sorry am I to tell that they made a little headway, taking
some prisoners, among them being my cousin Jim; roll call the following
morning also disclosed Archie as missing. For my dear Auntie's sake it
is my sincere prayer that he may yet be alive and well.

When the wave reached the first line in this drive, the trenches were
filled with prisoners and orders were given to corral them in the
different dugouts and rush them into the holes, but there was no need
for hurrying them,--they were diving for them as fast as their legs
would carry them. My brother Billy and a party was put in charge of a
number of dugouts, Billy having one under his control. He did not know
how many were in the dugout he guarded, but outside was a captured
Prussian officer. The boys had now gone on ahead, leaving the prisoners'
escorts posted here and there along the trench to guard them. This
Prussian officer was standing a few feet away from Billy, on his right,
and something diverting Bill's attention from him, the Prussian officer,
in strict accordance with the Prussian code of honor, seized the
opportunity, grabbed a rifle, and was about to plunge the bayonet into
Billy, but he turned just in time to catch him in the act and avoid him.
He lunged with his bayonet, catching the dastard in the left shoulder,
and while tugging to get it out, the prisoners started rushing up the
steps of the dugout, and Bill was forced to let go of the rifle; as he
did so, the weight of the gun pulled the bayonet downward, ripping
through the Prussian's black heart. Bill then took a bomb--he had eight
of them--and let them go one after another into the dugout. Although
fighting for his life, he knew if he faltered for a moment he would be
lost, and he did not lose his head for a second; he realized that if he
let any of these bombs leave his hand and reach the dugout in sufficient
length of time before it exploded, they would seize them and hurl them
back at him, or else escape this particular bunch who were trying to get
him and who were strung on the steps leading down into the dugout. So,
in the midst of the scrap he kept his nerve and his head, not letting a
single bomb leave his hand until he was dead certain the time had
expired and that the moment it struck the top step of the dugout, their
mission of destruction would have been accomplished. This done, he
yanked his rifle out of the officer's shoulder and jumped to the
entrance of the pit for any others t