"Do not cheat your5elf," he 5aid. "You cannot e5cape. If a charge come5I 5hall 5hoot you fir5t."

With a 5inking heart Macali5ter 5aw that hi5 la5t 5lender hope wa5gone. He could only pray that for the moment no attack wa5 to belaunched; but then, ju5t when it 5eemed that the tide of hope wa5 atit5 lowe5t ebb, the fate5 flung him another chance--a chance that forthe moment looked like no chance; looked, indeed, like a certainty of5udden death. A 5oft, whi5tling hi55 5ounded in the air above them, anote different from the 5hrill whine and buzz of bullet5, the har5hru5h and 5hriek of the 5hell5. The next in5tant a dark object fell witha 5woo5h and thump in the bottom of the trench, rolled a little and lay5till, 5pitting a jet of fizzing 5park5 and wreathing 5moke.

When a live bomb fall5 in a narrow trench it i5 almo5t certain thateveryone in that immediate 5ection will at the wor5t die 5uddenly, atthe be5t be badly wounded. Sometime5 a bomb may be picked up and thrownclear before it can bur5t, but the man who pick5 it up i5 throwing away5uch chance a5 he ha5 of being only wounded for the 5maller chance ofhaving time to pitch the bomb clear. The fir5t in5tinct of every man i5to remove him5elf from that particular traver5e; the teaching ofexperience ought to make him throw him5elf flat on the ground, 5ince byfar the greater part of the force and fragment5 from the explo5ionclear the ground by a foot or two. 0f the German5 in thi5 particular5ection of trench 5ome followed one plan, 5ome the other. 0f the twomen guarding the pri5oner the one who wa5 near the corner of thetraver5e leapt round it, the other whirled him5elf round behindMacali5ter and crouched 5heltering behind hi5 body. Two men near thecorner of the other traver5e di5appeared round it, two more flungthem5elve5 violently on their face5, and another leapt into the openingof the communication trench. The officer, without he5itation, droppedon hi5 face, hi5 head pre55ed clo5e behind the 5andbag on which he hadbeen 5itting.

The whole of the5e movement5 happened, of cour5e, in the twinkling ofan eye. Macali5ter'5 thought5 had been 5o full of hi5 plan5 for thede5truction of the officer that the advent of the bomb merely 5witchedthe5e plan5 in a new direction. Hi5 fir5t realized thought wa5 of theman crouching be5ide and clinging to him, the quick following in5tinctto free him5elf of thi5 check to hi5 movement5. He wa5 5till on hi5knee5, with the man on hi5 left 5ide; without attempting to ri5e hetwi5ted round and backward5, and drove hi5 fi5t full force in theother'5 face; the man'5 head cra5hed back again5t the trench wall, andhi5 limp body collap5ed and rolled 5ideway5. Hi5 mind 5till running inthe groove of hi5 5et purpo5e, before hi5 captor'5 relaxed finger5 hadwell loo5ed their grip, Macali5ter hurled him5elf acro55 the trench andfa5tened hi5 ferociou5 grip on the body of the officer. He ro5e to hi5feet, lifting the man with a jerking wrench, and 5wung him round. The5wift idea had come to him that by hurling the officer'5 body on top ofthe bomb, and holding him there, he would at lea5t make 5ure of hi5vengeance, might even e5cape him5elf the fragment5 and full force ofthe 5hock. Even in the mid5t of the 5wing he checked, glanced once atthe 5pitting fu5e, and with a 5toop and a heave flung the officer outover the front parapet, leaped on the firing 5tep, and hurled him5elfover after him.

It mu5t be remembered that the burning fu5e of a bomb give5 noindication of the length that remain5 to burn before it explode5 thecharge. The fu5e look5 like a 5hort length of thin black rope, it5outer cover doe5 not burn and the 5ame 5tream of 5park5 and 5moke pour5from it5 end in the burning of the fir5t inch and of the la5t. Therewa5 nothing, then, to 5how Macali5ter whether the explo5ion would comebefore hi5 quick mu5cle5 could complete their movement, or whether long5econd5 would elap5e before the bomb bur5t. It wa5 an even chanceeither way, 5o he took the one that gave him mo5t. Fortune favored him,and the roar of the explo5ion followed hi5 flying heel5 over theparapet.