"Gone?"

"Yes. I had a glimpse of him being blown back--his face was all
red--bloody."

Roger could not repress a shudder. But there was no time for any
thoughts like these. He had a glimpse of Bob Dalton and Franz
Schnitzel stumbling toward him and Jimmy. Then came a sharp command:

"Down! Down on your faces! Everyone! They're turning loose the
machine-guns!"

The four remaining Khaki Boys fell flat, and only just in time. Over
them swept a veritable hail of machine gun bullets.

"Dig in! Dig in!" commanded the lieutenant.

Frantically with their picks and shovels the Sammies began to make
shallow ditches in which to lie. The upraised earth would offer some
protection against the forward sweeping lead, though not very much
against shrapnel which explodes in the air above and is driven
downward.

And as the four Brothers were making shallow trenches they wondered,
with sorrow in their hearts, if there was a chance that Iggy had been
left alive.

"If we stay here long enough, I'll see if I can't get permission to go
back and find out," mused Jimmy, as he frantically scraped the earth
into a sort of long mound in front of his head. They were under a hot