position, but main assault will be a flank move around Hill 20"

At that instant a fusillade of bullets cut the ground all about them,
and the six men suddenly realized that they were under a pitiless and
well-directed machine-gun fire.

CHAPTER XII

THE S O S WITH PISTOL SHOTS

To move from the position they were in was impossible. All that they
could do, imprisoned there as they were within a steel and leaden wall
of rapidly falling machine-gun bullets, was to hope that the gunners
would not change their aim, even by the fraction of a point, and that
neither side would send up a torch rocket to divulge their exact
whereabouts and bring sudden death or mortal injury to them all.

They knew now that they had been discovered by the enemy scouting party
which they had observed a short time before--as they thought, without
the others knowing of their presence there in "No Man's Land."

They also realized now, when it was too late, that the Germans had
returned to their own lines, after that brief consultation, in order to
procure the machine-gun with which to wipe them out.

And through it all they dared not return the fire, could not even utter
a word to each other without fear of giving the enemy a closer range
upon them.

It was a terrible three minutes for that isolated little group of
Americans, for bullets were striking all around them, the nearest not
more than ten feet away, and there was every possibility that another
detachment might be flanking them, to cut them off later in their
retreat, in case the machine-gun did not effectively do its deadly work.

There was but one desperate course open to them, and that Lieutenant
Mackinson ordered at the instant the firing ceased.

"Run!" he ordered, in a shrill whisper. "Run straight toward our own
lines for about a quarter of a mile and then detour to the south."

And off they started, each with all the speed he had in him. The renewal
of the machine-gun fire compelled them to take a zig-zag course, however,
and in this way for the first five minutes they all kept together.

Then Tom Rawle, who, with the lieutenant, had been a little in the lead,
gradually dropped back until he was abreast of Joe and Jerry, who were
running together, and then behind them, reaching Frank Hoskins and Slim,
who were bringing up a loudly puffing rear.

Finally, as they began to pass him, too, and his lagging pace became
noticeable, he urged them ahead and told them no