all the while wearing one of the canvas and rubber contraptions, was
not real fighting--at least so Jimmy said afterward.

But such it had to be, and at the signal the five Brothers leaped up
with their comrades and went over the top again--over the top of the
trenches that had either been dug when the new position was taken and
held, or over the top of some of the trenches wrested previously from
the Germans.

There was no shouting and yelling, such as often and ordinarily
preceded an attack over the top. One can not shout in a gas mask. But
there was shouting in the hearts of the Sammies as they rushed forward
to do their share in destroying the beast from the earth.

Upward and onward they rushed and then they were in the midst of the
battle. And yet not exactly in the midst, for the actual conflict was
rather of longer distance than that. Hand-to-hand fighting had not yet
occurred. But they advanced, firing as they rushed on, not in close
formation, for that offered too good a target, but separated. They
would fire, rush on, drop to earth, rise again, fire and rush on. And
so it went.

And then, after an hour or two, there came a sudden shift in the
wind. It was presaged by a calm, so that the deadly chlorine gas rose
straight up instead of being blown over the American lines. And then,
with a suddenness that must have been disconcerting to the Huns, the
gas was blown back in their very faces.

Without doubt such fiends as devised that form of fighting were, in
a way, prepared for this, and had their gas masks ready. There were