Part 34 (1/2)

We crouched below the parapet again 'We may as well toss for it,' I said 'There's only tays-to stay here and be shelled or try to break through those fellows behind Either's pretty unhealthy'

But I knew there was no choice With Blenkiron crippled ere pinned to the castrol Our nuht

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The Guns of the North

But no rew dark and showed a field of glittering stars, for the air was sharpening again towards frost We waited for an hour, crouching just behind the far parapets, but never came that ominous familiar whistle

Then Sandy rose and stretched hiry,' he said 'Let's have out the food, Hussin We've eaten nothing since before daybreak I wonder what is theof this respite?'

I fancied I knew

'It's Stumm's way,' I said 'He wants to torture us He'll keep us hours on tenterhooks, while he sits over yonder exulting in what he thinks we're enduring He has just enough iination for thatHe would rush us if he had theto blow us to pieces, but do it slowly and smack his lips over it'

Sandy yawned 'We'll disappoint him, for on't be worried, old man We three are beyond that kind of fear'

'Meanwhile we're going to do the best we can,' I said 'He's got the exact range for his whizz-bangs We've got to find a hole somewhere just outside the castrol, and soed whatever happens, but we'll stick it out to the end When they think they have finished with us and rush the place, there h old Stureed, and after ourthe others on guard in case there should be an attack We found a hollow in the glacis a little south of the castrol, and, working very quietly, e it and cut a kind of shallow cave in the hill It would be no use against a direct hit, but it would give soments As I read the situation, Stumm could land as many shells as he pleased in the castrol and wouldn't bother to attend to the flanks When the bad shelling began there would be shelter for one or two in the cave

Our enemies atchful The riflemen on the east burnt Very flares at intervals, and Stureat star-rocket I reht hell broke loose round Fort Palantuken No more Russian shells came into our hollow, but all the road to the east was under fire, and at the Fort itself there was a shattering explosion and a queer scarlet glohich looked as if awas intense, and then it died down But it was towards the north that I kept turningdifferent in the sound there, souns, as if shells were dropping in a narrow valley whose rock walls doubled the echo Had the Russians by any blessed chance worked round that flank?

I got Sandy to listen, but he shook his head 'Those guns are a dozen o But it looks as if the sportsh and stream down the valley, they'll be puzzled to account for what reer three adventurers in the eneuard of the Allies Our pals don't know about us, and we're going to be cut off, which has happened to advance guards before now But all the saain Doesn't that cheer you, dick?'

It cheered ht on my heart ever since I accepted Sir Walter'sfar away from my friends, far away from the true fronts of battle It was a side-shohich, whatever its importance, had none of the exhilaration of the round We were like the Highlanders cut off at Cite St Auguste on the first day of Loos, or those Scots Guards at Festubert of whom I had heard Only, the others did not know of it, would never hear of it If Peter succeeded hedead somewhere in the no-ain any more, but our work remained Sir Walter would know that, and he would tell our few belongings that we had gone out in our country's service

We were in the castrol again, sitting under the parapets The sahts hed

'It's a queer ending, dick We sih they will never recognize what is left of us ae of battle The snoill soon cover us, and when the spring comes there will only be a few bleached bones Upon my soul it is the kind of death I alanted' And he quoted softly to himself a verse of an old Scots ballad:

'Mony's the ane for hiane

Ower his white banes, when they are bare, The wind sall blaw for everreat gasp of happiness 'It's the job that matters, not the men that do it And our job's done We have won, old chap-won hands down-and there is no going back on that We have won anyway; and if Peter has had a slice of luck, we've scooped the poolAfter all, we never expected to co with our lives'

Blenkiron, with his leg stuck out stiffly before hi quietly to himself, as he often did when he felt cheerful He had only one song, 'John Brown's Body'; usually only a line at a tiot as far as the whole verse:

'He captured Harper's Ferry, with his nineteen inny till she tre hioes ood?' I asked

'Fine I'm about the luckiest et into a big show, but I didn't see hoould co in a stea I used to envy ot to tell you about it But I guess Chattanooga was like a scrap in a Bowery bar compared to this When I meet the old man in Glory he'll have to listen soot a reun ell laid, for a shell plue of the castro It uard there, badly wounded another, and a frage in the shallow cave, but soht us back to the parapets, for we feared an attack None caht was quiet

I asked Blenkiron if he had any near relatives