Yet another queer experience befell the corporal a short time later.
It occurred when he was on "listening-post" between the trenches--one
of the most arduous and dangerous jobs the war has to offer. Corporal
Mullins, with a couple of comrades, was on duty in a listening-post
hard by Armentières. On the previous day the Germans had attacked
and been beaten off, and our troops were expecting a further assault
that evening. Already the big guns were battering away at the
entrenchments. The three men lay in front of a shallow stream, on
the other side of which rose grimly the high banks of the German
earthworks. Suddenly the noise of the cannonade ceased. Very intently
the watchers listened, for the silence was ominous and foreshadowed an
assault. After a few moments' suspense, Mullin's arm was touched by
one of his companions. From across the stream the wind wafted to them
the unmistakable sound of someone walking through the water. The three
gripped their rifles in alarm. The Germans were coming! But nothing
happened. They heard men breathing hard and straining at their work,
and gradually the explanation dawned upon them. The disturbing noise
was nothing worse than the enemy bailing water from their trenches
into the stream! The three laughed silently, greatly relieved at the
discovery.
The bailing continued for some hours, when the sound was supplemented
by another. This time there was no room for doubt; stealthy footsteps
were approaching them, plash, plash through the water. Probably it was
a spy. Right into their waiting arms the crouching figure walked. A
hand promptly covered its mouth, and it was pulled down. Then the trio
gasped, for they discovered from the soft cheeks and long, dishevelled
hair that their captive was a--_woman_!
One of the men thrust her into a hole burrowed by an enemy howitzer,
and they flashed an electric torch into her face. Despair, shame,
horror--all the elements of a more terrible tragedy than ever Euripides
made immortal were written in the poor girl's features. Disgraced
she was for ever in the eyes of her kith and kin, one of the hapless
victims of the Huns. She had escaped from her captors, it appeared, and
had come to the British lines to seek refuge.
The three men laughed again, as silently as before; but this time their
mirth was full of terrible meaning, pregnant with thoughts of vengeance.