n, and now it was loud and menacing.

"It's the charge!" cried Sherburne, "and I can see that they're all you
said, Kenton! A magnificent body, truly! Ready, men! Ready! For God's
sake don't fire too soon! Wait for the word! Wait for the word!"

He was all the leader now, and in the excitement of the moment McGee did
not notice it. The superior mind, the one keen to see and to act, was in
control.

"Here, Kenton!" cried Sherburne, "hold back these recruits! My own men
will do exactly as I say!"

Harry ran along the infantry line, and here and there he knocked down
rifles which were raised already, although the enemy was yet three
hundred yards away. But he saw a figure in front of the charging
horsemen wave a sword. Then the trumpet blew another call, short but
fierce and menacing, and the ground thundered as nearly a thousand
horsemen swept forward, uttering a tremendous shout, their sabers
flashing in the moonlight.

Harry felt a moment of admiration and then another moment of pity.
These men, charging so grandly, did not know that the defenders had been
reinforced. Nor did they know that they rode straight to what was swift
and sudden death for many of them.

It was hard to stand steady and not pull the trigger, while that line of
flashing steel galloped upon them, but the dismounted cavalrymen looked
to their leader for commands, and the officer held the infantry. Harry's
moment of admiration and pity passed. These were soldiers coming to
defeat and destroy, and it was his business to help prevent it. His own
pulse of battle began to beat hard.

That front of steel, spread wide across the open, was within two hundred
yards now! Then a hundred and fifty! Then a hundred! Then less, and
fierce and sharp like the crack of a rifle came Captain Sherburne's
command: "Fire!"

Four hundred rifles leaped to the shoulder and four hundred fingers
pressed trigger so close together that four hundred rifles sang together
as one. The charge halted in its tracks. The entire front rank was shot
away. Horses and men went down together, and the horses uttered neighs
of pain, far more terrific than the groans of the wounded men. Many of
them, riderless, galloped up and down between the lines.

But the splendid horsemen behind came on again, after the momentary
stop. Half of them armed with short carbines sent a volley at the
defenders, who were shoving in cartridges in frantic haste, and the
swordsmen galloped straight upon t