"I am afraid there is something the matter, sir," he explained. "I can get no reply either from Lieutenant Vivash or from the kite section."
"Ring up the despatch room. Let some one go at once to Mr Moore and return here with report."
"Yes, sir." He turned to go. "Here is Mr Moore," he exclaimed, standing aside from the door.
They all read some disaster in his face as he entered.
"I am deeply sorry to say that Lieutenant Vivash has been shot."
"Is he seriously hurt?" asked some one.
"He is dead. He was shot through the head by a marksman in Welland Wood."
Salt broke the shocked silence.
"We have lost a brave comrade," he said simply. "Come, General Trench, let us visit the walls."
It was dark when they returned. Salt passed through the room, calling to his side the man with whom he had been most closely associated at Hanwood, and traversing some passages led the way up a winding staircase into the lantern of the tower. Here, under the direction of an ex-officer of Royal Engineers, two powerful searchlights were playing on every inch of doubtful ground that lay within their radius beyond the entanglement that marked the outer line of the defences.