DAVE SHOWS HIS BRAVERY
My young readers must understand that it would be next to impossible
to give all the details of the battle which occurred when the fighting
engineers were attacked first by a battalion of the Germans and then by
a full regiment.
By the command of the major the engineering battalion gradually
withdrew to the protection of a number of jagged rocks, flanked here
and there by thick brushwood. Here, screening themselves as much
as possible, the Americans poured forth volley after volley at the
Germans, and over a score of them went down, some never to rise again.
But the enemy had probably received word from their air scouts as
to the exact number of the engineers, and with the first battalion
augmented by the remainder of their regiment, they showed increased
courage and recklessness, and suddenly made a charge forward, shouting
like demons as they came on.
It was certainly a thrilling moment and enough to make the heart of
any soldier quail, however brave. Even the most unthinking of the
engineers could see that they were largely outnumbered, for the German
regiment counted up to at least sixteen hundred men.
Dave, Roger, Phil, and Ben kept close together. Shadow was not in this
contest, having not yet returned from the field hospital to which he
had been sent after the accident when the big trees had come down.
When the call had been sent to the rear asking for reinforcements, word
had also been sent up to the top of the little hill behind them asking
if the battery there could not open on the advancing Germans. This
battery now sent forth a lively fire; but it soon had to cease because
the Germans were now so close to the Americans that firing on them
would endanger our engineers.
“Give it to ’em hot, boys, but don’t expose yourselves until you have
to!” called Captain Obray, and the remaining lieutenant repeated these
words and then they were also repeated by the top sergeant, who had
already taken poor Lieutenant Harney’s place.
Dave, partly screened by a rock and a bit of brushwood, was handling
his rifle as accurately and rapidly as he could. In the beginning,
as was to be expected, he had been excited and his hand had trembled
a little. But now his nerves were steadying themselves, and he took
deliberate aim at one of the Huns before he pulled the trigger. He saw
the man go down, and then he immediately shot at a second and a third
of the enemy.
Facing such a determined resistance, the Germans paused for a moment
while still half-way to the line which separated them from the
engineers. This pause worked great havoc, for it gave all the Americans
a chance to continue their fire, which they did with deadly effect. But
then, urged most strenuously by their officers, who in some cases did
not hesitate to slap their men with their swords, the Germans came on
once more, firing several more volleys and then dashing in with their
bayonets. At such close quarters it became practically impossible to
continue the contest with any degree of regularity. It was a case of
every engineer for himself, and at odds of three or four to one.
The first fellow to come at Dave was a tall, burly individual who
looked as if he might be a farmhand. He made a vicious jab at our
hero, who sprang aside with a nimbleness acquired by long practice in
the gymnasium and on the football field at Oak Hall. Then Dave made a
lunge with his own bayonet, and had the satisfaction of catching the
fellow in the thigh. The German pulled back and made another lunge, but
this time Dave parried the stroke, and then caught the fellow through
the shoulder. This caused the German to stagger back, and suddenly he
dropped his gun and fell headlong on his side.
While this was going on, Roger and the other engineers were likewise
having their hands full. Seven or eight Germans had appeared in a bunch
and were jabbing right and left with their bayonets, yelling at the top
of their lungs and making the most ferocious faces. One caught Phil
through the arm, and another sent Roger to his knees.
This was a perilous position for the senator’s son, because before
he could rise two of the Germans were on him, each with an upraised
bayonet. But now Ben leaped in on one side, catching one of the Germans
under the chin with his cold steel. Not wishing to have his throat
pierced, the fellow jerked backward, pitching heavily over the rocks.
But the other German had already made another pass at Roger, and that
young engineer would have caught it in the heart had he not made a
quick movement to one side. Then the German, having missed his footing,
fell forward and as he did so caught the senator’s son by the throat.
But now Dave was coming on. Why he had done so, he did not know, but
he had turned his gun around in his hands so that the butt was in
front of him. Using this with all force, he made a long leap forward,
bringing the gun-butt down directly on the head of the German. There
was a curious little crack, and the man fell away to one side,
unconscious, if not entirely done for.
After that matters became so exciting that the young engineers hardly
knew what was taking place. Sometimes they used their bayonets, and
again they swung their rifles around like clubs, sweeping the air in
front of them in wide semicircles. Occasionally a shot was fired, and
Ben declared afterwards that he saw one German shoot another.
With one of his most trustworthy officers gone, Captain Obray had
his hands full doing what he could for his command. The engineers
had already commenced to fall back on the roadway which they had
recently been building, but orders were to retreat slowly, because
reinforcements would be coming up now in a short while.
Dave had lost his helmet, his shirt was ripped up his back in several
places, and blood was streaming from a cut on one hand, and a bruise
was on his cheek. Not until some time later did he realize that the cut
on his hand had come from a glancing bullet.
The engineers had fallen back about fifty yards when Dave found himself
and those under him close to where Captain Obray was himself fighting.
The old civil engineer had discharged his pistol pointblank at one of
the Germans, but now three had surrounded him, two using their bayonets
and the other handling his gun as a club. The captain was struck on one
shoulder, and his pistol was sent whizzing from his hand. Then the two
Germans with their bayonets stabbed at the American officer viciously
several times.
When the pistol was sent flying from the captain’s hand it landed
almost at Dave’s feet. He was about six yards away, and without
stopping to think twice he caught up the weapon, aimed it at the
nearest of the Germans, and fired.
As my old readers know, Dave was quite an accurate shot, not only with
a rifle, but also with a pistol, and on more than one occasion he had
made a rather remarkable record while firing at a target. His quick aim
was accurate, and the German nearest to him went down, shot through the
side. Then Dave fired the second time, and the other German was hit in
the right arm. The fellow was just in the act of making another lunge
with his bayonet, this time at Captain Obray’s throat; but the shot in
the arm caused him to let his weapon drop. Then, of a sudden, he sank
down, for he had already been wounded in the leg and had been keeping
up merely through excitement. The third German was running away.
“Fine work, Porter, fine work!” gasped Captain Obray, as Dave sprang to
his side and returned the officer’s pistol to him.
“Are you much hurt? Do you want me to help you to the rear, Captain?”
demanded the young sergeant quickly.
“No, I don’t think I want to go to the rear,” was the answer, in a
voice that shook with emotion. “Porter, I sha’n’t forget this. It was
splendid!” And then the captain turned away, for there was much for him
to do.
Only a few minutes later Dave found himself again in the thick of
the fight. But now a cheer rent the air, and it became known that a
regiment of American infantry and several machine-guns were on their
way to relieve the engineers, who, of course, were not supposed to do
any regular fighting.
“Oh, if we can only hold out until they come!” muttered Dave. He was
beginning to feel the strain and could hardly keep on his feet.
The engineers were now ordered to withdraw to one side of the road
in order to give the infantry and the machine-guns a chance to come
up. Of course the machine-guns could not be used on the Germans while
they were mixed up with the Americans, but it was thought they could
be brought into play in case the enemy did any massing or started to
retreat.
“Hurrah, here they come!”
“Now those Huns will get what is coming to them!”
“Rush ’em all the way back to the Rhine!”
A company of American infantry was coming down the rough forest road on
the double-quick. A short distance behind were two other companies, and
then followed a machine-gun detachment.
“Our other men are coming up from the other side of the hill,”
announced the American officer, who was in command of the newly-arrived
troops. “They’ll be here inside of five minutes, I believe.”
At first the Germans were rather discomfited when they saw the American
infantry coming up. But seeing only the three companies and the single
machine-gun detachment, they plucked up courage again and went at the
fight almost as vigorously as before.
The infantry leaped into the fray with all the speed at their command,
and then the contest became more bloody every instant. In one place
among some rocks at least fifteen men from each side fought in such a
close space that it was almost impossible for any of the soldiers to
get elbow room. Several of the men grabbed each other by the throat,
and two of the wounded were all but trampled to death in the mêlée.
Phil and Roger had both sustained several small wounds, but they still
kept on fighting, in spite of the loss of blood which was steadily
making them weaker.
At last the other American troops which were expected around the
lower side of the little hill burst into view. With them came another
machine-gun detachment and also a company which was well supplied with
hand-grenades. These grenades they used upon the Germans whenever they
saw an opportunity to do so without injuring any of their own men.
With a force against them now equal, if not superior, to their own, the
Germans began to waver, and one company began to fall back, in spite of
the protestations of some of their officers. Then, as all the Americans
made a rush, the remainder of the enemy commenced to retreat.
“Hurrah, we’ve got ’em on the run!”
“Give it to them good and plenty, boys!”
“What’s the matter with rounding them up and making them prisoners?”
“That’s the talk! Let us teach ’em a lesson they won’t forget!”
So the cries ran on, and while the majority of the Germans managed to
get away from the vicinity of the Americans, a half-company became
detached from the others, and these were quickly surrounded.
“Throw up your hands!” cried one of the American officers, and he
repeated the words in German.
A number of the hands went up, and some of the Germans, realizing that
they were out of the fighting, began to shout, “_Kamerad! Kamerad!_”
Two, however, of the crowd were ugly, one a middle-aged soldier and
the other a rather young-looking officer. These two very foolishly
raised their weapons and began shooting, the soldier with his gun and
the young officer with his pistol. Both of the weapons were discharged
twice when the officer and the private were laid low by bullets of the
Americans. Then the others surrendered without further question.
Dave was close at hand when the capture was made of the German
soldiers. He heard the discharge of the pistol and the gun in the hands
of the officer and the private and felt a strange pain shoot through
his body. Then a sudden faintness seemed to overtake him, and he fell
to the ground senseless.