The Red Cloud chief., 1915-01-28

eHNelOpe winch acted as q parachute.
Fighting proceeded in La Tir in
stages Of ferocity and blank silence.
The upper part OF the town. which
the Browns still held. was in dark.
ness; the lower part. where the Grays
were. was Illuminated.
Another one OF Lanny's plans!"
thought Marta. He would have them
work In the light. while we fire out
Of obscurity!"
Soon all the town was In darkness,
for the Grays had cut the wire in the
main conduit shortly after she had
heard the groans Of the wounded man.
There the automatics broke out In a
mad storm. voicing their feelings at
getting a company In close order In a
street for the space OF a minute, be.
fore those who escaped could plaster
themselves against doorways or find
cover In alleys. Then silence from
the automatics and a cheer from the
Browns that rasped out its triumph
like the rubbing together OF steel files.
From the line Of defense, that in.
cluded the first terrace OF the Galland
grounds as the angle of a redoubt, not
a shot, not a sound; silence on the
part Of officers and men as profound
as Mrs. Galland's slumber. while one
Of the Browns search.lights, like some
great witch's slow.turning eye in a
narrow radius, covered the lower ter,
races and the road.
Marta gave intermittent glances at
the garden; the g%lances OF a guardian.
She happened to be looking in that
direction when figures sprang across
the road, crouching, running with the
short. quick steps OF no body move.
ment accompanying that Of the legs.
The search-light caught them in mer-
CHESS silhouette and the automatic
and the rifles from behind the sand
bags On the first terrace let 60. Some
OF the figures dropped and lay In the
road and she knew that she had seen
men hit for the fret time. Others, she
thought. got safely to the cover OF the
gutter on the garden side. or those
on the road, some were still and some
she saw were moving slowly back on
their stomachs to safety. Now the
search-light laid its beam steadily on
the road. Again silence. From the
upper terrace came q great voice, like
that Of the guns, from a human throat:
why didn't we level those ter.
races? They'll creep up from one to
the other!" 1t wac Stransky.
In answer was another voice-Del-
larme's. q
Perhaps there wasn't time to do
everything. II they get as far as the
first terrace-well, in case OF a crisis,
we have hand-grenades. But, God
knows. I hope we shall not have to
use them"
After an interval, more figures made
a rush across the road. They, too, in
Stransky's words, paid a price for
seeing the garden. But the flashes
from the rifles and the automatic pro-
vided a target for a Gray battery. The
blue spark that flies from an overhead
trolley or a third rail, multiplied q
hun~dredfold, broke in Marta's face.
1t was dazzling. binding as a bolt oil
lightning a few feet distant, with the
thunder crash at the same second.
followed by the ~thrashing hum OF bull.
lets and fragments against the side
Of the house.
II knew that this must GOMEZ"
something within her said. II she
had not been prepared for II by the
events Of the last twelve hours she
would have jumped to her feet with
an exclamation of natural shock and
horror. AS 1t was, she felt a convul-
sive, nervous thrill without rising
from her seat. A pause. The next
shell rurst in line with the first. out
by the linden'trees; a third above the
veranda.
We've got that range. all right"
thought the Gray battery commander,
who had judged the distance by the
stan map. This was all he wanted to
know for the present. He would let
loose at the proper time to support
the infantry attack, when there we're
enough driblets across the road to
make a charge. The driblets kept on
coming. and, one by one. the number
OF dead on the road a augmented.
Marta was diverted from this proc.
ess OF killing by piecemeal by a more
theatrlc spectacle. A brigade com.
mander of the Grays had licked an
order over the wires and 1t had gone
from battery to battery. Not only
many ~field'guns. which are the ter.
riers Of the artillery. but some guns
Of siege caliber, the mastiffs, in a
sudden outburst started a havoc OF
tumbling walls and cornices In the
upper part of the town.
Then an explosion greater than any
from the shells shot a hemisphere OF
light h%eavenward, revealing q shadowy
body flying overhead, and an instant
later the heavens were illuminated by
a vast circle Of fame as the dirigible
that had dropped the dynamite re.
ceived its death.blow. But already
the Brown infantry was withdrawing
from the town, destroying buildings
that would give cover for tho ATTACK