A party of the 15th Sikhs who had accompanied each attack were meantime working heart and soul to dig a trench back from the sap-head to our main trench, and the 21st Company Sappers and Miners and working parties of the 34th Pioneers were engaged in the same process to join up with them from our own side. The right sap was the more difficult of the two, and before connection could be established the remnants of our men in the sap-head, fearing that relief would be late, made an attempt to cross the open over the fifteen yards which still separated them from their comrades: the distance was short but the devastating fire which the enemy rained across it killed or wounded every man as he ran, and the Hun had his revenge in the recapture of his lost ground. Potter in the left sap was more fortunate, the new communication trench being completed by dark, when he and his men withdrew into our own line. His cool bearing and gallantry were never more conspicuous than on this day, and though he was missing a few days later during an attack, his name will live in the history of his Corps. The casualties were heavy. In the Baluchis Captain Ussher, Subadar Adam Khan, and fifty men were killed; Lieut. Browning, Captain Money, two Indian officers, and seventy rank and file were wounded. Writing of the 129th Baluchis brings to mind one or two good stories of that battalion. Early in November, for purposes of identifying enemy corps on our front, C.O.’s were asked to secure a few prisoners. One afternoon Sepoy Abdulla Jan, a Mahsud, asked permission of his section commander to cross “No Man’s Land” and enter a German sap. This was refused, but shortly after, no N.C.O. being near, Abdulla slipped over the parapet, ran across to the sap and jumped in. There was a Hun in it all right but, possessing no rifle, he promptly bolted. The section commander, having meantime returned along our trench, looked over the parapet and saw our gallant friend; he shouted to him to return, which the man did very quietly, and on arrival, being asked what he was at, replied that he was trying to get hold of a German rifle and did not think it worth while bringing in a mere man without it. His native instinct had got the better of his discretion, as a Mahsud in his own hills will risk his life to steal or otherwise procure a good firearm. On being told a rifle was as nothing in value compared to a man, he at once volunteered to go out again and capture one, and was much disgusted when his request was refused.