"Ah! It's you, is it?"
"Well!"
"Listen, I have news for you."
We twist round, and with heads touching one another, Belin continues—
"This is very serious. The captain has just called together the heads of the sections and explained to them the mission on which he is sending our two companies. The engineers are going to destroy with melinite the German barbed-wire; they are to be protected by two patrols of eight men each."
"Well?"
"Then the 21st and the 24th will attack the trench."
"Not a bad programme," remarks Reymond, filling his pipe.
"I don't consider it one bit reasonable," says Belin gravely. "We shall all be demolished."
Silence. Reymond lights his pipe, his head buried in the lap of my coat, so that the flash from his flint may not be seen.