“I hope they don’t drop any long ones over on us, Herb.”
“They won’t. The barrage is not much good in the woods, nor are shells. East of the Aire in the more open country, you know, it’s different. What we hear in the south is the Hun machine guns and our rifle fire. Our divisions are attacking again in force all along the line. The boys are at it, Don; they’re at it and they’ll get here!”
The young commander’s joy and enthusiasm were shared by all the others of the squad except Jennings.
“Lieutenant, we’re havin’ a right good time here, ain’t we? Nobody hurt much, except McNabb, and laws! most ev’ry year some feller gets killed even huntin’ deer. Some fool takes him fer a ol’ buck an’ lets fly. Well, me an’ Gill, my buddy, we’re havin’ a little fun makin’ these here Huns wish they’d stayed home an’ if——”
“Sho! You talk for yourself, Jen,” Gill said, for the first time deserting his friend. “I told you, Lieutenant, that the big boob wasn’t right; he’s got bog mud in his head ’stead o’ brains. Thinks he can lick the whole German Army.”
“I kin, too, if they’ll give me a chanct t’ hunt a tree an’ then come at me one at a time in front,” asserted Jennings.
“You couldn’t lick a postage stamp if it was sick a-bed,” Gill muttered, evidently angry because the big mountaineer didn’t seem to know good news from bad.
There was no levity in Gill’s manner nor speech and the others appeared to share his feelings, though Jennings’ statements generally caused a laugh. However joyful the squad may have felt over the resounding evidence of a new drive, they all sensed that the final hour or so before their probable delivery must hold for them the question of survival. They knew that their leader’s foreboding was correct; they would be furiously attacked by some of the re-established Huns, and in greater numbers than before, for then men had been needed to hold the line elsewhere.
Therefore, it was a quiet and serious lot of young fellows that looked to their weapons and lay behind the rocks of the little basin as the continued sound of firing came slowly nearer and nearer.