Lot of sniping to-day." A sergeant of the
South Loamshires whispered hoarsely to the Sapper as he reached the end
of the sap--it is etiquette to whisper in a sap. Three men inside the
recess were drinking tea with the calmness born of long custom, while
lying on his side, with a periscope to his eye, was Jackson, the
subaltern.

"Anything fresh, Jacko?" muttered the Sapper, crouching down beside him.

"Yes--I think they're coming closer with their left sap round the crater.
Their periscope seems to be nearer than it was yesterday."

"Let's have a look." The two changed position, and the Captain turned
the periscope gently round until he got the exact direction. Absolute
stillness brooded over the ground he could see; a few rough strands of
wire straggled about, and disappeared into the great mound of earth that
formed the _debris_ of the crater.

There were the enemies' trenches--a railway embankment behind them with a
derelict row of trucks--a great chimney, gaunt and desolate, with the
buildings at its foot in ruins. But it was not on these old friends that
he was concentrating; his target was the bit of ground just in front of
him that lay close to the thrown-up earth of Vesuvius, along which the
German sap was reputed to be creeping nearer.

At last he got what he wanted. Close at hand, perhaps twenty yards away,
there stuck up out of the ground a motionless stick with something on the
end--the German's periscope. Now it is reputed to be a fact by several
people of apparent truthfulness that it is possible, in circumstances
such as these, for each watcher to see the other man's eyes reflected
from the mirrors of the periscopes; and it is an undoubted fact that the
laws which govern the refraction of light would allow of this phenomenon.
Personally, I am glad to say I have never seen a German's eye through a
periscope; but then personally I am inclined to doubt if any one has. It
must be quite dreadful to see a thing like a poached egg regarding you
balefully from the top of a stick a few yards away.

At last the Sapper got up. "He's no nearer, Jacko. What do you think,
sergeant?"

"I don't think they were working last night, sir," one of the
tea-drinkers answered.

"There was a party of 'em out, and we bunged some bombs. We 'eard 'em
padding the 'oof back."

"Been pretty quiet, then?"

"Except for that there rum jar, sir," answered the sergeant. "We thought
we was napoo[1] when we 'eard tha