McCall doggedly kept on. As he reached his goal, he saw for the first time whom he was saving. Hamilton, his buddy! McCall quickly tied his emergency bandage around the wound in Hamilton’s chest, slid the prostrate form over his shoulder and started back. A trickle of blood which blinded his right eye told him that he had been wounded. But it was no time to quit and painfully, his wound throbbing with every step, he managed to stagger into a shell hole. Then everything turned black.
In the meantime Williams, in command of a detachment of pioneer troops assigned to McCall’s company, had been watching breathlessly from a fire step in the front-line trench. Now, when he saw McCall stagger into the shell hole, he was over the parapet in a flash and wriggling across the muddy, shell-torn ground like a snake. Half way across, a spent fragment of shell struck his head and dazed him. But he kept on, as in a trance, and reached the two white officers before his head cleared. McCall was recovering consciousness and Williams bound his wound. To his own wound he paid no attention. Then the two began their return to the American line, dragging and pushing the body of Hamilton between them.
Within the trenches all was excitement, and it was all that the lieutenant in charge of the company could do to keep every man in the front-line trench from swarming over the top.
“They’ll bring him back!” he shouted. “There’s no use any one else risking his life. Get down from the fire step and stay down if you value your lives!”
The lieutenant swore and prayed in turn. The men recklessly stuck their heads above the parapet and shouted words of encouragement, although they knew that their voices were no match for the thunder of the artillery.
“Come on now! Stick it out! Just a little longer! Come on!” Their voices pleaded.
Inch by inch, foot by foot, they were creeping. They had come within a few yards of the trench and the men were shouting themselves hoarse.
“Come on! You’re almost there! Stick it out!”
Suddenly there was a terrific explosion that sent showers of rock and mud into the trench and both Williams and McCall rolled over, the blood gushing from many wounds. Hamilton, between them, had been completely protected. This time there was no holding them. A half dozen whites and blacks were over the parapet and back again, bearing the three wounded officers.
“You’ll get court-martialed sure as hell for this!” yelled the lieutenant. Tears were in his eyes—“Or you’ll all get cited for bravery.”