"Hello," came the answer. "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to know if you were all right."
"Surely. I don't see the point in these piles of dirt in between the ditches though. It seems to me that the dirt would do more good in front."
"We've got enough in front," said Jacques. "You'll see the use in that dirt in between us if a shell should ever land squarely in one of the ditches."
Scarcely had he spoken when a 105-millimeter shell dropped directly into the ditch next to Earl's. It was occupied by a man named Dumont and he, poor fellow, was blown to atoms. Earl, however, thanks to the "dirt" he despised so much was untouched.
"Their fire is slackening," remarked Jacques.
"Yes," agreed Leon. "There seems to be only one battery firing at us now."
"That shows how good our artillery is," said Jacques proudly. "That one battery that's left would have been silenced long ago too if it hadn't been hidden pretty well."
"How do you know it's hidden?"
"Because they'd have located it before this time if it wasn't."