t quickly rose; machine guns
showed their ugly muzzles.

"Br-r-r-r-r t-t-t," they began to sputter.

I leaped backward and fell headlong into the ditch. Everybody was jumping
for cover. The bullets lashed the road and ricocheted far upon it.
Scarcely a man of us was hit, but we were in wild confusion. I cannot
describe the scene. No one seemed to think of putting his rifle to his
shoulder. The horror of it--the passionate anger against such vile
trickery--drove us into a rage; but--for the moment--it was an impotent
rage. We seemed to be at their mercy.

Then the platoon commander's voice rose above the rat-a-tat of the machine
guns:

"Steady, men! Fire at will, but pick your men carefully."

We had heard him speak in the same tone on parade. It brought us to our
senses. The edge of the ditch on each side of the road fairly flamed with
the sputter of rifle fire. The "ambulance" was riddled. A Prussian officer
toppled into the middle of the road. Half a dozen men sprang from the
ditch and rushed at him with bayonets. They killed him like a rat. There
was no compunction about it.

There was now heard the thrumming of more motors approaching. Round the
turn in the road they came. This time it was transports--laden with German
troops. There was no attempt at disguise with this mob. They thought that
their camouflaged battery would by now have done its dirty work. Sweating
and tugging and straining, we managed to topple the "ambulance" over in
the road. The trucks came dashing up as we retreated--retreated only to
get in touch with our support. The men cheered wildly as two of our own
machine guns came up. We turned the wee fellows loose on the Germans--gave
them a taste of their own medicine.

Some of them came running toward us shouting: "_Kamerad! Kamerad!_" We
shot them down as they ran--shot them without hesitation--after the
dastardly trick they had played on us. Probably they were even then trying
another ruse.

The fight surged backward and forward. The Germans tried to press ahead.

Then something happened which we had not expected. A burst of shrapnel
sprayed over the Germans. In a few seconds there was another. Then two
shells exploded at once--three--four! A rain of fire, as the French say,
was upon them. We were getting support from our own artillery. That was
something new and it put heart into us.

The regiment re-formed and proceeded with an orderly retirement, while the
artillery, like a barrier