all those
terrible engines of destruction. Sheer courage had helped them the
first time they were used and after that they were always provided with
some good means of defense. The French are remarkably quick to learn.

It was dark as the men came up out of the dug-out. They had scarcely
taken their places when there was a sudden hurricane of rifle and
machine-gun fire. Almost instantly the whole battered landscape became
lighted up under the flare of innumerable trench-rockets. Far ahead,
the enemy, in irregular lines, could be seen advancing to the attack.

"Here they come," cried Armande. "Let 'em have it!"

A pitiless infantry fire was turned upon the Germans. An almost solid
sheet of flame issuing from the French rifles marked the curve of their
trenches. Almost at once the French artillery caught the range of the
advancing troops; the air was filled with the roar of the bursting
shells and the sad-sounding _whing-g-g_ of flying shrapnel.

"No one can possibly come across that space alive," cried Leon
incredulously.

"Yes, they can too," exclaimed Armande and a moment later the sharp
staccato of a hand-grenade bursting nearby warned them that some of the
enemy at least were already within striking distance.

The men worked feverishly. Rifles became hot they were fired so fast
and so constantly. Hand-grenades were popping all around now and the
noise became deafening. Like gray ghosts the Germans appeared under
the flare of the guns and the weird light of the trench-rockets.

The French machine-guns mowed the Germans down like grass and the fact
that they still came on was a high tribute to their bravery. Gradually
the firing died down and the noise lessened. Broken and beaten back
the Germans turned and fled. A cheer went up from the French line,
while a farewell volley was poured into the mass of retreating Germans.

"What did I tell you?" demanded Armande triumphantly. "I knew they
couldn't touch us and I'd just like to see them try it again."

"It cost us something," said Earl.

"Yes, but not one-quarter of what it did them."

"I hope not," agreed Earl. "It always costs the attacker more."

The strain of the fight let down and a reaction set in. The ground was
strewn with the dead and dying and the moans of the wounded were
anything but pleasant to hear. During the fight every man nerves
himself to face whatever comes; afterwards there is sometimes a
complete swing to the other ex