Part 26 (1/2)
”Oh, pretty well anywhere,” replied the Engineer. ”Only, warn your men to be careful not to dig too deep!”
And with this dark saying he lounged off to take Ayling for his promised walk.
”I'll take you along the road a bit, first,” he said, ”and then we will turn off into the field where the corner of the redoubt is, and you can look at things from the outside.”
Ayling thanked him, and stepped somewhat higher than usual, as a bullet struck the ground at his feet.
”Extraordinary how few casualties one gets,” continued the Sapper chattily. ”Their snipers go potting away all night, but they don't often get anybody. By the way, they have a machine-gun trained on this road, but they only loose it off every second night. Methodical beggars!”
”Did they loose it off last night?”
”No. To-night's the night. Have you finished here!”
”Yes, thanks!”
”Right-o! We'll go to the next corner. You'll get a first-cla.s.s field of fire there, I should say.”
The second position was duly inspected, the only incident of interest being the bursting of a star-sh.e.l.l directly overhead.
”Better lie down for a minute,” suggested the Engineer.
Ayling, who had been struggling with a strong inclination to do so for some time, promptly complied.
”Just like the Crystal Palace on a benefit night!” observed his guide admiringly, as the landscape was lit up with a white glare. ”Now you can see your position beautifully. You can fire obliquely in this direction, and then do a first-cla.s.s enfilade if the trenches get rushed.”
”I see,” said Ayling, surveying the position with real interest.
He was beginning to enjoy selecting gun-emplacements which really mattered. It was a change from nine months of ”eye-wash.”
When the German star-sh.e.l.l had spent itself they crossed the road, to the rear of the redoubt, and marked the other two emplacements--in comparative safety now.
”The only trouble about this place,” said Ayling, as he surveyed the last position, ”is that my fire will be masked by that house with the clump of trees beside it.”
The Engineer produced a small note-book, and wrote in it by the light of a convenient star-sh.e.l.l.
”Right-o!” he said. ”I'll have the whole caboodle pushed over for you by to-morrow night. Anything else?”
Ayling began to enjoy himself. After you have spent nine months in an unprofitable attempt to combine practical machine-gun tactics with a scrupulous respect for private property, the realisation that you may now gratify your destructive instincts to the full comes as a welcome and luxurious shock.
”Thanks,” he said. ”You might flatten out that haystack, too.”
They found the others hard at work when they returned. Captain Blaikie was directing operations from the centre of the redoubt.
”I say,” he said, as the Engineer sat down beside him, ”I'm afraid we're doing a good deal of body-s.n.a.t.c.hing. This place is absolutely full of little wooden crosses.”
”Germans,” replied the Engineer laconically.
”How long have they been--here?”