e from side to side.

Private Danton, standing close to Hal, ready to feed in the next belt of
cartridges, fell with a Moro bullet in his brain. Another soldier sprang
forward, snatched up the belt of ammunition and stood ready to feed.

Fully twenty-five hundred rounds of Gatling ammunition were thus fired
into the dense brown ranks before the Moros felt that they could endure
it no longer. On that narrow road they had failed to reach the piece
itself. Four brown sharpshooters, back in the ranks, had been detailed
by a Moro officer to climb a tree and fill with lead the body of the
indomitable young sergeant. As the bullets sang past his head, Hal
discovered the tree, turned the Gatling muzzle that way, and fairly shot
the leaves off a portion of it. Two of the sharpshooters dropped,
riddled through. The other pair dropped from sheer terror.

[Illustration: Sergeant Hal Swung the Nose of the Gun from Side to
Side.]

Now that the execution on that narrow mountain road was becoming more
than flesh and blood could stand, the Moros broke in pell-mell
confusion.

"Forward, there, Lieutenant Prescott!" yelled Captain Freeman. "Give 'em
the bayonet. But don't let your men get away from you."

Prescott's answer was conveyed only by a wave of his stick. After the
fleeing Moros he rushed his men, and the Malays in the rear received
many an ugly wound.

"Keep the Gatling close up with the advance, Sergeant!" ordered Captain
Freeman, striding forward.

When the Moros in front had gotten to hand-to-hand quarters the flanking
fire from across the gully had ceased, after having killed two of
Freeman's men and wounding six more. Now it reopened.

"Halt, Sergeant! Swing that Gatling around. Turn it loose across the
gully."

R-r-r-r-r-rip! Captain Freeman sent two men back on the run to bring up
more ammunition for the machine gun. Within two minutes the fire from
across the gully had ceased. In the meantime three more regulars of the
centre had been hit.

"Now, run it forward, Sergeant," commanded Captain Freeman. "Support
Lieutenant Prescott. The Moros have halted him for the moment."

Again the Gatling went into action up front, where Sergeant Noll Terry,
in the front rank, was taking more than his share of the attack, though
as yet he had given many wounds and received none. Yet Prescott's
advance would have been driven back had it not been for the prompt
arrival of the machine gun.

The transport and rear guard wer