Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-17

IT shall be up there some time,
Uncle" said Stanhope.
Il say" Osborne protested. why
don't you have q rest? You've been
on the 60 all day"
There's too much to do. Well have
to send q party down to the DUNN for
wire-rm afraid you'll have to 90 with
them, Uncle-and then I'll have to
alter arrangements for the wiring party.
Can't have the men out in front of
the trench while the tocemmaS are
blowing gaps in the Boche wire. Ready,
Hilbert? Come on, my lad"
Trotter watched them with curiosity
as they went up the steps. Cant
understand that little Teller. can your"
he asked.
"Who?"
why, Ibbert. D'you see Is eyes?
All red Z told me in there ed got
'ay-fever"
Rotten thing. hay-fever."
IF you ask me, 'e's been crying"
Osborne had given up his attempt
to read. and begun to write q letter.
He gave . -committal grunt in
reply.
"Funny little bloke, isn't 'e?"
"Yes. I say. d'you mind? just
want to get a letter off,"
oh, sorry" said Trotter contriteiy.
They 'avent collected letters yet,
them"
mot yet"
"I1l get one of to my old LADY. -
Trotter rose and walked toward his
dugout. shes wrote and asked II I've
got fieas"
And have your"
The other rubbed his back gently
against the beam which supported the
dugout roof. IT wish 1t was fleas!"
Osborne laughed. and went on with
his letter. Presently he raised his head
sharply. Some one was running down
the dugout steps, and such haste gen
orally indicated bad news. It was
Raleigh.
II say" he burst out excitedly. STAN
hope came with Hilbert to relieve me,
and he's told me about the raid"
Has he?"
Just you and me. isn't it, and 10
men?"
yes. tomorrow. Just before dusk,
under smoke cloud"
IT say-it,s most frightfuily eXcitingl''
we shall know more about it after
Stanhope sees the colonel tonight"
We're you and picked Speciality"
Yes"
II say!"
Osborne did not speak, but he looked
pity before he turned back to his letter
CHAPTER XXI.
A S they sat over their coffee after
" lunch, Raleigh trying to con-
"A ceal his hand under the table,
4 4 glanced at his wrist watch.
Neither HILBERT nor Trotter
noticed his action, and even had they
done so they would not have connected
1t In any way with the Forthcoming
raid-since one was far too introspec-
tive, too taken up with his own troubles
and the other was far too little giver
to reflection of any sort. But Osborne
saw and smiled slightly in an under
standing way, which made Raleigh
more thankful than ever that they haC
been chosen to do the job together
1t must be rather rotten for Osborne
though. because he was middle aged
had family, and all that sort of thing
It was like asking q man who'd settled
down to a life of comfortable idleness
and who hadn't touched q Rugger bal
for years. to turn out and play three.
quarter in q particularly stiff match
OF course, there had been sporting
masters at Barford-they had ali Joined
up near the beginning of the war-but
somehow Raleigh found it dif1cult tc
picture them waiting to do q raid on
the German lines. And Osborne
Undertook 1t all so calmly. Thank
heaven he did, too, because there wasn't
any risk Of his losing his head when
the time came. It was all very much
like waiting to be summoned down to
the heads study to be whacked after
you'd been caught picking apples, OF
going out of bounds. or purpoSely blow
ing things up in the chemical lab.
and what was so odd about 1t was that
having reached the dignity OF Q
monitor, he'd imagined he had escaped
from that feeling for good and all.
l Continued in TomorroW's starr