"Be burst in by a bomb," said Jim. "I know it! I went up with a party of our chaps in one of those raids of ours when we blew up some of the German dug-outs. My, it was a game!"
They lowered the gas curtain over the entrance again and stumbled down the stairway.
"Yes, it was a game," said Jim, as they entered the dug-out and joined their comrades. "A game for the Huns, you bet! Gee! and we wouldn't find it so."
The big man in the hairy waistcoat, with the broad smile on his strong face, grinned, and, taking the cigarette from his mouth, tapped Larry familiarly on the shoulder.
"A game I've played too, up here in these very parts in the days when we was fighting the Germans back over the Somme. Kamerad! D'you know the call? They'd come tumbling up from the dug-outs, with their hands above their heads, and, if you believe me, they'd offer money, watches, anything, for their lives, boys. We gave 'em somethin' that time. Of course, if they didn't come up we gave 'em a smoke-bomb; and if that didn't fix 'em we put a sentry at the door and waited till a chap came along with something stronger."
"Hold hard! Sentry! Oh!" Bill shouted.
"Oh!" repeated the big man; "and what's now? You ain't frightened?"
"Frightened!" glared Larry. For the very thought sent him into a hot flush of indignation. "Him!—Bill!—the chap——"
"Shut up!" said Bill. "I was thinking of that sentry. We're cornered—that's what all agreed—eh?"