Chester motioned four stalwart Canadians to follow him. They entered the tank not without some foreboding, for it developed that none had been mixed up in such warfare before. But they were not afraid and took the places Hal assigned them.
"You can handle these guns, can you?" Hal shouted.
The men nodded affirmatively.
"All right. Take your places. Looks like there is ammunition enough there for a week. Ready?"
"Ready, sir," one of the men answered.
Chester made the door secure, and Hal now moved the tank forward.
Straight over the German trench plunged the car tilting first to the right and then to the left, as one side or the other sunk into a deep hole. But, although it jostled the crew considerably, it did not roll over, as it seemed in imminent danger of doing.
The other tanks had gone forward some time before; so had the mass of the infantry. Hal's tank now lumbered forward in an effort to overtake the others. It moved swiftly enough to push ahead of the soldiers afoot, and gradually it overtook the others, which went more slowly in order that the infantry might keep pace with them. At last the lads found themselves on even terms with the most advanced tank.
Perhaps a dozen of these monsters, pressing close together, now made a concerted attack on the second-line German trenches. Down went barbed-wire entanglements directly in front of the trenches. There was a loud crash as the tanks pushed their noses into the trench itself, and threw out rocks, boards, and earth in shattered fragments. The troops poured into the trenches behind them.
Half an hour's desperate fighting in the trenches and the Germans fled. As the tanks would have pushed along further, a bugle sounded a halt. Instantly the infantry gave up pursuit of the enemy, and all the tanks came to a stop—all except the one in which Hal was at the throttle.