That sound had not come; instead, there had been the soft, just audible, plop of the Sergeant's body as it dropped on the floor of the passage.

At the stroke of the red handle the good, cool water gurgled and arose with a delightful "plop!"

Then, as a faint plop! drifted to the watchersa sound no louder than a feeble clack of the tonguethis indefinite luminosity began to sink, to fade, falling slowly, gradually dissipating itself in the dim light over the stockade.

Probably it was the wet plop of some of the backward-flung bullets about him, possibly it was the movement of the German sergeant that wiped out the instinctive desire to flatten himself close to ground that drove him to instant action.