han't!" said Hawke, with a sheepish grin. "We must
carry you a bit farther to save our skins"; and a light began to dawn on
their officer.

Farther along the trench, which spades and feverish hands were
strengthening, two men stood, and the Senior Captain knew that the
moment he dreaded had come.

Brigadier-General Dashwood, very set and stern, his heart struggling
between pride at the fine fight his battalion had put up and sorrow at
the heavy losses they had sustained, cleared his throat as he put a
question to the other man.

With the Brigadier it was duty first and private interest afterwards,
but now that everything had been done he spoke.

"By the way, Littlewood, I don't see either of my boys," he said; and a
spasm crossed the face of the Senior Captain as he looked out over the
parapet.

"Where are Bob and Dennis, Littlewood?" repeated the Brigadier.

"Here we are, sir!" said a laughing voice out of the darkness. "We're
both a bit bent, but we're safe and sound for all that"; and Captain
Littlewood echoed the Brigadier's hearty "Thank God!" as Hawke and
Tiddler dumped their burden down before them.

Hands met, and the lieutenant, who had taken over the command of the
survivors of A Company, and who had come up at the moment, felt the
muscles of his throat tighten, and became very duty-struck to cover his
emotions.

"Is that you, Hawke?" he said sharply. "Do you mean to say you disobeyed
my orders and left the trench?"

"Captain Dashwood--sir!" said Harry Hawke, with a ring of ill-used
innocence in his husky voice, "didn't we pick you up at the other end of
this trench when you tumbled over the sandbags? And didn't you say you
was all right, sir, but we would carry you?"

"Perfectly true, Hawke, that's a fact," said Captain Bob, the light
strong upon him now; and no one saw the grip that fell on Harry Hawke's
wrist, a grip that cemented the friendship between officer and man for
ever and a day.

"Very well," said the lieutenant. "Get back to your company now--or all
that's left of it"; and as the two rascals hurried away he looked from
Bob to Dennis, and said, with a laugh of immense relief in the words of
Galileo of old, "All right, you beggars, 'but it moves for all that!'"

CHAPTER XXII

The Row in the Restaurant

"Stand down, Reedshires! File off by your right!" And the shattered
remnant of that fine battalion groped its way along a broken
communication trench to the rear, as a fres