“You can count on me every time, Dave! You know that,” announced Roger.
“Show us what we can do, and we’ll do it,” was the way Ben expressed himself. And the others shouted various words of approval.
A few military supplies had been brought down into the dugout by some soldiers who had been ordered to leave them there for the present. Among these supplies Dave had noticed a box of hand-grenades. He immediately ordered two of his men to go below and bring the box up with all possible speed.
“I am not quite sure whether we can reach that machine-gun nest with these hand-grenades or not,” he said; “but, anyway, I think it’s worth trying.”
“We can’t throw them from here,” said Phil.
“I don’t intend to throw them from here. I’ll show you what I have in mind just as soon as the grenades have been distributed.”
It was an easy matter to break open the box and hand the grenades around. Each man was supplied with four to six of the deadly explosives. Then Dave, after another careful survey of the machine-gun nest, ordered his men to follow him.
On arriving in that locality the young sergeant had taken time to look over the ground carefully, noting the various trenches which were in the course of construction. In doing this he had taken note also of the lay of the land and had wondered what would happen if an approach should be made by the enemy through a little rocky gully running off to one side and which was all but hidden by some stunted undergrowth.
This gully, he had now noted with satisfaction, ran in an irregular way toward the vicinity of the nest where the German machine-gunners were operating their weapon with such telling effect against the Americans. At one point where the gully made a sharp turn it was less than fifty yards distant from the gun.
“I don’t believe I’ll need more than three or four men,” announced Dave presently. “Who wants to go along?”