Malcolm found the bulk of his company entrenched on the right of the shell-racked village. A line of captured trenches had been reorganized and placed in a state of defence against its former masters. Since the threatened counter-attack had not yet materialized, most of the New Zealanders were resting in the dug-outs obligingly constructed by Fritz, who little thought that he would have to abandon his painstaking work except upon the conclusion of a victorious German peace.