was
evidently the front of a regular rifle pit.

He stopped and beckoned to the others to do the same.

'There must be at least half a dozen of them,' he whispered, 'and very
likely more. You chaps wait here under this bush while I go forward. No,
you needn't grouse, Dave. I'm not going to do you out of your share. All I
want is to make out which side it will be best to make our attack. I'll be
back in a minute.'

He crept forward, and as he did so there was a sudden lull in the firing.
For a moment he feared that the men in the pit had spotted him or his
companions, and he flattened himself breathlessly on the ground.

Next moment he heard a voice. Some one in the rifle pit was speaking.

'I would that they would hasten with that ammunition,' said the man
speaking in the Anatolian dialect, which Ken could understand fairly well.
'Allah, but these infidels take lead as though it were no more than
water!'

'They are brave men, Achmet,' answered another, 'but even so they will not
stand when Mahmoud brings up the guns. Then, as the German says, we shall
sweep them back into the sea from which they came.'

'Guns!' muttered Ken. 'This is news.' He lay still and listened eagerly.

'Does the German himself bring the guns?' asked the first speaker.

'He does, brother. They are two of the best which were sent from
Constantinople to Maidos. Most like, they are already in position on the
heights above us, ready to rain their shrapnel upon the unbelievers.'

Ken had heard enough. This was news which the colonel must learn at once.
Snipers were bad enough, but if the two German 77-millimetre field-pieces
were got into position, the trench would be untenable. He waited only long
enough to get the lie of the land around the rifle pit, then crept quietly
back to his companions.

It took him just about thirty seconds to tell them what he had heard.

'And one of you must go back and tell the colonel,' he added.

There was silence. Not unnaturally no one volunteered.

'It's up to you, Norton,' said Ken.

'Why not rush the pit first?' suggested Norton, 'then we could all go back
together.'

'Or all stay here,' answered Ken. 'No, I'm frightfully sorry, Norton, but
you're the best scout of the lot of us, and the most likely to get back
safely. You must go and tell the colonel.'

Norton was too good a soldier to argue. With a sigh he turned about and
vanished in the gloom.

'And now for the rifle pit,' said Ken. 'We must