oze. The figure of the German was only
separated from him by a bare three yards, and to his dark-blinded eyes
it seemed that he himself was standing in plain view in a brilliant
blaze of light. Actually he was in almost complete darkness. The
single light in the German gallery hardly penetrated through the gloom
of his own tunnel, and what little did showed nothing to the eyes of
the German, used to the lamp-light and staring suddenly into the black
rift before him. But the German called out to some one behind him,
twisted round, moved, stooping, back to the lamp and reached up a hand
to it. The Subaltern backed away hastily, his eyes fixed on the glow
of light in the opening. The hole had broken through on a curve of his
tunnel, so that for fifteen or twenty feet back he could still see down
the German gallery, could watch the man unhook the lamp and carry it
back to the opening, thrust the lamp before him and lean in over the
crumbling heap of earth his pick had brought down. The Subaltern
stopped and drew a gasping breath and held it. Discovery was a matter
of seconds now. He had left his firing switch, but he still carried
the portable telephone slung from his shoulder, the earth-pin dangling
from it. He had only to thrust the pin into the mud and he was
connected up with the Corporal at the outside switch, had only to shout
one word, 'Fire!'--and it would all be over. Quickly but noiselessly
he put his hand down to catch up the wire with the earth-pin. His hand
touched the revolver-butt in his holster, checked at it, closed round
it and slid it softly out. All this had taken an instant of time, and
as he raised his weapon he saw the German still staring hard under the
upheld lamp into the gloom. He was looking the other way, and the
Subaltern levelled the heavy revolver and paused. The sights stood out
clear and black against the figure standing in the glow of light--a
perfect and unmissable target. The man was bareheaded, and wore a
mud-stained blue shirt with sleeves cut off above the elbow. The
Subaltern moved the notched sights from under the armpit of the raised
arm that held up the light, and steadied them on the round of the ear
that stood out clear against the close-cropped black hair. He heard a
guttural exclamation of wonder, saw the head come slowly round until
the circle of the ear foreshortened and moved past his sights, and they
were centred straight between the staring eyes. His fing