Page:Some soldier poets.djvu/22

Rh "'Here we are in the burning centre of it all, and I would not be anywhere else for a million pounds and the Queen of Sheba.'"

Consciously or unconsciously he repeats the sentiment that Shakespeare put into the mouth of Henry V. at Agincourt and Sir Henry Newbolt into Nelson's in his Admirals All. That sentiment characterises the born leader: when facing danger he feels that he is where he can best prove what he is. He felt "utterly ashamed" of himself when he had met a German officer prisoner with a scowl, the other looked so "proud, so resolute, smart and confident in his hour of bitterness." This instant challenge and rebuke of himself was akin to his mastery and initiative. He begged to be allowed to go out into "No Man's Land" stalking Germans, and was refused. At last:

"'They told me to take a section with me, and I said I would rather cut my throat and have done with it. So they let me go alone.'"

His experiences are as good reading as the fight at Johannesburg, but too long to quote.

"'I got back at a sort of galloping crawl and sent a message to the 10th that the Germans were moving up their way in some numbers.... They made quite a ridiculous fuss about me stalking, and getting the message through.... It was up to someone to do it instead of leaving it all to the Germans and losing two officers a day through snipers. All our men have started it now. It is a popular amusement.'"

But first is first to-day just as when David met Goliath. A piece of bursting shell has deprived us of a great leader, with the characteristics of the finest kings of men. And though wealthy enough to travel with dogs and horses wherever he went, he could not bear to think that a friend 18