wn it, only those everlasting shrapnels. How
on earth can I shoot a town to pieces with shrapnel!" growled the
brigadier-general, going into the protected stand where the telephone
had been set up.

"Send two hundred shells immediately by automobile from Union to the 8th
Battery Volunteers stationed before Hilgard," ordered the general
through the telephone-- "What, there aren't any shells at Union? The
last have been forwarded to Longworth's Division?-- But I must have at
least a hundred; have them brought back at once from the right wing-- No
automobile, either?" It was a wonder that the telephone didn't burst
with righteous indignation at the vigorous curses the brigadier-general
roared into it.

But unfortunately the statement made at Union, where the field railway
built from Monida for the transport service terminated, was correct.
Just as in most European armies, the number of shells provided was out
of all proportion to the shrapnel, and the supply of shells was
consequently low at all times. Besides, most of the ammunition-motors
had been put out of commission early in the game. The advantage of
higher speed possessed by the automobiles was more than offset by their
greater conspicuousness the moment they came within range of the enemy's
guns. The clouds of dust which they threw up at once showed the enemy in
which direction they were going, and as they were obliged to keep to the
main road, the Japanese had only to make a target of the highway and do
a little figuring to make short work of these modern vehicles. The great
number of wrecked motor cars strewn along the road proved rather
conclusively that the horse has not yet outlived its usefulness in
modern warfare.

The officers, including the generals, had willingly dispensed with such
a dangerous mode of locomotion after the first fatal experiences, for
the staring fiery eyes of the motor betrayed its whereabouts by night,
and the clouds of dust betrayed it by day. The moment an auto came
puffing along, the enemy's shots began to fall to the right and left of
it, and it was only natural, therefore, that the horse came into its own
again, both because the rider was not bound to the main road and because
he did not offer such a conspicuous target for the enemy's shots.

Towards noon the Japanese batteries entrenched before Hilgard began
bombarding the 28th Regiment with shrapnel. Colonel Katterfeld therefore
ordered half his men to seek protection under t