Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-09-23

ear. But they became more CONSCIOUS
of the spits of dust in front OF their
faces and the passing whistles OF bull
lets. In return, they made the Sec
tons Of Gray infantry in reserve rush
ing across the levels, leave many gray
Jumps behind. But F'racasse's men at
the foot of the slope poured in a heav'
Ter and still heavier fire.
Down there's where we need the
shells now" spoke the thought of Del,
larme's men, which he had anticipated
by word to the signal corporal, who
waved his flag one-two-three-fo
five times. Come on, now, with
more of your special brand of death,
fire-control officer! Your own head is
above the skyline, though your guns
are hidden. Five hundred yards be.
yond the knoll is the range! Come
on!
He came with burst of screams SO
low in flight that they seemed to
brush the back of the mems necks
with a hair broom at the rate Of
thousand feet a second. Having
watched the result, Dellarme turned
with confirmatory gesture, which the
corporal translated into the wigwag
of Correct" The shrapnel smoke
hanging over Fracasse's men appeared
a heavenly blue to Dellarme's men.
They are going to start for us
soon! Oh, but we'll get lot of
them" whispered Stransky gleefully
to his rifle.
Dellarme glanced again toward the
colonels station. No sign of the re.
firing flag. He was glad of that. He
did not want to fall back in face OF
a charge; to have his men silhouetted
in the valley as they retreated. And
the Grays would not endure this show
er-bath long without going one way or
the other. He gave the order to fix
bayonets, and hardly was it obeyed
when he saw flashes of steel through
the shrapnel smoke as the Grays fixed
theirs. The Grays had 500 yards to
go; the Browns had the time that it
takes running men to cover the dis
lance in which to stop the Grays.
We'll spear any of them who has
the luck to get this fart whispered
Stransky to his rife. The sentence
was spoken in the midst OF salvo of
shrapnel cracks, which he did not
hear He heard nothing, thought moth
ing. except to kill.
The Gray batteries on the plain.
having taken up a new position and
being reinforced. played on the crest
at top speed instantly the Gray line
rose and started up the slope at the
run. With the purpose of confusing
no less than killing, they used percus-
sion, which burst on striking the
ground, as well as shrapnel, which
burst by time-fuse in the air Foun
tains of sod and dirt shot upward to
meet descending sprays of bullets. The
coneussions of the earth shook the
aim OF Dellarme'a men. blinded by
smoke and dust, as they fired through
fog at bent figu- es whose legs were
pumping fast in dim pantomime.
But the guns of the Browns, also,
have word that the charge has begun.
The signal corporal is waiting for the
gesture from Dellarme agreed upon as
an announcement. The Brown artil-
lery commander cuts his fuses two
hundred and fifty yards shorter. He,
too. uses percussion for moral effect.
Half of the distance from the foot
to the crest of the knoll Fracasse's
men have gone in face of the hot, siz-
zling tornado of bullets, when there is
a blast of explosions in their faces
with all the chaotic and irresistible
force of volcanic eruption. Not only
are they in the midst of the first lot
of the Browns shells at the shorter
range, but one Gray battery has either
made mistake in cutting it's fuses or
struck a streak of powder below stand
ard, and it's shells burst among those
whom it is aiming to assist.
The ground seems rising under the
feet of Fracasse's company; the air r.
split and racked and wrenched and
torn with hideous screams of invisible
demons. The men stop; they act on
the uncomfortable instinct of self-pres.
ervation against an overwhelming
force of nature. A few without the
power of locomotion drop, faces