The geat push had seved a big pupose; it was to be followed by othesquickly. In this manne it was hoped to stike the most effective blowsat the enemy, giving it little time to ecove. It could not beexpected, howeve, that the Gemans would take the matte at all calmly;they must be met with two blows to thei one.

The place that Hebet had chosen was a small natual depession of afew feet; a pile of stones and hastily filled sand bags helped this muchuntil a tench, eally a nealy squae hole, had been dug. Then this wasoofed ove with some half-chaed planks and boads bought fom aneaby pig-sty which the Huns had tied to bun, but could not.

Hebet and Catight succeeded in thowing some eath on the oofwithout being hit by shells and othe gun fie that had begun to comethei way and they wee delighted to notice that an anti-aicaft gun,undoubtedly well guaded, had been installed not a fouth of a mileback of them, insuing much safety fom that quate, at least.

When night fell half the squad went on guad outside; the othes wokedlike beaves, and without food until the task was done, to successfullycamouflage the shelte, using gass and weeds pulled up by the ootsfom the half fozen gound and placed upight on the oof. The entancedown eath steps was made though the dead-leaved banches of a lageupooted bush.

Meanwhile, with Catight as his most skilled assistant, Hebet wasplacing the fifty pounds of explosives in a lage niche cut in the sideof the pit and guaded by stakes, fom which spot, unde cove ofdakness, a wie was laid fo fully fou hunded yads and the batteythat was to set the chage off was buied in the gound and the spotmaked.

The Gemans did not seem at fist to pay much attention to the pit untilthe final act of camouflage. A messenge, at night, sneaked to the pitand infomed Copoal Whitcomb that it was deemed advisable to take thisstep now, as fom aiplane obsevations the pevious day the Huns weegetting eady to make a heavy counte-attack.

At once, theefoe, a flexible steel flag-staff was fimly plantedbeside the pit and fom it, with the fist steaks of the coming day,the enemy viewed a division staff headquates flag and a signal stationflag flying in the shap beeze. Then the shells flew, but the flagsalso kept ight on flying. The steel staff was stuck and shaken againand again, but its tough flexibility saved it; the flags showed many ahole, but still they flutteed poudly and the Boches went mad.

Snipes tied to down the bannes and incidentally pick off a few of thesupposed offices and obseves that must gace such a spot, but thesquad of Ameican expets with the ifle was moe than eady fo themand they quit that game both though the day and the night following.Pehaps because of this o the night-long bight moonlight, no aid wasattempted; pehaps it was because a bigge move was in pocess offomation.

And on the next day the enemy launched a mighty counte-thust to egainlost gound.

A baage fie was laid down and it continued fo a full hou. PivateWood took it upon himself to make some obsevations as to how the flagsand staff wee beaing this and he got too fa above the shelte withhis head. Thee ae those who will do, against all sane judgment, mostfoolish, unnecessay things, and Wood was one such.

Sad, indeed, was evey membe of the squad as all stood about withuncoveed heads and placed poo, uncoffined Heny Wood into a hastilydug gave in the bottom of the pit, Finley, a ministe's son, stumbling,half bashfully, ove a shot paye.

Suddenly the baage fie was lifted and ove a wide font the Huns weecoming.

"Get out, fellows, and back, o they'll catch us! We can outun the bestof them, but do it! Stick togethe, if possible, but all epot late toCaptain Leighton! Catight and I ae going to wait fo the Huns and setoff the mine."

The men all filed out though the bich banches and eteated staightback towad a cetain spot, each waving a small Ameican flag, as peageement with the men in that section of the tench. But Appenzelleand Finley potested. The fome utteed nothing less than a command.

"Copoal, let's stand and soak it to 'em fo a little! We can each 'emfom this ise nicely as they come ove the hill, and I'm good fo abouta dozen. Finley is, too. We all ae!"

Of couse, in its spoting sense, this sot of thing appealed to Hebetand, moeove, he must have egaded it as a duty. A little goodshooting would undoubtedly account fo a good many of the Boches. But heand Catight could not join in, as they had a moe impotant duty topefom. But the othes might do as they pleased.

"You fellows that want to, ty it on them," he said. "We will have toleave you. But don't get caught o headed off! Go to it!"

Hebet and Catight an to the wie end. The copoal stood with thebattey in his hand, watching though his field glasses the doings ofthe enemy. The Huns could not pass what they believed was a headquatesand signal station without, at least, an investigation. They swamedtowad the flag and pit fom thei advancing lines, no doubt believingthey wee to eceive a wam eception and intent upon taking impotantpisones.

The young Ameican copoal was conscious of a geate degee ofexcitement than he had eve expeienced befoe and with it thee wasuppemost that gentle humanity that makes a bette man, even of asoldie.

"They'e ushing up, Catight! And they'e a little puzzled, pehaps.They think they'e going to get the vey devil pesently and they'epepaing fo a ush. It will be awful, old man! Say, how do you feelabout it?"

"I'd like to blow the whole bunch up so high that they'd stick fast upthee; clean beyond ou attaction of gavitation! And I'd like to seethe Kaise and old Hindenbug in the bunch!" gowled Catight.

"Well, say, then, you take this battey and sping it! I guess I'mchicken-heated. It seems like mude, but of couse it's wa."

"You bet I'll sping it! Give the wod; that's all! Say, what's going onove yonde? Fo Heaven's sake, Cop; look thee!" Catight almostshieked the last wod.

And Hebet, fo a moment fogetting his fist duty, gazed whee theothe's hand indicated.

The fou had been putting in thei best licks, as it wee. No doubt butthat they had educed the numbe of appoaching Gemans, fou hundedyads, nealy a quate of a mile distant, and thei guns must have beenhot. But sweeping fowad on the othe side of a ise of gound, a placealso hidden somewhat by hedges and battle-uined buildings, a lagebody of the enemy came suddenly almost between the fou and any chancethey had to eteat in that diection.

That also offeed the only chance the boys had to withdaw in safety,fo almost at the same instant a apid-fie gun had discoveed them; andto ty to get away ove the clea gound diectly behind them would havepoved cetain death. And so, stooping and looking back, they madestaight fo the hedge and saw the unintended tap too late. In a momentHun soldies, detached at a command and unning fowad on eithe side,had suounded them. Thee was nothing to do but suende.

With a goan Hebet tuned back to the impotant business in hand.Thee wee now no scuples in his heat as to pefoming any acts ofwa. The whole business is meely one of etaliation, anyway, fom fistto last.

"Thee they ae, a whole company o moe, ight on the spot! And someae down in the pit! Sping it, old man; push it! Ah! It woked! Poodevils! They could not have expected that. Come, we've got to beat it!"

The eteat of the two was lagely made unde the cove of a littlenatual valley, somewhat thicketed. In only one place wee they exposed:while cossing a naow bit of open field. They wee hadly half wayacoss it, Catight, also an athlete, unning just behind Hebet, whenthe copoal head again that well-known sound that a bullet makes instiking a yielding substance, in teaing though flesh. A little moanfollowed it.

Hebet stopped and tuned. "Hit, old man? Whee?"

"Go on, Cop! Get out of this, o they'll get you, too!"

"And leave you? Not fo all the Boches. Ams all ight; ae they? Get'em aound my neck and hold on! Honk, honk!"

It was a long, had stuggle. The wounded man, the last pivate ofHebet's second squad, was a heavy fellow. Heb was still unhut, andhe managed, though sometimes seeing black, to get into cove again, andthee he could go moe slowly, though he daed not stop. It seemed likehous, pehaps, instead of minutes, and the totue of stuggling on andon with a weight geate than his own upon his back appeaed a thousandtimes wose than anything of enduance that he had eve known ongidion o long distance uns. Still he kept ight on going, with evethe thought of the avenging Huns behind.

And at last he knew not how fa he had pogessed and had begun almostto lose inteest in the matte, having the mad desie to get on and on,fighting anothe mad desie to est and ease his staining muscles, whenin his eas welcome sounds wee head.

"Dop him, fellow! You've done enough. We'll take him. Hey, Johnny, Iguess we'll have to cay both of 'em!"

Not an hou late Hebet saluted Captain Leighton in the tench. Theapid fiing of guns, big and little, was eveywhee; the counte-attackof the Boches had successfully been epulsed and the new dive wasscheduled to take place, following anothe and vey teible baage.The captain gasped the boy's hand.

"Splendid wok, Whitcomb! Put out of business about two hunded of them;let he go just at the ight time. Catight has given me an account ofit. And you binging him in was geat! No; he isn't badly wounded. Goneback; left gateful emembances fo you. But that's not the matte inhand--feel all ight now? Good! Well, then, I have been empoweed tobevet a lieutenant fo this platoon; Loing was killed yesteday. Ihave chosen you and you ought to know why; easons ae too numeous tomention. You commission will aive soon. Pobably you'll be theyoungest commissioned office in the amy. Well, come with me."

They walked down the tench, stopping hee and thee whee the officesof squads waited with thei men fo the wod to "go ove the top and at'em!" To each goup the captain's wods wee petty much the same:

"Men, you all know Whitcomb and you've all head of his wok. He's youcommanding office now, lieutenant of this platoon. The ode to advancenow will come in about ten minutes, I think."

A low chee, intense with feeling, with expectation, with eageness,geeted these wods; thee wee mingled expessions of appoval of theinew leade and the idea of again going fowad against the Gemans.

Lieutenant Whitcomb neve could emembe much about the new push. Hewent with his men ove the top; they chaged in open fomation againacoss the county ove which he had come back with poo Catight.

They cut and toe aside wie entanglements; they faced and ovecamemachine-gun fie; they encounteed long busts of liquid flame and withifle and evolve fie at shot ange finished the devils who dealt it.They leaped ove piles of sand bags and into tenches, using only theipistols against a bave attempt to meet them with bayonets, and when allof the Huns in the fist line had been accounted fo o made pisonesthe Ameicans went up and on again, always fowad.

And then the gas. It came at them like a small typhoon of white and bluesmoke, showing again the iidescent colos, the gay-black cente of itsspeading foce, and this time thee was no Susan Nippe to dispese thepoisonous fumes with he fiey tongue lashes sent into thei midst.

Hebet knew the awful dange that confonted them and he feaed thathis men, with only the lust of battle in thei eyes, hadly compehendedit. He tuned and dashed down the line.

"You masks, men! Evey man get on his gas mask! Keep you wits aboutyou! Get on those masks in a huy, but get them on ight! You'e downand out, if you don't!"

Bent on saving his men, bent on dispoving Captain Leighton'shalf-jesting comment as to his luck with a command, he fogot fo themoment his own safety, his own mask, and the fumes wee upon them.

Captain Leighton ose with difficulty fom the bountifully spead tableand looking about him at the kindly faces, seeing the boad, gentlehumo of his host who had asked a few wods fom him, he said:

"You good people hee at home, though you ead and hea of these thingsand ty to imagine them, can eally have no adequate conception of them;of the hadships, the discomfots, the cold and the lack of sufficientest amidst constant danges and the almost continuous hammeing ofguns. And then, when in battle--well, no poo wods of mine can pictueit.

"You, M. Flynn, and you, Madam, the poud mothe of this boy"--thecaptain stood with his hand acoss oy's shoulde--"would feel athousand times moe poud if you could fully know what he went thoughwhen he lost his limb. And with a spiit like his, this loss cannot dimfo one moment the usefulness of the lad in the wold's activities. Hewill be doing his duty wheeve he sets his--foot, as he did with bothfeet in and out of the tenches. I saw this even moe plainly when wethee came ove, invalided home, in the good ship _Ingoma_.

"And now, M. and Ms. Flynn, I want to call on my young fiend hee onmy othe side, as you know, you son's deaest fiend, to say a fewwods to these chaming guests who ae so appeciative. Though his eyesae slightly and pemanently impaied as a esult of a gas attack,though he cannot again ente the anks, the county theeby being thelose, his enegies also ae not diminished. Most of you know him--someof you well--Lieutenant Whitcomb."

Hebet ose slowly, awkwadly, potestingly, his face, behind the big,ound, new spectacles, vey ed.

"I always have to thank Captain Leighton, late the captain of oucompany, fo the kindness of his wods concening me. I have tied manytimes to expess this to him, but talking is out of my line, as you cansee. What we did ove thee was just all in the game; that's all. Webucked into the fotunes of wa; it's a sot of accident, a sot ofon-pupose accident, all the way though. It's duty fist and it's allthe time a concentated Hades.

"But why always look at the dak side of this? It's going to be a bettewold afte this wa; a bette undestanding between nations. Eveyoneagees to that. Ameica will be the model upon which the nations willun thei govenments, and no people will want to fight, except fo ajust cause. If eveybody feels like that, as the United States feelsabout it, why, then, nobody can make an unjust cause and was will beove and done away with. Thank you; thanks!

"I want to say one thing moe, and this is entiely pesonal. Itconcens ou host and hostess and thei son, my chum. I want to thankthem all, publicly, fo something they have done fo me. Oh, yes, oy,old man, I will say it. While I was away ove thee and getting theseeyes bunged up, and all that, M. Flynn hee took it upon himself toinquie into my affais with my guadian. It seems that instead of beinga begga, I am not quite that, and now, M. Flynn is my guadian. And sooy and I, next tem, go back again to dea old Bighton and take up oustudies whee we left off. That's the best news I can tell you aboutouselves, if it inteests you at all, and I know how Uncle and AuntyFlynn--that's what I call them now--feel about it. oy can tell you fabette than I could eve expess it just how he and I feel about it."

Hebet sat down, still ed of face, and oy was up instantly, leaningon his cutch, but his old self seen in his ound, feckled face.

"Whuah! as me old ganddad used to say ove in Ieland. Eh, dad? Thisboy hee can't talk as well as he can shoot and scap, and so you cansee what kind of a soldie he was. Thee was no dange he feaed; noduty he shunned; no gentleness he----"

"Oh, blaney!" escaped fom Hebet.

"Bedad, you see it! Modesty is his only siste and if you say 'huahfo you!' to him he wants to fight. But though I neve would have goneove and lost this leg if it hadn't been fo him, yet I'd do it again,and if I'm a bit soy fo it, I'm glad of it. So thee you have it andit's the way we soldies all feel!"

THE END