Before Claud could detain him he disappeared. Dropping on to his knees, he crawled for some distance, then lay flat.
Ping went the sniper's bullet again. He saw the flash. This incidentally revealed the position of the Turk. Fixing his bayonet, Bill made a wide detour, At last he arrived in rear of his object.
Ping! went the rifle again. So intent was the sniper on his job that he did not hear the crawling man behind. Like a snake, Bill wriggled along. He finished up ten yards behind his man. This sniper had killed and wounded thirty men in two days. He did not deserve a quick dispatch, and Bill had no intention of giving him that. With a bound, he jumped on him, and pinned him right through the shoulders with his bayonet.
"Allah! Allah!" shrieked the man, in the most dreadful pain.
"Old Allah ain't no good to you now. Get up!" And he was lifted up with the bayonet.
When he rose from the ground Bill found he had a green bush tied all round him. His face and hands were afterwards found to be painted green. All this the Turks had acquired from their German masters.
"Now, old cock, run!" said Bill, pushing the man in front.
Screaming with pain the sniper was pushed at the double right up to the Australian trench.
"What's all that row there?" roared the Colonel.
"Jest been catchin' a sniper, Colonel," answered Bill, throwing his man off the bayonet into the trench. He dropped dead at the Colonel's feet.