"Yes, Vivash," he said to the man in the kite a quarter of a mile away. "What is it?" "Two general service wagons with bridge-making tackle have just been brought up, and are waiting in Welland Wood," reported Vivash. "There is a movement among the colliers over Barfold Rise. With them are about two hundred men carrying rifles. They are not in uniform, but they _march_." Salt turned to another instrument and jerked the switch rapidly from plate to plate as he distributed his orders. "Captain Norris, strengthen the Territorials at the outer wire North." "Send up two star rockets to recall the motor-cycle scouts." "Tell Disturnal to have the searchlights in immediate readiness." "Fire brigade, full strength, turn out with chemical engine, and stand under earthwork cover at central tank." He turned again to the kite telephone to ask Vivash a detail. There was no response. "Get on with Lieutenant Vivash as soon as you can, and let me know at once," he said to the one who was in charge, as he returned to the staff room. In less than a minute the operator was at the door again. "I am afraid there is something the matter, sir," he explained. "I can get no reply either from Lieutenant Vivash or from the kite section." "Ring up the despatch room. Let some one go at once to Mr Moore and return here with report." "Yes, sir." He turned to go. "Here _is_ Mr Moore," he exclaimed, standing aside from the door. They all read some disaster in his face as he entered. "I am deeply sorry to say that Lieutenant Vivash has been shot." "Is he seriously hurt?" asked some one. "He is dead. He was shot through the head by a marksman in Welland Wood." Salt broke the shocked silence. "We have lost a brave comrade," he said simply. "Come, General Trench, let us visit the walls." It was dark when they returned. Salt passed through the room, calling to his side the man with whom he had been most closely associated at Hanwood, and traversing some passages led the way up a winding staircase into the lantern of the tower. Here, under the direction of an ex-officer of Royal Engineers, two powerful searchlights were playing on every inch of doubtful ground that lay within their radius beyond the entanglement that marked the outer line of the defences. Nothing had been seen; not a solitary invader had yet shown himself within the zone of light. The officer in charge was explaining a technical detail of the land when, without the faintest warning, a fulgent blaze of light suddenly ran along the edge of a coppice half a mile away, and a noise like the crackling of a hundred new-lit fires drifted on the wind. With the echo, a thick hedge to the east and a wood lying on the west joined in the vicious challenge. A few bullets splashed harmlessly against the steel shield that ingeniously protected the lantern.