"They'll try to smash our trenches with their big guns before they send their infantry out, won't they?"
"Oh, I suppose so," said Jacques. "That's the usual way."
"Probably we'll arrive just in time to bear the whole weight of the attack," remarked Earl grimly.
They entered the trenches and mile after mile they progressed. The noise of the artillery made it almost impossible to talk now and but few attempts at conversation were made. Nearer and nearer to the front they came until presently they could distinguish the sharp rattle of the machine-guns above the roar of the cannon. At length they reached one of the large communicating trenches and there they halted.
"We're to be held as reserves," shouted Jacques in Leon's ear.
"What's that?" demanded Leon.
"We're to be held as reserves."
Leon nodded his head. No one made much of an attempt to talk. The men huddled together in the trench and listened to the furious artillery duel going on around them. Now and again a big shell would burst near the spot where they were stationed and once the five friends were spattered with dirt thrown up by a nearby explosion. The earth rocked and it seemed as if no man could endure the awful tumult that was going on.
The Germans were deluging the French trenches with a deadly hail of high explosive shells. They tried to cover every inch of the allied first line and even behind the front trenches they dropped a steady stream of giant projectiles.
Suddenly the artillery fire slackened.