The position had been unsought, but had been forced upon her by the exacting old woman, and by degrees Claire had found herself personal attendant, and liable to be called up at any moment during one of the many little attacks that the great sapper and miner made upon the weak fortress, tottering to its fall.
"The Master of the Ceremonies"
George Manville Fenn
Gentlemen"-Sir Ommaney turned to the Council-"your President and I have interrupted each other's work before now-as gunner and sapper-under Sebastopol.
"Major Vigoureux"
A. T. Quiller-Couch
The extent to which love has refined our habits, and to which our civilisation based on love is superior in morality to the former civilisation based on ambition and covetousness, was proved at the time of the great discovery which took place in the Year of Salvation 194. Guided by some mysterious inkling, some electric sense of direction, a bold sapper by dint of forcing his way through the flanks of the earth beyond the ordinary galleries suddenly penetrated into a strange open space buzzing with human voices and swarming with human faces.
"Underground Man"
Gabriel Tarde