cause I like to play safe."

The irony in Solis' voice brought a blush to Cer-
vantes' cheek.

"By God, that chief of yours is a man!" Solis said.
"What daring, what assurance! He left me gasping--and a
hell of a lot of other men with more experience than me,
too!"

Luis Cervantes vouchsafed no answer.

"What! Weren't you there? Oh, I see! You found a
nice place for yourself at the right time. Come here, Luis,
I'll explain; let's go behind that rock. From this meadow
to the foot of the hill, there's no road save this path be-
low. To the right, the incline is too sharp; you can't do
anything there. And it's worse to the left; the ascent is so
dangerous that a second's hesitation means a fall down
those rocks and a broken neck at the end of it. All right!
A number of men from Moya's brigade who went down to
the meadow decided to attack the enemy's trenches the
first chance they got. The bullets whizzed about us, the
battle raged on all sides. For a time they stopped firing,
so we thought they were being attacked from behind. We
stormed their trenches--look, partner, look at that
meadow! It's thick with corpses! Their machine guns did
that for us. They mowed us down like wheat; only a hand-
ful escaped. Those Goddamned officers went white as a
sheet; even though we had reinforcements they were