afening
explosion and a red flame. "We've drawn them this time, old man, but I
can't make out why these beggars in the trench here don't fire. I'm for
making a bolt for it before they start. What do you say?"

Dennis gathered his legs under him, and signalled with his arm to Hawke
and Tiddler to go back, and expecting nothing but death for themselves,
the two cousins suddenly jumped up under the very noses of the men
lining the parapet behind them, and sprinted for the gap in the barbed
wire.

One bullet sang by Dan's ear, and another spurted up the chalk dust a
few feet ahead of Dennis, and as the vicious rat-tat of the machine-gun
farther down the trench opened, they found themselves at the edge of a
deep crump-hole, into which they rolled.

It was cover from the machine-gun, at any rate, but a cry of surprise
broke from the young lieutenant's lips as he landed on something soft at
the bottom of the hole, something which gripped him with a similar cry
of surprise.

* * * * *

A shell-burst eighty yards away drowned the crack of Dan Dunn's
revolver, and two out of the three Germans who had taken refuge in the
same place rolled back and lay very still, just as another star-shell, a
bright white one this time, broke above them and lit up the hole like
day.

CHAPTER IV

His First Time Under Fire

Over the edge leapt Hawke and his companion, and Hawke shortened his
bayonet as he saw his idol's brother clutching the Saxon in tight
embrace.

"Stand clear, sir!" he shouted, but the German's hands went up above his
head, and in a quavering voice he cried, "Kamerad! Mercy, officer! I am
married with two little ones, and this hateful war is not my fault!"

Harry Hawke's bayonet was only half its length from the man's ribs when
Dennis put it aside.

"Strewth, Tiddler! I can't see no difference myself between one Boche
and another," grumbled Hawke. "It's one more prisoner to feed, and Lloyd
George talks about economy."

"I will tell you," said the Saxon, crouching down as half a dozen shells
in quick succession hummed overhead. "We were sent out to reconnoitre
your trench. You passed us just now, and we hid ourselves here. There is
going to be an attack in a few minutes, only you gave the alarm a little
sooner."

"Do you hear that, Dan?" said Dennis. "We must let them know somehow."

"Hum! If we'd nine lives apiece like a cat there might be some sense in
risking eight of t