Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/183

Rh “The anti-air guns would get him sure. He'd have dropped in their lines anyway."

"Nice chap, Blank," the brigade officer muttered. "We've been hoping for news all morning."

The trench officer put his eye to the periscope.

"I wondered," he said.

After a time he looked up.

Perhaps you'd like to see the Hun trenches. If you raised your head above the parapet you'd make good practice for one of their snipers. Try this."

In the glass at the base of the periscope appeared a forest of posts rising from a jungle of grass and barbed wire. Beyond, very close at hand, lines of yellow dirt and sand bags zig-zagged across the landscape, curving towards us to the right and left. A trifle puzzled, I glanced back at the British trench walls and saw that to either side they fell away before these sudden swoops of the enemy's lines. We were, it appeared, in the apex of a small triangle, and subject consequently to attack from three sides. Phrases skimmed in the official reports Aashed back with a new eloquence. I understood quite thoroughly now the meaning of, "We straightened a small salient to-day." The trench officer grinned.