The door closed, and the Mess, grinding the ends of their cigars into their coffee-cups, heaved themselves resignedly to their aching feet.

“There ain’t,” quoted Major Wagstaffe, “no word in the blooming language for it!”

III

The Kidney Bean Redoubt is the key to a very considerable sector of trenches.

It lies just behind a low ridge.  The two horns of the bean are drawn back out of sight of the enemy, but the middle swells forward over the skyline and commands an extensive view of the country beyond.  Direct observation of artillery fire is possible:  consequently an armoured observation post has been constructed here, from which gunner officers can direct the fire of their batteries with accuracy and elegance.  Lose the Kidney Bean, and the boot is on the other leg.  The enemy has the upper ground now:  he can bring observed artillery fire to bear upon all our tenderest spots behind the line.  He can also enfilade our front-line trenches.

Well, as already stated, the Twenty-Second Royal Stickybacks had lost the Kidney Bean.  They were a battalion of recent formation, stout-hearted fellows all, but new to the refinements of intensive trench warfare.  When they took over the sector, they proceeded to leave undone various vital things which the Hairy Jocks had always made a point of doing, and to do various unnecessary things which the Hairy Jocks had never done.  The observant Hun promptly recognised that he was faced by a fresh batch of opponents, and, having carefully studied the characteristics of the newcomers, prescribed and administered an exemplary dose of frightfulness.  He began by tickling up the Stickybacks with an unpleasant engine called the Minenwerfer, which despatches a large sausage-shaped projectile in a series of ridiculous somersaults, high over No Man’s Land into the enemy’s front-line trench, where it explodes and annihilates everything in that particular bay.  Upon these occasions one’s only chance of salvation is to make a rapid calculation as to the bay into which the sausage is going to fall, and then double speedily round a traverse—­or, if possible, two traverses—­into another.  It is an exhilarating pastime, but presents complications when played by a large number of persons in a restricted space, especially when the persons aforesaid are not unanimous as to the ultimate landing-place of the projectile.

After a day and a night of these aerial torpedoes the Hun proceeded to an intensive artillery bombardment.  He had long coveted the Kidney Bean, and instinct told him that he would never have a better opportunity of capturing it than now.  Accordingly, two hours before dawn, the Redoubt was subjected to a sudden, simultaneous, and converging fire from all the German artillery for many miles round, the whole being topped up with a rain of those crowning instruments of demoralisation, gas-shells.  At the same time an elaborate curtain of shrapnel and high explosive was let down behind the Redoubt, to serve the double purpose of preventing either the sending up of reinforcements or the temporary withdrawal of the garrison.