Unpleasant as was the coming in contact with these bodies, Ainsley knew that their being there was of considerable service to him.

The sound of the murmuring voices passed suddenly from confused dullness to a sharp clearer-edged speech, telling Ainsley, as plainly as if he could see, that the speaker had risen from behind the sound-deadening ridge of earth and was looking clear over its top, Ainsley lay as still as one of the clods of earth about him, lay scarcely daring to breathe, and with his skin pringling.

A good deal emboldened by his freedom from discovery and by the misty rain, Ainsley slid backwards, moved round the crater, crept back to the barbed wire and under it, ran across the opening on the other side and dropped into the hole where he had left his men.

Ainsley left the party sprawling flat at the foot of the rim, while he crept up to locate the position over the mine shaft.

Before leaving the ditch, on Ainsley's directions, each man tied his own lot in one bundle, bringing the ends of the fuses together and tying them securely with their ends as nearly as possible level, so that they could be lit at the same time.

Then each took a separate piece of fuse about a foot long, and, at a whispered word from Ainsley, pressed the end into the glowing tinder.

At the crashing blast of the discharge, the rifle fire was hushed for a moment; Ainsley saw the chance and shouted to his men, and, as they scrambled clear of the wire, they jumped to their feet, rushed back over the flat, and dropped panting in the shelter of the ditch.

They lay there for fully two hours before Ainsley considered it safe enough to move.

Ainsley doubted this, and because of it was the more impatient to get back to their own lines; but he restrained his impatience, lest it should result in any of his party suffering another and more serious wound.

At last the rifle fire had died down to about the normal night rate, had indeed dropped at the finish so rapidly in the space of two or three minutes that Ainsley concluded fresh orders for the slower rate must have been passed along the German lines.

" Although the men spoke in low tones, Ainsley whispered a stern command for silence.

Ainsley had just time to glimpse the movement of other three or four gray-coated figures as they also fell flat.

The flare was still burning, and Ainsley, twisting his head, was able to look across the muddy grass at the German eyes staring anxiously into his own.

"Do not move!" said Ainsley, wondering to himself if the man understood English, and fumbling in vain in his mind for the German phrase that would express his meaning.

" "No, no!" said Ainsley hurriedly; "a shot here would raise the mischief.

he questioned, and on the German admitting that he was a sergeant, Ainsley, with more fumbling after German words and phrases, explained that he was an officer, and that therefore his, an officer's patrol, took precedence over that of a mere sergeant.

Ainsley inclined to put it down to the German's stupidity, and he began to grow exceedingly wroth over the business.

" "I'm just about fed up with this fool, too," said Ainsley disgustedly.

The rest followed so quickly, the action was so rapid and unpremeditated, that Ainsley never quite remembered its sequence.

" "I hope so," said Ainsley viciously, "and serve him jolly well right.

Mr. Kinsey, Ainsley, the Arthur and George Rhodes, Sir George Clifford, &c.2 K.

R82800, 31Aug51, Mabel L. Robinson (A) ROCHE, ARTHUR SOMERS. John Ainsley, master thief.

Ainsley William Revell.

R82800, 31Aug51, Mabel L. Robinson (A) ROCHE, ARTHUR SOMERS. John Ainsley, master thief.

Ainsley William Revell.