own staff officers!
He keeps his plans to himself, and only makes them known to those who
have to carry them out; he's taken every precaution a man can take, and
you know what a keen fellow Withers is! Yet before we can strike our
blow, the Huns get wind of our intentions!"

The Colonel sighed as he spoke. The constant mishaps were getting on
his nerves; he felt that his brother officers regarded him as
incapable. He wondered sometimes whether he would be relieved of his
command, so unsuccessful had he been.

And yet he had been known as a capable, far-seeing officer, and earlier
in the war his name had been mentioned in the dispatches. He had been
spoken of in the General Headquarters, too, as an officer of more than
ordinary ability, and yet for the last few weeks everything he had
touched seemed to miscarry. There had been no great set-back, but
there had been no advance worth speaking of. A spirit of restlessness
and suspicion was felt in the whole regiment. It seemed to them as
though there was an Achan in the camp, yet no one knew who the traitor
might be.

Of course all these misadventures might have been owing to unfortunate
accidents, or because the plans of the British officers were not well
thought out. All the same Colonel Blount could not understand it. He
was an old soldier, he had served in India, had been through the Boer
War, and he felt sure that the plans he had submitted to the Divisional
Headquarters had been sound and good. He had been complimented upon
them too, and yet they had ended in failure, and he had narrowly
escaped disaster.

"If I could see a glimmer of light anywhere," said Colonel Blount to
his senior major, "I wouldn't mind. But I can't. Only General Withers
at the Divisional Headquarters, the Brigadier, you, and myself knew the
details of our last scheme, and yet the Bosches got wind of them. It's
maddening, maddening!"

"Whoever the blighter is he's got brains," said the Major.

"Ah, here are two staff officers coming now!"

For some time after this Colonel Blount was more than ordinarily
active. He was constantly in communication with the commanding
officers of other battalions, and there were frequent journeys to
Headquarters; but no one knew what was on foot. The presence of staff
officers was constantly noted, and all felt that some big action was to
take place, but when or in what way no one knew. Even the Tommies in
the trenches felt that something of