Presently, the left company of the battalion on the left is missing.

In the darkness, and the congestion of men moving up to and back from the trenches on the narrow track, clearly something has gone wrong.

The Brigade-Major sets out to discover the why and wherefore.

The attack is to start at 6 A.M., and from 9 P.M.till nearly 5 A.M .-- that is, _for close on eight hours_, the Brigade-Major is up and down the track, inquiring into the causes of delay--( a trench, for instance, has been blown in at one point, and the men forced into the mud beside it)--watching and helping the assembly of the troops, and "hunting" for the company which has not arrived, and is "apparently lost." About five he returns to his brigade, hoping for the best.
Then, half an hour before the moment appointed for the advance, "we heard a bombardment starting.

The enemy had either discovered the hour of our attack, or were about to attack us." The Brigadier and his Brigade-Major anxiously go up to the top of their dug-out to survey the field.