what pictures you can. I'll leave that
part to you. But don't get ahead of the barrage fire--that is, if you
want to come back," he added significantly.

"All right," answered Blake, in a low voice.

He and his chums took their places in one of the communicating trenches,
waiting for the American and the French soldiers in the front ones to
spring up and go "over the top."

Every minute seemed an hour, and there were frequent consultations of
wrist watches. Suddenly, at five o'clock exactly, there was a roar that
sounded like a hundred bursts of thunder. The artillery had opened the
engagement, and the moving picture boys, at last on the firing line,
grasped their cameras and reels of film as the soldiers grasped their
guns and waited for the word to go.

The earth beneath them seemed to rock with the concussion of the big
guns.

CHAPTER XVII

BOWLED OVER

Not a man of the American and French forces that were to attack the
Germans had yet left the protecting trench. The object of the artillery
fire, which always preceded an attack unless it was a surprise one with
tanks, was to blow away the barbed-wire entanglements, and, if possible,
dispose of some of the enemy guns as well as the fighting men.

The barrage was really a "curtain of fire" moving ahead of the attacking
troops to protect them. This curtain actually advanced, for the guns
belching out the rain of steel and lead were slowly elevated, and with
the elevation a longer range was obtained.

Waiting in a trench slightly behind the troops that were soon to go into
action, Blake Stewart and his chums talked, taking no care to keep down
their voices. Indeed, they had to yell to be heard.

"Well, we're here at last," said Blake.

"Yes; and it looks as if there'd be plenty of action," added Joe.

"If it only gets lighter and the smoke doesn't hang down so," added
Charlie. "We won't get very good films if it doesn't get lighter. It's
fierce now."

"Well, if the fighting lasts long enough the sun will soon be higher and
the light better," responded Blake. "And it sounds as if this was going
to be a big fight."

By this time the German guns seemed to have awakened, and were replying
to the fire from the American and French artillery. The shells flew
screaming over the heads of those in the trenches, and instinctively
Blake and his companions ducked.

Then they realized how futile this was. As a matter of fact, the shells
were passing high o