It was the first hot meal that any of the men had had for thirty-six hours, and it did them all the good in the world. When it was over they were told to take what sleep they could.
Ken and his two chums needed no second order. They simply pitched themselves down, and no one ever slept better on a spring mattress than Ken did in the muddy bottom of that trench.
What woke him at last was a crash which made the solid hill-side quiver, and dwarfed to insignificance anything that he had previously heard.
In a flash he was up and on his feet.
'Go aisy, lad,' said O'Brien, who was standing up, with a pair of glasses to his eyes and a smile on his lips. Go aisy. 'Tis only Lizzie opening the ball.'
'Lizzie?' muttered Ken, still half dazed with the prodigious explosion.
Again came an enormous roar, followed by a sound like a train rushing through the sky. Then from a hill to the left and a mile or so inland a geyser of rocks and soil spouted, and was followed by the same earth-shaking crash which had wakened him.
Ken looked out to sea. Some three miles off shore lay the biggest battleship he had ever set eyes on. Even at that distance her immense turrets, with their grinning gun muzzles, were clearly visible.
'The "Queen Elizabeth!"' he gasped.
'That's what,' said Roy Horan, who had got up and joined Ken. 'They've sent her along to lend us a hand. Oh, I tell you, she's no slouch. Watch her now! Gee, but she's giving Young Turkey something to chew on.'