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042) THE SOMME (SEPTEMBER 1917) About this time I got a telegram from Lord Beaverbrook asking me to meet him the next morning at Hesdin (Canadian Representatives' H.Q.); so I left Amiens early, arriving at Hesdin about 11.45 a.m.There they handed me a letter from him explaining to me that something very important had happened, and that he had left for Cassel.

Would I have some lunch and follow him there?
I lunched alone at the H.Q.

and started for Cassel, where I arrived about 2.30, and found a letter telling me that he found that the aerodrome from which he wanted to get the news he desired was not near Cassel, so he had left, but would I meet him at the "Hotel du Louvre," Boulogne, at 4 p.m., as his boat left at 4.20?
Away I went to Boulogne, and walked up and down outside the "Louvre." About ten minutes past four up breezed a car, and in it was a slim little man with an enormous head and two remarkable eyes.

I saluted and tried to make military noises with my boots.