s Bill was
seen in close communion with a fellow Australian. They went about the
trenches picking up bits of wood, nails, mirrors, and other odds and
ends. These were carried into the little hole of the inventive genius,
and there all gradually saw the growth of a wonderful invention. It
wasn't Bill's idea exactly. He was simply the managing director, who
stimulated curiosity, and fetched the mysterious genius the necessary
supplies of material. Anyone who ventured too near the sacred sanctum
was told to "hop it."

"What's that ould rascal doin'?" Paddy remarked one day.

"A bomb-thrower," said Sandy.

"Barbed wire burster," suggested Claud.

"No, it ain't," interjected Bill, who happened to come along at the
time.

"What is it, then?"

"It's a man-killer. You can sit down in yer bed and kill all the ole
Turks in front. They can't see who's killin' them."

"When do you try it?"

"To-day." And he did. That afternoon the inventor allowed Bill to
have the trial shot. The instrument, in brief, was a periscope rifle.
With the aid of an ordinary rifle, mirrors and wood fixed up in a
rough, but ingenious way, there had been produced a killing instrument,
which allowed the user to see and to kill without being seen. This was
a godsend, for many of the casualties at this post were due to men
aiming through the loopholes or over the parapet.

"Here goes," said Bill, fixing the rifle in position.

"See anything?"

"Yes, a big feller. I'll get him in his ole fat head." Slowly and
steadily he took aim, then bang went his rifle.

"Got him! Got him! Right in his coconut," shouted Bill with a grim
delight.

The invention was hailed as a great success, and the inventor
complimented all round. His orders were many, and his instrument soon
became general throughout the whole line. Indeed, it was owing to this
wonderful invention that the rifle fire of the Turks was again subdued
to a remarkable extent.

Other remarkable things were invented by these resourceful fellows.
The General Staff also supplied them with new machines of war. One of
the finest was the Japanese bomb-thrower, an instrument which threw a
great, big bomb like a well-filled melon. This went tumbling over and
over, like an acrobat doing a somersault, then burst in the most
startling way. The explosion was terrific and destruction amazing.
Parapets, trenches, men and Maxims were all destroyed if near the point
of contact. "_Some_ b