e by the enemy, now separated, each man bustling about; while
the veteran amongst them, Jules, and the corporal, snapped out orders,
barked them, indeed, and sent their willing men flying. As for Henri,
he went hither and thither, first watching one lot of men and then
another; and, as they worked, as the veteran and his men sought for
obstacles, and by lucky chance found them--for it happened that the
French had stored sacks of grain for their transport animals in one of
the chambers--while Jules and his men reconnoitred their surroundings,
and the corporal, moving very swiftly and with intelligence, returned
more than once laden with supplies from outside, the snow-flakes still
whirled about the place, still enveloped the fort of Douaumont, to
obtain which the Germans had now spent so many lives--spent the lives
of their men indeed like water--and which they now almost surrounded.

Shells shrieked overhead, sent from those guns long since embedded in
concrete, down under shelter of the evergreen fir-trees surrounding the
salient of Verdun, while other shells, smaller missiles, shrieked and
exploded as they hurled their way hither and thither, cast at random
now, for the thick weather made shooting almost impossible. There
came, too, through that embrasure, or through the gateway of the fort,
every now and again, the rattle of rifles, the sharp tap-tap of
machine-guns, and the snap and bark of the soixante-quinze as the
French sent their curtain-fire out beyond the plateau. There was
fighting still to the left and to the right of the fort, in the
neighbourhood of Thiaumont farm and the village of Douaumont, while to
the right, towards Vaux, the flash of weapons was sometimes visible.
More than that, voices could be heard near at hand, the shouts of
Frenchmen somewhere, either in the fort or closely adjacent to it, and
presently the calls, the loud commands, of Germans.

It was, indeed, only half an hour later, when, thanks to the time given
to them, Henri's little command had stacked the chamber with an ample
supply of food and water, and procured such quantities of ammunition
that they might fire it almost all day long and yet have sufficient for
a week, that a terrific explosion shook the fortress, a huge German
shell having burst almost within it. The far wall of that hall into
which Henri had looked, and which faced the bottom of the stairs giving
access to their chamber, fell in with a crash and clatter, the