He had no inducements to delay, for he thought he could hear behind him the movement of the Turkish working party, and was in terror that a flare might reveal him and a volley accompany his retreat.
From one shell-hole to another he wormed his way, till he struck an old ruinous communication trench which led in the right direction.

The Turks must have been forced back in the past week, and the Russians were now in the evacuated trenches.

The thing was half full of water, but it gave Peter a feeling of safety, for it enabled him to get his head below the level of the ground.

Then it came to an end and he found before him a forest of wire.
The Turk in his signal had mentioned half an hour, but Peter thought it was nearer two hours before he got through that noxious entanglement.
Shelling had made little difference to it.

The uprights were all there, and the barbed strands seemed to touch the ground.