hey walked to greet
death at every step, many of them, as they advanced, sinking suddenly or
pitching forward and disappearing in the high grass, but the others waded
on, stubbornly, forming a thin blue line that kept creeping higher and
higher up the hill. It was as inevitable as the rising tide. It was a
miracle of self-sacrifice, a triumph of bull-dog courage, which one
watched breathless with wonder. The fire of the Spanish riflemen, who
still stuck bravely to their posts, doubled and trebled in fierceness,
the crests of the hills crackled and burst in amazed roars, and rippled
with waves of tiny flame. But the blue line crept steadily up and on,
and then, near the top, the broken fragments gathered together with a
sudden burst of speed, the Spaniards appeared for a moment outlined
against the sky and poised for instant flight, fired a last volley, and
fled before the swift-moving wave that leaped and sprang after them.

The men of the Ninth and the Rough Riders rushed to the block-house
together, the men of the Sixth, of the Third, of the Tenth Cavalry, of
the Sixth and Sixteenth Infantry, fell on their faces along the crest of
the hills beyond, and opened upon the vanishing enemy. They drove the
yellow silk flags of the cavalry and the flag of their country into the
soft earth of the trenches, and then sank down and looked back at the
road they had climbed and swung their hats in the air. And from far
overhead, from these few figures perched on the Spanish rifle-pits, with
their flags planted among the empty cartridges of the enemy, and
overlooking the walls of Santiago, came, faintly, the sound of a tired,
broken cheer.

III--THE TAKING OF COAMO

This is the inside story of the surrender, during the Spanish War, of the
town of Coamo. It is written by the man to whom the town surrendered.
Immediately after the surrender this same man became Military Governor of
Coamo. He held office for fully twenty minutes.

Before beginning this story the reader must forget all he may happen to
know of this particular triumph of the Porto Rican Expedition. He must
forget that the taking of Coamo has always been credited to Major-General
James H. Wilson, who on that occasion commanded Captain Anderson's
Battery, the Sixteenth Pennsylvania, Troop C of Brooklyn, and under
General Ernst, the Second and Third Wisconsin Volunteers. He must forget
that in the records of the War Department all the praise, and it is of