e redoubt. Perhaps that terrific crash may
have been an ammunition supply exploding and scattering the guns right
and left.

No matter what the cause the battery was as still as death, a fact that
must have filled the anxious heart of the French commander-in-chief with
a fierce joy; for its presence there intact promised to make all his
work of no avail, despite the unrivaled valor of his men.

This time the story was to be quite different, it seemed. Some of the
leaders in that mad rush were already almost over, and here, there,
everywhere they were trying to shoot back as they found a chance to
glimpse an enemy hidden amidst the bushes on the bank of the river.

Josh could hardly contain himself. He jumped up and down "like a flea,"
as Hanky Panky afterwards explained it in his peculiar fashion. Indeed,
to hear Josh letting out shrieks and cries one would have imagined the
whole battle of the Marne ford had been staged for his particular
benefit, and that he was enjoying the lively scene with all his heart.

Now some of the Frenchmen were crawling up the bank. They found shelter,
such as it was, and immediately began to make good use of their guns,
aiming so as to cut down those who were rattling the quick-firing
weapons not far away.

More and more came up out of the depths, some of them wounded it was
true, but with undiminished ardor hurrying on. With the climax of their
ambition at hand and an opportunity for a fight at close quarters with
the hated enemy granted to them, why should they mind such a small thing
as a bullet in the shoulder, or it might be a leg that dragged as they
walked?

The fire and enthusiasm that filled their hearts prevented them from
falling out of the line. Some in fact would not know they had been
injured until it was all over but the cheering, and a weakness began to
overcome them, with the excitement on which they had been living having
passed away.

Josh was waving his hat wildly now. Despite the noise and confusion he
shouted out his views. In so doing he gave the "escape valve" something
to do, and likely enough worked no harm.

"And to think it's all owing to the work of that one brave fellow!" was
the burden of his outcries.

"I'm taking off my hat to _him_ right now. I salute him, living or
dead! His family will be proud of him when they learn what a grand thing
he really did. Talk to me about the Cross of the Legion of Honor; why,
that man ought to be made a general--i