Before commencing the work, Majors Gordon and Tylden went out to trace it, taking with them lance-corporal Evans[172] and private William Harvey, as also a man of the 34th as a sentry. Having gone as far as they intended, the Majors went away alone to reconnoitre, leaving the men lying on the alert at the end of the tape. In a few minutes the officers returned, and all went forward some distance to a semi-circular rifle-screen built of loose stones about six feet high. This was to be destroyed with all possible haste and the utmost quietness. Pushing into the screen, the sappers disintegrated the stones and handed them to the officers outside, who laid them gently on the ground. Not one was permitted to drop. So went on the demolition till about three feet of the wall had been taken down, when, some Russians having crept up to occupy the screen, and finding from the grating of the stones, which they could distinctly hear, that strangers were present, fired a volley and killed the sentry, who was shot in three places. At the instant, the unarmed sappers vaulted over the masonry, but Harvey having leaped against Major Tylden, both rolled into a stony hollow which had been broken by quarrying. Beyond a bruise or two they felt no inconvenience from the fall. Quickly regaining their feet, they bounded swiftly onwards with Major Gordon and the corporal, and returned to the trenches followed by a stream of fire which miraculously missed them. Of Harvey the official record runs thus:—“He has done good service on different occasions, particularly in assisting to trace works near the enemy’s sentries.”