78 Pages - The Black Vault

and the road south to see how matters appeared fromthe level of the rifles. To my intense horror, I foundthat from these trenches neither the drift nor the roadon the near bank of the river, until it got a long waysouth of Waschout Hill, could be seen! The bulgingconvexity of the hilt hid all this; it must be deadground! It was. The very spot where I could bestcatch the enemy, where they must pass, was notunder my fire! At most, the northern loopholes ofthe conning-tower and one other hut alone couldgive fire on the drift. How I cursed my stupidity! However,it was no-good. I could not now start diggingfresh trenches further down the hjll; it would betrayour whole position at once. I determined to makethe best of it, and if we were not discovered by thescouts. to open fire on the main body when they werejust on the other side of the river bunched up on thebank, waiting for those in front. Here we could fireon them; but it would be at a much longer range thanI had intended. It was really a stroke of luck that 1had discovered this serious fault, for otherwise wemight have let the bulk of the enemy cross the driftwithout discovering the little fact of the dead groundtill too late. I reflected, also (though it was not muchconsolation), that I had erred in good company, forhow often had 1 not seen a “brass-hat” ride along onhorseback, and from that height, fix the exact positionfor trenches in which the rifles would be littleabove the ground. These trenches, however, hadnot been put to the test of actual use. My error wasnot going to escape the same way.Meanwhile the enemy’s scouts had advanced inmuch the same way as detailed before, except thatafter coming past lncidentamba Farm, they had not54,—.