CHAPTER XV
GAS SCHOOL AND THE ARTILLERY
WE went then to be taught how that other enemy, vermin, is defeated, and we all, I think, congratulated ourselves that the rest of the day wasn't likely to hold any serious threat. We were properly paid out for that momentary confidence. We were shown quite clearly how little in the war zone you can look forward from minute to minute.
We drove to an old factory building, now busy manufacturing cleanliness and health. It was crowded with Tommies in from the trenches for their periodic ablution. Community bathing is, and ought to be, a noisy, cheerful affair. These men were oddly silent against the roar of the guns which had re-commenced at the close of the luncheon hour. They climbed an outside staircase, removed their clothing, and threw it to the ground. Underclothes and uniforms were picked up and placed in a disinfecting vat, from which they were passed for scrubbing to an army of French and Belgian women—many of them refugees—on the lower floor. Under the cir-
176
