Adventures in Toyland | Page 2

When I described things that were actually happening round me, I had to be exceedingly careful--and when, as in the first two or three chapters, my letters were written several weeks after the events, something was sure to crop up in the meantime that unconsciously but definitely altered the memory of experiences....
We have known together two of the people I have mentioned in this book--Alec and Gibson. They have both advanced so far that we have lost touch with them. I had thought that it would be a great joy to publish a first book, but this book is ugly with sorrow. I shall never be able to write "Alec and I" again--and he was the sweetest and kindest of my friends, a friend of all the world. Never did he meet a man or woman that did not love him. The Germans have killed Alec. Perhaps among the multitudinous Germans killed there are one or two German Alecs. Yet I am still meeting people who think that war is a fine bracing thing for the nation, a sort of national week-end at Brighton.
Then there was Gibson, who proved for all time that nobody made a better soldier than the young don--and those whose names do not come into this book....
Robert, you and I know what to think of this Brighton theory. We are only just down from Oxford, and perhaps things strike us a little more passionately than they should.
You have seen the agony of war. You have seen those miserable people that wander about behind the line like pariah dogs in the streets. You know what is behind "Tommy's invincible gaiety." Let us pray together for a time when the publishing of a book like this will be regarded with fierce shame.
So long and good luck!
Ever yours, WILLIAM.
PIRBRIGHT HUTS, 1/10/15.
* * * * *
The day after I had written this letter the news came to me that Robert Whyte had been killed. The letter must stand--I have not the heart to write another.
W.H.L.W. PIRBRIGHT HUTS.

CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. ENLISTING 1
II. THE JOURNEY TO THE FRONT 12
III. THE BATTLE OF MONS 26
IV. THE BATTLE OF LE CATEAU 40
V. THE GREAT RETREAT 51
VI. OVER THE MARNE TO THE AISNE 76
VII. THE BATTLE OF THE AISNE 105
VIII. THE MOVE TO THE NORTH 140
IX. ROUND LA BASS��E 167
X. THE BEGINNING OF WINTER 197
XI. ST JANS CAPPEL 230
XII. BEHIND THE LINES 253

LIST OF MAPS.
PAGE
ROUTE TAKEN BY FIFTH DIVISION At beginning ROUND MONS 25
THE MARNE (LAGNY TO CH?TEAU-THIERRY) 87
THE AISNE (SOISSONS TO VAILLY) 104
ROUND LA BASS��E 166
YPRES TO LA BASS��E 197
LINE OF RETREAT AND ADVANCE At end

Adventures of A Despatch Rider.
CHAPTER I.
ENLISTING
At 6.45 P.M. on Saturday, July 25, 1914, Alec and I determined to take part in the Austro-Servian War. I remember the exact minute, because we were standing on the "down" platform of Earl's Court Station, waiting for the 6.55 through train to South Harrow, and Alec had just remarked that we had ten minutes to wait. We had travelled up to London, intending to work in the British Museum for our "vivas" at Oxford, but in the morning it had been so hot that we had strolled round Bloomsbury, smoking our pipes. By lunch-time we had gained such an appetite that we did not feel like work in the afternoon. We went to see Elsie Janis.
The evening papers were full of grave prognostications. War between Servia and Austria seemed inevitable. Earl's Court Station inspired us with the spirit of adventure. We determined to take part, and debated whether we should go out as war correspondents or as orderlies in a Servian hospital. At home we could talk of nothing else during dinner. Ikla, that wisest of all Egyptians, mildly encouraged us, while the family smiled.
On Sunday we learned that war had been declared. Ways and means were discussed, but our great tennis tournament on Monday, and a dance in the evening, left us with a mere background of warlike endeavour. It was vaguely determined that when my "viva" was over we should go and see people of authority in London....
On the last day of July a few of us met together in Gibson's rooms, those neat, white rooms in Balliol that overlook St Giles. Naymier, the Pole, was certain that Armageddon was coming. He proved it conclusively in the Quad with the aid of large maps and a dissertation on potatoes. He also showed us the probable course of the war. We lived in strained excitement. Things were too big to grasp. It was just the other day that 'The Blue Book,' most respectable of Oxford magazines, had published an article showing that a war between Great Britain and Germany was almost unthinkable. It had been written by an undergraduate who had actually been at a German university. Had the multitudinous Anglo-German societies at