“No. 7,” murmured the Sapper to himself. “I wonder if the officer is new?” He turned to a bombardier standing at the entrance to the passage. “Is your officer here?”
“He’s down below, sir.” The man drew to one side, and the Sapper passed up a narrow deep trench and went “down below” to the trench–mortar emplacement, a cave hewn out of the ground much on the principle of an ordinary dug–out. But there were certain great differences; for half the roof had been removed, and through the hole thus formed streamed in the early morning sun. A screen of rabbit wire covered with bits of grass, lying horizontally over the open hole when the gun was not firing, helped to conceal it from the prying eyes of Hun aeroplanes. Let into the ground and mounted and clamped to a stand was the mortar itself—wh
