The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-11-04

tumbled them into 1t and shot the 9th
ers who were climbing up.
Then more boats came. But from
the lower river American destroyers
dashed up with quick firing guns all
booming. The batteries in Brooklyn
turned upon them. They sank one of
the destroyers, now another. A third
blew up. But how they had driven
through those boats!
The shells! They were bursting
ceaselessly, furiously again about N
"a. That meant-Houston was yell
ing it-that the attack was beaten
back; the regents men were retreat
ing; they were no longer trying to
land.
The guns across the river shelled
the American positions now to cover
the retreat. They kept up the shell
fire for half an hour longer in revenge
for the check. Then there was a ces-
sation Of the fire. Jim Ashby, very
weak, but glowing within with the
sense Of heroic achievement, turned
about and saw Houston. The wooden
legged man was kneeling beside Sven
son and caring for hurt in "Swedy's''
head.
Corporal" he said quietly, 1.-THE boys
on each side of us got us through, and
the general could better have had us
take more loss. We must get the bay
onet into our minds. Next time we
must be able to bayonet!'
CHAPTER XXI.
The Charge.
AYOT the next time, nor yet the
IN next. nor the next, was Com
pany f, band Of twenty two
men now, able to bayonet.
N 81, as building, was gone. N 81
had become purely a position, ram
part Of cotton bales and ballast bags
chinked up with bricks and stone
from the debris Of the warehouse. 1t
was a section of firing trench which
gfrded the Manhattan water front from
the Battery to the Bronx and then
along the Hudson and the Harlem, too,
as the regent drew his lines about the
billion dollar fortress of Manhattan.
1t was ten days after that first as
sault, according to Jim's reckoning
the reckoning did not agree with that
of Kilbane. who knew it was eleven
days-that the infantry of the regent
crossed to Manhattan island near the
old line Of Manhattan bridge. The reg
ulars, who had held the line up there,
must have been killed, and the Ameri-
can batteries about there either were
destroyed or out of ammunition. That
was more likely, Jim thought, for if
twenty-five men at N 81 couldn't get
rifle cartridges except at night when
some one crept to the opening of
the subway the artillerymen farther
away must be having their troubles.
Or perhaps more Of the guns had burst
and killed their crews.
Guns were bursting pretty often now,
Jim knew. but that wasn't strange;
they We're defective guns--a lot of 200
guns made for the allies during the Eu-
ropean war. They hadn't been accent
ell on account Of defects. so they'd
been returned, and when this war came
the army had grabbed them, for at
least they were guns; they would shoot
good many times, maybe. before they
burst. Suppose they were going to
kill the men who had to fire them!
More American men would be killed if
the guns weren't fired, if rifemen were
going to try to fight infantrymen and
artillery without any artillery support
at all. Besides, if the Americans used
those defective, foreign guns the Amer
lean factories could supply them with
shells right away without having to
change pattern or rip out a machine.
The regents men We're coming on
on toward the ramparts of N "a.
The twenty-five men there were be-
coming trained to holding position,
or W1nslow and Houston had convinc-
ed them all that if man tried to run
he surely would be shot through the
head. So, as the regents men moved
on IN "a" twenty-five rifles fired over
the cotton bales.
"Bayonets now, boys! Bayonets!
Stand up and give it to them! They're
coming! Give it to them! Oh, stand
and give 'em the steel or you'll get it!
Now-bayonets! Bayonets!'
The recruits could not all stand to
that. Some Of them ran and were
shot, not by Winslow or Houston, but
by the regents men. Others fell down
and tried to hide behind the cotton
bales. But when Winslow jumped up
on a bale to fight and Houston, STUN
bling a little because of his wooden
leg, stood up also others followed
them. Paddy Kilbane, for one, and
for another Swcnson, the ex-janitor |
Jim Ashby fought beside him.
Steel against steel! Kilbane was
quick He lunged low and got man
before one got him. But Swenson was
a bit slow. He tried to club his mus
ket and was thrust through. Yet the
man opposite Jim was fighting with
dubbed musket. and Jim could not
reach him. Instead, Jim went down,
quite helpless. but not quite uncon-
scious, and felt other men falling upon
him. They did not move because they
were dead, and as he did not move the
enemy considered him dead also. They
went over him and past him about
business which they had yet to do
farther on. So Jim. utterly spent and
nerveless, rested. Every one about
him was dead. Finally he fell asleep.
When he awoke Jim gazed on the
faces Of the dead about him. Paddy
Kilhopo <l,o Tr{ch 1>ox, ~r,l, l,o<1 l,oo~ -