ts, and, lowering their
eyes, looked from face to face. It was a strange pause, and a strange
silence.

Then, above the sounds of the outside commotion, arose the roar of the
lieutenant. He strode suddenly forth, his infantile features black
with rage.

"Come on, yeh fools!" he bellowed. "Come on! Yeh can't stay here.
Yeh must come on." He said more, but much of it could not be
understood.

He started rapidly forward, with his head turned toward the men, "Come
on," he was shouting. The men stared with blank and yokel-like eyes at
him. He was obliged to halt and retrace his steps. He stood then with
his back to the enemy and delivered gigantic curses into the faces of
the men. His body vibrated from the weight and force of his
imprecations. And he could string oaths with the facility of a maiden
who strings beads.

The friend of the youth aroused. Lurching suddenly forward and
dropping to his knees, he fired an angry shot at the persistent woods.
This action awakened the men. They huddled no more like sheep. They
seemed suddenly to bethink themselves of their weapons, and at once
commenced firing. Belabored by their officers, they began to move
forward. The regiment, involved like a cart involved in mud and
muddle, started unevenly with many jolts and jerks. The men stopped
now every few paces to fire and load, and in this manner moved slowly
on from trees to trees.

The flaming opposition in their front grew with their advance until it
seemed that all forward ways were barred by the thin leaping tongues,
and off to the right an ominous demonstration could sometimes be dimly
discerned. The smoke lately generated was in confusing clouds that
made it difficult for the regiment to proceed with intelligence. As he
passed through each curling mass the youth wondered what would confront
him on the farther side.

The command went painfully forward until an open space interposed
between them and the lurid lines. Here, crouching and cowering behind
some trees, the men clung with desperation, as if threatened by a wave.
They looked wild-eyed, and as if amazed at this furious disturbance
they had stirred. In the storm there was an ironical expression of
their importance. The faces of the men, too, showed a lack of a
certain feeling of responsibility for being there. It was as if they
had been driven. It was the dominant animal failing to remember in the
supreme moments the forceful causes of various