anage to outflank us?

Imploringly, eagerly, the telephone begged for reenforcements, for
batteries, for machine-guns, for ammunition. The transport section of
the army service corps had been exhausted long ago, and all the
ammunition we had was in front, while a wide chasm yawned between the
fighting troops and the depots far away in the blue distance. General
MacArthur had nothing left to send.

And now from Indian Valley came the request for more machine-guns, but
there wasn't one left. General MacArthur telegraphed to Union, the
terminus of the field-railway, but the answer came that no assistance
could be given for several hours, as the roadbed had first to be
repaired. From Toll Gate, too, came stormy demands for more
ammunition--all in vain.

And then, at eight o'clock, when the sun had sunk like a ball of fire in
the west, and the Blue Mountains, above which hovered puffs of smoke
from the bursting shrapnel, were bathed in the golden evening light and
the valley became gradually veiled in darkness, the crushing news came
from Baker City that large, compact bodies of Japanese troops had been
seen on the stretch of broken-down railroad near Sumpter. Soon
afterwards Union reported the interruption of railway communication
with the rear and an attack with machine-guns by Japanese dismounted
cavalry, while Wood's division in the front continued to report the
capture of Japanese positions.

With relentless accuracy the arms of the gigantic tongs with which Nogi
threatened to surround the entire Army of the North began to close. The
American troops attacking both flanks had not noticed the Japanese
reserves, which had been held concealed in the depressions and shallow
valleys under cover of the woods. Two miles more to the right and left,
and our cavalry would have come upon the steel teeth of the huge tongs,
but there was the rub: they hadn't gone far enough.

About ten o'clock in the evening Baker City, which was in flames, was
stormed by the Japanese, Indian Valley having already fallen into their
hands. The attack in front, high up in the mountains, began to waver,
then to stop; a few captured positions had to be abandoned, and down in
the valley near La Grande, whence the field-hospitals were being removed
to the rear, the ambulances and Red Cross transports encountered the
troops streaming back from Baker City. One retreating force caught up
with the other, and then night came--that terrible night of destruc