I remembered that I repeated stupidly, again and again: "What?
what?
what ?" Then the grey sky slowly fell away as though it were pushed by some hand and I saw the faint evening blue, with (so strange and unreal they seemed) silver-pointed stars.

I caught my breath and realised that now the whole right corner of the barn was gone.

The field stretched, a dark shadow, to the edge of the yard.

In the ground where the stakes of the barn had been there was a deep pit; scattered helter-skelter were bricks, pieces of wood, and over it all a cloud of thin fine dust that hovered and swung a little like grey silk.

The line of soldiers was crouched back into the trench as though it had been driven by some force.