"'Wait and see,' as old Asquith says." For the next few days Bill was seen in close communion with a fellow Australian. They went about the trenches picking up bits of wood, nails, mirrors, and other odds and ends. These were carried into the little hole of the inventive genius, and there all gradually saw the growth of a wonderful invention. It wasn't Bill's idea exactly. He was simply the managing director, who stimulated curiosity, and fetched the mysterious genius the necessary supplies of material. Anyone who ventured too near the sacred sanctum was told to "hop it."
"What's that ould rascal doin'?" Paddy remarked one day.
"A bomb-thrower," said Sandy.
"Barbed wire burster," suggested Claud.
"No, it ain't," interjected Bill, who happened to come along at the time.
"What is it, then?"
"It's a man-killer. You can sit down in yer bed and kill all the ole Turks in front. They can't see who's killin' them."
"When do you try it?"
"To-day." And he did. That afternoon the inventor allowed Bill to have the trial shot. The instrument, in brief, was a periscope rifle. With the aid of an ordinary rifle, mirrors and wood fixed up in a rough, but ingenious way, there had been produced a killing instrument, which allowed the user to see and to kill without being seen. This was a godsend, for many of the casualties at this post were due to men aiming through the loopholes or over the parapet.
"Here goes," said Bill, fixing the rifle in position.