A few steps beyond in the open ground a feeble light filtered through sacks hung as shutters. It was the sap!... We stretched out on the ground and tried to see inside. There was no one standing, but if anyone was left he must be asleep, and we could surprise him.... We jumped in. Not a soul. Without a doubt it was a post momentarily empty during a relief. On some overturned chairs there was a platter with a candle on it and we put it out. We examined the place with our flashlight. A communication trench opened into the post and we started down. No matter where it led or whether we could retrace our steps or not, the die was cast. The number of chances of our getting back alive which Delpos had said were even seemed to me to have grown beautifully less. The trench stopped short within ten yards. Ahead, to the right, to the left, we stuck our noses into the solid wall. But the men had got out someway.... Delpos risked another flash of his light—the way out was over our heads. It was a shaft with a ladder leading up it. We heard someone talking above. The relief was coming down.... Just then the noise of firing came from our own lines. The sections were firing as had been arranged. This wise precaution served beyond our utmost expectations, for above us began at once the rapid tac-tac of the machine guns and we heard commands. So the shaft led into the machine-gun emplacement. That was just what we wanted to know; our reconnaissance was at an end. Delpos drove a cheddite bomb into the wall beneath the ladder, and I tied a slow fuse to it. We jumped towards the river. I lighted the fuse as I jumped from the sap, just as an immense body appeared in the opening and blocked the way. “_Wer da?_” “‘_Wer da?_’ you’ll find out who is there,” Delpos muttered, and with a blow full on the chest, while I threw myself on his legs, we got the colossus down, as he shouted for help. But the firing drowned his cries. Then, to deprive him of all interest in keeping on, I applied my revolver to his forehead, and Delpos kicked him under the chin. We left him senseless and voiceless for at least a quarter of an hour. We jumped into our boat and slid under the camouflage. Whether we had made too much noise or a sentinel had heard us, I don’t know, but we were hardly there, and were just pushing off, when shots came in our direction, star shells lighted the river, and men ran up and down the bank. We heard them cry, “There he is ... there....” They had seen our dummy in the middle of the river and were firing at him with rifles and bombarding him with grenades. We did not move. By stretching out an arm we could almost have touched the legs of the men who came down to the water’s edge to hurl their grenades. None of them dreamed we were so near. The alarm lasted about twenty seconds; it seemed like a century. We knew that the blockhouse was going to blow up and we wanted to be far away for the débris were likely to reach us and crush us.