The Khaki Boys over the Top Part 19

"It's going to be cold, holing in this night," replied Roger, with a shiver. "Look at that fog!" he went on, as the mists rolled up from a swamp. "It goes right through you!"

"Well, then let's keep on walking," said Jimmy, trying to speak cheerily.

They walked on in silence. Bob did not get off any of his queer, improvised rhymes, and as for Iggy he turned up the collar of his coat, hunched his shoulders; and seemed like some old man tramping along.

"Hark!" suddenly called Jimmy, and the words came in a tense whisper.

It was as if he had said "Halt!" for his chums came to a stop on the instant.

"What is it?" asked Bob.

"Don't you hear some one walking toward us?" went on Jimmy, his voice still low and tense.

They all listened. The fog swirled around them in cold, white clouds.

And then, through the darkness, they all heard, and distinctly, this time, the measured beat of marching feet.

"Soldiers all right!" commented Roger in a whisper.

"Yes, but what kind?" was Jimmy's question. "Are they our boys, some of the Allies or--Germans?"

"What shall we do?" asked Franz, and, in the misty darkness he turned toward Jimmy, as seemed natural.

"Keep still," was the advice given. "And crouch down. If they are Boches well let 'em pa.s.s--if they'll be so obliging as to go on. If they're some of our boys--"

"Oh, boy! If they only are!" sighed Bob.

The tramping feet came nearer.

"They're headed right this way!" declared Franz, who was crouching down next to Jimmy.

"Yes. But keep still! Don't even whisper. Sounds carry very far on a misty night--almost as they do over water."

The thud of heavily shod feet sounded plainly now, and then, suddenly, so suddenly that it made the hearts of the Khaki Boys thump fiercely, there came a voice out of the darkness saying:

"I don't believe we'd better go any farther, boys. We've come quite a way from our lines, and we haven't seen a sign of even a Hun sentry.

We can go back and report the coast clear!"

And the voice was that of an American! Hearing it Jimmy and his chums leaped to their feet.

"Americans there"! sung out Bob.

Instantly came the sharp challenge:

"Who's there!"

"Some of the 509th Infantry," answered Jimmy, giving the names of his companions and himself.

"Advance, Sergeant Blaise! The others stay where they are. And remember our rifles have you covered, so don't try any funny work."

It was a grim warning, but the five Brothers appreciated its need.

Jimmy stepped forward, and the light from a pocket electric torch flashed in his face.

"Don't know you, but you look all right," said a tall, young lieutenant who was in charge of the party, the tramping feet of which had so alarmed our heroes. "What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story, but I'll cut it short," said Jimmy, and he did.

The lieutenant listened with interest, and then, satisfied that the truth was being told, he remarked.

"You'd better come back with us. We'll take care of you for to-night, and to-morrow you can send word to your command. I don't know this Captain d.i.c.kerson you speak of."

"Are we near the American lines?" asked Bob.

"Within half a mile," was the answer.

They were led back, and soon were comfortably housed in a dugout, partaking of hot rations, and telling their story to wondering comrades. They had come upon a sector of the line held by a division made up of New York and New Jersey troops, and, though our heroes knew none of them personally, they fraternized all right.

The next day the commanding officer, having heard their story, sent them back to their own company, which had moved considerably farther toward the front since the battle of the mill, as the boys called it.

They learned that the big body of German troops which they had seen from their hiding place had not yet come into an engagement to any great extent with the Allies.

"A big battle is pending though," said their captain, when our heroes were back in their own command, where they were made royally welcome.

"There have been skirmishes and some long-distance artillery work. But the big fight is yet to come. You'll have a chance to rest up and get in trim for it."

Jimmy and his chums were glad of this. They were allowed leaves of absence, and went back of the lines to a pleasant little village, where rest and good food soon made them "fit" again. All efforts to learn something more of Captain d.i.c.kerson, and the whereabouts of Sergeant Maxwell, were, however, without avail.

One evening, after the five Brothers had reported back to their billet for duty, and while they were in the dugout, detailing over again some of their experiences at the mill, the sergeant-major entered.

"Get set, boys!" he exclaimed. "The orders are coming in. We go over the top again in the morning, and it's going to be some fight!"

And when the zero hour was signaled again the five Brothers were in battle once more.

CHAPTER XVI

HELD UP

Equipped with gas masks, their packs filled with first-aid outfits, carrying emergency rations, with the "tin hats" on their heads and with rifles firmly grasped, over the top went the Khaki Boys, and thousands like them, in another attempt to subdue the Boche enemy.

Behind the boys roared out the big guns that were laying down a protecting barrage--a veritable curtain of fire behind which they might advance and without which they would have been swept back into their trenches broken and bruised and killed. The artillery duel had been under way some little time now, and it had evidently taken the Germans by surprise, for they were longer than usual in replying.

"Smash 'em up! Smash 'em up!" yelled the lieutenant in charge of that particular part of the advance in which Jimmy Blaise and his chums were included. "Smash 'em up, boys!"

"Wow! We're with you!" howled Franz. "Smash 'em up!"

Forward they surged, the gallant American lads, who a short time before were peaceful clerks, factory and farm hands and happy college lads, and some boys who instinctively shrank from the mere thought of killing. But now their spirits were on fire with the sacred wine of liberty, and they were daring as they had never dared before. Their daring was imbued with right, and other than this nothing will stand.

The gray mists of morning swirled this way and that, blown not so much by nature's wind as by the bursts from the flaming mouths of great guns.

And through this mist rushed the Americans, some to horrible death or agony, and some to escape scatheless--to inflict just punishment on a ma.s.s of men who had lost all sense of right and wrong--men who had reverted to beasts.