and the leader spurred his
horse, and, followed by the others, galloped in our direction. Their
carbines spat red flashes into the night. Their bullets were coming closer
now, because they could determine where we were lying in the ditches at
the side of the road from the flashes of our rifles.

"Will they see the trees across the roadway?" was the thought that darted
through my mind. If they should, it would probably be all up with us. As
they came very close to the barricade, they did notice it. They made a
bold leap across, but having underestimated the number of logs there, they
found themselves in great confusion. Some of them were pinned under their
fallen horses. At this point, we opened fire, which completed their
discomfiture. Above the sound of our rifle firing we could hear the
now-familiar cry of "_Kamerad!_" "_Kamerad!_" It only served to infuriate
us and made us shoot all the faster.

This might well arouse against us the criticism of those who never
witnessed atrocities committed by the Huns, but you must remember that our
blood had not come down to normal from the effects of the sights we
ourselves had come across.

At last, we leaped out to make prisoners of the trapped Uhlans. Those who
could, bolted back in the direction they came from, but it was a sure
thing that twelve of them were missing when the roll was called.

One might consider that a night's work, but it wasn't.

It was now my turn for sentry go on the main road, which was still open
for vehicles of our staff. This was a post where it was thought that, to
use an American phrase, there would be "nothing doing"; yet it was here
that I came face to face with one of the war's finest examples of Teutonic
over-assurance--boldness that would have been splendid had it not been
stupid.

After I had been at my new post an hour, it then being near three o'clock
in the morning, a motor car came swiftly toward me. I had been warned that
I might expect staff officers to pass, and this, I thought, was
undoubtedly some of them--otherwise the car would have advanced slowly. I
stepped into the road and awaited its approach. As it neared me I saw that
the two officers it contained wore the uniforms of the British staff. I
could see the red tabs on their collars.

There were two telegraph poles across the road near my post. Remembering
this, I showed myself and called for the chauffeur to halt. He checked the
car's speed but brought it ahead slowly. I s