"Scrawled on his bare chest, the way he said it would be," the veteran answered, "and underneath was written in the same smeared violet marks the word:
"'Victory!'"
"You can't beat France when it comes to heroism!" declared Horace.
"The English are just as nervy," answered the veteran. "Even in the trenches, though, they fight differently. They make far fewer night attacks than we do, and far more mines. There's few nights that the British haven't got a listening patrol out somewhere on the line."
"I hear every one talking of a 'listening patrol,'" put in the lad; "tell me, Sergeant, just what a listening patrol is for."
"To listen," answered the veteran laconically.
"Of course, but for what?"
The answer came, sinister,
"Mines!"
"Ah!" Horace had seen the effects of those most terrible of all weapons of trench warfare.