Occasionally we imagined that we could hear heavy rifle and machine
gun fire, but the din was too great to distinguish much detail. The
common expression used on the front, "Hell let loose," was the only
term at all descriptive of the scene.
Streaking across the fields towards us came a dog. On closer view he
appeared to be a nondescript sort of dog of no particular family or
breeding. But he was bent on one purpose, and that seemed to be to put
as great a distance as possible between himself and the Germans. He
had been gassed, and had evidently been the first to get out of the
trenches. Loping along at a gait that he could, if necessary, maintain
for hours, he fled by with tail between his legs, tongue hanging out
and ears well back. And as he passed he gave us a look which plainly
said, "Silly fools to stand there when you could get out; just wait
there and you will get yours." And on he went, doubtless galloping
into the German lines on the opposite side of the salient.
By this time our eyes had begun to run water, and became bloodshot.
The fumes of the gas which had reached us irritated our throats and
lungs, and made us cough. We decided that this gas was chiefly
chlorine, with perhaps an admixture of bromine, but that there was
probably something else present responsible for the irritation of our
eyes.
A lull in the cannonading made it possible to distinguish the heavy
rattle of rifle and machine gun fire, and it seemed to me to be
decidedly closer.
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