But it was not for that reason only that these trenches were called
the latest fashion. They were divided, every fifteen feet or so, by a
bulwark of earth about two feet thick, round which extended a
communication trench.
"The object of dividing these trenches in this manner is to limit the
havoc of shells that drop into them," the captain explained. "Without
the earth bulwark a shell can kill every man in the trench. In this
way it can kill only eight. Now stand at this end of the trench. What
do you see?"
What I saw was a barbed-wire entanglement, leading into a cul-de-sac.
"A rabbit trap!" he said. "They will come over the field there, and
because they cannot cross the entanglement they will follow it. It is
built like a great letter V, and this is the point."
The sun had gone down to a fiery death in the west. The guns were
firing intermittently. Now and then from the poplar trees came the
sharp ping of a rifle. The evening breeze had sprung up, ruffling the
surface of the water, and bringing afresh that ever-present and
hideous odour of the battlefield. Behind us the trenches showed signs
of activity as the darkness fell.
Suddenly the rabbit trap and the trench grew unspeakably loathsome and
hideous to me. What a mockery, this business of killing men! No matter
that beyond the canal there lurked the menace of a foe that had
himself shown unspeakable barbarity and resource in plotting death.
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