(No dinner offered.) We left thinking very hard--things did not seem so simple after all.

We reported at 9 a.m.
and waited, and got a message at 11 a.m.that the Colonel would see us, and we were shown in to a wizened, sour-faced little man, his breast ablaze with strange colours.

I explained to him that I did not like the billets at Hesdin, that Hesdin was too far away from anything near the front, and that I intended to go to Amiens at once.

To my surprise he did not seem to object, and just as we were leaving, he said: "By the way, General Charteris wants you to go and see him this morning.

You had better go at once." So that was it! If General Charteris had not sent that message I might not have been admitted to the presence of the Colonel for weeks.