ured out
into the trench again and clambered over the hideous carpet of dead and
dying.

Without hesitation Dennis leapt across the traverse, and was soon at the
head of the bayonet party, Dan Dunn keeping neck and neck with him on
the parapet, and only when he groped to the bottom of his second bag and
found it empty did he jump down and flatten himself against the side of
the trench.

"Here, what's wrong?" he shouted, as his own men came pouring back.

"Order's come to retire, sir; we've got to fall back on the next
trench!" cried a panting private.

"Oh, hang it! I thought we'd got the beggars out!" exclaimed the lad,
almost overthrown by the jostling crowd with packs and rifles that
streamed past him. "I wonder what's become of Bob?"

Tiddler and Harry Hawke were nowhere to be seen, and Bob was equally
invisible; but there could be no doubt about the order, for a
staff-captain, his uniform stained with the white chalk, came running
along the trench, crying: "Retire! Hurry up, there! Here come the
Bavarians!"

"But I say, sir," expostulated Dennis, "isn't this all wrong? We've
piled the Saxons up six deep behind us yonder, and surely we can hold on
here?"

"The order has been given by the Brigade Commander. Who the deuce are
you, young man, to dispute it?" thundered the staff-captain furiously.

Dan Dunn saw his cousin's eyes suddenly blaze and his clear-cut face
turn crimson as he whipped out his revolver and covered the speaker!

The Australian's first impression was that in the excitement of it all
his cousin had gone stark staring mad--he had seen such things happen in
Anzac.

"Great Scott, Den! Do you know what you're doing?" he yelled, flinging
his powerful arms round him.

But he was too late. The barrel of the revolver gleamed blue in the
lurid glare of a big H.E. which burst behind them, and Dennis had
already pressed the trigger!

CHAPTER V

How Dennis Came in for a Taste of Dispatch Riding

The staff cap, with its scarlet band and gold-edged peak, spun round in
the air and dropped half a dozen yards away, as its late wearer sprang
on to the parapet and vanished out of sight.

"Great Scott! Are you mad, Dennis?" shouted Dan, still holding him
tightly; but there was no madness in the boy's face as he turned it to
his cousin.

"You blithering ass! You seventeen different assorted kinds of an utter
idiot!" yelled Dennis. "I know that man--he is a German spy, and you've
made me mi