each man's duty marked out before they crawled again into the open
with long stakes and strands of barbed wire. The party lay there
minute after minute, through periods of light and darkness, until the
officer in charge thought a favourable chance had come and gave the
arranged signal. Every man leaped to his feet, the stakes were
planted, and quick blow after blow drove them home. Another light
soared up and flared out, and every man dropped and held his breath,
waiting for the crash of fire that would tell they were discovered.
But the flare died out without a sign, and the working party hurriedly
renewed their task. This time the darkness held for an unusual length
of time, and the stakes were planted, the wires fastened, and
cross-pieces of wood with interlacings of barbed wire all ready were
rolled out and pegged down without another light showing. The word
passed down and the men scrambled back into safety.

'Better shoot a light up quick,' said the Engineer officer to the
infantry commander. 'They have a working party out now. I heard 'em
hammering. That's why they went so long without a light.'

A pistol light was fired and the two stared out into the open ground it
lit. 'Thought so,' said the Engineer, pointing. 'New stakes--see?
And those fellows lying beside 'em.'

'Get your tools together, sergeant,' he said, as several more lights
flamed and a burst of rapid fire rose from the British rifles, 'and
collect your party. Our job's done, and I'm not sorry for it.'

It was just breaking daylight when the remains of the Engineers' party
emerged from the communication trench and already the guns on both
sides were beginning to talk. Beefy Wilson and Jem Duffy between them
found Jigger's body and brought it as far as the dressing station.
Behind the trenches Beefy's company and Jem's section took different
roads, and the two old friends parted with a casual 'S' long' and 'See
you again sometime.'

Duffy had two hours' sleep in a sopping wet roofless house, about three
miles behind the firing line. Then the section was roused and marched
back to their billets in a shell-wrecked village, a good ten miles
farther back. They found what was left of the other three sections of
the Southland Company there, heard the tale of how the Company had been
cut up in advancing with the charging infantry, ate a meal, scraped
some of the mud off themselves, and sought their blankets and wet straw
beds.

Jem Duff