"That bombardment wasn’t bluff, then?" "He timed it to give me cover, and broke off to delude the Huns. The attack is fixed for two o’clock, when they’ll have given up expecting it." "That leaves us plenty of time to get to the trenches. It’ll be ticklish work, getting through. I’ll tell old Lumineau: we depend on his guidance. If he declines the job we shall be horribly handicapped." He took the farmer apart, and held a quiet conversation with him. The old man readily agreed to guide the party to the vicinity of the third line of trenches. "But you’ll come with us all the way?" said Hedley. "The farm won’t be safe for you after this. You’ll be shot." Lumineau shrugged and smiled. "Perhaps not, monsieur," he said. "The Bosches did not see us; they will only be puzzled. I will go now back to the farm; do you see my amazement when they tell me their officers have disappeared? I will lead a search--not in this direction, par exemple!--and I will come back in good time to lead you. A bas les Bosches." VI Some few days later, Lieutenant Hedley was dispensing hospitality to a few friends in a neat little officers’ estaminet in a village behind the lines. Among his guests were Captain Adams and other officers of the Rutlands’ supporting battery, and Burton of the Flying Corps. "It took us about forty minutes to smash that battery you spotted, Burton," said Adams, with an air of pride. "Better than pig-killing," returned Burton solemnly. "Oh, we cut up a few pigs too." "How do you know?" asked Hedley. "Well, you see, in the first place," Adams was beginning earnestly, when Laurence Cay interrupted him. "We haven’t time for firstly, secondly, thirdly, old man. We want to hear about Hedley and his missing platoon. By George! it must have been creepy work." "A good deal of it was literally creeping," said Hedley. "Old Farmer Lumineau led us through woods and orchards for miles--a roundabout way, of course. It was ghastly, trudging along in the dark, trying to make no noise, afraid to whisper, stopping to listen, starting at the least sound. We got at last to a little copse just behind the farthermost line of trenches, and there Lumineau left us. We were on thorns, I can tell you. It seemed that the attack would never begin. We couldn’t hear any Huns anywhere near us, but caught a note of a cornet now and then from some billet on our left rear. I looked at my trench map----" "In the dark?" asked Adams.