78 Pages - The Black Vault

It was astonishing what difficulty I had to get themen to dig in a nice straight line. 1 was particular asto this point, because I once heard a certain captainseverely “told off” at manoeuvres by a very seniorofficer for having his trenches “out of dressing. ” Noone could tell whether some “brass hat” might notcome round and inspect us next day, so it was as wellto be prepared for anything.At dusk the guard on Waschout Hill, for whom atrench had also been dug, was relieved and increasedto six men, and after teas and giving out theorders for the next day, we all “turned in” in ourtrenches. The tents were not pitched, as we werenot going to occupy them, and it was no good merelyshowing up our position. A guard was mounted overour prisoners, or rather “guests,” and furnished onesentry.to watch over them.Before falling asleep I ran over my seven lessons,and it seemed to me I had left nothing undone whichcould possibly help towards success, We were entrenched,had a good bulletproof defence, all ourrations and ammunition close at hand in the trenches,and water-bottles filled. It was with a contented feelingof having done everything right and of beingquite “the little white-haired boy, ” that I graduallydozed off.Next morning dawned brightly and uneventfully,and we had about an hour’s work improving detailsof our trenches before breakfasts were ready. Justas breakfast was over, the sentry on Waschout Hillreported a cloud of dust away to the north, by RegretTable Mountain. This was caused by a large party ofmounted men with wheeled transport of some sort.30