"Oh, pretty well anywhere," replied the Engineer. "Only, warn your men to be careful not to dig too deep!"
And with this dark saying he lounged off to take Ayling for his promised walk.
"I'll take you along the road a bit, first," he said, "and then we will turn off into the field where the corner of the redoubt is, and you can look at things from the outside."
Ayling thanked him, and stepped somewhat higher than usual, as a bullet struck the ground at his feet.
"Extraordinary how few casualties one gets," continued the Sapper chattily. "Their snipers go potting away all night, but they don't often get anybody. By the way, they have a machine-gun trained on this road, but they only loose it off every second night. Methodical beggars!"
"Did they loose it off last night?"
"No. To-night's the night. Have you finished here!"
"Yes, thanks!"
"Right-o! We'll go to the next corner. You'll get a first-class field of fire there, I should say."
The second position was duly inspected, the only incident of interest being the bursting of a star-shell directly overhead.