The boys scrambled to their feet and looked rather sheepishly at each other.
“A dud!” exclaimed Tom in profound disgust and yet with a certain measure of relief.
“A false alarm,” remarked Billy as he brushed the dirt from his uniform.
“It put one over on us that time for fair,” admitted Frank, as he picked up his rifle. “But it’s a good sign, fellows. It shows the Heinies are running short of good powder and they have to use an inferior brand. You can bet that there aren’t very many of our shells that don’t explode when they fall into their lines.”
“Here they come,” warned Billy. “Gee, but those lines are thick! They’re putting all their eggs in one basket this time.”
“The more that come the more to fall,” muttered Frank, the light of battle coming into his eyes.
It seemed indeed as though the Germans were staking all the day’s results on a single throw, for they were in much greater force than before and they fell on the American lines like an avalanche. It was a form of fighting in which they were especially proficient and against weaker fighters they might have prevailed. But the old Thirty-seventh and the regiments to the right and left of it had met these men before and beaten them, had beaten them that very day, had seen their backs, and in their hearts they knew that they were their masters.
So that when the attack came it beat upon granite. A withering fire from machine guns tore through their ranks, and then from the rifles of the Americans, many of whom wore marksmen’s medals, leaped a sheet of flame that was the very blast of death.
The thick enemy lines wavered, broke and retreated. But under the urging and revolvers of their officers they formed again and came on only once more to be driven back with tremendous losses. This time they broke utterly and fled.
The American officers saw their opportunity and gave the order to charge. Over their log shelter with a cheer went the American boys, and pursued the beaten enemy, gathering up prisoners as they went along. The rout was complete, and only ended when the enemy reached and crossed a canal which was in their rear. They blew up the bridges after they had crossed and there for a time the American pursuit came to an end.