C.O. (to sentry). "DO YOU KNOW THE DEFENCE SCHEME FOR THIS SECTOR OF THE LINE, MY MAN?"
Tommy. "YES, SIR."
C.O. "WELL, WHAT IS IT, THEN?"
Tommy. "TO STAY 'ERE AND FIGHT LIKE 'ELL."
THE GREAT OFFENCE.
As everybody knows, a Gurkha is first of all a rifleman, but apart from his rifle (which to a hill-man is both meat and raiment) there are two other treasures very dear to the little man's heart. These are his kukri and his umbrella—symbols of war and peace; and, although he knows the weapon proper to each state and can dispense (none better) with superfluities, there must have been many times in France when the absence of his umbrella has caused him a bitter nostalgia. "Battle is blessed by Allah and no man tires thereof," but trenches are of the Shaitan, and from the same malevolent one comes the ever-raging bursât, the pitiless drenching rain, that falls where a man may not strip.