The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-16

on the Brooklyn side no longer were shelling the bridge. And as the wind swept the smoke below the great spans Jim saw that the bridge was deserted. The guns in Brooklyn seemed all con centrating on the New York end of t'.e bridge, where Jim had seen the soldiers of the regular army. And the guns which he had seen there still were si- lt 1t. The smoke billowed again over the bridge and shut from sight the further half of the centre span.
 They'll be coming now" Houston warned Jim. He raised his rife a>lit- tie higher above the cotton bale and stared blankly into the smoke. Behind that brown cloud were men now form ing for the assault of New York. Jim jerked and half spun about. Suddenly a cannon had fired almost behind him. Simultaneously with it all up and down the water front other guns had burst into action. The gun which had star tied Jim seemed to be concealed on the top floor of a building just behind N 94. The concussion and the gases of its discharge arrived through the hole in the roof. It was shelling the span of Brooklyn bridge where the smoke covered it. So were the other guns all down the water front
 Men-quick moving specks in rows, which must be men-merged from the smoke Shells showered upon, them, burst among them. above them. But they came on. They came on at a run not at all like the men who had crossed the bridge when the shells which burst there were coming from the other side Some of these men fell; some of them vanished completely. But the others neither ran faster nor fall tered for that They came on steadily, evenly, at one pace. as long as they kept their feet And for each who fell or vanished two more emerged from the smoke and rushed on.
 The American machine guns were going now. The "Trip, rip, rip, rip' of machine gun fire was a constant clat- ter in the air. AS it increased the guns on the other side of the river re- doubled their fire and concentrated it no longer upon the western end of the bridge. The regents gunners were searching in other spots along the river front for the American fie]dpieces which played upon the infantry storm ing the bridge. Guided by the aero planes lowering over the river-if there had been American machines about the regents had driven them from the sky-shells from across the river si- l fenced gun which Jim had heard in action just to his right. Now shells were searching for the gun behind N 94.
 Jim, shrinking, crouched lower be hind his cotton bale. He stared glass l ily at the bridge and aimed his rife at the row of specks which-appar I ently not mortal to shells of machine guns-was rushing on to New York He fired his rifle, all the bullets in the | magazine. as quick as he could fire. He was not conscious that. some seconds before, he had emptied his magazine and was simply pulling at the trigger until Houston spoke to him.
 l The first of the charging troops ! they had almost gained the tower al the west end of the great central spar vanished altogether. The roadway upon which they ran puffed upward and was lost in great black burst of smoke and dust. From the cloud fell dots of debris, bodies, and turn ing, tumbling forms which might bt men still, and dropped into the rivel below. Farther out between the bridge towers the roadway simultaneousl.
 wac blown up. It stopped the speck'
 caught in between, but stopped then | only for moment. More mel
 emerged from the smoke, and the sur
 vivors on the span went on. The dy namite which the Americans had lait
 under the bridge had failed to de
 stroy all the floor, for the specks pass
 ed the places where the mines Lad ex
 ploded. They were reinforced ant
 came on.
 tTo Be Continuedl