"Dashed if I can see him," whispered Malcolm. Although there was no need for speaking in an undertone, the scene of preparation instinctively Compelled him to lower his voice. "Seen anything of Sergeant Fortescue?" enquired Selwyn, addressing a rifleman who had just completed the fixing of one ladder and was thoroughly surveying his work.
The man turned sharply, gave a grunt of Surprise, and before the lad could realize what had happened, he swarmed up the ladder, paused irresolutely for a brief instant on the sandbagged parapet, and leapt into the darkness of No Man's Land. It was the spy, von Feldoffer.
CHAPTER XVII
Over the Top
"Wing him!" exclaimed Malcolm, unslinging his rifle, opening the cut-off, and springing upon the fire-step. Selwyn followed his example, and with levelled rifles the two chums awaited the first sound that might betray the progress of the spy.
"What are you fellows up to?" enquired a sergeant. "Don't you know the order? No individual firing until further orders."
"A man has just leapt over the parapet. He's a spy," said Malcolm.
"In a N.Z. rifleman's uniform," added Selwyn.
The Sergeant snorted incredulously.