A figure appears in the doorway.
"Yes, sirr."
"Ring up Major Cavanagh, and say that H 21 is being shelled from P 27.
Retaliate!"
"Verra good, sirr."
The telephone orderly disappears, to return in five minutes.
"Major Cavanagh's compliments, sirr, and he is coming up himself for tae observe from the firing trench."
"Good egg!" observes Captain Blaikie. "Now we shall see some shooting,
Bobby!"
Presently the Gunner major arrives, accompanied by an orderly, who pays out wire as he goes. The major adjusts his periscope, while the orderly thrusts a metal peg into the ground and fits a telephone receiver to his head.
"Number one gun!" chants the major, peering into his periscope; "three-five-one-nothing—lyddite—fourth charge!"
These mystic observations are repeated into the telephone by the
Cockney orderly, in a confidential undertone.