Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/252

216 the yellow earth. The lines were so close that it seemed inevitable mistakes should be made or that an imperfect fuse should shower death on the gunners' own men. But the accuracy of the fire was appalling. Each shell appeared to fall directly in the sorrel ditches, and when the spreading smudge had cleared away we would detect breaches, but the only men we saw were one or two soldiers who ran swiftly along the brown road towards the communication line.

"It's nearly always like that here," Williams said, "Fancy being under one of those Black Marias!"

Our fancy, however, was directed to a danger more immediate. We looked up at a whirring overhead and saw a war 'plane, flying high in our direction. As if born of the air five more appeared, sailed over the trenches, swerved back above us, and circled away again. They were too high to make identity certain, so we crouched as close as we could to the wall while we speculated.

Suddenly the anti-aircraft guns took a hand, and about each machine shrapnel burst, too high for us to hear its fat explosions; and as long as we remained there after that there was always a circle of little, puffy clouds around each aeroplane. The shells came from both sides, so that we knew