I detached myself from the spot where I had seemed riveted and went to sleep in the "grotto." The dug-out was very roomy, but so low that in one place one had to crawl on hands and knees to slip under its rough and mighty roof.

It was full of heavy damp, and hot with men.

Extended in my place on straw-dust, my neck propped by my knapsack, I closed my eyes in comfort.

When I opened them, I saw a group of soldiers seated in a circle and eating from the same dish, their heads blotted out in the darkness of the low roof.

Their feet, grouped round the dish, were shapeless, black, and trickling, like stone disinterred.