The Khaki Boys Over the Top | Page 5

strenuous happenings. They had been
wounded but were now recovered and they had fought valiantly.
In the last chapter of the book immediately preceding this, if you recall,
the lads had written letters home--letters which might be their last, they
thought, for they had orders to take their places in the front line
trenches to await the zero hour. Two of the Brothers had been separated
from their chums, but all were reunited as we have seen.
Then had come the command to go over the top, and there had
followed the fierce rush in the gray dawn of the morning--a rush
punctuated by fire, smoke and death.
"Dig in! Dig in!" commanded the lieutenant in command of the
particular squad of the 509th infantry to which our friends were
attached. "This is only a temporary check. We're laying down a curtain
of fire, and we'll go forward again in a moment!"
He had to yell to be heard above the din, but all near him understood
what he meant. The American gunners were sending over a barrage
fire--a veritable rain of bullets that would keep the Germans from
advancing, and which would also cause them to abandon their
machine-guns. It was the machine-gun fire that was, temporarily,
holding up the advance of Jimmy and his chums.
It did not take the Sammies long, working feverishly as they did, to
raise a protecting mound of earth between them and the Huns. And then,
for some reason or other, the savage fire of the Germans slacked at the
particular section of the line where our heroes were stationed.
"Are you all right, Rodge?" called Jimmy to the chum on his left.
"So far, yes. How about you?"

"Oh, I was nicked in one ear--just a scratch. It's hardly bleeding. Can
you see Bob?"
"Yes, he's got a swell place--in a shell hole, and Franz is with him. See
anything of Iggy?"
"No," answered Jimmy. "I'm afraid he's done for. If I get a chance, I'm
going back to see. Looks as if Fritz had had enough at this sector."
"Aren't we going forward?" some one called to the lieutenant in charge.
"Come on! Lead us to the Boches!"
"Have to wait for orders," was the grim answer. "We were told to halt
here. Can't go on without orders!"
There were murmurs of disapproval at this, but the discipline was strict.
"Anybody badly wounded?" asked the lieutenant. "If there is, now's
your chance to get some first-aid treatment. Later you can't, perhaps."
There were one or two who were suffering badly, and these took
advantage of the lull in the fighting to apply bandages to their hurts.
"Poor Iggy!" mused Jimmy, and then, as the lieutenant crawled near
him--for no one was standing upright--the sergeant asked:
"May I crawl back, sir, and see what happened to Corporal Pulinski?"
"Did you see anything happen to him?"
"Yes, sir. I saw him blown backward when the big shell exploded, and
he seemed to be falling toward some sort of shell crater. If we're going
to be held here long, I'd like to go to his rescue--to see if he's still
alive."
"Very well," assented the young commanding officer. "Ill take a chance
and let you." He knew of the pact of friendship existing among the five
Brothers. "Take some one with you. But crawl--don't try to walk."

"I won't, sir. May Sergeant Barlow come along?"
"Yes. But come back if we get the order to advance again."
"I will, yes, sir!"
Swinging around on his stomach, and calling to Roger, telling him of
the permission received, Jimmy Blaise started toward the rear to rescue,
if possible, the Polish lad.
"But I'm afraid we'll find him done for," confided Jimmy to Roger.
"The shell must have landed right in front of him. It made a hole as big
as a house."
"Poor Iggy!" murmured Roger.

CHAPTER III
SENT TO THE REAR
Roger Barlow, who was slightly behind his comrade in their queer
progress back toward the shell hole near which the Polish lad had been
seen to fall, observed his fellow sergeant come to a halt.
"What's the matter--hit?" cried Roger anxiously. And this well might
have been the case, since, though there was a lull in the fighting
immediately in front of Company E, there were plenty of stray bullets,
not to mention pieces of shrapnel and bits of high explosive shells, that
might have reached the crawling lad.
"Hit? No, not yet," answered Jimmy. "I'm going to try, if it's safe, to
make a little better progress than this, though. This is too slow. Poor
Iggy may be dead before we get to him."
"Probably is," commented Roger.
"Oh, can the gloomy stuff!" snapped Jimmy. Afterward he admitted

that his nerves were pretty well strained.