This consists almost entirely in digging. As already stated, these are bad trenches. The parapet is none too strong--at one point it has been knocked down for three days running--the communication trenches are few and narrow, and there are not nearly enough dugouts. Yesterday three men were wounded; and owing to the impossibility of carrying a stretcher along certain parts of the trench, they had to be conveyed to the rear in their ground-sheets--bumped against projections, bent round sharp corners, and sometimes lifted, perforce, bodily into view of the enemy. So every man toils with a will, knowing full well that in a few hours' time he may prove to have been his own benefactor. Only the sentries remain at the parapets. They no longer expose themselves, as at night, but take advantage of the laws of optical reflection, as exemplified by the trench periscope. (This, in spite of its grand title, is nothing but a tiny mirror clipped on to a bayonet.) At half-past twelve comes dinner--bully-beef, with biscuit and jam--after which each tired man, coiling himself up in the trench, or crawling underground, according to the accommodation at his disposal, drops off into instant and heavy slumber. The hours from two till five in the afternoon are usually the most uneventful of the twenty-four, and are therefore devoted to hardly-earned repose. VIII--STORY OF AN AFTERNOON WITH CAPTAIN BLAIKIE But there is to be little peace this afternoon. About half-past three, Bobby Little, immersed in pleasant dreams--dreams of cool shades and dainty companionship--is brought suddenly to the surface of things by-- "Whoo-oo-_oo_-oo-UMP!"--followed by a heavy thud upon the roof of his dugout. Earth and small stones descend in a shower upon him. "Dirty dogs!" he comments, looking at his watch. Then he puts his head out of the dugout. "Lie close, you men!" he cries. "There's more of this coming. Any casualties?" The answer to the question is obscured by another burst of shrapnel, which explodes a few yards short of a parapet, and showers bullets and fragments of shell into the trench. A third and a fourth follow. Then comes a pause. A message is passed down for the stretcher-bearers. Things are growing serious. Five minutes later Bobby, having despatched his wounded to the dressing-station, proceeds with all haste to Captain Blaikie's dugout. "How many, Bobby?" "Six wounded. Two of them won't last as far as the rear, I'm afraid, sir." Captain Blaikie looks grave. "Better ring up the Gunners, I think. Where are the shells coming from?" "That wood on our left front, I think." "That's P 27. Telephone orderly, there?" A figure appears in the doorway. "Yes, sirr." "Ring up Major Cavanagh, and say that H 21 is being shelled from P 27. Retaliate!" "Verra good, sirr." The telephone orderly disappears, to return in five minutes. "Major Cavanagh's compliments, sirr, and he is coming up himself for tae observe from the firing trench."