es wholly hidden from each other, and from
him; probably at no one time did he see more than two of his troops
together. It was only by the firing that he could tell where his men
lay, and that they were always advancing.

The advances were made in quick, desperate rushes--sometimes the ground
gained was no more than a man covers in sliding for a base. At other
times half a troop would rise and race forward and then burrow deep in
the hot grass and fire. On this side of the line there was an occasional
glimpse of the enemy. But for a great part of the time the men shot at
the places from where the enemy's fire seemed to come, aiming low and
answering in steady volleys. The fire discipline was excellent. The
prophets of evil of the Tampa Bay Hotel had foretold that the cowboys
would shoot as they chose, and, in the field, would act independently of
their officers. As it turned out, the cowboys were the very men who
waited most patiently for the officers to give the word of command. At
all times the movement was without rest, breathless and fierce, like a
cane-rush, or a street fight. After the first three minutes every man
had stripped as though for a wrestling match, throwing off all his
impedimenta but his cartridge-belt and canteen. Even then the sun
handicapped their strength cruelly. The enemy was hidden in the shade of
the jungle, while they, for every thicket they gained, had to fight in
the open, crawling through grass which was as hot as a steam bath, and
with their flesh and clothing torn by thorns and the sword-like blade of
the Spanish "bayonet." The glare of the sun was full in their eyes and
as fierce as a lime-light.

When G Troop passed on across the trail to the left I stopped at the
place where the column had first halted--it had been converted into a
dressing station and the wounded of G Troop were left there in the care
of the hospital stewards. A tall, gaunt young man with a cross on his
arm was just coming back up the trail. His head was bent, and by some
surgeon's trick he was carrying a wounded man much heavier than himself
across his shoulders. As I stepped out of the trail he raised his head,
and smiled and nodded, and left me wondering where I had seen him before,
smiling in the same cheery, confident way and moving in that same
position. I knew it could not have been under the same conditions, and
yet he was certainly associated with another time of excitement and rush
and hea