bullrushes to get them there. If they'd had ten thousand men, in
that rush, instead of five thousand, they'd have got us. And if
they had twice as many men in their whole army as they have,
they'd win this war. But praise be, they haven't twice as many!
That is one of the fifty-seven reasons why the Allies are going
to lick Germany."

Mahan talked jubilantly. The same jubilation ran all along the
line of victors. But the colonel and his staff were not
rejoicing. They had just learned of the withdrawal of the forces
to either side of them, and they knew they themselves could not
hope to stand against a second and larger charge.

Such a charge the enemy were certain to make. The Germans, too,
must soon learn of the defection of the supports. It was now only
a question of an hour or less before a charge with a double-
enveloping movement would surround and bag the Here-We-Comes,
catching the whole regiment in an inescapable trap.

To fall back, now, up that long bare hillside, under full fire of
the augmented German artillery, would mean a decimating of the
entire command. The Here-We-Comes could not retreat. They could
not hope to hold their ground. The sole chance for life lay in
the arrival of strong reenforcements from the rear, to help them
hold the trenches until night, or to man the supporting
positions. Reserves were within easy striking distance. But, as
happened so many times in the war, there was no routine way to
summon them in time.

It was the chance sight of a crumpled message lying on his