"'Just before the flare went up I noticed a flash lamp; one of those things used to give signals with. I got an awful turn then.'
"'Rot,' I said: 'I don't believe a word of it.'
"'Do you mind coming over this way then?' said Tommy.
"In the pitch-black darkness, guided by Tommy, I stumbled up a path which I'll swear was all of a one in three gradient. We came out upon a little ledge overlooking what we now knew to be the German lines. Tommy motioned me to keep my eye on the V-shaped cutting in the slag below us.
"'I think the beggar is down in the extreme angle of the V,' he whispered as he crawled beside me.
"Then I overbalanced, fell over the ridge, and dropped clean on to something soft and yielding below. Red specks dotted the blackness before my eyes for a few moments as I bounced on the hard stones. I jumped up with a jerk and spun round to find, blocking my path, a menacing figure regarding me over the barrel of a Browning pistol. In the other hand he held an electric torch.
"His tone was quiet and crisp, an' his face showed me that 'e was out for blood.
"'I have it in my mind almost to be sorry for you, British Tommy,' he said calmly, 'You know too much. I am going to decide on the best way to dis----'
"He got as far as 'dis'--when something leaped out of the shadows and he was hurled back with a sudden rush. It was Tommy, and he swung his heavy Boche rifle and stove the man down with terrific force. There was a dreadful half-choked, whimper and then silence.
"Tommy stood regarding the still form with a bleached face. He then bent over him, but without touching, looked up at me.
"'Saved a firing party the trouble,' he said. 'He's dead all right.'
"'What the devil shall we do with it, McNab?'
"''Tis a spy he was,' I answered, 'and it's ten to one that he has a code or some kind of papers tucked away on him. Just run through his pockets before we leave him.'
"'No, no,' Tommy said, 'I can't touch him he'll haunt me, sure.'
"The man was quite dead when I rolled him over. I took from his pockets a leather bound code book, English, French and German bank notes, and a gold stop watch.
"'No good stayin' here,' said Tommy, 'I vote we crawl back and talk it over. This is a crummy old place.'