Just as lunch was in full swing at the Royal, where officers, correspondents, and a nurse or two congregate for meals in hope of staying their intolerable thirst--bang came a shell from "Long Tom" straight for the dining-room window.

Happily a little house which served as bedroom to Mr.Pearse, of the _Daily News_, just caught it on its way.

Crash it came through the iron roof, the wooden ceiling, into the brick wall.

There it burst, and the house was in the past.

Happily Mr.Pearse was only on his way to his room, and had not reached it.