The Holbrook news., 1912-01-26

l little breastworks nervously lingering his rifle. The long hours of inaction and sus-
 pense had told upon his nerves
 as on those of every man in the line.
 Above all, the constant thunder of the
 hidden guns swelling momentarily till
 the very air seemed to shake with
 their reverberation filled him with
 vague uneasiness and a curious phys ical discomfort His body somehow
 seemed to have lost solidity, his stom-
 ach trembled, something crept along
 his spine The day was already hot
 but his hands were cold. Anxiously
 he gazed in the direction of the ter
 rible sound There was nothing to be
 seen, not even dimness on the clear blue summer sky. Then for the hun dredth time his eyes ranged the ground which somewhere concealed the enemy. In front of him and below him the grassland stretched uninter- rupted by hedge or ditch, save where about 800 yards distant stream wound a course roughly parallel to the position, until a mile and a half away 1t reached the dark mass of woodland which swept over the crest of the next ridge and down to its foot. A road emerged from the wood, crossed the level ground and curved to the left of the position. The whole plain was bare of any living thing.
 Suddenly, with six regular crashes at intervals as precise as those of a striking clock, the howitzer battery be- hind him fired. He looked eagerly to discover their target, but could not even see where the shells burst
 After some time he heard pecu- liarly shrill sound, something like the screech of a steam whistle. It started on a low note. rose swiftly to pierc- ing intensity and finished in a sharp crash behind him. Then the shrill sound came again. and suddenly a white cloud-puff appeared in the air in front of him, and there was crash and a strange humming.
 "Shrapnel," said the man next to him through locked teeth. Now the smoke-puffs and crashes followed one another quickly all along the line, but principally, it seemed to him, near the salient angle occupied by the next regiment. So far no one near him was hurt. He waited in mental an- guish for something to happen. Sud denly man sprang up with shriek rushed along the line of few yards. and fell. A couple of ambulance men ran up to him, turned him over, and left him. Private 992O2 felt his nerves go all to pieces. A wild desire to spring up and rush away beset him. There was an uneasy stir all along the line.
 'Iie down! Lie down!" shouted the officers, and the colonel strode among the bullets to hearten the men. CUTS ing at the raw troops he had to com mand.
 The strain was becoming intolera- ble. Here and there along the line men were taken i'll and retired. bolt ing hack like rabbits. ducking their l heads in ludicrous fashion to escape 1 the invisible bullets. Some swore soft ly and continually, some prayed, some | babbled they knew not what. Above | all the din rose the voices of officers exhorting the men to be steady. On | the ridge the heliograph still flashed. but the figure of the colonel was no longer to be seen against the sky. He was stretched on the ground anxiously watching the wood mile and half away through his glasses.
 Presently he saw dark figure emerge from 1t. then another, and then several, and then many. The sharper-sighted among the men saw them also. The cry: There they are!" ran along the line. Private 99- 2o3 instinctively laid his finger on the trigger of his rife. Here and there a shot was fired, but the officers inter vened angrily. The shrapnel hail beat on the line in savage bursts. but in their interest in their now visible foe