ot see you in the
melee, but I have no doubt you acquitted yourself well. I also am going
to the front trench, to our company's sector. We will go together."

Dennis clenched his teeth, but he knew that he must put a good face on
the matter.

"With pleasure, sergeant," he made answer. And the pair walked along
side by side. "Have we lost many?" he inquired.

"Yes, a good few, and I believe it was their own fault. To tell you the
truth, Heft, the battalion is not in a good state; they were left too
long over there in the front line without being relieved. Our company in
particular is very homesick, and can you wonder when you look at the
captain they have?"

"True, he is a great brute. You will let me say that to you, sergeant?"
replied Dennis, anxious to draw the man out.

"Have no fear; I shall not report you," said his companion, with a
friendly squeeze of the arm. "He is not only a great brute, but he is an
arrant coward into the bargain. The men do not mind being cuffed and
bullied, because they are used to it; but when they see their officer
never expose himself, and always shouting from the rear 'Get on, you
pigs!' they don't like it. But, Himmel!"--and he chuckled--"our
engineers have surpassed themselves to-night. I have never seen wire so
strong during the war. Our whole front is covered with it; not so much
as a rat could get through."

"That is good," assented his listener, mentally feeling how bad it was
for himself, and that, short of a miracle, he must stay where he was
until daylight.

"I have just been making a report to Colonel Schlutz," went on the
sergeant. "Now you and I will go to a snug little dug-out I have taken
possession of. I have a nice piece of sausage which we will share, and
what do you think?--four bottles of lager beer! What do you think of
that?"

"I say that you are a good comrade, sergeant--the best I have met for
many a long day," said Dennis, with a warmth he really felt. This man
was evidently a good fellow at heart, an exception to the general run of
German non-commissioned officers. And yet it might come about that he
would have to kill him, in spite of that nice piece of sausage and those
four bottles!

The sergeant had called it a snug little dug-out, that square hole in
the chalk, with earth piled on a piece of corrugated iron by way of
roof, and great rats peering at them as they sat with their knees
touching by the light of a piece of candle.

But to Dennis it