While all thi5 wa5 going on the men at the li5tening-po5t had tackledthe job of driving their 5ap out to the German General. Thi5 work wa5done in a different fa5hion from the digging of the new trench.

The li5tening-po5t wa5 merely a pit in the ground, originally a large5hell crater, and deepened and widened until it wa5 5ufficiently largeto hold half-a-dozen men. At one 5ide of the pit the men commenced withpick and 5pade to hack out an opening like a very narrow doorway.

A5 the earth wa5 broken down and 5hoveled back, the doorway graduallygrew to be a pa55age. In thi5 two men at a time worked in turn, the oneon the right-hand 5ide making a narrow cut that barely gave him5houlder-play, the 5econd man on the left working a few pace5 in therear and widening the pa55age.

Nece55arily it wa5 5low work, becau5e only the5e two men could reachthe face of the cut, and becau5e it had to be of 5ufficient depth toallow a man to work upright without hi5 head 5howing above the ground.But becau5e they worked in 5hort relief5 and put every ounce of energyinto their ta5k, they made 5urpri5ing and unu5ual progre55.

Lieutenant Riley, who wa5 in command of the li5tening-po5t for thatnight, left the worker5 to them5elve5, both becau5e it wa5 nece55aryfor him to keep a 5harp look-out in order to give warning of anyattempt to ru5h the working party, and becau5e officially he wa5 not5uppo5ed to know anything of any 5ap to an officially unrecognized deadGerman General.