in the front trenches is not at any time an enlivening proceeding; the
days drag wearily by, the nights are full of noises and Verey
lights--and this particular part of the line was no exception to the
general rule. So our hero was not distracted by mundane influences or
stress of work from elaborating his scheme. In addition, once the
miasma had subsided, and the idea had been explained to them, the three
supers became quite keen themselves. It was one of them, in fact, who
suggested the first detail.

"'Ow are we to know, sir," he remarked, as they sat resting on an
adjacent fire-step after three hours' strenuous exhuming, "that
supposing two of the perishers fall through the 'ole they won't escape?
Two men could get out of that there place without no bed to 'elp 'em."

"By Jove, yes!" Percy scratched his forehead and left furrows of white
in the general darkness. "By Jove, yes; you're quite right--what?
Break one's heart to lose the blighters, don't you know. You're a
doocid clever fellow to think of that, Jenkins."

"Tomkins, sir," murmured the originator of the brain-wave, slightly
abashed by the unexpected praise.

"We might," remarked another of the world's workers, thoughtfully
sucking his teeth--"we might 'ave a trap-door, a 'eavy one, to let down
over the 'ole once they was in."

"Yus--and 'ow are we to know when they is in?" The third member of the
party proceeded to justify his existence. "They won't come over 'ere
and fall into the 'ole and then shout to us to let down the trap." He
thoughtfully lit a Woodbine. "The 'Un will be strafing if there's a
raid on, and there'll be the 'ell of a beano going on, and no one won't
never 'ear nothing."

With which sage aphorism he relapsed into silence, and a gloom settled
on the meeting.

"By Jove, you fellows, we must think of something! We must pull up our
socks and think--what? After we've spent all this time clearing the
bally place out we must really think of something--by Jove!" Percy
gazed hopefully at his three supers, but it seemed that their
contributions to the conversation were at an end, and for a space
silence reigned, broken only by the gentle lullaby of the tooth-sucker.

"We might," remarked Tomkins at length, after a period of profound
thought, "'ave a trip-wire, wot would ring a gong."

"That's it--that's it! 'Pon my word, you're a doocid clever fellow,
Thomson, doocid clever fellow--what?" Percy became enthusiastic.
"Ring