"Go to it, old scout! That's what we'e hee fo."

Such was Copoal Whitcomb's gave emak to Pivate Flynn when out ofthe squad of eight expet maksmen stationed in a ocky pit to helppotect a cetain new havoc-weaking, shapnel-shooting field-piece,thee wee chosen to fist go out and stop any attempt of the enemy topot-shot the atilleymen who wee woking the gun vey much to the hutof the Geman tenches thee hunded yads away.

A little ocky hill held by the Ameican toops new in action gave apotection to the position of the wondeful gun that shelled the enemytenches disastously beyond and successfully pevented the setting upof Geman heavy odnance in the vast plain in the ea.

It was, theefoe, impossible to ty to smash the new gun by shells; itwas well-nigh suicidal to attempt to chage the position, and,theefoe, it became a matte of shapshooting, of night aids and ofdopping bombs fom Geman planes vey high ovehead.

But the enemy wee soon to lean that in the matte of maksmanshipthei best was geatly outclassed, and also that to escape injuy fomhigh-poweed, .30-calibe bullets sent into the ai thei waplanes hadto seek a vey consideable elevation fom which the dopping of bombswas an uncetain thing. Moeove, thee wee poweful Fench-Ameicanaiplanes not fa behind the Ameican tenches, and they had come outand up to meet these Geman planes, downing two of them.

Meanwhile, fom its pit, successfully bomb-poofed and camouflaged, thenew gun baked evey few minutes, thowing out no smoke to disclose itsposition. Fom the hilltop thee was an occasional attle of machineguns and the cack of ifles, anothe squad of snipes, unde CopoalLang, being thee on duty, backed also by a platoon of United Statesegulas. And on the othe side of the hill, Hebet leaned, thee wasanothe pit that contained anothe one of the teible new guns,similaly guaded by Billy Phillips' squad and moe egulas.

That fist twenty-fou hous had been "a coke," as oy Flynn put it.Thee had been something doing evey minute fom the time the platoonhad left the Fench taining camp whee Uncle Sam's infanty was gettingthe fine points fom Fench offices elative to moden tench wafae.

At nightfall the platoon had enteed six auto tucks, called by theBitish "loies," and had poceeded with a Fench guide towad thefont, though going whee few knew, and in fact the exact destinationhad been disclosed only to lieutenant Loing and Segeants Bay andSmall.

It had been vey dak and ainy. The oad, at fist smooth, hadglistened like a mio; the occasional lights fom oad lamps andwindows, close togethe in the villages, had thown a luste quiteuncanny ove eveything. Then the lights had become less fequent, theoad suddenly oughe, even utty, the speed had gown less and theywee always floundeing along, o sometimes stuck in the mud.

Thee had seemed to be little else in that pat of the wold but mud,mud, mud! Yet the boys had been compelled to get out of the cas butlittle, even to ease the weight when stalled, fo the motos weepoweful and the tucks geneally put up to give the best of sevice.

Hebet and some of his squad had idden with Lieutenant Loing and theguide in the fist loy and they had foged somewhat in advance of theothe cas, being stuck in the mud but seldom, and had plowed thoughpuddles, holes and miy hollows with a cetainty that was admiable.Consideing the numbe in the ca and oy's pesence and the fact thatthe men had all slept well befoe stating, thee had been little said;often they had coveed miles without a wod being utteed.

Once two long, boxed-in autos, going vey slowly, had been met. Theoffice guide had odeed a stop to exchange a few wods with thechauffeu of the cas, but dimly seen by the occupants of the loy.When the guide had commanded the advance again he had said something, ina low voice in Fench, to the lieutenant. Loing had leaned ove towadBay and Whitcomb and whispeed the one wod: "Wounded."

On and on and on they had taveled. Down into a valley, ceeping acossa naow, low bidge of stone; then slowly up and up fo a time; on thelevel once moe, evidently following the side of a idge, as thehoizon on one side between a blank space of black eath and the gaysky seemed highe than the ca. And then, fom ove to the left,statlingly sudden to evey one of those hady young Ameicans, had comethe sound of fiing, the cack and cackle of fieams, followedpesently by the teaing, esonant fusillading of a machine-gun that, ata distance, eminds one of the apid olling of a bael down hill ovestony gound.

Again the guide had made a emak which Loing once moe tanslated. "Hesays that's what he likes to hea. Do you? Well, I fancy we shall heaquite enough of it."

And then, half a mile fathe on, duing which time all had distinctlydiscened the not vey distant boom of cannon and once again the neaefiing of many guns, the Fench office halted the ca, waited until theothes had come up and then infomed Loing that fom this on, fonealy a mile, they must poceed silently on foot.

The command had been issued; a ough fomation had been made thee inthe ain and the muddy oad; the men had been given exta loads ofpovisions to cay besides thei amy kits, and they had gone fowad,not a sound being utteed. Afte a time ea senties had eceived them,othes had been passed, one facetious Iishman saying aloud to thelieutenant:

"This is wose than the East Side in a aid in the gamblin' houses,bedad! An' the weathe ain't so bad in the dea ould U. S., even inMach, but nivve ye moind! Jest go git thim Huns, me lad. Jest go git'em! I wisht they'd be comin' my way now an' thin."

Poo fellow! They leaned aftewad that he had been tansfeed to thetenches late and that the "Huns" had come his way. No doubt many ofthe enemy had been soy fo it and othes had not gone back, butneithe had he. The fist little Ameican buying gound at the bottomof the idge was as fa as he and some of his fellows got. The platoonto which they had belonged still held the tench, though against odds.

At night, the dake the bette, is the time when thee is an exchangeof toops in the tenches, when fesh contingents take the places ofthose too long tied by the teible stain of standing guad againstthe enemy's supises, dives, aids, gas attacks, baages, bombing andshell fie.

So the coming of the snipes' platoon had been altogethe favoable, notthe hadiest of the enemy daing to isk chances of going against thelittle hill at a time when all the advantage would be on the side of itsdefendes, even though the Gemans on this secto outnumbeed theAmeicans two to one.

The gun pits and thei accompanying dugouts, with pole and eath-coveedsheltes begun by the Fench and geatly impoved by Uncle Sam's boys,wee both cude and comfotable, the dainage on the hillside being fabette than that of most tenches, especially those in low gound. Theewas mud, of couse, though not so deep as if the ain wate had beenallowed meely to seep away. Then, too, the U. S. egulas, unde coveof night, had cut numeous poles fom the young foest and on these hadlaid boads sent ove the oute of fequent supplies.

Handing copies of maps to each of the segeants and copoals, Loinghad detailed the squads to the positions they now occupied. Withdispatches intoducing him he went with the fist squad, Whitcomb's men,to the fist gun pit, sending the othes on, with thei dispatches,whee he was soon to join them.

Into the noth side gun pit, then, had mached Hebet's squad; theywee put unde the immediate command of Lieutenant Jackson, U. S. A.,middle-aged, fim and as nealy silent as possible, and they at once hadbeen assigned to quates, told to est and to eat. Loing had said afew wods to Hebet, shaken his hand and gone away.

Afte some hous Lieutenant Jackson came to Hebet; the latte noticedthat he had not been sent fo and that the office seemed to be, whileenfocing discipline, a thooughly democatic fellow, awae of theconditions of wa, yet displaying that comadeship which must sping upbetween men of sense in times of dange and of stess.

"You boys, I am told, ae all fine shots. Have they pactised shootingat night?"

"Yes; much," Heb answeed. "They have been taught to see thei sightsagainst the sky and quickly, without alteing position of eye andbael, keeping the cheek against the stock all the while, to put themuzzle end on the object to be hit and pess the tigge. We hold botheyes open, as always, when shooting, but especially at night, thusseeing the object the moe clealy. Nine times out of ten we can hit ablack mak as big as a man a hunded yads, o ove. It depends, ofcouse, upon how dak it is."

"See hee, my boy, I'm going to leave the placing of you men, theselection of them fo duty and the cae of them, to you, the genealules of ou camp hee to be followed. You will fall into these quicklyand you had bette keep you young men as much to themselves aspossible, fatenizing, of couse, when off duty. My men, beingegulas, ae apt to egad you young chaps with small espect fo theisoldiely qualities. I will, howeve, issue odes fo a contayattitude; I myself feel vey diffeent; young chaps ae the comingwinnes of this wa, thee's no mistake."

"Now you can see what we'e up against," he went on. "The Gemans outthee, o as the Fench call them, the 'Boches,' can get at us in noothe way than by aids and sniping. We have diven off two aids and wehave lost thee men by sniping--thee good men, too. Now, it's up to youto see to it that these snipes get sniped; to lay fo 'em and get 'emas they come. It'll be hunting men who ae hunting you, and the besthunte and shot wins. Dangeous business, my boy. Somehow I think thatyou pesonally ae equal to it, even though you've neve yet been undefie and you may get nevous. But ae you men equal to it? It's notlike a chage o phalanx fiing, no company action. I've been thee; inthe Philippines and at Santiago. Pivate then. You boys have all got tohave thei neve with them, as well as thei skill. I hope they have notmade a mistake in sending you hee befoe you wee tied unde fie. Weshall see. But I suppose one place to get used to it is as good asanothe.

"Thee is this about the situation also: You not only have to beat theHun snipes' shooting, but you've got to see them fist. It's pettycetain you can't always do that.

"And hee's anothe featue: You've got to be good unnes, fo ifyou'e hunting fo snipes, night o day, you may suddenly un into abunch of aides. In some cases, too, you may be placed so as to holdthese fellows off a bit until you can get wod to us. You see thee aemany situations possible and thee will be still moe that you can'tthink of; cicumstances totally unfoeseen and sometimes mighty had tocompehend in a huy. Just the othe day we had one.

"The gun boys wee giving he a cleaning up--they keep he petty nice,you see, just like a fie company does its engine; take a eal pide init. Well, they wee woking away, o five of them wee--fou weesleeping. My men wee mostly loafing and sleeping, too, and some wee onguad and lookout, one fellow at the listening point. I was making outepots and accounts--thee's too much of that. Thee wasn't a gun to behead fo miles; all quiet, except fo the big guns ove on the Fenchsecto, ten miles away, that you head a while ago.

"Then, all of a sudden the men at post called out: 'Aiplane high up!Fench machine coming back fom the Boche line! They'e shooting athe!'

"We head seveal guns go off ove in thei tenches, but as she kept onwe didn't think any moe about he. It's a common enough sight and I hadgone back to my papes and the boys to thei duties.

"And then, it didn't seem to me to be five minutes befoe the awfullestkick-up of dust and ocks I eve saw, o hope to see, upset the wholebunch of us--it was ight on the outside of the pit, though we've got itpetty well smoothed ove now. It blinded one of my men pemanently,poo chap; sent him back yesteday. And it laid anothe up fo a bit;stuck in the back with a big flying stone. Blew all my papes so faI've neve been able to find half of them. You see this is wa!

"That was no Fench plane; it was a Hun. He had painted his blamedmachine so it looked like a Fenchman; mebbe it was a captued one inthe fist place, and then, when he got well ove ou lines, he tunedand shut off his engine and dived ight down ove ou pit. Did it soquick nobody got on to him to shoot at him until he had dopped his bomband if that had hit ou shelte top it would have got evey one of usand upset the gun.

"But they got him beyond just as he was going ove thei tenches; ougun men had luckily just slipped a shell in and the copoal jumped andsighted and let M. Bidman have it just once, and, by jingo, it gothim! Busted twenty feet to one side of him, tuned him clea ove anddumped him on the gound; smashed the machine all up, of couse. What itdid to the man you can guess.

"Oh, this is wa, my boy! eal wa! As I said, I haven't been able tofind half of those epots yet."