"I'll bet," said Riley delightedly, "Clancy has put him there to listen to anything he can catch us saying."
He turned to the man, who was clipping a tiny mirror on to his bayonet and hoisting it to use as a periscope.
"Are you on the look-out?" he asked. "And who posted you there?"
"It was Sergeant Clancy, sir," answered the man. "He said I could hear better—I mean, see better," he corrected himself, "from here."
Riley abruptly turned to their own periscope and apparently resumed the conversation.
"I'm almost sure that's him with the white head," said Riley. "Out there, about forty or fifty yards from the German parapet, and about a hundred yards ten o'clock from our listening-post. Have a look."
He handed the periscope over to Brock, and at the same time noticed how eagerly the sentry was also having a look into his own periscope.
"I've got him," said Brock. "Yes, I believe that's the man."
"What makes it more certain," said Riley, "is that hen's scratch of a trench the other battalion started to dig out to the listening-post. They couldn't crawl out in the open to get to the General, and it's my belief they meant to drive a sap out to the listening-post, and then out to the General, and yank him in, so they could go through his pockets."
"It's a good bit of work to get at a dead man," said Brock reflectively.