d as a weapon of precision in a war distinguished
above all others as one of scientifically perfect weapons and
implements was ridiculous beyond words.

The Colonel watched the business of loading and laying with amazement
and consternation.

'Is it possible to--er--hit anything with that?' he asked.

'Well, more or less,' said the youthful subaltern doubtfully. 'There's
a certain amount of luck about it, I believe.'

'But why on earth,' said the Colonel, beginning to wax indignant, 'do
they send such a museum relic here to fight a reasonably accurate and
decidedly destructive mortar?'

The subaltern chuckled.

'That's not any museum antique,' he said. 'That's a Mortar, Trench,
Mark Something or other--the latest, the most modern weapon of the kind
in the British Army. It was made, I believe, in the Royal Arsenal, and
it is still being made and issued for use in the field--the Engineers
collecting the empty jam-pots and converting them to bombs. They've
only had four or five months, y'see, to evolve a---- look out, sir!
Here's one of theirs!'

The resulting explosion flung a good deal of mud over the parapet on to
the Colonel and the subaltern, and raised the youth to wrath.

'Beasts!' he said angrily, and poked a length of fuse in the
touch-hole. 'Get away round the traverse!' he ordered the mob near
him. 'And you'd better go, too, sir--as I will when I've touched her
off. Y'see, she's just as liable to explode as not, and, if she does,
she'd make more mess in this trench than I can ever hope she will in a
German one.'

The Colonel retired round the nearest traverse, and next moment the
lieutenant plunged round after him just as the mortar went off with a
resounding bang. Every man in the trench watched the bomb rise,
twirling and twisting, and fall again, turning end over end towards the
German trench.

At about the moment he judged it should burst, the lieutenant poked his
head up over the parapet, but bobbed down hurriedly as a couple of
bullets sang past his ear.

'Pretty nippy lot across there!' he said. 'I must find a loophole to
observe from. And p'r'aps you'd tell some of your people to keep up a
brisk fire on that parapet to stop 'em aiming too easy at me. Now
we'll try another.'

At the next bang from the opposite trench he risked another quick peep
over and this time ducked down with an exclamation of delight.

'I've spotted him.' he said. 'Just caught the haze of his smoke. Do