enough to all of us before a job actually started. But
"could he be depended on?" was the fear that was now haunting me.

Presently some Germans came out of their trench. We counted eight of
them as they crawled down inside their broken wire. We cautiously
followed them, expecting that they were going out to the suspected
"listening post," but they went about fifty yards, and then lay down
just in front of their own parapet. After about twenty minutes they
returned the way they came, and I have no doubt reported that they had
been over to our wire and there were no Australian patrols out.

This had taken up most of our time, and I showed Wilson that we had
only ten minutes left, and that we had better get back so as not to cut
it too fine. I was rather surprised when he objected, spelling out
Morse on my hand that we had come out to find the "listening post," and
we had not searched up to the right. The Germans were evidently
getting suspicious of the silence, and to our consternation suddenly
put down a heavy barrage in No Man's Land, not more than thirty yards
behind us. There was no getting through it, and we grabbed each
other's hand, and only the pressure was needed to signal the one word
"trapped." When the shelling commenced we had instinctively made for a
drain about four feet deep that ran across No Man's Land, and "sat up"
in about six inches of water. Had we remained on top the light from
the shells would have revealed us only too plainly, being behind us. I
was afraid to look at my wristwatch, and when I did pluck up sufficient
courage to do so, I might have saved myself the trouble, as the opening
shell from our batteries at the same moment proclaimed that the time
was up. As we huddled down, sitting in the icy water, we realized that
the objective of our own guns was less than ten yards from us, and we
could only hope and pray that no more wire-cutting was going to be done
that night. Once, when we were covered with the returning debris, we
instinctively threw our arms round each other. When we shook ourselves
free, what was my amazement to find my companion shaking
with--laughter. There was now no need for silence, a shout could
hardly be heard a few yards away. He called to me: "Did you ever do
the Blondin act before, because we are walking a razor-edge right now.
We're between the devil and the 'deep sea,' anyway, and I think myself
the 'deep sea' will get us." As I looked at him someth