The Lana Ironclads.

By H. G. WELLS.

1. "- ~nd down he sat at once without the shadow

HE young lieutenant lay beside of an atta~k and began grubbing trenches for
the war correspondent and himself,a~ though he mean~ to sit down
admired the idyllic calm of the there to the very end of time. He was
enemy's lines through his field- slow, but much more wary than the world
glass. had been led to expect, and he kept convoys
"So far as I can see," he tucked in and shielded his slow marching
said at last, "one man." infantry sufficiently well, to prevent any heavy
,,'What's he doing?" asked the war corre- adverse scoring.
spondent. . . "But he °':lg~t to attack," the young
" Field - glass at us," saId the young lIeutenant had InsIsted.
lieutenant. "He'll attack us at dawn, somewhere along
"And this is war! " the lines. You'll get the bayonets coming
"No," said the young lieutenant; "it's into the trenches just about when you can
Bloch.;' see," the war correspondent had held until a
"The game's a draw." week ago.
"No! They've got to win or else they The young lieutenant winked when he said
lose. A draw's a win for our side." that.
They had discussed the political situation When one early morning the men the
fifty times or so, and the war correspondent defenders sent to lie out five hundred yards
was weary of it. He stretched out his limbs. before the trenches, with a view to the un-
"Aaai s'pose it is !" he yawned. expected emptying of magazines into any
"Flut I" night attack, gave way to causeless panic and
" What was that?" blazed away at nothing for ten minutes, the
"Shot at us." war correspoQ.dent understood the meaning
The war correspondent shifted to a slightly of that wink.
lower position. " No one shot at him," he "What would you do if you were the
complained. enemy?" said the war correspondent, suddenly.
"I wonder if they think we shall get so " If I had men like I've got now?"
bored we shall go home?" " Yes."
The war correspondent made no reply. "Take these trenches."
"There's the harvest, of course. . ." " How? "
They had been there a month. Since the" Oh-dodges! Crawl out half-way at
first brisk movements after the declaration of night before moonrise and get into touch
~ar things had gone slower and slower, until with the chaps we send out. Blaze at 'em
It seemed as though the whole machine of if they tried to shift, and so bag some of 'em
events must have run down. To begin with, in the daylight. Learn that patch of ground
!hey had had almost a scampering time; the by heart, lie all day in squatty holes, and
Invader had come across the frontier on the come on nearer next night. There's a bit
very dawn of the war in half-a-dozen parallel over there, lumpy ground, where they could
columns bebind a cloud of cyclists and get across to rushing distance-easy. In a
cavalry, with a general air of coming straight night or so.. It would be a mere game for
on the capital, and the defender-horsemen our fellows; it's what they're made for. . . .
had held him up, and peppered him and Guns? Shrapnel and stuff wouldn't stop
forced him to open out to outflank, and had good men who meant business."
then bolted to the next position in the most" Why don't they do that? "
approved style, for a couple of days, until in "Their men aren't brutes enough; that's
the afternoon, bump! they had the invader the trouble. They're a crowd of devitalized
a~ainst their prepared lines of defence. He townsmen, and that's the truth of the matter.
did not suffer so much as had been hoped and They're clerks, they're factory hands, they're
e~pected: he was coming on it seemed with students, they're civilized men. They can
his eyes open, his scouts winded the guns, write, they can talk, they can make and do
501
 all sorts of !hings, but they're poor amateurs and pointed. "I thought
at war. They've got no physical staying there, behind the stems I saw something
power, and that's the whole thing. They've Something black. What of those trees.
never slept in the open one night in their know." it was I don't
lives; they've never drunk anything but the The war correspondent tried t
purest water-company water; they've never by intense scruti~v. 0 get eVen
gone short of three meals a day since they " It wasn't an ythl1iO''' Sal' d the '
left their devitalizing feeding-bottles. Half . Co, youn I
~enant, rolhng Qverto regard the darkli nggeVen- leu-
their cavalry never cocked leg over horse mg sky, and generalized: "T h
till it enlisted six months ago. They ride
their horses as though they were bicycles-
you watch 'em!
They're fools at
.
be anyt h mg any more for ever . U ness
Th e war correspondent looked
"Th
'
I
mqulry.

, ey may get
-
ere never WJj

.
'I
"

the game, and they then stomachs

know it. Our boys wr.ong, or Some-
of fourteen can thmg-living with-
give their grown out proper drains."
men points. . . . . A sOund of
bugles came from
Very well-" the tents behind
The war corre-
The war corre:
spondent mused spondent slid back-
on his face with
his nose between ward down the
his knuckles. sand and stood up,
" Boom!" came
"If a decent from somewhere
ci vilization," he far away to the left.
said, "cannot pro- " Halloa !" he said,
duce better men hesitated, and
for War than--" crawled back to
He stopped with peer again. "Fir-
belated politeness. ing at this time is
" I mean-" jolly bad manners."
"*, " Than our open- The young lieu-
air life," said the tenant was incom-
young lieutenant, municative again
politely. for a space.
"Exactly," said Then he pointed
the war corre- to the distant
spondent. " Then clump of trees
civilization has to " , BOOM!' CAME FROM SO>lEWHEI<E FAR AWAY TO THE LEFT." again. "One of
stop." our big guns. They
"It looks like it," the young lieutenant were firing at that," he said,
admitted. " The thing that wasn't anything? "
" Civilization has science, you know," said "Something over there, anyhow."
the war correspondent. " It invented and it Both men were silent, peering throu,g~
makes the rifles and guns and things you use." their glasses for a space. "J ust when It s
"Which our nice healthy hunters and twilight," the lieutenant complained. He
stockmen and so on, rowdy-dowdy cow- stood up.
punchers and horse-whackers, can use ten "I might stay here a bit," said the war
times better than-- What's that?" correspondent. ,
" What?" said the war correspondent, and The lieutenant shook his head. " There s
then seeing his companion busy with his nothing to see," he apologized, and the~
field-glass he produced his own. " Where? " ,wffitdown to where his little squad of s~n
said the , war correspondent, sw \ ping the (brown, loose-limbed men had been yarnJn~
enemy's Imes.
" It's nothing," said the young lieutenant,
still looking. .
in the trench.
business-like
--
The war corresponde~
stood up also, glanced for a moment at t
bustle below him, . gave.IperhaPs
tree
:
"What's nothing? " twenty seconds to those emgmatlca
The young lieutenant put down his glass again, then turned his face towa:'d the camP,

--""'"
 He found himself wondering whether his n.
editor would consider the story of how some- lT was opposite the trenches called after
body thought he saw something black behind Hackbone's Hut that the battle began.
a clump of trees, and how a gun was' fired at There the ground stretched broad and level
this illusion by somebody else, too trivial for between the lines, with scarcely shelter for
public consul1-t-tion. a lizard, and it (seemed to the startled, just-
"It's the only gleam of a shado,w of awakened men 'who came crowding into the
interest," said the war correspo~t;' "for trenches that this was one more proof of that
ten whole days." green inexperien~l the enemy of which
"No," he said, presently; "I'll write that they had heard s6 much. The war COrre-
other article, 'Is \Var Played Out?'" spondent would not believe his eJ.rs at first,
He surveyed the darkling lines in per- and swore that he and the war artist, who,
spective, the tangle of trenches one behind still imperfectly roused, was trying to put on
another, one commanding another, which the his boots by the light of a match held in his
defender had made ready. The shadows hand, were the victims of a common illusion.
and mists swallowed up their receding con- Then, after putting his head in a bucket of
tours, and here and there a lantern gleamed, cold water, his intelligence came back as he
and here and there knots of me.n were busy towelled. He listened. " Gollys !" he said;
about small fires. " No troops on earth "that's something more than scare firing this
could do it," he said. . . . time. It's like ten thousand carts on a bridge
He was depressed. He believed that of tin."
there were other things in life better worth There came a sort of enrichment to that
having than proficiency in war; he believed steady uproar. "Machine guns! "
that in the heart of civilization, for all its Then, "Guns!"
stresses, its crushing concentrations of The artist, with one boot on, thought to
forces, its injustice and suffering, there lay look at his watch, and went to it hopping.
something that might be the hope of the "Half an hour from dawn," he said.
world, and the idea that any people by " You were right about their attacking, after
living in the open air, hunting perpetually, all. . . ."
losing touch with books and art and all The war correspondent came out of the
the things that intensify life, might hope tent, verifying the presence of chocolate in
to resist and break that great development his pocket as he did so. He had to halt for
to the end of time, jarred on his civilized a moment or so until his eyes were toned
soul. down to the night a little. "Pitch!" he said.
Apt to his thought came a file of the He stood for a space to seJ.son his eyes
defender soldiers and passed him in the before he felt justified in striking out for a
gleam of a swinging lamp that marked black gap among the adjacent tents. The
the way. artist coming out behind him fell over a tent-
He glanced at their red-lit faces, and one rope. It was half-p'lst two o'clock in the
shone out for a moment, a common type of morning of the darkest night in time, and
face in the defender's ranks: ill-shaped nose, against a sky of dull black silk the enemy
sensuous lips, bright clear eyes full of alert was talking searchlights, a wild jabber of
cunning, slouch hat cocked on one side and searchlights. "He's trying to blind our rifle-
adorned with the peacock's plume of the men," said the war correspondent with a
rustic Don Juan turned soldier, a hard brown flash, and waited for the artist and then
skin, a sinewy frame, an open, tireless stride, set off with a sort of discreet haste again.
and a master's grip on the rifle. " Whoa! " he said, presently. "Ditches!"
The war correspondent returned their They stopped.
salutations and went on his way. "It's the confounded searchlights," said
"Louts," he whispered. "Cunning, ele- the war correspondent.
mentary louts. And they are going to beat They saw lanterns going to and fro, near
the townsmen at the game of war! " by, and men falling in to march down to the.
From the red glow among the nearer tents trenches. They were for following them, and
came first one and then half-a-dozen hearty then the artist began to feel his night eyes.
voices, bawling in a drawling unison the "If we scramble this," he said, "and it's
words of a particularly slab and sentimental only a drain, there's a clear run up to. the
patriotic song. ridge." And that way they took. LIghts
"Oh, go it!" muttered the war corre- came and went in the tents behind, as the
spondent, bitterly. men turned <;Jut,and ever and again they came
504 THE STRAND MAGAZINE.

to broken ground and staggered and stumbled.

But in a little while they drew near the crest. the deeps. Then suddenly, east or west of
them,. something would
. startle the rifles to <t
Something that sounded like the impact of a frantIc out b reak agam.
very important railway accident happened in
the air above them, and the shrapnel bullets The war correspondent taxed his brain for
seethed about them like a sudden handful of some theory of conflict that would accOUnt
hail. " Right-ho !" said the war correspon- for. this, and was su.d?enl~ aware that th~
dent, and soon they judged they had come artIst and he were vIvIdly Illuminated. He
to the crest and stood in the midst of a world could see the ridge on which they stood
and before them in black outline a file of
of great darkness and frantic glares, whose riflemen hurrying down towards the nearer
principal fact was sound.
trenches. It became visible that a light rain
Right and left of them and all about them was falling, and farther away towards the
was the uproar, an army-full of magazine fire, enemy was a clear space with men-" OUr
at first chaotic and monstrous and then, eked men? "-running across it in disorder. He
out by little flashes and gleams and sugges- saw one of those men throw up his hands
tions, taking the beginnings of a shape. It and drop. And something else black and
looked to the war correspondent as though shining loomed up on the edge of the beam-
tr.e enemy must have attacked in line and coruscating flashes; and behind it and far
wich his whole force-in which case he was away a calm, white eye regarded the world.
either being or was already annihilated. "Whit, whit, whit," sang something in the air,
"Dawn and the
Dead," he said,
with his instinct
for headlines. He
said this to himself,
but afterwards, by
means of shouting,
he conveyed an
idea to the artist.
"They must have
meant it for a sur-
prise," he said.
It was remark-
able how the firing
kept on. After a
time he began to
perceive a sort of
rhythm in this
inferno of noise.
It would decline-
decline percepti-
bly, droop towards
something that was
comparatively
a pause-a pause
of inquiry.
"Aren't you all
dead yet?" this
pause seemed to
say. The flicker-
ing fringe of rifle-
flashes would be-
come attenuated
and broken, and
the whack-bang of
the enemy's big
guns two miles
away there would ..
come up out of SOMETHING ELSE BLACK ANDSHlNING WO"ED UP ON THE EDGE OF THE BEAM.
, I'HH LAN.LJ .J.KULVGLdl.L/J. 5U5

and then the artist was running for cover, And on its carcass the bullets must have
with the war correspondent behind him. been battering with more than the passionate
Bang came shrapnel, bursting close at hand violence of hail on a roof of tin.
as it seemed, and our two men were lying Then in the twinkling of an eye the curtain
flat in a dip in the ground, and the light of the dark had fallen again and the monster
and everything had gone again, leaving a vast had vanished, but the crescendo of musketry
note of interrogation upon the night. marked its approach to the trenches.
The war correspondent came within They were beginning to talk about the
bawling range. "What the deuce was it? thing to each other, when a flying bullet
Shooting our men down!" kicked dirt into the artist's face, and they,
"Black," said the artist, "and like a fort. decided abruptly to crawl down into the
Not two hundred yards from the first trench." cover of the trenches. They had got down

" IT HAD THE EFFECT OF A LARGE Ar<D CLUMSY BLACK INSECT."

He sought for comparisons in his mind. with an unobtrusive persistence into the
" Something between a big blockhouse and second line, before the dawn had grown clear
a giant's dish-cover," he said. enough for anything to be seen. They found
" And they were running!" said the war themselves in a crowd of expectant riflemen,
corresponden t. all noisily arguing about the thing that would
" You'd run if a thing like that, with a happen next. The enemy's contrivance had
searchlight to help it, turned up like a done execution upon the outlying men, it
P~owling nightmare in the middle of the seemed, but they did not believe it would do
Ulght." any more. " Come the day and we'll capture
They crawled to what they judged the the lot of them," said a burly soldier.
edge of the dip and lay regarding the un- " Them? " said the war correspondent.
fathomable dark. For a space they cotlld "They say there's a regular string of 'em,
distinguish nothing, and then a sudden con- crawling along the front of our lines. . . .
Vergence of the searchlights of both sides 'Vho cares?"
brought the strange thing out again. The darkness filtered away so imper-
In that flickering pallor it had the effect of ceptibly that at no moment could one
a large and clumsy black insect, an insect declare decisively that one could see. The
the size of an ironcla.d cruiser, crawling searchlights ceased to sweep hither and
obliquely to the first lme of tr:ell~hes and thither. The enemy's monsters were dubious
firing shots out of portholes III ItS back. patches of darkness upon the dark, and then
~
)UO 1111.:. 011U"UV.L/ 1¥1-L'iLu'iL11V-'!-.

no longer dubious, and so they crept out

he set himself to recover his field-
into distinctness. The war correspondent, from the burly corporal. . . . glasses
munching chocolate absent-mindedly, beheld "The daylight wa~ getting clearer
at last il spacious picture of battle under the I he clouds were lIfting and a I now.
cheerless sky, whose central focus was an lemon yellow amidst the' level m a g eall) of
array of fourteen or fifteen huge clumsy . Sses to th
east portended sunnse. He looked agalll. ::tt e
shapes lying in perspective on the very edge .
the land ironclad. As. he saw it in th e b leak
of the first line of trenches, at intervals of d I b
grey awn, ymg 0 IIquely Upon th e sIope'
perhaps three hundred yards, and evidently and on the . very lip of the foremo st t rench
firing down upon the crowded riflemen. th e suggestIOn 0f a stranded vessel , .
They were so close in that the defender's
. . vasver' )
"

guns had ceased, and only the first line of g:eat mdeed. It mIght have been frOll)
eIghty to a hundred feet lon g --it was. ab out
trenches was in action. h d
t~vo un red and fi~ty yards away-its vertical
The second line commanded the first, and
sl~e was ten feet hIgh or so, smooth for that
as the light grew the war correspondent could heIght, and then wit~ a complex patternin
make out the riflemen who were fighting ~?~er the e~ves of Its flattish turtle cove!:
these monsters, crouched in knots and
crowds behind the transverse banks that I hIS patter~1mg was a close interlacing of
portholes, nfle barrels, and telescope tubes-
crossed the trenches against the eventuality sham and real-indistinguishable one from
of an enfilade. The trenches close to the
the .o.ther. The thing had come into such a
big machines were empty save for the posItion as to enfilade the trench, which was
crumpled suggestions of dead and wounded empty now, so far a? he could see, except for
men; the defenders had been driven right two or three crouchmg knots of men and the
and left as soon as the prow of this land tumbled-looking dead. Behind it, across the
ironclad had loomed up over the front of plain, it had scored the grass with a train of
the trench. He produced his field-glass, and linke~ impression~, like the dotted tracings
was immediately a centre of inquiry from the sea-thmgs leave m sand. Left and right
soldiers about him. of that track dead men and wou,.rded men
They wanted to look, they asked questions, were scattered-men it had picked off as they
and after he had announced that the men fled back from their advanced positions in
across the traverses seemed unable to advance the searchlight glare from the invader's lines.
or retreat, and were crouching under cover And now it lay with its head projecting a
rather than fighting, he found it advisable to little over the trench it had won, as if it were
loan his glasses to 'a burly and incredulous a single sentient thing planning the next
corporal. He heard a strident voice, and phase of its attack. . . .
found a lean and sallow soldier at his back He lowered his glasses and took a more
talking to the artist. comprehensive view of the situation. These
"There's chaps down there caught," the creatures of the night I-->1.d
evidently won the
man was saying. "If they retreat they got first line of trenches and the fight had come
to expose themselves, and the fire's too to a pause. In the increasing light he could
straigh t. . . ." make out by a stray shot or a chance expos~re
"They aren't firing much, but every shot's that the defender's marksmen were Iymg
a hit." thick in the second and third line of trench~s
" '''ho ? " up towards the low crest ofthe position, and III
"The chaps in that thing. The men such of the zigzags as gave them ~chance of a
who're coming up-" converging fire. The men about him were ta]~-
"Coming up where?" \ ino- of guns. "We're in the line of the bIg
" "r e're evacuating them trenche~ where gubnsat the crest but they'll soon shift o.ne to
we can. Our chaps are coming back up the pepper them," th'e lean man said, reassunngly.
zigzags . . . . No end of 'em hit. ;/. . But "Whup," said the corporal: ,,'. s
when we get clear our turn'lI come. Rather!
Those things won't be able to cross a trench ~
"Ba g-1-bang! bang! Whlr-r-r-r-r.' It "a.
a sor.. . of nervous J'um p , and all the nflescone-were
or get into it; and before they can get back goin~ off by themselves. The wa\st twO
our guns'lI smash 'em up. Smash 'em right sponclent
. found himself
. .
and therneart,of pre-
up. See? " A brightness came into his Idle men . ' crouchmg. b eh m. d a I . h rg-
eyes. "Then we'll have a go at the beggar occu p led-baBks of m clustnous me n dIsc a cl
inside," he said. . . . , h d move.
ing magazines. The monster a h hail
The war correspondent thought for a It continued to move regardless of t e cks
moment, trying to realize the idea. Then that splashed its skin with bright neW spe
 THE LAND IRONG'LADS. 507

of lead. It was singing a mechanical little ceased firing to turn and reiterate his point.
ditty to itself, "Tuf-tuf, tuf-tuf, tuf-tuf," and "They can't possibly cross," he bawled.
squirting out little jets of steam behind. It They--"
r had humped itself up, as a limpet does "Bang! Bang! Bang, bang! "-drowned
before it crawls; it had lifted its skirt and everything.
displayed along the length of it-fie!! They The lean man continued speaking for a
\I'ere thick, stumpy feet, between knobs and word or so, then gave it up, shook his head
buttons in shape-flat, broad things, remind- to enforce the impossibility of anything
ing one of the feet of elephants or the legs crossing a trench like the one below, and
of caterpillars; and then, as the skirt rose resumed business once more.
higher, th!! war And all the
correspond ent, while that great
scrutinizing the bulk was cross-
thing through ing. When
his glasses the war corre-
again, saw that spondent
these feet hung, turned his glass
as it were, on on it agaIn it
the rims of had bridged
wheels. His the trench, and
thoughts whirl- its queer feet
ed back to were rasping
Victoria Street, away at the
Westminster, farther bank,
and he saw in the attempt
himself in the to get a hold
piping times of there. It got
peace, seeking its hold. It
matter for an continued to
interview. crawl until the
" Mr. - Mr. greater bulk or
I>iplock," he it was over the
said; "and he trench - until
called them it was all over.
Pedrails . . . . Then it paused
Fancy meeting for a moment,
them here! ,; adjusted its
The marks- skirt a little
man beside nearer the
him raised his ground, g~ve
head and an unnervll1g
shoulders in a "toot, toot,"
speculative and came on
mood to fire "THE MEN AUOUT HIM STUCK TO THEIJ< I'OSITJUN MW FU<EO nHIOUSLY." abruptly at a
m~re certainly pace of, per-
-It seemed so natural to assume the attention haps, six miles an hour straight up the gentle
of the monster must be distracted by this slope towards our observer.
trench before it-and was suddenly knocked The war correspondent raised himself on
backwards by a bullet through his neck. His his elbow and looked a natural inquiry at
feet flew up, and he vanished out of the the artist.
margin of the watcher's field of vision. The For a moment the men about him stuck to
Warcorrespondent grovelled tighter, but after their position and fired furiously. Then the
a glance behind him at a painful little con- lean man in a mood of precipitancy slid
fusion, he resumed his field-glass, for the thing backwards, and the war correspondent said
Was putting down its feet one after the other, "Come along" to the artist, and led the
and hoisting itself farther and farther over movement along the trench.
the trench. Only a bullet in the head could As they dropped down, the vision of a hill-
have stopped him loo~ing just th~n. . side of trench being rushed by a dozen vast
The lean man wIth the stndent vOICe cockroaches disappeared for a space, and
Ii.....-
instead was one of a narrow passage, crowded more than . .
with men, for the most part receding, though 1 I a bhundredh.
feet or so a bo
Ve the
one or two turned or halted. He never genera p am, ut m t IS flat region it suffi
turned back to see the nose of the monster to give the effect of extensive view A ced
creep over the brow of the trench; he never on the north side of the ridge, little. and \~::
even troubled to keep in touch with the were the caI1.1ps,the ord.ered waggons, all th~
artist. He heard the" whit" of bullets about gear of a bIg army; wIth officers gallop.
him soon enough, and saw a man before him about and men doing aimle~s t?ings. H~~~
and there men were falhng-m, howev
stumble and drop, and then he was one
and the cavalry was forming up on t~lr,
of a furious crowd fighting to get into a
transverse zigzag ditch that enabled the plain beyond the tents. The bulk o~
men who. had been in the trenches were
defenders to get under coveI up and down still on the move to the rear, scattered like
the hill. It was like a theatre panic. He sheep without a shepherd over the farther
gathered from signs and fragmentary words slopes. Here and there were little rallies and
that on ahead another of these monsters
had also won to the second trench. attempts to wait and do-something vague.
but the general drift was away from any con~
He lost his interest in the general course centration. Then on the southern side was
of the battle for a space altogether; he the elaborate lace work of trenches and
became simply a modest egotist, in a mood defences, across which these iron turtles,
of hasty circumspection, seeking the farthest fourteen of them spread out over a line of
rear, amidst a dispersed multitude of dis- perhaps three miles, were now advancing as
concerted riflemen similarly employed. He fast as a man could trot, and methodically
scrambled down through trenches, he took shooting down and breaking up any persistent
his courage in both hands and sprinted knots of resistance. Here and there stood
across the open, he had moments of panic little clumps of men, outflanked and unable
when it seemed madness not to be quad- to get away, showing the white flag, and the
ru pedal, and
moments of
shame when he /'

stood up and
faced about to see
how the fight was
going. And he
was one of many
thousand very
similar men that
morning. On the
ridge he halted
in a knot of
scrub, and was
for a few minutes -i~-'""._~#
almost minded
to stop and see ~.~..
things out.
The day was
now fully come.
The grey sky had
changed to blue,
and of all the
cloudy masses of
the dawn there
remained only a
few patches of
dissolving fleeci-
ness. The world
below was bright
and singularly
clear. The ridge
.. r T AWA¥."
was not, perhaps, "HERE AND THERE STOOD LITTLE CLUMPSOF ME". OUTFLAI:iKEDAND U"ABLE TO GE
 jnvader's cyclist. infantry was advancing now Some of the guns got in two or three shots,
across the open, In open order but unmolested, some one or two, and the percentage of
to complete the work of the machines. So misses was unusually high. The howitzers,
far as the day went, the defenders already of course, did nothing. The land iron clads
looked a beaten army. A mechanism that in each case followed much the same tactics.
\\,a5effectually ironclad against bullets, that As soon as a gun came into play the monster
could at a pinch cross a thirty-foot trench, turned itself almost end on, so as to get the
and that seemed able to shoot out rifle-bullets biggest chance of a glancing hit, and made
with unerring precision, was clearly an not for the gun, but for the nearest point on
inevitable victor against anything but rivers, its flank from which the gunners could be
precipices, and guns. shot down. Few of the hits scored were very
He looked at his watch. " Half-past four! effectual; only one of the things was disabled,
Lord! What things can happen in two and that was the one that fought the three
hours. Here's the whole blessed army being batteries attached to the brigade on the left
\\'alked over, and at half-past two- wing. Three that were hit when close upon
" And even now our blessed louts haven't the guns were clean shot through without
done a thing with their guns! " being put out of action. Our war corre-
He scanned the ridge right and left of him spondent did not see that one momentary
with his glasses. He turned again to the arrest of the tide of victory on the left; he
nearest land ironclad, advancing now saw only the very ineffectual fight of half-
obliquely to him and not three hundred battery 96B close at hand upon his right.
yards a,:"ay, and then scam;ed the ground This he watched some time beyond the
over whIch he must retreat'lf he was not to margin of safety.
be captured. Just after he heard the three batteries
"They'll do nothing," ne said, and glanced opening up upon his left he became aware
again at the enemy. of the thud of horses' hoofs from the sheltered
And then from far away to the left came side of the slope, and presently saw first one
the thud of a gun, followed very rapidly by a and then two other guns galloping into posi-
rolling gun-fire. tion along the north side of the ridge, wdl
He hesitated and decided to stay. out of sight of the great bulk that was now
Ill. creeping obliquely towards the crest and
cutting up the lingering infantry beside it
THE defender had relied chiefly upon his and below, as it came.
rifles in the event of :m assault. His guns The half-battery swung round into line-
he kept concealed at various points upon and each gun describing its curve-halted, un-
behind the ridge ready to bring them into limbered, and prepared for action. . . . .
action against any artillery preparations for " Bang! "
an attack on the part of his antagonist. The The land ironclad had become visible over
situation had rushed 'upon him with the the brow of the hill, and just visible as a
dawn, and by the time ~he gunners had their long black back to the gunners. It halted,
guns ready for motion, the land ironclads were as though it hesitated.
already in among the foremost trenches. The two remaining guns fired, and then
There is a natural reluctance to fire into one's their big antagonist had swung round and
?wn broken men, and many of the guns, being was in full view, end on, against the sky,
Intended simply to fight an advance of the coming at a rush. ..,
enemy's artillery, were not in positions to hit The gunners became frantIc In theIr haste
anything in the second line of trenches. After to fire again. They were so near t~e w,~r
that the advance of the land ironclads was correspondent could see the expresslOn'.\
swift. The defender-general found himself their excited faces through his field-glass.
suddenly called upon to invent a new sort of As he looked he saw a man drop, and realized
wa~fare, in which guns were to fight alone for the first time that the ironclad was
amIdst broken and retreating infantry. He shooting.
~ad scarcely thirty minutes in which to think For a moment the big black monster
It out. He did not respond to the call, and crawled with an accelerated pace towards the
what happened that morning was that the furiously active gunners. Then, as if moved
advance of the land ironclads forced the by a generous impulse, it turned its full broad-
fight, and each gun and battery made what side to their attack, and scarcely forty yards
play its circumstances dictated. For the away from them. The war correspondent
most part it was poor play. turned his field-glass back to the ~nners and
L
perceived it was now shooting down the adjustable skirt of twelve-inch iron-plat'
men about the guns with thp. most deadly
which protec~ed the whole affair, and ~~~
rapidity. ' could also raIse or depress a conning-tow
Just for a moment it seemed splendid and set about the portholes through the centre e~
then it seemed horrible. The gunners were
the iron top cove.r. The rift~men each occ~-
dropping in heaps about their guns. To lay pied a small cabm of peculIar construction
a hand on a gun was death. "Bang! " went and these cabins were slung along the side'
the gun on the left, a hopeless miss, and that of and before and behind the great [nai~
was the only second shot the half-battery framework, in a manner suggestive of the
fired. In another moment half-a-dozen sur- slinging Of the seats of an Irish jauntinf'-
viving artillerymen were holding up their car. Their rifles, however, were ve(y
hands amidst a scattered muddle of dead and Jifferent pieces of apparatus from the simple
wounded men, and the fight was done. mechanisms in the hands of their adversaries.
The war correspondent hesitated between These were m the first place automatic
stopping in his scrub and waiting for an ejeded their cartridges and loaded agai~
opportunity to sur- from a magazine
render decently, or \ '~)
,) I" '" eac~ time they fired,
taking to an adjacent \ untIl theammuni-
gully he had dis-
covered. If he sur-
rendered it was cer-
If,"
~- 7)'
If" -.J;>-
~ tion store was at an
end, and they had
the most remarkable
tain he would get sights imaginable,
no copy off; while, sights which threw a
if he escaped, there bright little camera-
were all sorts of obscura picture into
chances. He de- the light-tight box
cided to follow the in which the rifle-
gully, and take the man tat below.
first offer in the con- This camera-obscura
fusion beyond the picture was marked
camp of picking up with two crossed
a horse. lines, and whatever
IV. was covered by the
SUBSEQUENT intersection of these
authorities have two lines, that the
found fault with the rifle hit. The sight-
first land ironclads ing was ingenio~sly
in many particulars, contrived. The rifle-
but assuredly they man stood at the
served their purpose table with a th!ng
on the day of their like an elaboratlO~1
lppearance. They of a draughtsman s
were essentially long, " dividers in his hand,
narrow, and very " HE DECIDED TO FOLLOW THE GCLL\".
. .d and he opened and
strong steel frameworks carrying the engines, closed these dlvl ers, so that . they . were
t hei g ht-J f It was an
,

and borne upon eight pairs of big pedrail alwavs at the apparen
wheels, each about ten feet in diameter, each ordmary-slzed. J. . f the man h e wanted
man---:-o stran d Of wire like
a driving wheel and set upon long axles free tp to kill. ..A little tWIsted . from t h IS '
I'm p le-
swivel round a common axis. This arrange\ an electric-lIght wire ran as the dividers
ment gave them the maximum of adapt-\ ment up to the gu~, and. or down.
ability to the contours of the ground. They opened and shut the sIghts went ~fmosphere,
crawled level along the ground with one tOot Chancres in the clearness of the b an
t e were met ysen-
0 /~

high upon a hillock and another deep in due to changes 0 f mOlstUr , . ll

t eteorologlca y
a depression, and they could hold them- ingenious use of t h a m d hen the lan cl .

selves erect and steady sideways upon even sitive substance, catgut, an . ~ts got a com-
a steep hillside. The engineers directed ironclad moved fo.rwa~dthe SJg '

. ", the d Ire ct ion of. its

the engines under the command of the Pensatory de flectlOll . m . his pltc h -
captain, who had look-out points at small motion. The rI eman ft stood up III . e
dark chamber and watched t he little plctUr
ports all round the upper edge of the
 -~ ~

before him. One hand held the dividers engineers-for the most part by signs. The
for judging distance, and the other grasped throb and noise of the engines mingled with
a big knob like a door-handle. As he the reports of the rifles and the intermittent
pushed this knob about the rifle above swung clangour of t.he bullet hail upon the armour.
to correspond, and the picture passed to and Ever and agam he would touch the wheel that
fro like an agi- raised his conning-
tated panorama. t?wer, step up
When he saw a his ladder until
man he wantec;lto his engineers
shoot he brought could see nothing
him up to the of him above the
cross - lines, and waist, and then
then pressed a c<?medown again
finger upon a with orders. Two
little push like an small electric
electric bell-push, lights were all the
conveniently illu mination of
placed in the this space - they
centre of the were placed to
knob. Then the make him most
man was shot. If clearly visible to
by any chance the his subordinates;
rifleman missed the air was thick
his target he with the smell of
moved the knob oil and petrol,
a trifle, or read- and had the war
justed his dividers, correspond ent
pres~ed the push, been suddenly
~nd got him the transferred from
second time. the spacious dawn
This rifle and its outside to the
sights protruded bowels of this
from a porthole, apparatus he
exactly like a great would have
number of other thought himself
portholes that ran fallen into an-
.. THE PICTURE PASSED TO AlW FRO LIKE AN Ar,ITATED
in a triple row I'A"OJ<AMA." other world.
under the eaves of The captain, of
the cover of the land ironclad. Each porthole course, saw both sides of the battle.
displayed a rifle and sight in dummy, so that When he raised his head into his con-
the real ones could only be hit by a chance ning - tower there were the dewy sunrise,
shot, and if one was, then the young man the amazed and disordered trenches, the
below said" Pshaw!" turned on an electric flying and falling soldiers, the depressed-
light, lowered the injured instrument into looking groups of prisoners, the beaten guns;
his C2m~ra, replaced the injured part, or when he bent down again to signal" Half
put up a new rifle if the injury was con- speed," " Quarter speed," "Half circle round
siderable. towards the right," or what not, he was in
You must conceive these cabins as the oil-smelling twilight of the ill-lit engine-
hung clear above the swing of the axles, and room. Close beside him on either side was
inside the big wheels upon which the great the mouthpiece of a speaking-tube, and ever
elephant-like feet were hung, and behind and again he would direct one side or other
these cabins along the centre of the monster of his strange craft to "Concentrate fire
ran a central gallery into which they opened, forward on gunners," or to "Clear out
and alon'g which worked the big compact trench about a hundred yards on' our right
engines. It was like a long passage into front. "
which this throbbing machinery had been He was a young man, healthy enough but
packed, and the captain stood about the by no means sun-tanned, and of a type of
middle, close to the ladder that led to his feature and expression that prevails in His
conning-tower, and directed the silent, alert Majesty's Navy: alert, intelligent, quiet. He
L Vol. xxvi.-96.
and his engineers and his riflemen all went
about their work, calm and reasonable men. He read the general's signals. " Five and
Four
d are to keep among the guns to th e left
They had none of that flapping strenuousness an prevent any attempt to recover th
of the half-wit in a hurry, that excessive strain
Seven and Eleven and Twelve, stick to ~~.
upon the blood-vessels, that hysteria of effort
which is so frequently regarded as the proper guns you have got; Seven, get into positio~
to ,command
d
. taken by Three. Th en
the guns
state of mind for heroic deeds. If their h I
machine had demanded anything of the sort we re to. 0 somet mg e se, are we ? Six and
One, qUicken up to about ten miles an ho
they would, of course, have improved their and walk round ~ehind that camp to t~;
machine. They were all perfectly sober and levels near the rIver - we shall bag the
in good training, and if any of them had
begun to ejaculate nonsense or bawl patriotic whole crowd of them," interjected the young
man. "Ah, here we are! Two and Three
airs, the others would probably have gagged Eight and Nine, Thirteen and Fourteen'
him and tied him up as a dangerous, un- space out to a thousand yards, wait for th~
nerving sort of fool. And if they were free word, and then go slowly to cover the
from hysteria they were equally free from advance of the cyclist infantry against any
that stupid affectation of nonchalance which charge of mounted troops. That's all right.
is the refuge of the thoroughly incapable in But where's Ten? Halloa! Ten to repair
danger. Death was abroad, and there were and get movable as soon as possible. They've
marginal possibilities of the unforeseen, but it broken up Ten! "
is no good calculating upon the incalculable, The discipline of the new war machines
and so beyond a certain unavoidable tighten- was business-like rather than pedantic, and
ing up of nerve and muscle, a certain firmness the head of the captain came down out of
of the lips, this affected them not at all. the conning-tower to tell his men. "I say,
For the enemy these young engineers were you chaps there. They've broken up Ten.
defeating they felt a certain qualified pity Not badly, I think; but anyhow, he's stuck!"
and a quite unqualified contempt. They But that still left thirteen of the monsters
regarded these big, healthy men they were in action to finish up the broken ,rmy.
shooting down precisely as these same big, The war correspondent stealing down his
healthy men might regard some inferior kind gully looked back and s~w them ~ll lying
of nigger. They despised them for making along the crest and talkmg fluttenng con-
war; despised their bawling patriotisms and gratulatory flags to one a~other. .Their iron
their emotionality profoundly; despised them, sides were shining golden m the lIght of the
above all, for the petty cunning and the rising sun.
almost brutish want of imagination their V.
method of fighting displayed. "If they THE private adventures of the war corre-
must make war," these young men thought, spondent terminated in surrender about one
"why in thunder don't they do it like o'clock in the afternoon, and by that time
sensible men?" They resented the assump- he had stolen a horse, pitched off it, and
tion that their own side was too stupid to do narrowly escaped being rolled upon; found
anything more than play their enemy's game, the brute had broken its leg, and shot it with
that they were going to play this costly his revolver. He had spent some hours in
folly according to the rules of unimagi- the company of a squad of dispirited rifle-
native men. They resented being forced men, who had commandeered his field-glass
to the trouble of making man - killing and whose pedestrianism was exemplary,
machinery; resented the alternative of and he had quarrelled with them about
having to massacre these people or endure topography at last, and gone off by hims~1f
their truculent yappings; resented the whole in a direction that should have brought him
unfathomable imbecility qf war. to the banks of the river and didn't. More-
Meanwhile, with something of the me- over, he had eaten all his chocolate and
chanical precision of a good clerk posting a found nothing in the whole world to drink.
ledger, the riflemen moved their knobs and Also, it had become extremely hot. From
pressed their buttons. . . . behind a broken, but-attractive, stone wall he
The captain of Land Ironclad Number had seen far away in the distance the defender
Three had halted on the crest close to his horsemen trying to charge cyclists in open
captured half-battery. His lined-up prisoners order, with land ironclads outflanking them
stood hard by and waited for the cyclists on either side. He had discovered that
behind to come for them. He surveyed the cyclists could retreat over open turf before
victorious morning through his conning-tower. horsemen with a sufficient margin of speed to
 ~..u~ .Ld'H~ -~.__.-

allow of frequent dismounts and much rested, with a general air of being long, ham~-
terribly:effective sharpshooting j and he had less sheds, in a pose of anticipatory peaceful-
a sufficIent persuasion that those horsemen, ness right .and left o! the picture, completely
having charged their hearts out, had halted commandmg two mIles and more of the river
just beyond his range of vision and surren- levels. Emerged and halted a little from the
dered. He had been urged to sudden scrub was the remainder of the defender's
activity by a forward movement of one of cavalry, dusty, a little disordered and obviously
tho3e machines that had threatened to enfilade annoyed, but still a very fine show of men.
his wall. He had In the middle
discovered a fear- distance three or
ful blister on his four men and
heel. horses were re-
He was now ceiving medical
in a scrubby attendance, and
gravelly place, a little nearer a
sitting down and knot of officers
meditating on regarded the dis-
his pocket-hand- tant novelties in
kerchief, whi c h mechanism with
had in some profound dis-
extraordinary taste. Everyone
way become in was very dis-
the last twenty- tinctly aware of
four hours ex- the twelve other
tremely ambigu- ironclads, and of
ous in hue. "It's the multitude of
the whitest thing townsmen sol-
I've got," he diers, on bicycles
said. or afoot, encum-
He had known bered now by
all along that the prisoners and
enemy was east, captured war-
west, and south gear but other-
of him, but when " HE HAD SrE"T SO>lE HOURS I" THE COMPANY OF A SQUAI) OF wise thoroughly
he heard war DISPIRITED RIFLEMEN." effective, who
ironclads Num- were sweepll1g
bel's One and Six talking in their measured, like a great net in their rear.
deadly way not half a mile to the north he " Checkmate," said the war correspondent,
decided to make his own little unconditional walking out into the open. " But I surrender
peace without any further risks. He was in the best of company. Twenty-four hours
for hoisting his white flag to a bush and ago I thought war was impossible-and these
taking up a position of modest obscurity beggars have captured the whole blessed
near it, until someone came along. He army! Well! Well!" He thought of his
became aware of voices, clatter, and the talk with the young lieutenant. "If there's
distinctive noises of a body of horse, quite no end to the surprises of science, the
near, and he put his handkerchief in his civilized people have it, of course. As long
pocket again and went to see what was going as their science keeps going they will
forward. necessarily be ahead of open-country men.
The sound of firing ceased, and then as he Still. . . ."
drew near he heard the deep sounds of many He wondered for a space what might have
simple, coarse, but hearty and noble-hearted happened to the young lieutenant.
soldiers of the old school swearing with The war correspondent was one of those
vigour. inconsistent people who always want the
He emerged from his scrub upon a big beaten side to win. When he saw all these
level plain, and far away a fringe of trees burly, sun-tanned horsemen, disarmed and
marked the banks of the ri,'er. dismounted and lined up j when he saw
In the centre of the picture was a still their horses unskilfully led away by the sin-
intact road bridge, and a big railway bridge gularly not equestrian cyclists to whom they
a little to the right. Two land Ironclads had surrendered j when he saw these trun-
.....
 A"U'~ "".eLL-.ur£'.

cated Paladins watching this scandalous ous toil upon the best material in the world
sight, he forgot altogether that he had called perfecting that sho?tin~. from. the saddk
these men" cunning louts" and wished charge, and he was mqumng with phrases of
them beaten not four-and-twenty hours ago. blasphemy, natural under the circumstances
A month ago he had seen that regiment in what one could be expected to do against
its pride going forth to war, and had been this suitably consigned ironmongery.
told of its terrible prowess, how it could "Guns," said someone.
charge in open order with each man firing "Big guns they can walk round. You
from his saddle, and sweep before it anything can't shift big guns to keep pace with them
else that ever came out to battle in any sort
of order, foot or horse. And it had had to
and little guns in the open they rush. i
saw 'em rushed. You fi.light do a surprise
fight a few score of young men in atrociously now and then-assassmate the brutes,
unfair machines! perhaps-"
"Manhood versus Machinery" occurred "You might make things like 'em."
to him as a suitable headline. Journalism "What? More ironmongery? Us?.."
curdles all one's mind to phrases. "I'll call my article," meditated the war
He strolled as near the lined-up prisoners correspondent, " 'Mankind versus Iron-
as the sentinels seemed disposed to permit . mongery,' and quote the old boy at the
and surveyed beginning."
them and com- And he was
pared their much too good
sturdy propor- a journalist to
tions with those spoil his con-
of their lightly- trast by remark-
built captors. ing that the
"Smart de- half-dozen com-
generates," he paratively slen-
muttered. der young men
"An::emic cock- in blue pyjamas
neydom." who were stand-
The surren- ing about their
de red officers victorious land
came quite ironclad, drink-
close to him ing coff~e a.nd
presently, and eating biSCUIts,
he could hear had also in their
the colonel's eyes and c:ar-
high-pitched riage somethmg
tenor. The not altogether
poor gentleman degraded beJow
the level of a
had spent three man.
years of ardu-

;'>i.f"""
"SUMErHING NOT hL TOGETHER DEGRADE" BELOW THt: LEVEL
OF A MAN."

..o"''''~