“This dirty sun settles a cove quick,” he said. And he said no more. I crouched beside him.
“How are things going? Have you heard?” I said.
“Bonza! We’ve got ’em on the move. They say the British are joining us at five o’clock to-night. We’ve been cut up a good bit; but the navy has sent thousands of the other blokes skyhigh. I was sent here with a wounded man, and must get back. I’ll make a start. Well, so long, mate.”
“So long,” I answered.
He watched for the sky to clear of shrapnel, pulled the rifle on to his shoulder, and ambled off for the next cover. “A cheerful, misinformed liar,” thought I, “but a good man.”
For the time at all events my work appeared over. Divisional Artillery took a rest, so far so that I ended by forgetting Divisional Artillery and even the battle. I rested against the naked brown earth, and blinked lazily over the bay, until the sun laid weights on my eyelids. I had no hunger; hunger had departed long since, if it had ever arrived; but I thought of some bubbling stream until my sticky lips opened and shut. It was no good; I had to close my eyes in the end; the lids were too heavy. The last I noticed were dead mules lying along the sea shore. After that the firing went on, but dully; and in the lulls I heard faintly the voice calling through the megaphone: “Angle of sight,” I heard. “One-ough minutes right,” I heard.
Then all grew closer again: I distinguished musketry and machine guns. The sun blazed less: I could open my eyes. There was Eaves staring, and yes! pelting me with clods of earth. “Wake up,” he called out, “and get up with this!”
I opened my eyes wide then, and sat up straight. The sun was much lower down, and fewer ships were in action. Plainly now could be heard the rifle fire. I stood up and blinked. I took the form and started on another climb, and on the way ran into the sergeant-major and Wilkinson coming down. “Lake, you nearly had a new sergeant-major twice to-day. My belt stopped this.” And Gardiner held up a bullet in his fingers. Near the dug-out the colonel jumped almost on top of me. The adjutant was just behind. “Yards,” he called out, “this battle is already won!”