The Khaki Boys over the Top Part 11

They were close to the mill now. They could see the flashes of fire coming from the guns which were shooting through the windows. And the fire was deadly. Jimmy heard a yell from Franz, who was directly in his rear. He did not dare stop or turn around but he shouted:

"Done for, Schnitz?"

"Only one finger nipped," was the grim answer. "Go on! We're with you!"

One machine-gun concentrated on Simpson and his four gallant lads, and, in less time than it takes for you to read these words, the five lives were snuffed out.

"Come on! Come on!" yelled Jimmy. He was so mad with rage he hardly knew what he was saying or doing. He saw a German face at one of the windows. Quickly he fired. The face turned crimson with blood and disappeared.

Mason, who was leading the other four, since the death of the lieutenant, stumbled and fell twenty feet away from the red mill. One of his companions a.s.sumed the lead of the three who were left, and Jimmy and his four chums now converged with these four in a rush toward the open portal.

They were now out of range of the guns, which could not be turned at such an angle as to rake them. But hard fighting was yet to come.

"Wait!" shouted Jimmy, as he reached the threshold of the door, and saw, to his left, a group of Huns about a gun that seemed to have jammed. And not all the Huns were alive, either, showing that the fire of the attacking party had done part of its work.

With a quick motion Jimmy threw a hand grenade into the midst of the German crew, at the same time falling back himself behind the door post, and pushing Bob, who was now next him, into the same safe position.

There was a roar as the grenade burst, and smoke, for the moment, obscured the scene. When it was blown away, drifting through the doors and windows, there was no longer a German machine-gun crew, and all that remained of the gun was torn and twisted metal.

Jimmy's quick action with the hand grenade had saved fierce fighting for possession of the weapon. But the other remained--the second on the other side of the main door of the mill. To this some of the gallant lads gave their attention. With wild yells they rushed at the German crew, and to their credit--if credit it be--let it be said that these Huns did not cry "_Kamerad_!" They were ready for a fight and they got it. It was a case of cold steel, and there were no better exponents of that mode of fighting than the American lads.

There was a short and b.l.o.o.d.y conflict and then it was over. But at sad cost to the attacking party. Of the sixteen that had started to wipe out the machine-gun nest in the old red mill, the five Brothers alone were left alive, and, save for slight flesh wounds, which all of them had, they were not seriously injured. No, I am not quite correct in saying that only these five were left alive. There was one other, a lad named Blakeley from New Jersey. But he was so badly wounded, by a bayonet thrust from a German, that his death was only a question of minutes.

He managed, before he pa.s.sed away, to whisper a message to his loved ones at home, and this Jimmy Blaise undertook to send by letter.

"And now, let's see what's next to do," murmured Roger, when the dead lad had been reverently laid with the other Americans killed in the mill.

"I don't believe we're going to have much choice," said Jimmy, grimly, as he pointed through the window.

"Why?" asked Roger.

"The Germans have surrounded the place," was the answer. "We're trapped--that's why!"

CHAPTER X

FALLING WALLS

For a moment Jimmy's companions did not quite understand him. Was he perpetrating some grim joke, or had he received an injury on the head that made him irresponsible?

Suddenly the concussion of a heavy gun shook the mill, making the old walls rattle and sending up little clouds of grain dust from nooks and crannies where it had gathered for many peaceful years.

"The Germans have surrounded us?" cried Roger. "Do you mean that?"

"Look for yourself," said Jimmy, and his very calmness as he pointed from the window seemed to indicate that he was master of himself.

His four companions looked as he indicated. Rolling down from the hills, which surrounded the little valley in which the mill was located, were ranks of gray-clad men; Huns beyond a doubt. And they were coming in force.

"Do you suppose they are after us?" asked Bob, and he was quite surprised when his four chums burst into laughter. No, I am wrong.

Only three of them laughed--Roger, Jimmy and Franz. Iggy looked on almost as uncomprehendingly as did Bob, but Iggy was staring at a dead German on the floor of the mill--a German he had killed by a bayonet thrust from behind, when that same German was about to fire his revolver, pointblank, at Roger. Iggy was filled with many emotions as he looked at his work--work undertaken and carried out for Liberty.

"What's the matter?" asked Bob, a bit nettled. "Doesn't it look as though they were after us?"

"I don't know why I laughed," confessed Jimmy. "Sort of nervous, I guess. But the idea of a German army, or at least several divisions, coming to capture us five struck me as funny."

"Well, you said we were being surrounded!" protested Bob.

"Well, I meant it, too. But in a general way," went on Jimmy. "I don't suppose the Huns know we are here. Of course they may realize it after they find out we've silenced the machine guns. But for the present this seems to be a big advance. I guess there's going to be some fierce fighting. They've brought up some of their reserves to stop our progress, and by the fortunes of war, we're caught in a back current."

"You mean none of our fellows are here?" asked Roger.

"None that you can see," went on Jimmy. "I guess we sort of over-ran our objective. There must have been a withdrawal and we didn't know it.

"We were too intent on capturing this mill. And we did, though it wasn't easy. And now the Germans are coming on, and--well, if we can stay here long enough, and keep hidden, we may get out of it yet.

But--"

He shrugged his shoulders. It was too much of a question for him to solve.

"But I don't see that we are completely surrounded," declared Franz, hopefully, as he gazed from the window.

"Sure not!" broke in Iggy, who now began to comprehend, in a measure, what was in the wind. "We may out run by der back door yet."

"Not a chance," declared Jimmy. "Look over there!"

He pointed in the direction where their own lines were supposed to be located--where they probably were, for it was from there that the lads had come in the rush during the gas attack. But now the way over which they had hastened, amid fire and smoke and death and wounds, was occupied by a line of gray. The Germans had slipped down from the left flank and had cut off the retreat of the five Brothers in the mill.

And as the advancing army was coming on in the shape of a huge semi-circle toward the mill it can easily be seen that if the boys were not exactly surrounded it was so near that perilous situation as to be what is called a distinction without a difference.

For a moment, after they had comprehended the situation to which Jimmy had called their attention, they were all silent. Then Iggy caused another laugh by remarking.

"Well, I eat me now. I haf some of my rations and I hear where is water running yet. Always in our countries where is a mill is water.

Of a dryness I am, and water is good for of a dryness."

"That's the truest thing you've said in a long while!" cried Jimmy, clapping his chum on the back. "Fellows, we'd better eat and drink while we can. We have our emergency rations, and, as Iggy says, there must be water where there's a mill. It isn't a wind one and there's no steam or electricity here yet. Let's get ready for a siege."

"Do you really think they know we're here?" asked Bob, and he pointed out toward the advancing German army.

"To be perfectly frank, I don't," said Jimmy. "I think the situation is just this--but let's go get washed up a bit, and then we can eat and talk. I'm as dry as a bone, and this--well this place isn't just the most inviting," and he could not repress a shudder as he looked at the death and devastation all about them. The bodies of the killed Germans were sprawled in all positions, some even resting on the guns.

Then, too, there were bodies of the companions of the five Brothers.

As Jimmy said, it was no place to eat and talk.

They found where the mill stream came down the flume to turn the wheel, and there they washed and drank, and then, finding a room where the miller had evidently lived, they sat down to make what meal they could. And as they ate the Germans advanced down the hills to occupy the valley in which was located the old red mill.

"Now let's hear your opinion, Blazes," called Bob.

They all seemed instinctively to turn to Jimmy as a leader now. Nor was this the first time.