tired.
Now a mule battery laden with guns and ammunition wound like a serpent up the narrow way. I marked it twisting up and up the ridge, until the crest came between, and only a dead mule stayed to tell of the passage.
Eaves was beckoning again. I leaned forward and caught the message. Up through the tufty grasses I went, and then down again to my ledge. Next moment I was climbing the hill once more.
“All guns ten minutes more right! Shorten corrector four. Drop five-ough; battery fire!”
I was very weary of the uproar, and I looked over to the Red Cross jetty. A group of sailors waited on the quay while a string of boats drew in. I saw them break and scatter; I saw the puff of a bursting shell; and down went one poor fellow, and away into cover staggered another. A couple of comrades ran back and picked up the fallen man, and the group passed under the cliff, where I could not follow.
“Stop!” Major Felix was shouting. “Stop!” There was the roar of the firing gun. “Who fired then?” There were quick answers and quick replies. The major burst out: “Take that sergeant off that gun, and put him under arrest!” There were more answers and replies. “All right,” the major shouted again. “Let him carry on; I shall see him after!” Again his voice came to me. “Guns in action at C. Aiming point left edge of false ridge. Line of fire five degrees one-five minutes right! Corrector one-five-ough—three-nine hundred! Angle of sight three degrees one-ough minutes elevation. One round battery fire!”
Messages began to hurry through, and I was tired out with climbing up and down. Finally, when there was time to sit still, I found an infantry fellow perched on my ledge. He looked hot and fagged.