he
cellar with boards. Yesterday the second shell knocked two men
insensible, and they fell backwards into it. As they nearly drowned, it
will be obvious, even to your intelligence, that it contains--amongst
other things--water. Moreover, the water is deep, and stinketh. If,
therefore, my brainy _confrere_, you will authorise me to draw planks
twelve, I myself will cover yon hole with my own fair hands. The
cadaverous gentleman at your store, whose face has been passed over by
some heavy body, proved both unsympathetic and suspicious this morning
when I asked him for them. Wherefore, if you will sign----" He held out
a book to the Sapper.

"'Please issue bearer with twelve planks 9 inch by 2 inch; length, 6
feet.'" The Sapper glanced at the page and signed. "There you are,
James. Tell him to get them cut for you."

"I was going to, dearie. How marvellously your brain grasps the
importance of these trifling details! Are you passing the Ritz by any
chance? If so, tell my warriors to come down to the Store."

"Aren't you coming up?"

"No--it's too light. I have to be careful whom I'm seen with." He
turned back and was quickly lost in the white mist--though for some time
afterwards the faint strains of musical items selected from _The Bing
Boys_ followed the Sapper as he walked on.

Occasional voices came mysteriously from apparently nowhere, as a party
of men went up one of the deep communication trenches close by him--a
trench invisible in summer until you actually stood over it, for the long
rank grass hid everything: grass splashed with the red of great masses of
poppies, and the white of the daisies, with odd little patches of blue
cornflowers and borage, and buttercups glinting yellow. Just rank
luxuriant vegetation, run wild--untouched for more than a year.

Suddenly out of the mist there loomed the Ritz--the name of the
broken-down, shell-battered house which served his late companion as an
O.P. The Sapper gave the message as requested, and stepped down three
stairs into the communication trench, which passed close under one of the
crumbling walls. There was no necessity, as far as safety was concerned,
to get into the trench for several hundred yards--the mist effectually
prevented any chance of being seen from the German lines half a mile
farther on.

But he was mindful to see the condition of the trench--whether the sides
were crumbling, and whether the floor was suitably provided with