his own dug deep enough.
'It's all right, thanks, Sergeant,' Peploe replied. It was no longer raining and between breaks in the cloud the sun shone warmly. He paused to wipe his brow. 'Go along the line and check the chaps are all right, will you?'
'Yes, sir.' Tanner wandered down the line of freshly dug trenches, pausing first by McAllister and Chambers.
'Any idea how long we're here, Sarge?' said McAllister, his Bren already set up.
'No, Mac. Not the faintest.'
'It must be time to move on again now, isn't it, Sarge?' said Chambers, manning the Bren with McAllister. 'I mean, now that we've dug in an' all.'
'Just you keep watching ahead of you, Punter.'
He walked on, pleased to see how quickly the men had completed the task. They had staggered themselves well, making good use of natural cover; the Brens of each section were positioned in such a way that each gave the other covering fire. And he'd not said a thing. They had done it almost without thinking. Tanner smiled to himself. Three weeks ago, half of these boys had been little more than raw recruits. They were fast becoming soldiers.
He paused by Verity, who had dug a deeper hole than any of the others and was squatting inside it, his hands clasped around his rifle.
'Are you all right, Hedley?' Tanner asked him.
'Fine, Sarge.'
Tanner offered him a cigarette.
'Thanks, Sarge,' said Verity, taking it.
Tanner lit both. 'Do you bowl anything like him, then?'
'Hedley Verity?' He grinned sheepishly. 'I wish, Sarge. I try, though. I can certainly turn it a bit. Mind you, I've seen him play.'
'I'd pay good money to do that.'
'Last summer at Headingley when Yorkshire won the championship for the third time on t' trot,' said Verity, brightening. 'Sarge, it was brilliant. He got a five-for that day. I live in Leeds, see, and it's only a short way to the ground.' His expression dropped. 'Seems like an age ago now.'
'Well, I've always been a Hampshire supporter, it being the nearest county to Wiltshire.'
'Wiltshire?' said Verity. 'Is that where you're from?'
'Born and bred.'
'So why are you in the Rangers, Sarge?'
'It's a long story.'
Verity thought for a moment. Then, smiling once more, he said, 'Well, Sarge, since you're a Ranger, you really should switch allegiance. Yorkshire are the best side in the country by a mile.'
Tanner patted his shoulder. 'All right, Hedley, maybe I will.'
As the morning wore on, the enemy shelling grew louder, but by early afternoon it had quietened again as the fighting appeared to move south. The Rangers ate what was left of their half-rations and remained in their positions, waiting.
'Sir,' Tanner asked Peploe, 'don't you think we should try to find out what's going on? It's too quiet for my liking.'
Peploe thought about it. 'It's after three,' he said eventually. 'Maybe - yes. Let me go and see the OC.' He returned a short while later with orders for them to sit tight. 'He said someone would have told us if they wanted us to move.'
But when another hour had passed and there was still no communication from the rest of the 8th DLI, Barclay agreed to send a runner over to A Company to find out what was going on. A quarter of an hour later the OC came to Peploe. He was fuming. 'I don't bloody well believe it,' he said. 'A Company's damn well gone and buggered off without us.'
'Really, sir?' said Peploe. 'Are you sure they haven't just moved back or forward a little?'
'No - they've gone!' He took off his cap and mopped his brow. 'It's unbelievable. The buggers have gone and forgotten us - and they've taken all the damned M/T.'
'Must have been when that shelling was going on,' said Tanner. 'We'd have heard them otherwise.'
'Well?' said Barclay, looking at Peploe.
'What, sir?'
'What do we do, damn it? I mean, I can only think of two things. Either we stay here or we head back towards Steenvoorde.'
'As I understood it, sir,' said Peploe, 'we were never supposed to be here in the first place. Major McLaren moved us here while he tried to find out where the rest of the brigade was supposed to be.'
'They certainly can't have gone west, sir, because we'd have seen them,' added Tanner, 'and we were heading for the northern front, weren't we? But we're at the southern front here. At least, it sounded like it.'
Barclay nodded. 'All right, then,' he said. 'We'll pack up and head back to Steenvoorde. See what we can find out there. Get your men ready, lieutenant.' He shook his head. 'Honestly, it's unbelievable. The whole thing's a complete cock-up.'
