Climbing out again, we ventured a hint or two as to how interested we were in batteries. But the General himself was intensely interested in an intricate system of subterranean passages which his Chief of Engineers was building to connect up the observation-post with other points, and he took the very human view that the technical explanations of the Engineer which were so absorbing to him must necessarily be equally enthralling to us.
Finally we started back across the hilltop toward where my imagination conjured up serried arrays of great guns frowning at the enemy.
On the way we stopped to inspect the telephone central which connected up the observation-posts with all the batteries behind and the trenches in front, and for that matter, with Paris or any other part of France.
In a low log hut, its roof and walls protected by several feet of sand-bags, a soldier sat at a large switchboard with a telephone receiver strapped to his head. As we stood for a moment watching him a bell tinkled. He stuck the small peg into one of the multitudinous little holes.
"Allo! This is Number 15," he said in a low voice, then listened intently to some message.
"All right," he said at its conclusion. Then turning half round on his stool he saluted and reported:
"Mon General, Number 19 reports that a Boche aeroplane has passed them and is coming over us."
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