trenches, with
bayonets fixed, and dashed toward us. Every man among them looked a giant.
One of our boys was ahead of all the others. He was a bow-legged little
fellow, and, even at that moment, he looked ludicrous with his bare knees
and kilts. A big German was over him. The little fellow seemed to drop his
rifle. He had caught it in both hands, close under the handle of the
bayonet. He straightened up, heaving his shoulders, brought up his
forearms with a jerk, and the steel blade drove through the soft spot in
the German's throat--just under the chin. The Prussian's last cry was
drowned by the fierce yell of the little bow-legged man. It was the spirit
of the bayonet which made him yell like a savage.

There was no time to see what was going on around me any more. We were
fighting knee to knee. I can but faintly recall the actual close fighting,
but I seemed to make good use of my bayonet. Sometimes I was knocked off
my feet, but the next instant I was up again. I was not thinking of what
might happen to me. It was fight, fight, and keep on fighting. One seemed
imbued with a superhuman strength.

One of our boys seized a German's rifle, and wrested it from him by a
trick which seemed to break his arm. A little farther away two Germans
were rushing upon one man. Mechanically, I leaped into action. The butt of
my rifle felled the nearest boche. Somebody knocked the rifle out of my
hands. Somehow I ducked a thrust made at me and ran in on the German who
made it, and smashed my fist on the point of his jaw.

They began to waver now. They did not seem to care for our company with
our kilts and our steel--we whom they later learned to call the "Ladies of
Hell." (Because of our kilts.) At last they broke and ran. We were after
them. A machine gun rattled away at the head of a path down which some of
our boys were dashing. It almost wiped out _B_ company before we could
silence it.

Just over the crest of the ridge we came upon their combat wagons and a
field gun. Three men and an officer were trying to save the gun. The men
who were hitching the horses to it broke and ran. The officer did not
hesitate a second to shoot them in the backs. Then _he_ fell with one of
our bullets through his head. We captured the gun.

By this time I was regaining my proper senses. A feeling of exhaustion
seemed to envelop me; my legs wobbled. Then I dropped to the ground. Every
bone, muscle, and nerve ached, and I felt as though I had jus