ry
themselves in the ground.]

These steel darts were from eight inches to a foot long, cut so that they
would fall point downward. Dozens of them were contained in a single
rack, which the aviator released when he was over his target; the speed of
the machine caused them to scatter. They would go through anything they
hit, but they were found to be too inaccurate and not so economical as
explosives.

After the plane had passed we were rushed to the outskirts of the village,
where we began to entrench. By morning, we had nearly finished the shallow
trenches which, in that day, were regarded as sufficient protection for
infantry in the field. At daybreak our High Command had information that
our position along the highway would prove untenable. Wearily enough, we
marched to a range of wooded hills where we again entrenched. German heavy
shells found us there, so we were compelled to retire to another village,
near which we entrenched once more, on still higher ground. The German air
scouts were watching us, however, and in this new position a heavier fire
from long-range artillery found us.

All of this was on August 25th, two days after our forced march of
twenty-four hours. The weather was extremely hot and we were well-nigh
exhausted by the work of digging three sets of trenches. We lay and "took"
the German fire. We had already had some casualties, the wooden steeple of
the church in the village on our right was in flames, and several houses
had been destroyed by the German shelling--and we hadn't _yet_ seen a
German, except the airplane scouts. But they were not long coming into
view.

As we lay in our shallow trenches, a big shell every now and then falling
amongst us, another regiment, retreating under heavy fire, broke into view
from the woods, a mile or more in front of our line. We soon made them
out--the Scots Guards, hotly pursued by a superior force of Uhlans, and,
as the German commander fondly believed, near capture. We, in our
trenches, were in a fever to get our fire on the Germans but they were so
close upon the Guards that we dared not fire a shot. The Guards, putting
up a stiff fight directly in front of our position, checked the Uhlans
sufficiently to enable their own organization to continue its retreat,
swinging over in the direction of our left flank. This gave us our chance
and we poured a hot rifle and machine-gun fire into the pursuing force.

We were in action against the Boches, at last!