“Here he comes now,” was the reply, and a moment later the German sharpshooter came up and almost hugged Ben, and then shook hands with Gilbert.
“I dink me you vos not go py der var after all,” he said to Gilbert. “So you vos captains, hey? I vos glad to hear dot. Maype you ton’t vos fightin’ a leetle yesterday alretty? I told Tan it vos a hornet’s nest—chust like dot pattle of San Juan Hill py Cuby.”
“Were you touched, Carl?”
“Yah, but I ton’t know it bis der pattle vos ofer. Den I see plood running mine leg town, und I got me shot chust ofer der knee. But it vos noddings und I ton’t go to no doctor. Tan, he pound it up for me,” concluded Carl Stummer; and there the talk had to come to an end.
CHAPTER XXII
CROSSING THE RIVER
Despite the fact that there had been some hand-to-hand conflicts, the great battle of the Yalu had so far been largely one of artillery. Many batteries had been brought into play, and fearful execution had been rendered, both on the islands and on either side of the broad river and near the mouth of the Ai.
But now this was to be changed. Just in front of Tiger Hill rested four miles of Japanese soldiers, awaiting the order to ford the stream as best they could, and storm the Russian position before them. Other soldiers were on the islands, also in readiness to cross. This was on Sunday morning, May 1, 1904,—a date well worth remembering.
Before dawn the Japanese commander-in-chief had everything in readiness for the advance. The soldiers were close to the water front, but screened from view by low hills and small patches of timber.
“Forward,” came the command for Major Okopa’s battalion, about seven o’clock, and in less than a minute they were on the move. As luck would have it, they were placed next to the sharpshooters to which Casey and Stummer belonged, and the two commands started to cross the Ai less than a hundred feet apart.
The Japanese batteries had already “opened the ball,” as Ben termed it, doing their best to disclose the batteries of the enemy. But General Kashtalinsky had learned a lesson the day before, and did not allow a shot to be fired in return until the troops of the Mikado absolutely compelled him to do so. Then his batteries roared forth as never before, doing execution that was frightful in the extreme.