other soldier bellowed, taking aim, "what are ye
gassing about!"
But he gulped with astonishment even as he spoke, for, indeed, the
grey men were falling by the thousands. The English could hear the
guttural scream of the German officers, the crackle of their revolvers
as they shot the reluctant; and still line after line crashed to the
earth.
All the while the Latin-bred soldier heard the cry: "Harow! Harow!
Monseigneur, dear saint, quick to our aid! St. George help us!"
"High Chevalier, defend us!"
The singing arrows fled so swift and thick that they darkened the air;
the heathen horde melted from before them.
"More machine guns!" Bill yelled to Tom.
"Don't hear them," Tom yelled back. "But, thank God, anyway; they've
got it in the neck."
In fact, there were ten thousand dead German soldiers left before that
salient of the English army, and consequently there was no Sedan. In
Germany, a country ruled by scientific principles, the Great General
Staff decided that the contemptible English must have employed shells
containing an unknown gas of a poisonous nature, as no wounds were
discernible on the bodies of the dead German soldiers. But the man who
knew what nuts tasted like when they called themselves steak knew also
that St. George had brought his Agincourt Bowmen to help the English.
The Soldiers' Rest
The soldier with the ugly wound in the head opened his eyes at last,
and looked about him with an air of pleasant satisfaction.
He still felt drowsy and dazed with some fierce experience through
which he had passed, but so far he could not recollect much about it.
But--an agreeable glow began to steal about his heart--such a glow as
comes to people who have been in a tight place and have come through
it better than they had expected. In its mildest form this set of
emotions may be observed in passengers who have crossed the Channel on
a windy day without being sick. They triumph a little internally, and
are suffused with vague, kindly feelings.
The wounded soldier was somewhat of this disposition as he opened his
eyes, pulled himself together, and looked about him. He felt a sense
of delicious ease and repose in bones that had been racked and weary,
and deep in the heart that had so lately been tormented there was an
assurance of comfort--of the battle won. The thundering, roaring waves
were passed; he had entered into the haven of calm waters. After
fatigues and terrors that as yet h
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