"Very bad," answered one of the men. "I am afraid he's done for."

And now the Germans came on again. The first five met the same fate that
had overtaken their comrades, but behind them came more, and still more.

As each German rounded the turn in the bridge his rifle cracked, and
continued to crack until he fell. Men inside the barricade also were
beginning to fall fast now, and the reserve lines were being drawn upon
more rapidly each minute.

Hal and Chester, crouching down, directed the defense. In spite of
the fearful havoc wrought by the British fire, the Germans came on.
The bridge was piled high with dead and wounded, but the enemy did
not hesitate.

Their officers urged them on without regard for life, and bravely went to
death with them. Rifles cracked in a steady roar and men on both sides
fell rapidly. But each Englishman, sheltered as he was behind the
barricade, accounted for at least several of the enemy before he himself
went to his death.

Now the defenders had dwindled to fifty, and still there was no cessation
of the German assault. The heaped up bodies of dead now formed a
barricade for the Germans, and they advanced and fell behind them, using
their dead companions as shields. Ten or fifteen rows deep they stood
behind their dead, and poured volley after volley into the defenders.

The British reserved their fire as much as possible, but whenever a
German head showed above the barricade of bodies a rifle cracked and
almost every time a German fell.