hat might have escaped his fusillade
of grenades. None came.

"Billy, take those prisoners out of the dugout," sang out the
Sergeant-Major, "and get them to the rear, and tell the rest of the boys
to do the same."

"I don't know how many are there, sir."

"I'll take a look and see," and the Sergeant-Major jumped into the
dugout. In a moment he reappeared. "There are nine killed and three
wounded. Round up these three and get them to the rear and get over the
top as fast as you can."

Billy did so, catching up with his pals at the third line trench. When
he got to the sixth line, a shell exploded in front of him, hitting him
in the thigh and dislocating his hip bone, besides giving him a painful
flesh wound. He was knocked unconscious and thrown into a shell hole.
The hole was almost filled with water, but the horseshoe luck of the
Grant family was with him; when he fell in his head was just out of the
water.

There he lay for eight hours, when the moaning of a wounded pal, three
or four feet away, roused him and he pulled himself over to him; his
pal's leg had been shattered from the knee down and Billy, in spite of
his own condition, managed to drag him for some distance toward the
dressing station, hopping on his left foot as he went and then resting a
bit. Finally the pain became too great and he could go no further;
every nerve and fiber of his aching body was at the breaking point of
utter exhaustion, and the pain of the gangrene in his wound, inspired by
the mud and dirt, gave him his finishing touch and he dropped. Bill's
pal then took up the struggle; he tottered to his sound foot and dragged
him to the dressing station, where he dropped beside him.

The tremendous rush of wounded men waiting for treatment made it
necessary for them to take their turn, and it was three-quarters of an
hour before they could either of them get attention; the German wounded
were treated in turn along with our own men, no favors being shown. This
is in marked contradistinction to the untold and unspeakable brutality
exercised upon our wounded prisoners in the German lines.

In due time they were carried to the rear by German prisoners, and then
to England through the medium of the base hospitals and casualty
clearing stations.

It is with pardonable pride I can say that they were not long in the
hospital before they got word they were to receive a medal for their
magnificent work.

Billy's splendid physical condition rap