the fog was too thick for them, to see the German rifle-flashes.

The boches farthest to the left, in the blind rush, fouled with
the wires. German snipers, from behind the Hun parapets, opened
fire. A minute earlier the night had been still as the grave. Now
it fairly vibrated with clangor. All because one rookie's nerves
had been less staunch than his courage, and because that same
rookie had not only had his hand stepped on in the dark, but had
encountered something swirling and hairy when he grabbed for the
soldier who had stepped on him!


The American lieutenant, at the onset of the clamor, sprang to
his feet, whipping out his pistol; his dry lips parted in a
command to charge--a command which, naturally, would have reduced
his eleven men and himself to twelve corpses or to an equal
number of mishandled prisoners within the next few seconds. But a
big hand was clapped unceremoniously across the young officer's
mouth, silencing the half-spoken suicidal order.

Sergeant Mahan's career in the regular army had given him an
almost uncanny power of sizing up his fellowmen. And he had long
ago decided that this was the sort of thing his untried
lieutenant would be likely to do, in just such an emergency.
Wherefore his flagrant breach of discipline in shoving his palm
across the mouth of his superior officer.

And as he was committing this breach of discipline, he heard the
Missourian's strangled gasp of: