geant's expression
was awful, and I knew mine to be none better. Here they came; 500 of
them were moving toward us. Was it too late to run? No. I whispered,
"Come on." We were about to rise and make a wild dash for life, when
a sharp blast of a trumpet was sounded to our front. All stopped in
their tracks. Another trumpet-call--a rush to arms. The officers came
tearing back and remounted.

We waited for the volley that was to send our souls into eternity. That
we had been discovered we were sure.

Boom! A loud report from our rear. It was unmistakably a cannon
shot. An instant later a shrieking shell passed over our heads and
tore its way through a stone sugar storehouse, 100 yards ahead,
rending demolition everywhere in that vicinity.

The officers madly spurred their diminutive mounts in a wild effort to
secure speed. Off they rode at break-neck rate over rice-paddies and
small ditches in the direction of the bamboo thickets beyond the open.

But the infantrymen remained steadfast! They kept their close
formation, facing us. I ventured to raise my head a trifle higher when
I noticed the Sergeant putting his face through a series of grimaces
that would tend to make it as muscular as his brawny arms. His struggle
was in vain; he could not help it--he sneezed, not once, but twice,
and once again.

Five hundred ears pricked up, and as many pairs of eyes were thrown
upon us. It was but a second till a dozen rifles were raised to as
many shoulders, the muzzles all pointing in our direction.

As a last effort to save our lives, I yelled to the Sergeant to follow,
and started a disorderly retreat toward our lines.

Boom! Was it a volley? No, another shot from the cannon. The shell
struck between our enemies and ourselves and exploded. The sky was
filled with everything. We looked back over our shoulders, but could
not see the red uniforms for flying _debris_.

An instant later we heared a crying, screaming, terror-stricken
mass of humanity breaking through the bamboo on the farther side of
the road. We halted. There they went, over dykes and ditches. All
organization had fled with the winds in their wild efforts to escape
the next shot from our artillery.

Now we were safe, and sauntered lazily back to the company, giving
our hearts an opportunity to resume a normal state of affairs.

When we reached our lines we found that a recruit battery of
light artillery had come out from the city that morning for
target-pr