fort into the camp
where the butt was chamfered and charred in a wood fire as a protection
against too rapid decay.

While the posts were being prepared a second party was busily engaged in
digging the holes for them. Each hole had to be of a prescribed
diameter, by one metre--about 3 feet--in depth, and they were set a
certain distance apart. Tree-felling might have been, and undoubtedly
was, hard work to inexperienced hands, but hole digging! That was set
down as the unassailable limit. Driving the pick and shovel in the
rebellious ground was back-breaking in the hot sun and it had to be
maintained without pause or slackening.

When the post had been planted the wire-pulling gang came along. The
wire used for the purpose was galvanised netting such as is used to
enclose chicken runs, game preserves, and tennis grounds, reinforced by
one or two equidistantly spaced lines of ordinary wire. It had to be
stretched taut by hand and moving the heavy roll by manual effort and
uncoiling it as we advanced, demanded not only strength but dexterity.
At each post the wire was attached by the aid of a few staples.

Although we laboured zealously the task proved far more formidable than
we had anticipated. The fence was 7 feet in height, while I should think
that from 600 to 800 yards had to be run. The netting only enclosed
three sides of the desired space, the fourth side being fenced in by a
belt of trees. In order to get the work done on time and to avoid being
compelled to toil on Sundays, we had to labour long and hard. We started
shortly after six in the morning, but it was often about half-past six
in the evening before we knocked off for the day. We took a strange and
inexplicable pride in the enterprise. The fence was not built upon the
typical shoddy German lines, but strictly in accordance with substantial
British ideas. I may mention that we had good reason to regret this
display of zeal and excellent workmanship at a later date.

Seeing that the evening was well advanced before we ceased work we had
little time for relaxation. When we stowed our tools for the day we were
dog-tired and were hustled into barracks. It was work and sleep in
deadly earnest, but we were mighty glad we succeeded in avoiding the
threatened Sunday labour, because this was the only day we could devote
to our own duties such as mending and washing clothes.

While we were pushing ahead with this task we discussed its coming
purposes very ani