.'

'Meanwhile we're going to do the best we can,' I said. 'He's got the
exact range for his whizz-bangs. We've got to find a hole somewhere
just outside the _castrol_, and some sort of head-cover. We're bound
to get damaged whatever happens, but we'll stick it out to the end.
When they think they have finished with us and rush the place, there
may be one of us alive to put a bullet through old Stumm. What do you
say?'

They agreed, and after our meal Sandy and I crawled out to prospect,
leaving the others on guard in case there should be an attack. We
found a hollow in the glacis a little south of the _castrol_, and,
working very quietly, managed to enlarge it and cut a kind of shallow
cave in the hill. It would be no use against a direct hit, but it
would give some cover from flying fragments. As I read the situation,
Stumm could land as many shells as he pleased in the _castrol_ and
wouldn't bother to attend to the flanks. When the bad shelling began
there would be shelter for one or two in the cave.

Our enemies were watchful. The riflemen on the east burnt Very flares
at intervals, and Stumm's lot sent up a great star-rocket. I remember
that just before midnight hell broke loose round Fort Palantuken. No
more Russian shells came into our hollow, but all the road to the east
was under fire, and at the Fort itself there was a shattering explosion
and a queer scarlet glow which looked as if a magazine had been hit.
For about two hours the firing was intense, and then it died down. But
it was towards the north that I kept turning my head. There seemed to
be something different in the sound there, something sharper in the
report of the guns, as if shells were dropping in a narrow valley whose
rock walls doubled the echo. Had the Russians by any blessed chance
worked round that flank?

I got Sandy to listen, but he shook his head. 'Those guns are a dozen
miles off,' he said. 'They're no nearer than three days ago. But it
looks as if the sportsmen on the south might have a chance. When they
break through and stream down the valley, they'll be puzzled to account
for what remains of us ... We're no longer three adventurers in the
enemy's country. We're the advance guard of the Allies. Our pals
don't know about us, and we're going to be cut off, which has happened
to advance guards before now. But all the same, we're in our own
battle-line again. Doesn't that cheer you, Dick?'

It cheered me wond