rst. "Don't hold the thing like a
snake--it won't bite."

Tari Barl departed on his errand, and returned presently, looking very
crestfallen.

"What's wrong, Tarry Barrel?" asked the subaltern.

"Colonel him call me one time fool, sah," he reported. "Him tell you
come see him all in dashed hurry quick."

"I wonder what Tarry Barrel has been doing?" thought Dudley as he
hastened to report to his C.O.

Colonel Quarrier was laughing, so were the adjutant and the regimental
sergeant-major. In the former's hand was the unrolled scrap of paper
on which the airmen's message was written.

"It's all right, after all, Mr. Wilmshurst," said the colonel. "Your
runner is a bit of a blockhead, as I think you'll admit. Evidently
under the impression that these coloured ribbons were a present to me
from the skies, he handed over the streamers, while the case containing
the writing, which had been soiled when it fell to the ground, he
carefully cut off and threw away. As you are here you may as well
inform your company commander the news: the --th and --th Pathans are
in their prearranged positions. There will be a twenty-minutes'
bombardment by the mountain battery in conjunction with an attack by
the seaplane. At four forty-five the Waffs will advance in three lines
to the assault. That's all, Mr. Wilmshurst."

The subaltern saluted and withdrew. It was now three o'clock and an
hour and three-quarters were to elapse before the battalion went into
action.

"Looks as if we've cornered the beggars, Mr. Wilmshurst," remarked the
major, when Dudley had communicated the C.O.'s message. "I suppose
they are still there," he added.

The two officers searched the crest of the hill through their
field-glasses. So elaborate and skilful were the enemy defences that
the powerful lenses failed to detect any trace of the rifle pits and
sand-bagged parapets of the trenches. Nor were any troops visible.
The top of the table-land looked as deserted as an unexplored land in
the Polar regions.

Wilmshurst lowered his binoculars. He was about to make some reply
when to the accompaniment of a shrill whistling sound his helmet was
whisked from his head, falling to the ground a good ten feet from where
he stood.

For some minutes the two officers regarded each other, the major
anxiously the other whimsically.

"Hit?" asked the major laconically.

"No, sir," replied Wilmshurst.

"Jolly near squeak," continued the other. "I th