This vexed me, for I began to wonder if the mission which I had embarked on so solemnly were not going to be a fiasco.

Sometimes they worried me beyond endurance.

When the news of Messines came nobody took the slightest interest, while I was aching to tooth every detail of the great fight.

And when they talked on military affairs, as Letchford and others did sometimes, it was difficult to keep from sending them all to the devil, for their amateur cocksureness would have riled Job.

One had got to batten down the recollection of our fellows out there who were sweating blood to keep these fools snug.