Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/199

Rh tion. He came puffing up the ladder. The sun and the outside air were pleasant.

“How fast do you go?" I asked the subaltern.

It varied, he answered. Sometimes two yards a day. Sometimes more.

It depends on the soil and the size of the sap. Usually there is room only to work and in baskets the excavated soil."

That, we saw, was raised to the surface and used to strengthen old parapets or to construct pass back new.

We looked at this officer, who was scarcely more than a boy, with unqualified admiration. The fact that all along the line from the sea to the Vosges other men were performing identical tasks, made no difference. His reminder that the Germans were pushing similar saps in our direction, that one might explode beneath our feet at any moment, was rather depressing. But he encouraged us with a smile that cracked the mud on his cheeks.

"I think we have a better system of listening than the Huns. We like to think we can detect their saps here before they get too close."

His easy talk called up a whole gallery of unhappy pictures—men crouched in listening posts, or creeping towards the German trenches at night, from time to time pausing to lie with an ear to