ng to close quarters at all.
Yet victory will rest with the men who have sufficient bravery, skill
and ingenuity to cross the fire-zone and tackle their enemies hand to
hand.

Smoke-producing shells and other forms of projected cover, designed to
mask the advance of cavalry and infantry, will greatly assist in the
work of rendering this task of crossing the fire-zone less dangerous,
notwithstanding any possible improvement that may be effected in the
magazine-rifle. Already it has been observed that much of the surprise
and confusion which terrifies those who have no bayonets, when
subjected to a cannonade and at the same time brought face to face
with a bayonet charge, arises from the fact that they cannot see to
shoot straight, owing to the haze produced by the smoke and its
blinding effects upon the eyes.

Special smoke-producing shells, made for the express purpose of
covering a charge, will soon be evolved from the laboratory of the
chemist in pursuance of this clue. In addition to shells and other
missiles, small pieces of steel-piping will be projected by mortars
into the fire-swept zone, in order to supplement the defects of
natural cover which, of course, are nearly always as great as
possible, seeing that the ground has generally been selected by the
side against which the attack is being directed.

The task of enabling a rifleman to shoot straight has been taken up
with extraordinary zeal and ability compared with the amount of skill
and effort devoted to the corresponding or opposing object of spoiling
his aim and preventing him from getting a shot in. When this latter
has been to some extent accomplished, mainly by the agency of
artillery, the bayonet and other weapons for use at close quarters
will once more be in the ascendant. Thin shields of hard steel will be
affixed to the rifles of the attacking party, so as to deflect the
bullets wherever possible.

This baffling of the rifleman by the artillery supporting the cavalry
and bayonet charge will produce momentous changes, not only in the
future of war, but also in that of international relations. Anything
which tends to discount the value of personal bravery and to elevate
the tactics of the ambuscade and the sharp-shooting expedition gives,
_pro tanto_, an advantage to the meaner-spirited races of mankind, and
places them more or less in a position of mastery over those who hold
higher racial traditions. The man who will face the risk of being sho