"Don't," was the reply. "I've got them properly set. I'm an Englishman—a Wheatshire."
"Hurrah!" exclaimed Alderhame, while Setley gave vent to a whoop of surprise and satisfaction, for the voice was that of Sidney Bartlett.
CHAPTER VIII
CUT OFF
"Entering the main room of the spacious dug-out Ralph and his comrades found the place illuminated by a couple of candles that the Huns, with characteristic forethought, had lighted in anticipation of the failure of the electric current.
The place was a combined dormitory and living-room. Against three walls were tiers of bed-boxes, showing that there was accommodation for at least fifty men. Tables and chairs, looted from French houses, occupied most of the floor space. Even though intended for the German rank and file the dug-out, in the matter of comfort and security, was far more habitable and commodious than those of the British troops. It was constructed with a view of lasting, whereas the British dug-outs were of a temporary nature, pending the long-promised and eagerly awaited Great Advance. It was one of the numerous concrete works that the Huns never expected to have to evacuate so long as the war lasted. To their cost they found that British tenacity and courage, backed by the powerful shells supplied by the munition workers at home, were more than a match for German ingenuity and machine-like methods of waging modern war.
Crowded into one corner of the dug-out were eleven Prussians, for the most part sullen and brutal in features and with the fear of death in their bloodshot eyes. Some of them were wounded; all were caked from head to foot with mud and soot.
Armed with a German rifle and bayonet stood Private Bartlett, as proud as a peacock.
"Glad you came," he exclaimed. "I knew things were going all right when these fellows came skeltering for shelter, and still more so when you flung a bomb down the stairs——"