figured, presently, that the break the Germans had made in their
wire could be only a few yards below the spot where he and the
lieutenant had been at work with the pliers. Thus the intruders,
from their present course, must inevitably pass very close to the
prostrate Americans--so close, perhaps, as to brush against the
nearest of them, or even to step on one or more of the crouching
figures.

Mahan whispered to the man on his immediate left, the rookie from
Missouri:

"Edge closer to the wire--close as you can wiggle, and lie flat.
Pass on the word."

The Missourian obeyed. Before writhing his long body forward
against the bristly mass of wire he passed the instructions on to
the man at his own left.

But his nerves were at breaking-point.

It had been bad enough to crawl through the blind fog, with the
ghostly steps of his comrades pattering softly at either side of
him. But it was a thousand times harder to lie helpless here, in
the choking fog and on the soaked ground, while countless enemies
were bearing down, unseen, upon him, on one side, and an
impenetrable wire cut off his retreat on the other.

The Missourian had let his imagination begin to work; always a
mistake in a private soldier. He was visualizing the moment when
this tramping German force should become aware of the presence of