Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-07
CHAPTER xv1-continued.

The first discharge had done small
damage. however. The bullets splashed
and ricochetted on the walls filling the
air with flying splinters which cut deep
but did not kill. 1t is not easy to aim
truly in gross darkness. Wherefore. and
also to avoid discovering their where
abouts, the men in front did not fire
back
One or two fell before the fusillade that
was kept up against them, but others
took their places, and when these in turn
had borne the brunt there was no lack Of
bearers for the ladders. Their only hope
now lay in emerging from the trap they
had SO blindly entered. One slipped and
fell. but forward. and another followed
him. Their screams came from below.
and 1t was obvious that this was where
the ladders must be laid. 1t cost a dozen
more lives to lay them evenly from edge
to slippery edge of the pit mouth. but.
that accomplished. fifty men out of a
hundred scrambled over And the last
was Ybarra. BY his direction the re-
mainder halted and lay down. They were
to reinforce him when he should have
gained the crypt. and meantime he him.
self need not be forced forward by them
while. II the fifty failed. he would avail
himself Of the alcOvelike gallery. as TO
whose existence all were ignorant except
himself and thence throw further forces
forward until the day was won.
He felt his way along the ledge, and,
sheltered there from any risk of a stray
shot. listened intently to the turmoil rag
his nostrils. and he was almost deafened
by the uproar. but over all he heard the
sound of sobs from underneath and shiv-
cred as he thought of the black gulf
there.
Ten men were far too few to hold the
tunnel, and there were only ten to with
stand the assault. Corbyn. Meggs and
eight others had made up their minds to
do or die in the pitch darkness, and they
were very busy doing.
One of them fell and then another as
the fifty fought them backward step by
step. They gave way, to charge down
again, regaining their lost ground, but
every enemy they overbore was speedily
replaced. while the two gaps In their own
ranks could not be filed. and very short
ly third occurred, leaving them only
seven strong.
The odds were too unequal. and. in
spite Of the most desperate efforts, they
were unable to hold their own. Inch after
among the ensanguined moving bodies
over which the combat was perforce con-
Quoted, and the remaining six knew that
their plight was practically hopeless
They were already at the crypt door.
Three Of them passed through and re-
loaded, firing point blank over their COM
rades' heads into the swarm beyond. and.
by the flash. saw that q fresh detachment
of troops was on the point Of crossing
the chasm.
Corbyn had opened his mouth to bid
the others back through and leave him.
when there came rumbling upward out
OF the very bowels OF the earth the blast
Of q most soul-sickening explosion.
Ybarra's ears had been throbbing to the
Internal din about him. but throughout
he had kept his head and so been able to
follow the course OF events with SUFFICIENT
accuracy to dispatch his supports when
they were most likely to turn the tide Of
battle in his favor. He heard the crypt
door clang, and cried to those who
waited that they should advance. The
impulse they would lend to the exhausted
fighting line should surely settle matters.
and there were plenty more behind to
take hand within the chapel.
He saw success within his grasp. and
was about to congratulate himself upon
his generalship. when the clutch OF two
hands about his ankles all but caus.d him