ent we took cover 'ere. You and me
and Tiddler could do it on our own, if you'd only say the word!"

Dennis had followed the directions of Hawke's dirty finger, and he
smiled, for the thing had been in his own mind before the private spoke.

Sixty yards up the village street the ways forked, passing to right and
left round what had once been a white-walled church with a square tower,
and it was easy to see that, although our guns had played havoc with the
sacred edifice and reduced it to a shapeless mass of rubbish, with the
mere stump of the tower remaining, the enemy had turned it into a point
of vantage.

The door at the foot of the tower had been built up by a great pile of
sandbags, leaving a narrow embrasure in the corner--a mere slit like
that of an exaggerated slot in a pillar box.

But that slit commanded the street, and from it came that continuous
stream of lead which had stayed the Highlanders' attack. It was an
isolated fortress, and, so far, none of our troops had reached it; but a
few resolute men might accomplish much, and Dennis bent down.

"We'll have a go at it, Hawke," he said. "But we'd better have half a
dozen." And as Hawke and Tiddler crawled back out of the firing-line,
Dennis called four others by name, and beckoned them to follow him
behind the ruins of an adjoining house.

"We're going to take that gun, boys," he said.

"There are two guns, sir," corrected one of the men.

"Then we're going to take both of them," said Dennis; and, stooping down
on his hands and knees, he crawled through the ruined gardens, only
pausing as they came to a gap where there was no cover, and darting
across it to the shelter of the next heap.

Two such openings they negotiated successfully, but as they crossed the
third a German bullet smashed the water bottle at Hawke's hip.

"My bloomin' luck!" he grinned. "And me wiv a thirst I wouldn't sell for
'arf a crown, 'cos it's honestly worth three-and-six. Look out, sir!
We're coming level with the church now." And, glancing to their left as
they lay flat, they saw a curl of smoke wreathing out of the embrasure,
and another succession of little puffs above it, which told them that
the second gun had been hoisted to the first floor of the ruined belfry.

Dennis raised himself on his hands and reconnoitred carefully. The air
was full of sound. The rifle-fire behind them mingled with the
continuous rattle of the guns they had planned to capture, and yet not
an