at he deserved.
To depart so flagrantly from the spirit of the rules as to wander round
front-line trenches alone and in the falling shades of night is asking
for trouble; and if the matter had ended there I have no doubt--knowing
the strict sense of justice which is one of the praiseworthy features
of the house of Firebrace--I have no doubt that he would have sent for
Percy FitzPercy and apologised handsomely for the inconvenience he had
so unwittingly caused. But the matter did not end there; it only
began. And the finale, reviewed dispassionately, undoubtedly gives one
to think--one might even say think furiously.

A quarter of an hour after the regrettable occurrence just described
Percy stood chatting lightly and inconsequently with his company
commander in the support line. At the moment he was expatiating on the
merits of a new pipe of his own invention designed for use in No Man's
Land on a dark night. Its exact beauties escape my memory; as far as I
can remember one put the bowl in one's mouth and the tobacco in the
stem and blew. It was an invention typical of Percy--utterly futile.
He had just called the company commander "dear old soul" for the tenth
time, and was explaining how no sparks or glowing ash could be seen if
you made use of this patent atrocity, when a Lewis gun started rattling
away in front. Half a dozen Verey lights shot up, there was a sudden
brisk burst of firing, with the explosion of a number of bombs.

"By Jove!" cried Percy, pipe and all else forgotten. "By Jove, dear
old man--a raid--what? A Hun raid--now for the man-trap!" He departed
at speed up the nearest boyau, leaving a trail of sparks behind him
like a catherine-wheel that has been out in the rain; to be followed by
his Captain, who had first taken the precaution of loading his
automatic.

The first man Percy met was the tooth-sucker, who was shaking with
uncontrollable excitement.

"There's a perisher fell in the 'ole, sir! Three of 'em come in, and
we killed two an' the other fell in the 'ole."

I am given to understand that on receipt of the news what little
intellect our pipe-inventor ever possessed completely deserted him.
Uttering hoarse cries, he dashed down the trench, and, unmindful of his
own orders to wait on the chance of catching a second, he feverishly
slashed at the string, and with an ominous clang and a squelch of mud
the trap-door descended into its appointed position. Certain it is,
when the co