TRAPPED.
It was two days later. The battle was raging fiercely. On all sides men were dropping singly, in pairs, in tens and in hundreds. Since early morning, when an advance guard of Germans had approached the British line, the struggle had continued without a minute’s breathing space.
Gradually giving way before the English attacks, the German troops fell back mile after mile, the English, in the section of the field where the fighting had been going on, pursuing them closely. Unmindful of their support on either side, the British still pressed forward, until now they were far beyond either flank.
Suddenly from either side of the English troops came a thundering volley. Taken by surprise, the British halted suddenly, while men tumbled to the earth on every hand.
Before the officer in command could give the order to fall back, a force of Germans was hurled into their rear, completely cutting them off from any possible hope of aid from that direction. A thousand men were in this little force now completely surrounded.
But the officer in command of the British was not of the caliber to surrender. He was a typical son of Albion, a fighting man, none other than Captain Harry Anderson, whose part in the expedition across the Marne had raised him to that rank.
Advancing with his command, he soon found himself the ranking officer still on his feet. Hal and Chester, who the night before had shared his quarters, at the call to arms had plunged into the thick of the conflict alongside the gallant captain. In spite of the terrific carnage, in spite of the shot and shell that fell about them, they had so far escaped injury.
Perceiving that retreat was cut off, Captain Anderson conceived a possible escape. With a loud cry of “Forward!” to his men, he dashed right into the face of a terrible rifle and artillery fire.
Men dropped as though mowed down by the wind, but the little column halted not. They had spread out, fan-wise, at the command of Captain Anderson, to avoid as much as possible the sweeping fire of the Germans, and they now pressed forward at a run.
Completely surprised at this sudden charge by the little body of men, that the German officers evidently believed entirely in their power, and still more surprised by their desperate offense in the face of overwhelming odds, the Germans, for a moment, gave way.