hole in the reddish earth, and bursting with no end of a bang.

We collected nearly all the bits and fitted them together.
It was an eight or nine-inch globe, reminding one of those "bomb-shells" which heroes of old used to catch up in their hands and plunge into water-buckets.

The most amusing part of it was the fuse--a thick plug of wood running through the shell and pierced with the flash-channel down its centre.

It was burnt to charcoal, but we could still make out the holes bored in its side at intervals to convert it into a time-fuse.
This is the "one mortar" catalogued in our Intelligence book.

It was satisfactory to have located it.